“Stop it. Let go of me. What do you think you’re doing? ”
I was working a late shift when a man grabbed my arm.
The whole restaurant had been on edge all evening—a police alert warned of a shooting in the area, and I’d already turned away a dozen customers. This one wouldn’t leave. “You don’t know how to respect others,” he said calmly. “Where’s Daniel?
What did you do to him? ”
He just smiled. “You’re with me now. ”
His men cleared the place and locked the doors.
I tried to pull free, but he held on. Then he introduced himself: Edmund Tucker. The name meant nothing to me then, but I’d heard the rumors—his family ran this part of the city, and people whispered that he was a cold-blooded killer. I had a boyfriend.
We were getting married in a week. I told him so. “You mean that cheating scumbag? ” he asked.
“Don’t bad-mouth him. ”
He forced a gift into my hands—a necklace. “Take it. It’ll keep you safe.
”
I threw it back at him. “I don’t want your stuff. I just want you to leave me alone. ”
But he didn’t.
Day after day, his men found me. He had me dragged to his villa, locked in a room, and watched every move I made. He said he was in love with me. He said he would do anything to have me.
“What do you want? You want to rape me? Fine, go ahead. But I get to leave afterward.
”
“No,” he said. “What I want is for you to beg me. I want you to beg for my love. ”
I laughed in his face.
“A mafia boss talking about love. That’s pathetic. ”
Still, he made me a deal: he wouldn’t touch me unless I was fully conscious and willing. He gave me a card with fifty million dollars and said I could buy whatever I wanted online, as long as I stayed inside his house.
I needed a way out. So I asked him to take me to a pool hall, then tried to slip away while he wasn’t looking. His men found me before I got far. But instead of punishing me, he taught me how to shoot a gun.
He said he wanted me to be able to protect myself. The whole thing confused me. I kept thinking about Daniel—the man I was supposed to marry. Then I discovered the truth.
Daniel had been using me. He’d let me pay off his student loans while he secretly dated his boss’s daughter, Tiffany. He’d planned to marry her for her money and abandon me at the altar. When Tiffany found out about me, she showed up at my wedding, humiliated me, and told everyone I was a homewrecker.
Daniel never came. I was left standing there in my dress, completely alone. Edmund was the one who saved me that day. He burst into the venue with his men and made the wedding stop.
He wasn’t the cold-blooded killer everyone said he was—at least not to me. But then Daniel came crawling back. He told me he’d been beaten up, that Tiffany had sent people after him. He begged for another chance.
“I still love you,” he said. “Please, Lily. ”
I forgave him. I don’t know why.
Maybe because I’d known him for so long, or because I was scared of what was happening with Edmund. But the moment I gave Daniel another chance, Edmund found out. He had his men drag Daniel away, and he locked me up again. “From now on, you’re not leaving this place,” he said.
“This is illegal confinement. ”
“Then sue me. That is, if you can get out of here. ”
I hated him then.
I called him a sick, controlling freak. I told him I would never love him. But the more time we spent together, the more I saw that he wasn’t the monster I’d imagined. He never forced me.
He kept his promise. And when someone sold me out to a rival gang, he risked everything to come and get me. He walked into the casino alone, surrounded by the enemy. They demanded he play Russian roulette with his life.
He agreed, but only if I was allowed to leave first. “No,” I screamed. “I’m not going without you. ”
“It’s okay,” he said.
“I promise I’m coming back to you safely. ”
He pressed something into my hand—a small object I didn’t understand—and ordered his men to take me out. I thought I’d lost him. But he survived.
When I saw him again, I broke down. “I was so scared. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. ”
He just smiled.
“How could I die when I haven’t made you fall for me yet? ”
That was the moment I fell for him for real. But our problems weren’t over. A woman named Jenny Stanley showed up claiming she was Edmund’s fiancée.
Her father was the head of the Stanley family, and she was furious that Edmund had chosen me. She cornered me at a restaurant and slapped me. Her men stripped me and humiliated me in public. Edmund found out, came to my rescue, and told her in front of everyone that I was the only woman he wanted.
“You’re not my fiancée,” he said. “Lily is. ”
Then he turned to me. “Marry me, Lily.
Let’s start with a three-year marriage. If you regret it, I’ll let you go. I won’t rush you. ”
I said yes.
We got married that day. Jenny didn’t stop. She sabotaged my restaurant, paid fake customers to claim I served them expired food, and tried to convince Edmund I was cheating on him with Daniel. When that failed, she and her father kidnapped me and forced Edmund to choose between marrying her or losing me forever.
Edmund showed up at their wedding, traded his own safety for mine, and then asked me the question again: “Lily Nash, do you take Edmund Tucker to be your lawfully wedded husband? ”
I said, “I do. ”
We said our vows right there, surrounded by enemies, with his blood still on the floor. And for the first time in a long time, I felt safe.
Later, I found out the truth about who saved me all those years ago. Daniel had lied to me—he never risked his life for me. It was Edmund. He was the man in the black suit who’d protected me when a gang had stormed the restaurant where I worked.
He’d used a handkerchief embroidered with the Tucker family crest to bandage my wound. When I woke up, he was gone, and Daniel had stolen the credit. I’d been paying off Daniel’s loans, trusting him, loving him—for years. And it was all built on a lie.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Edmund. “Sorry doesn’t cut it,” he replied. “I want you to make up for all the time we lost. ”
So I did.
And I finally understood what love was supposed to feel like.
