Marry the Don

Chapter 23

NICO

Two days ago

It had been two days since I laid eyes directly on my new bride. I had been watching her constantly on the security cameras I had throughout my estate, but I hadn’t faced her since I brutalized her over the back of the chair in our bedroom.

I told myself that was because I didn’t want to deal with her anger over it. However, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to deal with my indignity over it. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly about our few encounters had led me to feel like an animal for taking her the way I did and then ignoring her for two days straight, but something did.

I was a monster, that wasn’t a secret. I’d been called ‘The Wolf’ my whole life. I took what I wanted and didn’t apologize for it, in all things in life. And women were included in that. Most of the time I never had a problem getting a willing woman in my bed. But bending Arianna to my will on our wedding day left me feeling … no better than her father.

She had been brutalized at his hand, in the name of parenting. And it enraged me to imagine all of the ways she suffered over the years because of Emilio and Mina Rosetti, especially after Carmine had described some of the things to me in our impromptu chat.

Then I’d gone and used her attraction to me and my power over her as her husband, to take her when she challenged me on why I intervened on the eve of our wedding.

“ Capa,” My second, Matteo, interrupted my thoughts as he walked into my office calling me the Italian nickname for boss that sounded like my last name.

“What?” I snapped angrily thanks to the sour churning in my gut, and it wasn’t even nine am.

“Molly has an update for you,” He replied with raised eyebrows, bristling at my tone and no doubt wanting to challenge me on it. Only, he kept his mouth shut, using his facial expressions to get his point across.

Message received, old friend. Though not headed.

“ See her in,” I nodded to the door and then took a deep breath as my wife’s personal maid walked in to give me her daily update on the mysterious woman living in my home.

“Mr. Capasso,” Molly curtseyed at the door, then walked to the center of the rug and folded her hands in front of her. She’d been employed here at the estate for years now and she was always reliable and respectful, which was why even at a young age, she was promoted to head maid and my wife’s right hand.

“Tell me, how is Arianna?”

“ She’s not improving, Sir,” she voiced her concern sternly and I respected her for it, even if the news was unsettling.

“Explain.”

“ She hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning. Her hand is still tender and ailing her, and she just sits in the chair by the window and stares out at the grounds, Sir. I think she’s depressed or in shock or something worse.”

I felt that familiar tightness in my chest that had taken root since meeting Arianna and bristled at the implications of it. “The doctor will return this evening to check on her hand again,” I said in avoidance of the emotional update and Molly stiffened at my brush off. “I’ll go see her in a moment.”

“Very well, Mr. Capasso.” She nodded again and then walked out of my office, obviously finding my response lacking. She cared for my wife, and not just because she was employed to physically see to her needs. My wife had wormed her way into the young maid’s heart, in the few days that she was here.

“ Capa,” Matteo walked back in as Molly left. “The shipment has arrived at the warehouse; it needs to be verified.”

I slid my hand into my pants pocket and walked towards him, “Then go see it’s verified.” I slapped his shoulder as I passed him. “I’m needed here today. Report back as soon as you arrive and take inventory.”

He cocked his head a bit but decided agreeing was better than arguing and nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

He was more than capable of taking the shipment in, I had just never allowed him to do it without me being present. Not because I didn’t trust him or anything, but because I was simply a control freak that needed to have my hands in every pot all at once.

But right now, I needed to get to the bottom of my wife’s unhappiness. And maybe laying eyes on her firsthand would ease some of the anxiety inside of me. It felt like I was a teenager who had their first taste of a high and couldn’t think of anything else but when they were going to get that rush again, even if they knew it was bad for them.

And Arianna was very, very bad for me.

I didn’t knock; it was my bedroom after all.

My wife paid me no attention as I walked into the space she had occupied since saying her

vows. I locked the door behind me and watched her small frame curl around itself at the window where Molly had said she’d be. She wore a pink silk robe that only came to mid-thigh and her pink painted toenails matched almost perfectly where they poked out in front of her.

I didn’t allow Molly to bring Arianna’s luggage in from the guest room that she used the first night she was in residence at Armarow Estate. Because I was the worst kind of bastard that only intended to use Arianna Rosetti to serve my own selfish needs. I handpicked a handful of lingerie from her room and a few silk robes for her to wear. Nothing else.