Sacred Vow: A Dark Mafia Romance by Measha Stone

Author:Measha Stone [Stone, Measha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stormy Night Publications
Published: 2024-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

A single streak of morning sunlight sneaks through the curtains and falls over Isolde’s face. She’s still sound asleep. The little bit of light on her cheek doesn’t rouse her.

The covers have slipped from her shoulder, and her right arm is tucked under her cheek. There’s a series of white scars along her forearm. I hadn’t noticed them yesterday. Though I didn’t take much time to inspect her entire body. My goals had been different at the time.

I lean over to get a better look, hoping it’s something random. Cat scratches or thorns from a rosebush or something equally as benign.

“Are you going to spend all morning staring at me?” she asks, opening one eye and settling it on me.

“What is this?” I grab her wrist, pulling it from beneath her. Running my thumb over the scars, I can almost feel the agony that caused them.

She blinks a few times, then focuses on what I’m pointing out.

“Nothing.” She pulls her arm free and wiggles back so she can sit up. “It was a long time ago, Andrei.” She wraps her hand over her arm and puts it in her lap.

“You did it?” It comes out as an accusation.

“Yeah.” She lowers her gaze to my chest. “Like I said, it was a long time ago.”

“After Craig…”

She sighs. “Yeah.”

I pick up her hand again, bringing her wrist to my mouth. I press my lips to the scars, wishing I could take in all of the pain she felt then, and all the pain she continues to feel.

“Your mother never mentioned you were hurting yourself.”

“Why would she tell you?”

“I spoke to her a few times over the years.” I kiss another scar. They’re all superficial. None of them were life threatening. She wasn’t looking to end her life, just dull the pain on the inside by bringing it to the outside.

“I don’t think she knew, or if she did, she never mentioned it to me.” She tucks her hand beneath her. “I thought maybe I could trigger the memory. Then we could come back to Chicago. But it never worked.”

“You hated it so much in Nebraska?”

“Mom wasn’t happy there, either. All of her friends were here. She made a few at work, but then she got sick.” She sighs. “It wasn’t home. I just wanted to be home.”

“You mentioned the other night that there wasn’t much money after you sold the house.” I proceed with caution. She’d only given me that information because she was trying to get out of a punishment. I don’t want a fight with her. “The house we found for you was a good house, what happened?” They should have been able to sell it and make three times as much as we paid for it when we sent them down there.

“Mom’s medical bills were insane as it was with her insurance, but then she had to stop working when she got really sick and lost the policy. She tried to hide it from me, all the money problems, but when she passed away, I found out she’d mortgaged the house.

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