ISABELLA
"You need to stop looking at me like I'm leading you to the slaughter, Isabella." Matteo whispered from where he stood next to me.
I mustered a fake smile, collecting the pen as I signed away my life to the monster next to me. "I mean that's the whole point." I said through my teeth, trying to appear normal.
Matteo's smile didn't break. He placed a hand on the small of my back, his warmth seeping through the cotton material of my dress, and guided me aside, so my father and his brother could sign as witnesses to our sham wedding.
I was both sad and glad that we did not get married in a church.
Sad because I wasn't going to get my dream wedding, and glad because I didn't have to lie under the eyes of God.
This was it. My life was over.
Here I was, standing in court with a
