Merciless Contract: The Syndicate's Unwanted Wife novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: Cold as a Gun
At the altar Raffaele whispers that she is a rat he will throw out in three years, Gemma answers him in front of the cameras, and in the suite he shows her texts from her own phone signed 'your Gemmina'.
Raffaele Sandrelli kissed his bride at the altar while forty cameras flashed, and he kept his eyes open the whole time.
His mouth was hard and cold on Gemma's.
His hand held the back of her head so she could not turn away from the lenses.
Nobody in the cathedral could hear what he whispered against her ear.
"Smile, stray. You're mine on paper for three years."
"After that, I put you back where your father found you."
Gemma Albertini was eighteen years old today.
She had been sold for a merger before lunch.
She could have cried, and the cameras would have loved it.
She stepped hard on his polished shoe with her heel instead.
His jaw flexed.
Gemma lifted her chin and kissed him back, open-mouthed, in front of the whole city.
She bit his lower lip just enough to taste it.
The photographers went wild.
When she pulled away, she whispered, "Three years is a long time to keep your eyes open, Mr. Sandrelli."
His grey eyes narrowed at her.
For one second he did not look like a man who hated her.
He looked like a man who had been surprised.
Then the organ started, and he turned her to face the guests with his fingers locked around her wrist.
In the front pew sat Don Vittorio Sandrelli, silver-haired and smiling, with a ring on each hand.
Beside him sat her father, Bruno, who would not meet her eyes.
Rosanna was already on her feet in the aisle, her pearls swinging.
Her stepmother had been at her side since dawn.
She had steamed the dress and pinned the veil and fed Gemma tea with honey when her hands would not stop shaking.
"Breathe, sweetheart," Rosanna said now, straightening the veil with both hands.
"You did beautifully. Raffaele will soften once he knows you."
"You'll see. I'll keep everything safe until then, even your phone."
Gemma had handed that phone over a week ago, because Rosanna had said the Sandrellis' men read everything.
She looked past her stepmother to the family pew.
Four places had been set aside for the Albertinis, and Gemma counted only three.
"Where's Fiammetta?" she asked.
Fiammetta was Rosanna's daughter, twenty years old, and everyone had always said she was the one made for a wedding like this.
Rosanna's smile did not change.
"Florence, darling. Her nerves. The doctors said no crowds."
"She sends her love," Rosanna added, and squeezed Gemma's hands.
The reception was held in a ballroom under three crystal chandeliers.
Gemma sat at the head table beside her husband, and he did not speak to her once.
He spoke to his father's men and to the mayor.
He spoke to a woman in green who laughed too long at everything.
A waiter put a plate in front of Gemma, and Raffaele pushed it two inches farther away from her without looking.
She ate the bread anyway.
At nine, her father stood up with a glass.
Bruno Albertini tapped the crystal and the room went quiet.
"My daughter has been a burden to this family since the day she was born," he said.
A few people laughed, because he had made it sound like a joke.
"But tonight my useless girl finally has a use. To the Sandrellis!"
The glasses went up.
Rosanna dabbed her eyes with a napkin.
Gemma set down her fork.
She stood, took the microphone off its stand, and the room turned.
"Thank you, Papa," she said into it.
"I was eighteen at ten past noon today, and you've been paid for me by two."
"Let's all drink to the fastest sale this city has ever seen."
Somebody gasped.
Don Vittorio began to clap slowly, and then the whole ballroom was clapping, because the Don had.
Her father went white.
Raffaele watched her from his chair.
He did not clap.
His eyes followed her all the way back to her seat, and he sat there tapping one finger against the table.
At midnight a guard walked her to the top floor suite.
It had one huge bed and a window onto the harbor.
Gemma pulled the pins from her hair and let the veil fall to the floor.
The door opened behind her without a knock.
Raffaele came in and shut it with his heel, still in his black tuxedo, his bow tie pulled loose.
He crossed the room slowly and stopped an arm's length from her.
"That was clever," he said. "Do it again and I'll have you gagged for the cameras."
"Try it," Gemma said.
He took out his phone and held the screen up to her face.
"Read it."
It was a message thread, and the number on it was hers.
*I'll be whatever you want. Take me instead. I'll do anything.*
*Tell Fiammetta to stay home. I'm the one who loves you.*
There were fifteen more, dated over the past three weeks.
Gemma had never written any of them.
"You begged for this wedding," Raffaele said, very quietly. "You crawled into my bride's place."
"You think I don't know what kind of woman does that?"
She read the last text again.
It ended with a name she had not heard spoken aloud since she was eight years old.
*Please don't make me wait. Yours, your Gemmina.*
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend