BECKETT

DID I win because I was the one who impregnated her? Or did I win because I won her heart?

I can’t wait to ask her those and a million other questions after the wedding. She’s mine, and together we will conquer the world.

Ri and her father reach the end of the aisle, and I hold out my arm for Ri to take it.

Corsi looks at me. “Protect Rialta with your life.” “I swear I will,” I vow.

He nods and then passes Ri’s hand from his arm to mine. Together, she and I take two steps toward the minister.

“Can I lift your veil? I want to look you in the eyes when I marry you,” I ask her.

She nods.

Slowly, I lift her veil, careful not to mess up her hair or makeup. I’m expecting to see Ri’s beautiful big eyes staring back at me with a teasing gaze, but that’s not what I get. In fact, Ri isn’t the one staring back at me at all—it’s the woman I helped Ri save.

I blink in disbelief. This has to be a mistake.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“Rialta Corsi,” she replies.

I must have heard her wrong. This can’t be the truth. This woman isn’t Rialta.

No—my Rialta is taller, has darker hair, a fierce sparkle in her brown eyes. My Rialta’s arms are toned and ready to beat any man in this room. My Rialta looks at me with love and lust with an undercurrent of hatred.

This woman is an imposter. She’s a similar height but at least an inch shorter. She has dark hair like Rialta, but it’s lighter with auburn highlights. There is no fierceness in her eyes. Her arms look like chicken wings—thin and scrawny, nowhere near ready to fight. And this woman looks at me with indifference. There’s no emotion at all in her eyes when she sees me.

The woman standing before me was made to wear this dress with her model—thin frame. With a tiara in her hair, she looks like a fairytale princess—not the princess warrior I’ve come to know.

I blink several times, thinking this has to be a mistake. I have to be hallucinating this person. Maybe I’m hallucinating because I can’t believe I’ll ever actually get to marry Rialta. I don’t deserve her, and my dreams will never come true.

But every time I blink, this imposter is still standing in front of me.

My mouth falls open, and I swear my heart stops. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. This can’t be happening—not after everything. I can’t go from being married to a woman I hate to a woman I don’t even know, not while the woman I love walks this earth.

The imposter doesn’t speak, neither do I.

We stare at each other in a desperate search for answers. I’m not sure either of us has a clue as to what is going on.

I don’t know how I muster it or even where it comes from, but I finally get words out. “I don’t understand.”

She sucks in a breath but doesn’t speak. I can see the hesitation in her eyes, along with fear and concern. She doesn’t understand either.

I look around the church, looking for the real Rialta, for Ri. As I quickly search the pews, the aisle, the banisters, the stage behind us, I find her nowhere. She’s not here.

I look to the three men standing behind me as my best men—Hayes, Lennox, and Gage. They finally get a full look at her face and seem just as shocked as me. None of them say anything. It will take them some time to process this before they can be helpful, so I’m on my own.

I look to Corsi sitting in the first pew on Rialta’s side, and he returns my gaze with stern eyes. Then I see the gun he has laid out casually on his lap.

We all have guns. It’s four against one, so I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to accomplish with that threat.

Corsi looks to the minister and nods his head.

The minister begins speaking, but I don’t hear any of his words—I can’t. I keep looking at Rialta, urgently trying to process everything.

What am I missing?

Did the real Ri try to warn me?

Did she give me some clue?

Is she in danger? Is she dead, and this woman was hired to take her place as a shitty impersonation?

“Where is the real Ri?” I ask her.

She blinks at me but doesn’t even bother to open her mouth and offer me an explanation. I assume it’s because of Corsi. She’s as terrified of him as everyone else in this city.

What do I do?

I need answers. I need to know what happened to Ri. That’s all that matters right now. I need to stop thinking of myself and save her. If I can’t get answers from this woman, then I need to try Corsi.

I don’t care if I start a war with him. A war has already been started.

I’ll do anything for Ri. I’ll do anything to protect her. If I have to die to keep her safe, then so be it.

I take a step toward Corsi before I hear Lennox shout, “Beckett, don’t move!”

I stop, confused as to what he’s seeing. But as I turn in his direction—a flicker of red light on my chest catches my eyes.

I stare down at the red dot—a threat to stay put. To get married to a complete stranger. To do as Corsi wants.

I quickly glance around the church, trying to find the person who has me in the crosshairs of their sniper rifle. I don’t see anyone, but the red dot doesn’t move, so neither do I.

I look to Corsi, and he raises his eyebrows at me in a challenge.

“I’m not going to marry her. This wasn’t the deal. I was to marry Ri, not this imposter,” I say, cutting off the minister and not looking at the woman in the wedding dress next to me. I don’t know if I’ve offended her by saying I won’t marry her, but I really could care less about her opinion right now. All I care about is finding out what happened to Ri.

“Actually, the deal was that if you win, you get to marry

my daughter—Rialta Corsi. You get to produce an heir with my daughter, and my kingdom is yours. That was the deal.”

“This isn’t Rialta Corsi!” I protest.

Corsi only gives me a sly smile. I’ve been betrayed. Somehow everything I’ve believed turned out to be false.

“Beckett Monroe, let me introduce you to Rialta Corsi, my daughter,” Corsi says.

My eyes cut to the woman in front of me, and I see moisture welling in the corner of her eyes. She’s about to cry. She looks the same age as Ri but somehow feels decades younger. She’s timid where if Ri were here, she’d be outspoken, demanding what she wants from the room.

“Where is Ri?” I ask through gritted teeth. My hand fists as I consider my options to stop this.

“It doesn’t matter where she is. What matters is that you won. You won the games; now you have to accept the reward. Marry my daughter and fulfill the contract you entered into when you started the games.”

“I won’t be marrying anyone today.”

Another red dot appears on my chest, followed by a third.

I look Corsi straight in the eyes—leader to leader.

“Marry her, or you die,” Corsi says simply.

“You won’t kill me. If you do, you won’t have anyone left to marry your daughter. You obviously need someone to marry your daughter very badly. Why? I don’t know or care, but you need me. You won’t kill me.”

Corsi frowns, but the dots don’t leave my chest. He studies me carefully, thinking of another way to manipulate me.

“Fine, you leave me no choice. If you don’t marry my daughter, then I’ll kill Ri,” he says.

My eyes widen, and a knot forms deep in my stomach. “You wouldn’t. I don’t know who she is to you, but you care about her.”

“I’m a cruel man, Beckett. You know this. It’s why I’m the leader that I am. Leaders in this world have to do some pretty horrible things. You’ve killed men that didn’t exactly deserve it for the greater good. This would be no different. Ri knows her place. She would willingly die if it ensured your marriage to Rialta.”

“Ri wants this?” I say in words barely audible. I can’t believe it.

“Let me talk to Ri,” I plead, needing to hear it from her lips. I need to understand what I’m not understanding.

“No,” Corsi says flatly.

I glare at him. “If you want me to consider marrying Rialta, then let me talk to Ri.” It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever said. I still can’t believe I’m talking about two different people, that Rialta and Ri aren’t the same person.

“No, you’ll marry my daughter. If you don’t, then Ri dies. Simple as that. You don’t get to talk to anyone. You don’t get to talk to Ri. You’ll do what I say, or she dies,” Corsi dictates.

My heart stops cold at the thought of Ri dying, but he’s at least confirmed to me that she’s alive—I think.

“How do I know Ri’s even alive? How do I know you haven’t already killed her?” I ask.

Corsi narrows his eyes at me. He doesn’t like being challenged. He doesn’t like that I’m pushing back.

“Rialta, would you like to confirm that Ri is still alive?” Corsi asks her.

I turn toward her, looking her dead in the eyes. She’s much easier to read than Corsi or Ri, so I’ll be able to tell if she’s lying.

Rialta doesn’t meet my gaze initially. She stares down at the floor as her bottom lip trembles just slightly.

Please, God, please let her be alive.

“Rialta, please,” I whisper in a prayer.

She finally looks up at me. I don’t know what she sees when she looks me in the eyes. I don’t know if whatever she sees is the reason she finally gives me an answer.

“Ri—she’s alive,” she says in the softest voice. I stare at her closely. Her eyes are sincere. Her voice is honest. She told the truth. Ri’s alive.

“But she won’t be if you don’t marry her,” Corsi barks.

I swallow down the lump in my throat. I just got out of one loveless marriage, and now I’m about to be locked in another. I was the leader of the Retribution Kings, but I’m sure that became void the second my marriage to Odette was annulled.

If I marry Rialta and she produces an heir, I become the leader of the Corsi’s mafia—an even stronger group. At least I will no longer be at direct war with my brother and his family. And after I marry Rialta, Corsi will start grooming me to take over. I’ll have resources to help my family.

But can I go through with another fake marriage?

No, I can’t.

I look down at the dots on my chest. I don’t have a choice but to marry Rialta, this imposter. I’ll die if I don’t. Ri will die if I don’t.

I turn back to the minister and hold out my arm to Rialta. Marriage doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a contract I can dissolve later. I just need to stay alive and keep Ri alive. I’ll figure out how to get out of the marriage later.

I don’t glance at her, but I feel Rialta take my arm, and we step up to the minister, who looks in Corsi’s direction. Corsi must nod at him to continue because the minister resumes speaking, and this time, I listen.

The minister is brief in his opening remarks, quickly getting to the vows part. I feel uneasiness in waves coming off Lennox, Gage, and Hayes. I don’t have to look at them to know they all have their hands on their guns, ready for a fight to break out at a moment’s notice.

The red dots are gone from my chest, but I’m sure they’re on my back. They won’t shoot me dead, but they won’t let me walk out of here either without finishing this ceremony.

“Do you, Rialta Corsi, take Beckett Monroe to be your husband?” the minister looks to Rialta.

I look straight ahead, giving Rialta space to answer the question. It feels far too intimate to look her in the eyes.

I wait for her to say ‘I do,’ but if she said the words, I didn’t hear it. Although maybe I didn’t want to hear it. If she said ‘I do,’ then I’ll have to go next, and it’s going to kill me to say it, even if it’s the only way to keep Ri alive.

But she must not have said anything because the minister keeps looking at her in earnest, waiting for her to say the magic words.

Finally, I look over at Rialta, wondering why she hasn’t spoken. I’m a complete stranger to her, but I expect she wants this since she walked down the aisle willingly.

When I look at her, I see a scared woman. Her face is white, her bottom lip is trembling, and her throat is tightened. There is no way she will be able to speak; she’s in too much shock.

I don’t know how to help her. I don’t even know if she is truly Rialta or what Corsi’s endgame is. I don’t know why this marriage is being forced. I don’t understand any of it.

“Purse your lips and try to breathe,” I try to encourage her, just hoping the woman will calm down and not have a full—blown panic attack. Although, maybe a panic attack will help me stall to figure a way out of this wedding.

She purses her lips like I told her and is about to breathe when I feel her swaying.

“Rialta, are you okay?” I ask, but she can’t answer.

She’s falling.

Her grip on my arm releases as she falls back. I barely have time to reach behind her head and cradle it to keep her skull from hitting the hard stone.

I don’t know what just happened. Was she shot? Did she faint to avoid marrying me? I don’t know. What I do know is that whatever happened, I’ve been spared my worst nightmare—at least temporarily.

I won’t let the chance go to waste.