Mafia Boss Discovers His Bride Is a Virgin… He Thought His Innocent Bride Was…
Chapter 2
Matteo spent the next week observing Isabella.
She was nothing like the woman described in the reports.
She didn’t drink.
She didn’t smoke.
She didn’t attend parties.
She woke early.
Read for hours.
Helped the housekeeper in the kitchen even though she didn’t need to.
And whenever Matteo entered a room, she became nervous.
Not afraid of him.
Afraid of what he might think.
One evening, he found her in the library.
She was reading an old book about Renaissance art.
“You like that?”
She looked up.
“Yes.”
“What artist?”
“Caravaggio.”
Matteo glanced at the book.
“You know him?”
“A little.”
“You’re the first person in this house to read something that isn’t a legal document.”
She smiled.
“Maybe your house needs better books.”
He almost laughed.
Almost.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
“Tell me.”
A security report.
A man had been seen outside the east gate.
Same man three nights in a row.
Matteo’s expression changed.
Isabella noticed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
She looked at him.
“That’s what people say when they want you to worry quietly.”
He stared at her.
“You’re observant.”
“I have to be.”
“Why?”
She closed the book.
“Because nobody tells me the whole truth.”
Matteo sat across from her.
“Do you know why our families arranged this marriage?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why your father insisted?”
She looked away.
“He said it would protect me.”
“From what?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo studied her.
“What did your father tell you about me?”
“That you’re dangerous.”
“He wasn’t wrong.”
“He also said you wouldn’t hurt me.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“And you believe him?”
“I want to.”
The answer was painfully sincere.
That night, Matteo learned something else.
Isabella had never actually dated anyone.
The background reports claiming she had been involved with several wealthy men were false.
He discovered it when his investigator admitted something.
“We were given fabricated information.”
“By whom?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Matteo looked at the file.
“So she wasn’t the woman they told me she was.”
“No.”
“What else is false?”
The investigator hesitated.
“Almost everything about her personal history.”
Matteo closed the folder.
A few minutes later, he returned to the library.
Isabella was still there.
He stood in the doorway.
“Isabella.”
She looked up.
“Yes?”
“I have a question.”
She waited.
“Have you ever been with a man?”
Her face turned bright red.
She looked down.
“No.”
Matteo said nothing.
She finally whispered:
“Not like that.”
He understood.
She was a virgin.
And suddenly the false reports became much more disturbing.
Someone had deliberately made him believe his bride was sexually experienced.
Why?
Isabella looked terrified.
“Are you angry?”
“No.”
“Disappointed?”
“No.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
Matteo answered quietly:
“Because someone lied to me about you.”
She swallowed.
“Who?”
He didn’t know.
But he knew one thing.
The lie had been intentional.
And he was going to find out why.
