Chapter One
Manhattan, New York
Present Day
Caresa
I closed my eyes as the music pounded through my body. The air was sticky from the mass of bodies on the dance floor. My body swayed to the beat, my feet ached from the five-inch Louboutin heels I was wearing, and my skin was flushed from the copious amounts of 1990 Dom Pérignon I had consumed.
“Caresa!” My name split through the harsh sound of drums and synthesized piano notes. I rolled my eyes open and looked across our cornered-off section of the club at my best friend.
Marietta was sitting on an oversized plush couch, waving a new bottle of champagne in my direction. Laughing, I followed my throbbing feet to where she sat and slumped down beside her. In seconds, a champagne flute was in my hand and the bubbly was flowing once more.
Marietta sat forward, swishing her long blond hair over her shoulder. She raised her glass as though she was going to make a toast. But instead, her bottom lip jutted out into a pathetic pout.
I tipped my head to one side, silently asking her what was wrong.
“I was going to make a toast to the Duchessa di Parma, my very best friend,” she shouted over a new but similar-to-the-last song. “To my best friend leaving me here in dull old New York to go marry a real-life godforsaken prince in Italy.” Marietta sighed and her shoulders slumped. “But I don’t want to. Because that would mean this night is almost over, and tomorrow I lose my partner-in-crime.” A sudden sadness bloomed in my chest at her words. Then, when her eyes filled with tears, those words became a punch in the gut.
Placing my glass on the table before us, I moved forward and put my hand on her arm. “Marietta, don’t get upset.”
She put down her own drink and grabbed my hand. “I just don’t want to lose you.”
My stomach rolled. “I know,” I said. Then I didn’t say anything else, but I could see Marietta register my unspoken words. I don’t want to go either.
Keeping my hand in hers, I slumped back against the couch and let my eyes drift over the busy dance floor below. I watched the throng of Upper East Siders losing themselves in the music. A pang of fear swept through me.
This really would be my last night in New York. In the morning, I would fly to Italy, where I would live from that day on.
Marietta shuffled closer to me and cast me a watery smile. “How are you doing?” she asked as she squeezed my hand.
“I’m okay. Just nervous, I guess.”
Marietta nodded her head. “And your papa?”
I sighed. “Ecstatic. Overjoyed that his precious daughter will be marrying the prince he chose for me as a child.” I felt a pang of guilt for speaking about him so negatively. “That was uncalled for,” I said. “You know as well as I do, Baroness von Todesco” —Marietta scowled playfully at my use of her title— “that we don’t really get a choice in whom we marry.” I leaned forward and picked up my champagne. I took a long swig, enjoying the feel of the bubbles traveling down my throat. I handed Marietta her glass and raised mine in the air. “To arranged marriages and duty over love!”
Marietta laughed and clinked her glass with mine. “But seriously,” Marietta said, “are you okay? Truly okay?”
I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know how to answer that, Etta. Am I okay with the arranged marriage? I suppose so. Am I okay with moving to Italy permanently? Not really. I love Italy—it’s my home, I was born there—but it’s not New York. Everyone I know is here in America.” Marietta’s eyes softened with sympathy. “And am I okay with marrying Zeno Savona? The infamous Playboy Prince of Toscana?” I took a deep breath. “I have no idea. I guess that will become apparent in the next three months.”
“In your ‘courting period,’” Marietta said using air quotes, and snorted with laughter. “What a joke. What twenty-three-year-old woman and twenty-six-year-old man need a courting period?”
I laughed at her sassy tone, but then soberly replied, “Ones who don’t know each other at all? Ones who have to see if they can stand each other’s company before sealing their marital fates forever?”
Marietta shuffled closer. “You know as well as I do that you could hate this so-called prince, detest everything he is—and he you—and I’d still be your maid of honor at your wedding on New Year’s Eve.” She sputtered a laugh. “The very fact that the date has been set says it all. This marriage is happening.” Marietta held up her glass, got to her feet and, with arms spread wide, shouted, “Welcome to the life of the European blue bloods of the Upper East Side! Drowning in Prada and Gucci, dripping in diamonds, but having no free will to call our own!”
I laughed, pulling her back down. She broke into hysterics as her ass hit the couch, spilling champagne all over the expensive upholstery. But our laughter waned as the house lights came on one by one. The last of the dance music drifted into silence, and the rich patrons of Manhattan’s most exclusive nightclub began making their way to their limos and town cars. It was three o’clock in the morning, and I had six hours left in the city I loved beyond measure.
We stayed silent as the club emptied. Eventually Marietta rolled her head on the back of the couch to face me. “I am going to miss you so much, Caresa. You have no idea.”
My heart broke as Marietta’s tears fell hard and fast. Lunging forward, I hugged my best friend. In fact, I gripped onto her for dear life. When I pulled back, I said, “Don’t worry, Etta. I’m sure your suitor will be coming soon.”
“Don’t remind me,” she said through a thick throat. “My father already has a list of potential husbands for me. It makes me sick. Expect a call very soon, telling you of the pot-bellied, snobby, pompous lord or duke I’ve been betrothed to.”
I tilted my head. “Well, you’re kind of snobby and pompous yourself, you know,” I said playfully.
Marietta’s mouth dropped open in outrage, before she nodded in defeat and admitted, “Yeah, I kinda am.” I huffed out a laugh, but the humor drained from me immediately, lost to my thoughts of Italy.
Marietta’s head landed on my shoulder. “I know you’re worried, Caresa. But you needn’t be. I’ve seen your prince. As much of an arrogant, slutty tool as he is rumored to be, he’s totally gorgeous to look at.” Marietta tapped my leg. “And he’s getting you. Not only are you the sweetest, kindest person I know, but you’re equally as beautiful. That dark hair, those huge dark eyes and tanned Italian skin. He’s going to be smitten the minute he sees you.”
“Yeah?” I doubted that was true. I knew the rumors. Prince Zeno didn’t strike me as a man who could get smitten with anyone that wasn’t his own reflection.
“Definitely.”
Silence stretched until I said, “I’m going to miss you, Etta.”
Marietta sighed in agreement. “You never know, maybe I’ll be married off to a fellow Austrian baron and sent there. That wouldn’t be so bad, because you’d be near.”
“No, that wouldn’t be bad at all.”
“Come on, Princess,” Marietta said, getting to her feet. “Let’s get you home so you can fly away bright and early to your prince’s palace.”
I stood and linked my arm through Marietta’s. Just as I was about to head outside to my waiting limo, Marietta ran back and grabbed the barely touched bottle of bubbly. She shrugged. “Or we can continue getting trashed in the back of your limo as we take one last farewell tour of Manhattan?”
I smiled, a sense of relief settling in my veins. “That sounds perfect.”
An hour later, with my head through my limo’s sunroof, Marietta and I drinking in the bright lights of New York, real fear began to set in.
I hadn’t lived in Italy since I was six years old. I had no idea what to expect. So I carried on sipping champagne and laughing at Marietta, and I let myself forget about the prince, about duty and tradition.
At least until the sun rose again. When the next chapter of my story would begin.