Taken - A Gangster Stepbrother Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

arm so that she fell against his chest. “Sweetheart, you are home.”
     
                  Emma felt her breath coming fast, as if she had just run a marathon. “You want me to marry into the family that is responsible for my mother’s murder.” She looked at him as if he had taken complete leave of his senses.
     
                  Antonio’s grip felt like a steel shackle against her wrist. “That is how business is conducted in these families.”
     
                  “Not my family,” Emma countered.
     
                  “This is your family,” Antonio said evenly.
     
                  Emma jerked back and this time he let her. Releasing her, he walked swiftly towards the door. “But I will let you go back to your room. You need time to process everything that has been said.” Opening the door, he murmured something to a guard standing outside. Another nameless burly man in black stepped in.
     
                  Antonio motioned Emma to come towards the door. Feeling numb, she did. With a hand on her lower back, he pushed her out of the office with the guard, clearly there to make sure she didn’t do something foolish like run away.
     
                  “And do be smart,” he whispered into her ear at the door. “Take this time to really accept the truth of your life, Emma. Because no matter what, it is real and the marriage will happen. The only thing that you have control over if whether you will choose to be happy or not.”
     
                  And with that, Emma was led out of the office and back out into the spacious hallway. She followed the guard back up the stairs, barely hearing the heavy office door thud behind her. With every step she took, she left behind everything she had thought she had known about herself.

Chapter Six
                  Standing alone in the large bedroom she had woken up in, Emma felt like screaming.
     
                  She felt like crying.
     
                  She felt like cursing.
     
                  But mostly, she felt alone.
     
                  Although she had just found out how much family she actually had had in her life, Emma felt incredibly alone. No one had told her any of this. Whatever reasons the Del Marcos or even the Grants had to hold the information back from her, Emma had lived a good portion of her life in foster care dreaming, aching, for a mother. For a family.
     
                  Emma stood in the middle of the luxurious room, looking around the expensive furnishings. But no matter how much she had ached for family, she wasn’t sure she could accept being a part of the Del Marco family.
     
                  She remembered her children at the counseling center. Clenching her fists, she resolved to herself that she would not let herself sink into the Del Marco filth. No matter what Antonio said, she refused to acknowledge him as her stepbrother and she refused to be his stepsister.
     
                  And she most certainly would not be married off to some stranger just so the Del Marcos could increase their profit margins.
     
                  Feeling rage boiling through her, Emma walked over to the far side of the room, wanting something to distract her and help her cool off. A large frosted glass sliding door stood next to the vanity. Sliding it back, Emma gasped.
     
                  It was the biggest closet she had ever seen. It was the size of her entire studio apartment. Perhaps even bigger! And it was completely full.
     
                  Emma hesitantly walked in and stared at the racks of clothes that were neatly hung. Different colored dresses, blouses, skirts—everything she could possibly need in terms of clothing was here. With ginger fingers, she looked inside a dress.
     
                  Perfect