King of Wrath: An Arranged Marriage Romance

Vivian flies to Boston to confront her father. She asks him how he could have done something as immoral and illegal as blackmail, but he is unrepentant. When she points out the problems at his company, he demands that she use Dante’s clear affection for her to convince him to save the company. Vivian rejects her father’s order, standing her ground when he accuses her of being disobedient and disloyal. She highlights how long she has done everything he wanted, and she asserts that she will no longer do so. Francis tells Vivian that if she walks away, he will disown her. Vivian leaves, knowing that it is the right thing to do but haunted by a sense of loneliness and loss after losing Dante and her family.

Vivian spends the week before the Legacy Ball drowning herself in work to avoid her grief. At the ball, whispers circulate when people notice her missing ring and Dante’s absence, but she tells Buffy that Dante is on an important work call and will arrive as soon as he can. The night is difficult for Vivian, as she associates Valhalla with Dante.

Kai asks for a dance, and partway through, he spots Dante behind Vivian, but she doesn’t notice. Kai asks her if she would go out, drawing his hand down her back until it is nearly inappropriately placed, grinning at Dante behind her as he taunts the man into approaching. Dante threatens to kill Kai if he touches Vivian again.

Dancing, Dante admits that he loves Vivian and that he has only avoided approaching her to allow her the focus she needed to handle the Legacy Ball. He admits that he was wrong, apologizes, and asks for another chance. Vivian decides that there are too many things against them and that they had been too hot and cold to make things work. He asks for one date and time to make things right.

At her favorite coffee shop, Vivian bumps into someone, spilling coffee on their shoes, before realizing that the person is Dante. He acts as if they are meeting for the first time, introducing himself and laying on the charm. When she asks him what he is doing, Dante explains that he realized that she was right about their rocky start and wanted to create a fresh beginning. He continues to play the game of having just met, asking for her number before they both leave.

The narrative switches to Dante’s perspective, where he recalls waiting at Vivian’s favorite cafe for hours to make sure that he caught her. He calls her that night, planning the call carefully around her nighttime routine. He asks for a date again; she resists, but his vulnerability when admitting that he does not know how to properly pursue someone and that he misses her convinces her to give him one chance.

Vivian arrives at Dante’s apartment three days later; Greta greets her warmly, and Dante recalls all the burnt food and other not-so-subtle ways in which Greta and Edward made their displeasure over Vivian’s absence known. Dante takes Vivian to the den, where he has queued up a romantic comedy about a star-turned-woman and installed a popcorn machine for Vivian. He also had takeout boxes full of dumplings from all of the best-rated restaurants delivered in an effort to help Vivian find dumplings as good as the ones from her childhood. Vivian admits that she confronted her father and that he disowned her when she refused to ask Dante to save the company. Dante asks if she wants him to save the company and admits that he loves her enough to do it if she asks; he admits that he now cares more about her than about his revenge. He asks her to move back into the apartment, into her old room if she still needs space. He says that he is determined to take every step he needs to restore their relationship.

Several days later, Vivian and Dante go on another date. Vivian refused to move back in, not feeling ready. However, Dante is persistent, taking her on a long date which doubles as a way to demonstrate publicly that they are, as far as others can see, still together. The continued association with him protects her from the worst of the rumors and problems surrounding her father’s failing business.

Vivian and Dante fall back into a somewhat easy existence together on the date, and Vivian realizes that small moments are often the most important ones and the ones where love is truly built. While on a walk through the park, when both feel their desire building, they take another step forward when Dante engages in sexual foreplay. During this, Dante apologizes for his wrongs, and Vivian recognizes his vulnerability and efforts at absolution. Afterward, Vivian apologizes when she is not ready for more, but Dante assures her that he is in it for the long haul, determined to fix their relationship, and that she has nothing to be sorry for.

While on another date, Vivian gets a call from Agnes, who feels frustrated with their mother. Their mother was staying with Agnes to get away from Francis, with whom she was angry over his disowning Vivian. Agnes shares that Francis has flown to Eldorra, Agnes’s husband’s home country, to make amends with their mother, and Agnes thinks that Vivian should visit and talk to their father, even if it is just to get closure.

Dante agrees with Agnes when Vivian shares the situation, and he offers his private jet so that Vivian does not have to delay the trip. He also offers to travel with her for moral support, and Vivian accepts, not ready to face her father alone.

At Agnes’s home in Eldorra, Vivian speaks with her mother while Agnes gives Dante a tour. Her mother shares that she is furious with Francis and that she does not agree with his decision to disown Vivian. When a comment about Vivian’s clothing choice for travel follows their heart to heart, Vivian decides to continue her newfound goal of honesty. She confronts her mother about how the constant criticism makes her feel, and her mother offers to try to do better. She also admits that she did it to try to protect her daughter by training her to meet all the standards of a society that looks down on them because of their racial identity.

At dinner, Vivian confronts her father. He refuses to be repentant over his actions, and he yells at her, accusing her of being disloyal and choosing Dante over her family. Vivian recognizes that her father is not sorry for how his actions affected them, and she refuses to feel guilty for not supporting the family in the way that Francis thinks that she should.

The chapter switches to Dante’s perspective. He confronts Francis alone later that night and threatens to completely destroy the man if he ever speaks to Vivian again the way he did that night. He walks away, realizing that although he is still angry with Francis, he is no longer interested in letting his rage and vengeance get in the way of being with the woman he loves.

Dante visits Vivian in her room in Eldorra and compliments her on how she handled the conversation with her father. Vivian realizes that although she wishes it had gone differently, she still got the closure she needed. She tells Dante that she knows that the newspaper retractions about Lau Jewels that day were because of him, and he admits that he did it because they are still her family, and he does not wish that Francis had never blackmailed him, because if he hadn’t, he may not have met and fell in love with Vivian. Vivian decides to take a major step in making their relationship work and initiates sex. Afterwards, she admits that she cannot yet move back in, because she needs space, but she has more faith that they will work things out. She finally tells him that she loves him.

Dante and Vivian take a vacation at a Russo resort in Chile to get some time alone together before their wedding, which they postponed until September. While stargazing, Dante reveals that he visited his mother recently to retrieve from her a family heirloom: an extremely rare red diamond, which has been passed down since his grandfather first bought it as an engagement ring for his grandmother. He tells Vivian that he bought her original ring with the intent of choosing a cold piece, as he had not wanted to marry her. He wants to replace it with something meaningful and as rare as he sees her. He proposes once more, to make up for the coldness of his first “proposal.” Vivian says yes.

The epilogue opens on Dante’s perspective. He waits at the altar in his family’s original estate in Italy, his brother ribbing him about his own role in Dante’s happiness. He observes Francis sitting with the other guests; he was only invited as his wife’s guest, and he was forced to endure the public embarrassment of his wife giving Vivian away instead of him. Vivian approaches, and as the ceremony ends, Dante thinks of how Vivian is his guiding star.

The chapter switches to Vivian’s perspective. Vivian enjoys a reprieve from the social expectations of a bride with her friends, but Kai approaches to tell her that she needs to save Dante from the guests. She does so, and as they joke and kiss, she feels a warmth that comes from finding her home with Dante.