King of Wrath: An Arranged Marriage Romance

Dante and Vivian attend a dinner with her parents at the last minute when they arrive in New York unexpectedly, a move that Dante knows Francis calculated to remind Dante of what is at stake. During the meal, Dante watches as Vivian accepts her parents’ criticisms and behaves how they want, even ordering lamb, which she hates, simply because her father thinks that she must order the chef’s specialty. As Dante considers Vivian’s parents’ treatment of her, he thinks back on the revelation she triggered when she shared her father’s favorite number. He had Christian do some digging, and they discovered that Francis always uses the number eight, whether for license plates, home addresses, or dates. This led them to believe that he would have eight copies of the photos, meaning that Christian is only three sets away from destroying all the evidence so that Dante can destroy Francis.

After dinner, Vivian confronts Dante, and he criticizes her for allowing her parents to treat her badly, not understanding her family’s and her culture’s values for respecting one’s elders. He tries to help her see that she is intelligent, beautiful, and successful and does not need her family and that she becomes a shell of herself around her parents.