Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
“What are you doing? You only just woke. You need to stay in bed!”
“I have to stop the wedding. I don’t care if I have to rush down the aisle and pull Anna away before she can say I do, but I have to stop her from marrying him.”
“It’s three in the afternoon, Santino,” Frederica said gently.
It took my befuddled brain a moment to process her words. I’d memorized the wedding schedule because of the safety details. The ceremony had been scheduled for two p.m. Anna was already married.
I shook my head slowly and sank back against the pillows. “Fuck.” I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”
“You’ll find someone else,” Frederica said.
“I want her. You wouldn’t understand. God can’t really leave you so you don’t really have to worry about getting your heart ripped out.”
Frederica nodded but she still touched my hand.
“Sorry,” I gritted out. I tried to stand once more. “Maybe it’s not too late for an annulation.”
“Son, Anna chose Clifford. She’s not worth fighting for.”
I didn’t want to believe it. Maybe Dad was right. Anna had chosen Clifford over me, or rather she thought she needed to do the virtuous thing and do her duty to the Outfit and her family. But one thing was sure, she hadn’t chosen me.
“We’ll find you a good wife,” Dad assured me.
“I don’t need a wife.”
“Don’t covet someone else’s wife,” Frederica reminded me.
I had no trouble being the second man, the occasional lover. With other women, it hadn’t been a problem in the past. With Anna? The mere idea that Clifford would touch her made me raving mad.
I stood. Dad had to grip my arm to steady me. “I’ll kill him. That’ll solve the problem. Not a sin if I’m coveting a widow.”
“Not if you made her a widow in the first place,” Frederica said.
“Anything you do against this marriage now will lead to severe punishment, Sonny. Dante won’t take it kindly if you do something stupid.”
“I don’t fucking care.”
“She doesn’t deserve you. You deserve someone who chooses you!” Dad shouted.
“I’ll check on Anna one more time,” I told Dante. He squeezed my hand briefly, a rare public display of affection, which meant all the more because of its rarity. I could tell that he was slightly nervous. For a father to give his daughter away in marriage was a major step, and for someone as protective as Dante in particular.
“Talk her out of it,” Leonas muttered under his breath.
Dante gave him a warning look.
Leonas had made his opinion blatantly clear. He thought it was a mistake to marry Anna off to Clifford. He and Dante had butted heads on several occasions because of it. He’d been against the marriage from the start. At first, I’d thought on principle to oppose Dante’s decision. As most sons in our world, he tried to rebel against his dad’s authority, at least in private.
I shook my head at him. Now wasn’t the time or place for him to express himself. I knew boys, contradicted their fathers on principle, but he needed to know his boundaries. He was already eighteen and had to learn to accept his father’s decisions.
I turned and headed to the side door before I slipped into the hallway behind it that led to the room where Anna could gather herself one more time before the ceremony.
Sofia left the room. As one of Anna’s best friends, she’d helped Anna get ready. Worry flooded me when I saw her expression. She quickly smoothed it when she spotted me, but I’d seen the concern on hers.
“Sofia,” I said with a small smile. “What’s the matter? Is Anna feeling unwell?”
“No, no,” Sofia said quickly. “She’s perfectly fine. Just a tad worried about Santino still. She feels guilty.”
Of course, this was about Santino. I’d felt increasingly strange vibes between him and Anna since their return to Chicago.
Anna had been very close-lipped which had made me even more suspicious. Something had happened between them, but they both knew better than to show it. I hadn’t mentioned my concerns to Dante. He would have interrogated Santino and possibly drawn conclusions that would have cost the latter his life.
Over the years, I’d sometimes questioned my decision to have Santino guard Anna. He’d done his duty and done it well, but I knew I wasn’t privy to everything that had happened.
As a mother, it was a bitter pill to swallow that your daughter didn’t confide in you. It made me doubt myself and my relationship with Anna. I’d always thought we had a very close bond. Maybe I was being too sensitive, which was probably linked to my oldest daughter becoming a wife today.
“Santino did his duty,” I told Sofia.
Sofia nodded, but I could tell my words made no impact. I hoped Anna had shared whatever bothered her with her friend.
“I’ll go to Anna now, and your husband is probably already looking for you.”