Chapter 17
There should be laughter– A lot of it.
There should be happiness – Something synonymous with Christmas caroling, but nothing close seems to resonate throughout the suite. Hell, there should even be drinking, but we’re sober as the day we were all born.
Standing in the mirror of the suite, I take another look and sigh at the person I see in my reflection. It’s me, clearly, but something feels off.
Wrong.
Not that I’ve ever expected myself to be excited about getting married. I knew it would always be something done out of necessity or duty, and that’s close to what this is with Echo. Only I was hoping for more emotion. Since we talked in my office, everything else has been a whirlwind. So much so that I think we’ve barely said anything to each other that didn’t revolve around these rushed nuptials.
Because who has the time to talk to their fiancée when planning the perfect fake wedding?
While I enjoy her company and like her more than I should, there’s still something dutiful about it. I’m protecting her from men who would see her dead and buried without a second thought. Everything else is just a perk.
Right?
“Don’t look so sad, Dami?”
My uncle enters the room slowly, his cane leading the way rather than him. His men are close behind him. “Marrying a woman is not the end of the world. Loving one - Another story.”
A smile spreads across my face, and I turn to my uncle. “Don Domenico.”
I usher him to a chair to sit, where he grunts as he takes me up on my offer. “You should be resting.”
“Pfft.”
My uncle waves me off. “I have rested all that I can. I was allowed to leave after promising the doctors that I would be right back after your wedding.”
My eyes move to my uncle’s main bodyguard, Daniel, who shakes his head. I chuckle, aware that my uncle bullied his way out of the cancer treatment center I took him up to. I’m sure that he didn’t forget to mention the sizable donations we’ve been giving them since he was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, throughout his remission and relapse.
“Water?”
I ask him.
I don’t wait and grab a bottle of water from the bucket brought to us earlier. Usually, my resort gives complimentary bottles of champagne for people getting married, but we’ve all opted to keep our wits about us. The last thing I’m accepting today is a slip due to intoxication.
If anything goes sideways, I need my men to be prepared.
Tommaso sent back his RSVP with details of six men. Six is enough to do damage. I’ve entered situations with less than six men and come out triumphant.
I know better than to be foolish.
“How is your bride? Alive and glowing, I assume?”
I offer my most honest smile to my uncle. “She is,”
I respond.
It’s not a lie. Echo is alive and glowing. When I saw her last night and told her the plan for today, she seemed very excited. There had been an eager air about her that had given her a glowing aura. Her delighted attitude had rubbed off on me, and my simple goodbye kiss had turned into a makeout session that had left us both breathless and wanting more if Gio hadn’t knocked on the door.
“Good, good.”
My uncle smiles at me. “I may be alive long enough to see the Bianchi name continue.
I doubt it, but don’t say anything to my uncle. As my last living relative, whom I can admit I have deep love for, I know that after the latest update I received from his doctor, the cancer has spread aggressively.
They have given him a maximum of five months to live.
Then I remind myself that he beat the odds last time.
My uncle drinks from his water. “You know I loved your aunt Nelda with everything in me.”
I nod. I move to continue to get ready, aware that this is going to be a long conversation. Whenever he speaks of my Aunt Nelda, he goes on forever. “I witnessed it, zio.”
He chuckles. “I would have burned the world for her. That’s how much I loved her. She was the only light I had growing up, and she would have stopped me from burning the world. She would never allow it.”
I look down at my phone and see that Gio texted, saying everything is in order. Echo is ready, and guests are starting to arrive. Also, the photographer is on his way to take a few pictures now that he’s gotten everything he needs from Echo.
“Not everyone is fortunate enough to get someone as special as Aunt Nelda.”
It’s true.
I grew up after my mother died in the house that I’ve taken over since my uncle moved years ago, and I always wondered about their love. They’d had a connection that had been so unspoken it had frightened me. With my parents, I had known they weren’t in love. My mother had never voiced any affection for my father and kept me out of his ire when we were all together. He had made it vocally clear that if not for her and me, he could have the life he wanted. As Capo, he’d figured he wouldn’t have to marry, yet as the second-born son with a brother already married, he’d had to sacrifice. Sure, he’d had affairs and possibly had more potential children out in the world other than Gio, but I’ve never met them. In his mind, getting married and having children had been like shackling a wild animal’s leg to a wall.
He would have rather chewed his one foot off.
My father had detested us. And I had never known why. When I’d grown up, it hadn’t mattered at all. All I had felt for him was an intense submersion of hate.
On the other hand, my uncle and aunt had said so little out loud, but their love had spoken volumes I would never experience.
Not now, or ever.
“No, not everyone is lucky enough, Dami.”
My uncle stands, unsteady on his feet for a second, but nobody reaches for him. We’re well aware of his pride and denial of how sick he is. Reaching out to assist him would be a grave mistake. Yes, my uncle is full of love, but he is also a Bianchi and the oldest.
His ruthlessness comes when necessary, and making your Don look weak warrants it. “But this Echo, your woman.”
His words hesitate, and I sigh out loud. This was what I was expecting initially, not the day I’m marrying Echo. “What about her?”
My uncle Domenico looks at me with unspoken pride and love. “You will love her fiercely, whether you want to or not. I see the passion between you two. The fire.”
Getting this talk feels similar to when he gave me the sex talk at thirteen. It’s getting uncomfortable. “Only she will not stop you from burning the world. She will burn it with you.”
I scoff. “Echo isn’t that way.”
She is. She will burn it herself.
I recall her words that have filtered through over the last two months. I’m well aware that she is as sadistic as they come, and it calls to me and beckons me to take her to my side of the world where black and white don’t exist, and sometimes even gray is questionable. We must make our colors, rules, and morals and survive.
I also know that she would love it.
But I can’t accept it yet.
My uncle coughs, then regains his composure before it turns into a fit. Still looking at me, he shrugs. “For your sake, let’s hope not. I won’t be on this earth much longer.”
As a courtesy, I don’t bother to console him. We both know that he’s right. His time as the Don is coming to an end and faster than we expected. My uncle worries that there will be problems once he is out of the picture, but aside from the Rossis, no other family is bold enough to try anything.
My feud with them goes beyond Amelia.
A moment passes between us that’s more tense than when my uncle questioned if I had anything to do with my father’s untimely passing. The knock on the door disturbs us, and my uncle shifts into a more pleasant person.
“Come now. Let’s get you married.”
I say nothing. When a man enters the room behind Gio, I see the camera hanging loosely in his hands, and he extends his hand to shake mine.
“Hey, Mr. Bianchi, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Kenny.”
I take Kenny’s hand and shake it. “I’m going to be taking your pictures today. I just finished up with your bride, Mrs. Bianchi. She’s gorgeous.”
I know.
I nod at Kenny’s words. “She is.”
Despite my even tone, I can’t help the jealousy that runs through me when I realize he’s seen her in her wedding dress before me. That luxury shouldn’t have been granted to anybody but me. And It would have been that way if Gio had let me go to her suite to ensure she was okay.
Instead, he mentioned that this marriage needed to look as realistic as possible and that I would love to see Echo for the first time today when she walks down the aisle.
If he weren’t my best friend, I would have killed him.
“So, you all will continue going about what you’re doing. I’m going to get pictures of everyone that is here in action. Once I’m done, I’ll head out and be downstairs ready for when the fun part starts.”
Silence spreads throughout the room, and we all think the same thing.
What do we talk about if it doesn’t revolve around my business marriage, revenge, or just business in general?
I’ve never been into sports, video games, or books that didn’t expand my knowledge for my benefit. I’ve never had the time. From the moment that the doctors discovered that I had testicles, it had determined my life and the route that I would take.
My confusion also makes me think about Echo. What did she do when he was taking pictures? Aside from the makeup artist, hairdresser, and wedding coordinator, she’s alone. She has no family in the world, only a few distant relatives that I’m sure she doesn’t know or isn’t interested in knowing.
A foreign part of me aches for her and how lonely she may be today.
Quiet and thoughtful, I endure the pictures that Kenny takes around the room. I imagine that he’s here to capture moments in the raw that are genuine versus what we are all schooled at doing. Every one of us is accustomed to putting on a fa?ade that the world can’t see through. Though some people know the depths of what we’re linked to, others see us as businessmen.
When Kenny becomes distracted from talking to Gio about the wedding and everything that has gone into it, I finally look down at my phone. Though I’ve had it all morning, I haven’t had the chance to look at it longer than a few seconds.
I’m instantly alerted by the text I see from Echo.
It was sent at nine when she was still at the house, but she’s here now. Antonio attested to that, and Gio before him. So, that makes me question whether or not Gio had to convince her to come this morning or she got into the car of her own volition.
Forced marriage of convenience or not, Echo is intelligent and cunning. She knows that this arrangement is the best thing for her. Sure, some unexpected things have risen since we’ve met, but none in the last few days that would warrant this reaction.
I frown at the text, then scroll down.
I exhale a breath, relieved that she was venting.
Again, I chuckle. Leave it to Gio to tell her something like that and persuade her not to text me. He would never take my phone, though. Even as my second, it’s something above his capabilities.
I smile at my text to her, ignoring the sound of Kenny taking pictures around the room and of everybody.
Worry courses through me for a moment. While I know damn near nothing about makeup, the wedding coordinator told Gio that the artist is the best in the business, and that’s why we hired them. But if Echo doesn’t like them, I may have to reconsider their contract.
I breathe easier at her admission.
I’m trying to persuade her not to stress too much about the tiny details, but I know that Echo will do what she wants.
Bubbles populate at the bottom of our text thread.
Aware that she didn’t respond to my statement, I want to laugh but see my uncle staring at me. My shoulders straighten, my face going stoic.
It has, but I find it comical that she’s been counting.
I feel my eyebrow quirk up at her text. I know from her history that Echo had many situations, but she never stayed with them more than twice until Blaine, who happened to be before me. She seemed to date him the longest, even allowing him at her place multiple times. But reading that she considered touching herself to alleviate her sexual frustration isn’t something I’ve thought about. Then, of course, up until a few days ago, we were fucking whenever the desire took over.
She’s right. The idea of someone else hearing her when I am not bringing out those sounds irritates me to a degree I don’t like. And though I try to ignore it, I feel myself harden at the image of her bringing herself to satisfaction.
Whatever she was trying to do, she’s succeeded.
I chuckle even though I don’t find anything funny at the moment.
For a while, I wait, staring at my phone, expecting her to respond, but she doesn’t. I’m not shocked that she would get a rise out of me and disappear. She’s been doing that since I’ve met her. She brings something from within me out, and I’m never sure how to navigate it.
I know I must learn how to disguise how she affects me. But for today, I will get her back in more ways than she would ever expect from me.
“Sei pronto?”
I look at Gio, then manage one last look in the mirror at myself. “Yeah,”
I respond. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
He nods, understanding that this is a move we won’t be able to undo. “Buono.”
Without another word, we exit the suite and go to the venue.