Chapter 8
to no avail
MARCO
With as many Italians as there were congregating in the Midtown church, no one would have noticed my lack of presence up until this point.
Thankfully, the Morellis, as well as my own family, had enough foresight to request that Nicolo Morelli Deluca’s baptism be a private ceremony.
If not, it would have become a communal event with hardly any breathing room in the church.
Scanning the crowd loitering outside, most of them stepping out of their town cars and fussing with their coats, I didn’t have any luck spotting Brooklyn.
Not that I was necessarily surprised, considering she was with Capri, and anytime that happened, they tended to be not only late but caused some sort of scene upon arrival.
It appeared I would be right on at least one point, so I was hoping not to be right on the other.
A scene was the very last thing either of us needed.
It was bad enough this engagement wasn’t going to proceed quietly.
The youngest Deluca son being the third to marry in the family was always bound to cause somewhat of an uproar.
But especially with the way it had gone down.
Nothing about this was traditional, and it didn’t matter how much everyone tried to pretend it was normal.
Some things simply couldn’t be passed off as such.
The fact that our family, generally speaking, had been for as long as they had was shocking in and of itself.
Almost immediately, my eyes hooked onto Uncle Elio and Aunt Anna, which merely meant that Uncle Leonardo was around here somewhere.
Anna made a point to never show up to these family gatherings without her husband—the Deluca.
She also certainly wouldn’t show up to them separate from him.
They were practically glued at the hip, which was, ironically, the way both of them preferred things.
Then again, Leonardo was drastically different from Elio or Uncle Matteo.
Four brothers with four of the most distinct personalities, not unlike me and my brothers, I supposed.
What was worse was how they each carried their own grudges against the other, but acted like it was all water under the bridge.
Uncle Elio’s betrayal of my father, though, that was perhaps the worst. Elio had stolen Aunt Katherine from our father long before our mother had ever been in the picture and, even though they were brothers, their already splintered relationship never fully recovered from the bitter betrayal.
Aunt Katherine’s death, however, was somewhat of a catalyst you could say, bringing Elio back into the fold.
I hadn’t caught wind of Matteo having arrived yet, but he was one of the more ruthless ones.
In that regard, very close to Santo. The two of them spent more time conspiring together than anything else.
If I had to guess, and I had done so on numerous occasions, I would’ve assumed that was one of the primary reasons Matteo’s marriage to Aunt Babe ended in their contentious divorce.
In fact, their relationship reminded me a lot of Vito and Lisa Marie’s marriage.
Although their union was less toxic as it was muddled with contradictions.
It was like the style of pottery that used gold to fill the cracks that made it less than perfect.
They didn’t leave openings for anything to creep in and further destroy it, just as they didn’t allow the crack to spread, affecting the whole piece and shattering it beyond repair.
“Most of your brothers are inside with Dominic.”
The nasally feminine voice was easy to recognize.
I’d never met anyone before Lisa Marie whose voice simultaneously made me want to crawl out of my skin and ask her to read a whole damn novel to me.
Like much else that involved her, it was unnatural and unusual.
The combination of the two was probably what enticed Vito the most about her.
It was also probably one of the things he detested the most. It was practically public knowledge, at least within our immediate family, that the two had frequent qualms that resulted in sparring.
Turning, I walked over to where she was standing next to a concrete bench, lighting a cigarette.
Lisa Marie wasn’t always a smoker. In fact, she had no vices to speak of when she had first gotten together with Vito.
However, over time, that had changed, and she could frequently be seen with a lit cigarette.
On occasion, she busted out an opera-length cigarette holder when things really called for that level of serious.
Of course, it was a habit Vito had tried to persuade her to break, but to no avail. These days, she turned to nicotine when she had been triggered by something Vito did. Whether it was intentional or unintentional didn’t factor in.
Crossing my arms, I stood in front of her, casting a shadow that stopped the rays of the sun from meeting her.
“Yes, apparently, my newest nephew is quite the attention stealer.” My gaze followed the smoke as she took an exhale, fanning it sideways.
“Seems he’ll fit right in with this family.
Until he realizes he will have to spend his entire life fighting to keep that attention on him.
At least, if that’s what he wants.” Shaking my head, I turned the tables on her. “Why aren’t you in there with Vito?”
She snorted, placing a hand inside a pocket of her red pantsuit.
She and Vito made it a point to match at most functions, which meant he would be found sporting red.
It wasn’t as though it was something that was spoken about as much as it was silently understood.
We all believed it to be because they were keeping up perception that they came as a united front, their alliance stronger than ever.
Only people closest to them knew otherwise.
“You know him.” Technically, she didn’t need to proceed because those three words said it all.
He was mingling, probably cooking something up.
In other words, not paying anything or anyone else much attention.
“Not to mention, he’s the godfather, so Dom and Maria pulled him aside to speak with him after we arrived. ”
Yes, I had heard about Dom’s decision to pronounce Vito the godfather.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise, what with the way he frequently called on Vito when a problem arose or he needed advice on something.
They were horribly close in that way. Then again, they were the closest in age, so it seemed only natural.
Especially after the slight when he hadn’t been asked to be Dominic Jr.’s godfather.
“I gather Jade is in there as well then?”
“She is the godmother, but I don’t believe there’s anything they need to talk to her about because she and Red showed up with Maria and Dom.
They all came together.” It looked like she was about to say something else, but instead, her head snapped in the direction of the church doors.
I followed suit, noticing my father and Vito getting into it, a deep chuckle coming from Santo.
Just as I had suspected, Vito was making himself known in a flashy as fuck red suit, everything else he wore black.
The paradox between it and the devil’s attire wasn’t lost on me.
Although, I’d keep that to myself. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” I said, acknowledging the pout that overtook her lips as she watched, seemingly unable to take her eyes off of them.
She was likely trying to gauge what was going on.
Not that it would do her any good. Neither one of them were too predictable.
Besides the notion that they were probably discussing business, there wasn’t much else we could surmise from the outside.
She forced a smile and never looked back at me as she tossed the cigarette down, rubbing the toe of her high heel into it, practically crushing it into the ground.
“Of course not. What would I have to worry about? Nicolo is being christened, and then Vito and I are hosting a beautiful dinner to continue the celebration. It’s going to be exquisite.
” She brushed at her pantsuit, even though there wasn’t a speck of lint on it.
“You will be there, won’t you? I made bruschetta and a four-cheese sausage rigatoni. ”
I couldn’t have imagined anything worse than a family get-together where we pretended Dom didn’t want to be as far from this family as humanly possible.
Why else would he have chosen a career that required travel and was completely disconnected from the family business?
Or where we ignored the marriage I was being forced into because I had a controlling son of a bitch as a father.
I would have rather pierced glass through my joints than sit through that.
Luckily, I didn’t have a chance to answer because Vito came over at that exact moment, ushering Lisa Marie inside.
“Come on. Everyone’s asking where you are.
” He linked his hand around her waist, jerking his chin at me in his usual rude manner.
Seriously, if he thought that was a greeting, he needed lessons in social etiquette.
“Make sure to pop a piece of gum in your mouth as we walk. The smell of smoke is not a flattering one,” I heard him tell her as they walked away.
“My goodness, smoke?” Lorenzo asked, approaching from the street.
He brushed his hands down the front of his jacket and smiled before slipping one hand into his pants pocket.
“She may as well have shown up stark naked. Nothing else could be quite as embarrassing.” The sarcasm in his voice was not lost on me.
I uncrossed my arms and walked toward him. “Didn’t you used to date a smoker? Wasn’t her name something like Persephone?”