30. Francesca
Marie and Vitelli’s wedding would be held at the old Moretti mansion. Being back brought memories of a time much simpler than this. As I walked through the house, I remembered Arabella, her easy smile, and her heart of gold. I remembered our days out here, bright and filled with excitement. It was so…uncomplicated.
Being here also reminded me of Cassio, how we’d sneak out into the garden and lose ourselves in each other. Those moments of escape were the few ones we got to be together. They had been our everything.
“You look stunning, ma chérie.” Antoine took my hand and placed it in the crook of his arm and helped me down the stairs, bringing me back to reality.
“You don’t look bad yourself.” I followed as he led us toward the garden where Marie and Vitelli’s pre-wedding dinner would be held.
I looked around, cheeks blazing as old memories of Cassio and I filled my mind. I tried to push them aside for now, but it was hard since he was starting to become my everything.
The garden was packed with guests mingling around, but my eyes were focused on one man and one man only. Cassio wore a perfectly tailored navy suit that offered me a view of his sculpted body. His hair was finger-combed back, and I could practically smell him from all over here.
I noticed I wasn’t the only woman looking at him tonight. But when his eyes met mine, I felt like the only woman he had eyes for. He stared like he was slowly consuming me. Like he saw something inside that called to him.
“Mon Dieu. I can feel the heat from all over here.”
I smiled. “Shut up.”
“Seriously, Frankie, he’s fucking you with his eyes.” I looked at Cassio again and felt naked. “You minx,” he laughed. “You’re liking it.”
I snorted but smiled. I shamefully was.
“Just tell me one thing, is it any good, with him?” Antoine knew about Cassio and me, we had dissected this hundreds of times. For once, Antoine’s question didn’t have a sexual connotation.
“Yes,” I confessed as he led me towards our table. “It’s paradise.”
Antoine chuckled. “You deserve it, Frankie.” When he let go, he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and looked at Cassio offering him an apologetic look.
Cassio’s nod was almost imperceptible, but then he met my eyes, and I forgot about the rest of the world.
We sat at the same table but barely spoke, we exchanged in total two words, but we couldn’t risk it. At least I couldn’t, one slip, and everyone out here would know I was having sex with Cassio Moretti.
We needed to keep it a secret until Cassio found a way to dissolve my arranged marriage. So, I sat there talking to Marie, Vitelli, and Antoine for the rest of the night. Yet my eyes kept turning toward Cassio. That man had no right looking like that. It should be a crime. It could lead to accidents.
After dinner was served and the dancing began, I watched as he stood and headed toward the gardens. “You should go after him,” Vitelli said as he sat beside me. “Being here has been hard on him. On all of us.”
“So why have the wedding here?”
“Because it was Bella’s favorite place in the world, and I don’t want to taint it with bad memories. So, I decided to make new ones.”
“Bella would be so proud of you.” I swallowed a lump in my throat.
“Sometimes I wonder if they would have approved of Marie…”
“She would. One hundred percent. Bella would have loved her, and so would your father.”
He pulled on my hair teasingly. “Thanks, Frankie.” I stood up and pushed my chair in. “Be careful with him,” Vitelli pleaded. “Cassio thinks he must carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
“If he lets me, I’ll help him carry it,” I stated truthfully. For him I’d do anything.
Vitelli smiled. “I always knew you were the right one for him.” Those words followed me as I searched for Cassio.
I found him in Arabella’s room, he sat at the edge of her perfectly made bed. Everything was in order as they were waiting for her to come back. It was just like I remembered, not a single item was out of place.
Cassio froze when the floor creaked, but when he saw it was me, he relaxed again. Tentatively, I sat beside him and stared at the pictures attached to the vanity mirror before us.
I placed a hand over his thigh, and he put his over mine, interlacing our fingers, and rested my head on his shoulder, inhaling his scent. Citrus and Sandalwood and home.
Bella’s murder had happened four years ago, and the thought that the Russians had tried to kill Cassio as well… haunted me.
“She would’ve been twenty-four by now,” he blurted.
“I forgot how she looked when she smiled.” I looked at the pictures on her vanity.
“I still blame myself,” he whispered.
“Cassio, don’t.” I cupped his cheek, but he stood up and moved away.
“Bella was my little sister, mine to protect, and look what happened.”
“You couldn’t have stopped it,” I tried to argue. “How could you have known they would attack your home?”
“Grigori is a maniac, he’d tried to have us killed before, I should have known he would try again.”
“Cassio,” I said softly. “There was nothing you could have done.” Couldn’t he see that?
He looked away, so I stood up and forced him to face me. I placed my hand over his heart right where his tattoo was. He inhaled sharply and stared at me.
“What happened to Arabella was a tragedy. I miss her every single day and still hate facing it, but there was nothing we could’ve done. That you could’ve done.”
“Ara—she was my responsibility.”
I smiled weakly. “Arabella, say it, Cassio. It’s not just guilt you feel, its grief. You never had a proper moment to mourn her. With your father gone, you needed to be strong, and I understand that, but there is nothing wrong in admitting it.”
“I don’t.” Cassio stepped away.
“This need to live for the Outfit, to be distant from others and to push people away, it’s fear, Cassio. Fear that you’ll be hurt again.”
He was silent for a long while, his attention on the pictures attached to the vanity. I walked toward him once again and took his hand in mine, interlacing our fingers. Reminding him that he was not alone, that I was always going to be here for him, if he accepted me.
“This need for vengeance is corrupting what good is left in your heart. I know it hurts, and I know you want them dead, but you need to move on, Cassio. Let go of that rage.”
“I can’t.” He fisted his hands. “I won’t, Francesca.”
“Then you’ll lose me, Cassio. Because if you continue down this path, I refuse to watch you self-destruct.” I would not watch him die! It was either me or them, he couldn’t have both.
He frowned. “What does that have to do with us, Francesca?”
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Either you forgive yourself and let it go, or you’ll live a lonely miserable life.”
“Maybe that is what I want,” he shouted. I didn’t flinch, but he saw the pain in my eyes. I could see he regretted those words the moment he said them.
“Francesca.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t mean it.”
“You did,” I argued. “You think having feelings makes you weak? They don’t, Cassio, this need for vengeance is making you weak. It’s keeping you from living.”
“I miss her,” he said softly, and I almost didn’t catch it.
“I hate them, too, Cassio, but that rage is consuming everything that is good in you.” I closed the space between us and placed a hand over his beating heart. “The love you felt for Bella will never be replaced by the love you feel for others. Each person is loved in a different way.” My eyes found his.“I will not lose you to them, Cassio,” I said with finality. I refused to do so.
“You won’t,” he said with conviction.
“Then promise me you’ll let go of this rage.”
“I can’t.”
“Then let go of me,” I said as tears filled my eyes. I couldn’t watch Cassio wither away because of this rage. He might have hidden it from me, but I knew what lay within.
He stepped closer to me and cupped my cheeks. “Never, Principessa, I’ll never let you go.”
“Why?”
“Because, I am a selfish man, and I love you too much to let you go.” he confessed.
My eyes widened and my heart inflated. Those were not the words I was expecting but they were everything I needed. Pure, unfiltered, happiness cursed through my veins like a drug offering me a new kind of high. The only kind I wanted to experience from now on.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Well, that was not the reaction I was expecting.” The concern in his voice caused me to chuckle.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him down for a kiss. When we pulled apart, I confessed what had been in my heart forever, something I had been refusing to listen to.
“I love you, too,” I admitted.
He sighed deeply and kissed my nose. “You have no idea how beautiful those words are, Principessa.”
So, I said them again. “I love you.”
He cupped my cheek, pine-green eyes staring into mine. They were warm and welcoming. “I love you beyond what is physically possible. I love you enough it hurts, yet still I will brave the pain because for you I’ll do anything, Francesca. Anything.”
I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. We stood there like that for ages, simply enjoying this newfound love, or rather a love that had always been there to begin with.
I left Arabella’s room shortly after Cassio. I needed some time to collect myself after such an emotional moment. I was on cloud nine.
“Cara mia.” I heard the monster’s voice coming from behind. I turned and there he was.
My nightmares wrapped up all in one. Donato approached me looking all smug like he had just won the lottery and was on his way to rub it in people’s noses.
“You didn’t heed my advice, did you?” He chuckled. “No worries, you silly fools are not going to stand in the way of my plans.”
“Plans.” I crossed my arms. “Who cares about your plans, Father?”
“How invincible it must feel to have Cassio Moretti by your side.” He shook his head. “In a few months, you’ll be mine to do with as I wish.”
I shivered, but at the same time, my body became warm, I was burning from within. “I’m not marrying anyone.” Cassio had made me a promise, and I believed in him.
“Oh, but you are, and he’s eager to meet you.”
Oh, but I wasn’t. “I’ll tell Cassio about your meeting with Grigori,” I threatened. I had no idea if the man in the picture my brother had shown me weeks ago was in fact Grigori, but I seemed to have been correct because he blanched.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me all right.”
He took a step toward me, and I took one back and raised my hand stopping him. “Touch me and he’ll know that, too.”
“So confident of your power over him.”
It wasn’t power, it was love. Cassio loved me and that made me feel invincible, even against Donato.
“You committed treason,” I said. The only reason I hadn’t told Cassio was because Donato had threatened to hurt the people I loved. I hated my father, but I trusted his promise to me. I wasn’t going to risk it, not for the world. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to them because of me. They were the only family I had.
Donato smiled. “There is nothing you can do about it, Francesca. Not if you want to see your friend walk down that aisle tomorrow. Or if you want your beloved to keep breathing.”
“You wouldn’t dare harm them.”
“Oh no, I would never, but I have some friends that would be glad to. After all, in the throes of war, who knows what might happen.”
“You’re a monster,” I snapped.
He laughed. “Tick-tock, Francesca, your time is almost over. One of these days Cassio is going to slip, and I’ll be there to catch you.”