Chapter 6 #3
My father was playing at something we both knew was not his forte.
He was trying to be an iron fist in a velvet glove, instead of the closed fist that he actually was.
The old man was choosing his words carefully and trying to avoid missteps.
One false move and there could be a shootout in this church.
He’d swallow whatever hatred was mounting inside him to avoid restarting the war he was fighting to end.
Don Romano, for his part, gave my father a clipped nod.
It was Bridget, his wife’s response that I found unexpected.
She glared in my direction with a fury that let me know that it was far worse than our already violent and mutual hatred.
This was anger that was off the charts and seemed deeply personal, borderline indignation.
As she took a step forward, she clenched her hands by her sides as if gearing up for a fight.
Then, she shook her head and began to turn away, placing a motherly arm around Valentina’s shoulders.
Fuck, Valentina must have told her. Not everything necessarily.
Probably just enough of the truth for her mother to hate me forever from here on out.
Bridget had distrusted me before, but I’d been hoping to win her over.
Now it was abundantly clear that I had my work cut out for me. A lifetime of work.
The Romanos retreated to the private quarters, with Valentina giving me one last lingering look before ducking into the room after her parents.
I couldn’t read the look on her face. Damn, I wanted to know what she was thinking right now.
Even if it turned out to be hatred, I was desperate to know.
Understanding what was going on in her mind would be better than this silence.
We had spoken few words since the day I left the hospital.
The quiet was agony. Better for her to rage at me and hate me than for me to be iced out in the cold like this.
With the Romanos giving us privacy, only the security guards remained. They were still as statues while they manned their posts.
I crossed my arms and looked him dead in the eye. “What is this?”
“I am here to make sure that you go through with this marriage,” my father said, his eyes narrowing.
“We’re going through with it,” I said flatly.
“That was not the impression you gave several weeks ago,” he said. “You wanted to get out of this arrangement. Then suddenly you were back on the same page. What changed?”
What changed was that I was in the hospital and Valentina had spent all this time communicating with my father as she pretended to be me.
She didn’t want to bring attention to the situation so she wisely went along with the wedding plans.
Valentina had done the right thing under difficult circumstances. Now, I could take it from here.
“I’m not back on the same page,” I answered. “I’ll marry her, but this scheme to use her to take control of the Romano empire—I’m through. I want nothing to do with that.”
My father’s face turned red with anger. “You dare to back out of this arrangement? We had agreed—”
“What I agreed to on paper was marriage,” I interrupted sharply.
“But the agreement to use her wasn’t written down, it was verbal.
” As much as I hated going back on my stated word to use Valentina, in twenty-four hours she was going to be my wife.
I had a duty to protect her. That duty came before everything—even something as ironclad as my word.
A husband could not go back on his sacred duty to protect his wife, even if that meant I would be risking the wrath of my powerful father.
“Why have you changed your mind?” my father demanded, his jaw clenched. “To seek the power for yourself alone?”
“I have changed my mind because, starting tomorrow, Valentina will be a De Luca. That will make her one of us,” I reminded him, my tone hard as granite. “And you can’t possibly approve of a De Luca going against another De Luca.”
My father’s face was now beet-red, a vein in his forehead bulging as his entire body tensed with his barely contained anger.
But he released an audible exhale, as if fighting to get ahold of himself inside the church.
While my father might bring a gun into a church, it seemed he wouldn’t lose his temper in God’s house if he could help it.
Still, he fixed me with a cold stare that would have filled a lesser man with dread. It filled me with resolve as I squared my shoulders.
“What do you care about my approval? It’s clear you will do as you please,” my father said. “However, I warn you, Lorenzo, you will not get out of our agreement so easily.”
I kept my tone as sharp as a blade slicing along a vein. “This war will not be reignited because you, I, and Valentina will now be on the same side. You ignore this at your own peril.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes momentarily.
Then he began to step away, to march down the aisle, until he was at the priest’s door.
My father pounded on the door, the noise reverberating through the church, practically shaking the place.
Whatever tactic my father had thought he could use, it wouldn’t have any power today.
But I had tomorrow’s wedding to think of, especially my bride’s safety. While I had managed to hold the line at present, it was obvious that this wasn’t over, and from now on, I would have to watch my back.