Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 136915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
“He should have never approached you.”
“Am I better than him? If I know he’s promised and I still kiss him, doesn’t that make me a sinner as well?”
“I don’t give a fuck about sins. What I care about is your wellbeing.”
Dad cursing like this in front of me told me his emotional state wasn’t the best either.
“I’ll be fine.” I’d known Amo only for a short period of time. If time healed all wounds, then the heartache I suffered should be over in the same time it had taken me to fall for Amo, right?
Dad touched my cheek. “I should have protected you better.”
I smiled sadly. “Would it have changed things for you if Amo hadn’t been promised?” I knew the answer but I thought it required stating out loud.
Dad let out a dark laugh. “About him wanting you? Not in a million years, mia cara. Maybe he can have whatever he wants in New York, but this is Las Vegas, and he can’t have you. Not now, not ever.”
“You told me you’d do anything for me.”
Dad cupped my face with both hands, his eyes blazing with fierceness. “Not that.”
I shook my head in his hold. “I belong here. I’m talking about war. Please, don’t let there be war because of me. Please do this for me. We need peace.”
“Still too kind for this world. I thought you’d changed but I see you haven’t.” He kissed my forehead, sounding relieved but at same time resigned.
I peered up at him through my lashes. But I had changed, hadn’t I? I could feel it deep in my belly. How could one person change who you were? Amo had changed everything, my every desire, my perception of what made my life full. But I was a Falcone. I’d go on despite the pain.
“What about peace?”
Dad kissed my forehead again then he stood, his expression hard. “That depends on Luca. We’re ready for war if he wants it.”
With every step Cressida took closer to me, I knew she wasn’t the woman I wanted to marry. With every intake of breath, I knew I loved the woman sitting somewhere in this church. And with every furious beat of my condemned heart, I knew I could never be with the woman I loved.
I didn’t search the guests for Greta. We hadn’t spoken since I’d left Las Vegas with new scars. One of many on my body and the first one on my cold heart.
Who would have thought a woman would break my unbreakable heart?
Cressida arrived at my side, smiling as if she’d won the lottery, and I supposed she had. She was ambitious and as my wife she’d be at the top of the food chain.
I caught Marcella’s gaze in the first row. She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. I sent her a wry smile, remembering when I’d told her many years ago that I wouldn’t marry for love, that I’d have an arranged marriage and marry for the good of the Famiglia. Today those words became reality.
Today would mark a turning point in many ways.
But back then I’d thought love was a loser’s game and I’d be immune to it. That a Falcone would change it was almost comical.
That the Falcones were present today to celebrate the biggest wedding of the Famiglia was a fucking miracle in itself. It had taken considerable effort to make it happen. But if one thing was Remo’s greatest weakness then it was his hubris. He thought himself invincible. His arrogance trumped even my own.
That I married Cressida would guarantee that the Traditionalists would get their fill. They had our backs, ready to follow us on whatever crusade we planned. Maybe if Marcella had married in a traditional fashion, I would have had more freedom to be with Greta. But even then…The Falcones would have never let her go and even if I’d ripped her away, Greta would have always belonged to them. She had chosen her family and I had chosen mine. Love wasn’t written in my stars. Our world hardly left room for this kind of weakness. And that’s what it was.
I would never again show weakness.
Cressida cleared her throat, giving me an expectant look. I realized we’d arrived at the part of the ceremony where we were supposed to exchange vows and rings.
My heart had been half dead before I’d met Greta. With all the shit I’d lived through since Marcella had been kidnapped and all the horrors I’d witnessed and committed that was the natural course of things.
With her it had felt like the black piece of stone in my chest could actually be revived but today whatever good had remained inside of me shriveled and died. “I do.” The word tasted false and for the briefest moment I allowed myself to search for Greta in the crowd. But I didn’t have to search. My gaze was drawn to her as if a magnetic pull connected us, and one look in her kind doe eyes and my heartbeat stilled only to speed up.