Page 47 of Angel's Whisper

“She didn’t want to be married,” he suggested. “You can’t really blame the girl for that.”

“Excuse me?” Sofia whipped around. When Gabriel scanned the rest of the room, he found equally puzzled looks resting on the faces of the rest of his family members.

“I’m just suggesting, mother, that she didn’t want to get married. You can’t fault her for that.”

“But she knew that’s how things were done,” Carmine countered.

“And if she didn’t, it was incumbent upon her parents to make sure she did.”

“There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything,” Sofia suggested. “The right way was to squelch the marriage in a respectable way. Take the loss and move on. The wrong way was to throw her legs open for any Tom, Dick, or Harry that came along so that she didn’t have to.”

“Besides, her family made a contractual agreement with our family. That contract was violated in the worst possible way,” Carmine added.

“So, let me get this straight, Gabe,” Alessandro replied, folding his arms across his chest. “You think it's okay that she embarrassed me, our family, in such a shameful way?”

“That’s the point, Alessandro,” Gabriel countered. “She brought shame upon herself to avoid a marriage she clearly didn’t want any part of.”

“But that is not the point, Gabe,” Alessandro insisted. “She had an obligation, just as I did!” His voice raised.

“And you were okay with that obligation, or maybe, it's more the idea of someone having the audacity to stand you up?”

“Neither matters,” Carmine intercepted. “The contract was clear. Our son and their daughter were to be married. She understood that. Whether she liked it or not, she understood the obligation.”

“That idea is so antiquated,” Gabriel murmured.

Carmine started to respond, but Sofia placed her hand on his and spoke instead.

“Antiquated though it may be, that’s how things are done,” Sofia said. “I myself am a byproduct of that very same kind of arrangement.”

Both Alessandro and Gabriel’s eyes widened.

Sofia continued. “I know I, we, never said anything about it before, but our marriage was also arranged.”

“You were a part of a business deal?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, son,” Sofia affirmed. “I was.”

“How could you?” He questioned. “Didn’t you protest? Didn’t you want to have some say in your own destiny?”

Sofia heard the judgment in her son’s questions. She understood it more than her son would ever know, yet she continued.

“Yes, I protested, but silently, internally. I didn’t have the gumption, the fight in me to go against what my family thought was best. I was young, inexperienced, and highly influenced. And it all worked out. Because of my sacrifice and my agreeance, our family’s wealth was solidified. You don’t have to ever worry about money because of the decision I made.”

“You mean the decision your parents made with your father?” Gabriel quipped.

“An agreement that was made on my behalf because they knew what was best for me,” Sofia corrected.

“What was best for them and the money it provided,” he huffed.

“True,” Sofia agreed. “But I understood my plight, if you will. That was a daughter’s place. That’s what I was taught, what the Conti girl was taught. She violated her teaching.”

“And she will pay with her miserable life,” Alessandro added.

Gabriel wanted desperately to protest, but he knew speaking against what the golden child pronounced would give his hand away. He had already pushed the envelope with the questions he had raised to his mother. But the thought of Alessandro going after Valentina? Gabriel couldn’t sit idly by and let that happen. He just couldn’t. Gabriel understood that it was dangerous to protest what his brother said, to counter his brother’s desire overtly. He would have to come up with a much more subversive plan to protect Valentina. That’s the least he could do.

“As they all will,” Carmine agreed. But first and foremost, we need a plan.”

“Then, let’s get to planning,” Alessandro replied. “But at the end of the day, they all must die.”

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