Page 28 of Mafia Doctor

“Fancy,” Jackie said.

There was definitely something up with her. For as long as she’d been friends with Jackie, Aurora had never known her to hold back when it came to expressing her opinion on anything. Her suspicions were confirmed when, several minutes later, after Isabella had given them each a glass of champagne and Missy was occupied flipping through a rack of gowns, Jackie tapped Aurora on the shoulder.

“Hey, can I talk to you in private for just a minute?”

“Sure,” Aurora said, and she followed Jackie into one of the private changing rooms. “What’s up? Are you okay?”

Jackie was fidgeting in front of her, like she was working up the courage to say something.

“Listen, you know I love you, Aurora. The last thing I want is to ruin your special day.”

“Of course,” Aurora said, still thoroughly confused.

“I heard some of the staff at your house talking when you were using the bathroom, and they were saying something about how Dante had to… well, kidnap you.”

Aurora stared at her for a moment. Ah yes. Now it all made sense. That would be a pretty concerning thing for her to hear.

“And the thing is, Aurora, if you need me to help you get out of this, it’s not too late. I can sneak you out of here right now, we can fly back to the US, change your name if we have to. There are programs for this kind of thing, and I know a guy.”

Jackie was becoming more flustered now that she’d said her piece, talking faster and looking at Aurora with desperation in her eyes.

“Oh god, Jackie, stop,” Aurora said, putting both of her hands on Jackie’s shoulders. “Please, just listen.”

Jackie stopped talking and waited.

“Yes, Dante did technically have to come and… find me… but it wasn’t like that.”

Jackie looked at her skeptically with a sort of pity that made it obvious what she was thinking. Aw, you poor, brainwashed little Stockholm Syndrome girl.

“It’s hard to explain, but I’ve known Dante a long time, and I’ve known I was going to marry him. I just didn’t want to do it right away because I was having fun in Europe and all…” Aurora realized as she talked that there was really no way to make the situation she was in sound normal, but she tried anyway. “And since he… found me, I’ve really grown to love him. A lot. I want to marry him, Jackie. I promise.”

Jackie continued to appraise her for several long moments. “Peaches?”

Aurora smiled. “Peaches” was the term they’d come up with way back when they’d met in middle school. If either of them said it, the other was absolutely required to tell the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was. They didn’t use it often, but it was deeply sacred when they did.

“Peaches,” Aurora said.

“Alright then,” Jackie visibly relaxed and even smiled a little. “Let’s get you married.”

It wasn’t that Dante didn’t want Aurora to know about this particular bit of wedding planning, per se. He just… didn’t mind too much if she didn’t know.

She had enough on her hands without knowing that her soon-to-be-husband was meeting with Vittorio Giordano to secure an alliance with her own—and now his own—family.

If he was truly being honest with himself, though, Dante had to admit that it was more than just that he didn’t want to stress out his bride.

Dante was nervous, and the last thing he wanted was for Aurora to see that.

He wasn’t afraid of Vittorio, of course—the man was almost eighty and he’d come to the meeting alone, which did at least show a pretty high degree of trust in Moretti hospitality.

What he was afraid of was making a fool of himself.

He’d been the guy watching Enzo’s back while he made deals like this, but now he was the guy making the deals, and Vittorio was an even stubborner old fuck than Enzo had been. Plus there was the delicate matter of one of Vittorio’s sons having plotted with Gennaro Moretti to gun down his other son in the same bloodstained room where Enzo Moretti had died.

At least Vittorio had been productive in his life and had a son to spare from a second marriage, admittedly a bookish boy more interested in whatever he’d been studying at Dartmouth than in running a mafia family, but an heir nonetheless.

An heir who Vittorio clearly knew was going to need allies who’d come up the hard way.

Allies like Dante.

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