Page 19 of Daddy's Mad Love

Once Hailey and I were married, I anticipated I’d be spending even less time here because I planned on doing much more than canoodling with her all over my house.

Just as I was beginning to think I should assist Mrs. Valachi in fetching my bride, the staccato sound of heels clicking down the hall before they hit the rug and were muffled caught my ears, and something inside my chest relaxed. She was coming.

When she appeared in the doorway, chin up, hazel eyes blazing, I suppressed a grin. The green dress looked as stunning on her as I’d anticipated, providing a dazzling contrast to her auburn hair and bringing out the green in her eyes. Our gazes met. Held. Her lips parted, no doubt with some kind of scathing recrimination.

“Finally!” My mother’s outburst stalled whatever Hailey had been about to say. Leaping to her feet, she went to greet Hailey.

I enjoyed watching my fiancée’s determination falter in the face of my elegant mother, who pulled her into a hug. No matter how angry she was at me, Hailey’s manners were faultless, and she wasn’t the type to injure one person just to get to another.

“I am so glad to meet you, my dear.”

“I… ah…” Hailey’s gaze skittered my way again, this time with a hint of panic. Even though she might not particularly like me at the moment, she still looked to me for assistance. I got to my feet, so I wouldn’t be scolded for remaining seated while the ladies were standing. I needed to be going soon, anyway. There was much to do today, and Hailey had taken longer coming down than I’d hoped. Leaving her to fend for herself with my mother seemed like a fitting reprisal.

“Hailey, cara, this is my mother, Serena DiNardo.” I walked around the table to them, Hailey watching me with wary eyes as I advanced. The edges of a smile curled my lips. “Mother will be spending the day with you.” Her eyes widened, and I took advantage of her surprise to lean over and brush a kiss over her cheek before turning to do the same to my mother. “I will see you at dinner. Enjoy yourselves.”

Hailey

Giacomo’s mother was an unexpected whirlwind. She had me sitting at the table, eating breakfast before I could spend any time thinking about the way Giacomo had just abandoned me to her mercies. Ranting and railing at him would have been easy, but doing so to his elegant, properly polite mother was another story.

I didn’t even know if she knew the circumstances behind our wedding, and for some reason, I found myself reluctant to bring them up, especially since I would have had to interrupt her chattering stories about ‘her Jack.’ Like Mrs. Valachi, she seemed intent on talking him up to me, so maybe she did know I wasn’t there willingly.

No sooner had I finished breakfast than she had me up and moving again, showing me the wedding preparations she’d undertaken—a sample invitation, linens for the tables, centerpieces.

“Your bouquet will arrive tomorrow morning.” She waved her hand airily, beaming at me as though she wanted my approval, and I finally hit the end of my rope.

“Mrs. DiNardo, I’m sorry. I think there’s been a mistake.”

“Call me, Serena, please, and no, dear, there’s no mistake.” Surprisingly, she smiled at me, which didn’t help when I saw both the sympathy and the pity in her eyes. “These DiNardo men, once they know what they want, they get it, and my Jack wants you.”

“Well, he can’t have me.” Frustration began to bubble up again.

“Oh, you do remind me of myself,” she said with a little laugh, surprising me even further. “The wedding will happen, so you may as well make the most of it. There will be a photographer, and one day, you may find you enjoy looking at the pictures.”

“You didn’t want to marry Mr. DiNardo?” I asked, blinking with shock. Then why was she helping her son do the same thing to me?

“Not at first, but back then, women had even less of a choice than they do now. It was all for the best, though.” She reached out to take my hand, patting it consolingly. Throughout it all, her smile never wavered. Worse, it was entirely sincere. If it had been fake or deceitful, I would have found it easier to brush off. “Once I stopped fighting him, I realized how wonderful my Lorenzo was, and we fell madly in love. Oh, there’s the doorbell. Your dress must be here for your fitting.”

I pressed my lips together as she dropped my hand and hurried out of the room. If I was under any delusion that it would be easy to run with her distracted, a goon stuck his head through the doorway, quickly locating me before he shifted back into his position as sentry. Mrs. DiNardo had taken me to the second floor to show me everything, so there was no easy escape out the window.

I wandered around the room, touching the soft table linens, looking at the invitation, and cringing when I saw my real name under my parent’s names, both described as deceased. If only they’d been alive…

Uncertainty wavered through me. If they’d been alive, I would have been with them, right at the heart of the Family. My parents had doted on me, loved me in a way my grandfather never had. I would have never run away from them the way I had from my grandfather. Would they have fought to let me have the husband of my choosing? Or would they have thought I should do what was best for the Family?

What had been their story? I had always assumed they’d met, fallen in love, gotten married, then had me, but what if they were more like Giacomo’s parents? What if they’d fallen in love after?

It didn’t matter. I wasn’t them. They weren’t me and Giacomo.

I might have to play the game, but at the end of the day, the marriage vows were very specific—'til death do us part.

9

Jack

“The day a man gets married is the day he becomes a man,” my father said, straightening my tie. In a few minutes, we’d be walking down the aisle to the front of the church. “Today, you become more than yourself. You become a husband and one day, if your mother has anything to say about it, a father.” He grinned, demonstrating how he felt about that as well. Letting go of my tie, he held my face in his hands, patting my cheeks. “I’m proud of you, son.”

“Thank you, Papa.” I hadn’t called him that in years, but at the moment, it felt right.

“Now, let’s go get you shackled.” Chuckling, he led the way to the church door.

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