Page 104 of Cardinal

With a tear running down his face, he leaned in and kissed my forehead. "I love you, my Juliet." He whispered.

"I love you too, Luciano." I couldn't wipe the obscenely wide smile off my face if I wanted to.

"Alright, hold on, save the tears for after you put the rings on each other and after I pronounce you guys husband and wife." The priest chuckled softly with a pat on Luciano's shoulder.

I don't think I've seen Luciano move any faster to put something on me until now, with how he nearly shoved my finger off my hand with the force behind him putting the ring on me.

Laughing a little, I took my sweet time slipping the ring on his finger to tease him a little, which earned me a complaining groan and a flat glare.

"With the power vested in me and on behalf of God, I pronounce you husband and wife." Shutting his little black book, the priest stepped back and gestured us together. "You may kiss your bride, Luciano."

And that's when the tear work started for both of us. The moment our lips collided, it was like two missiles to our dams.

"I fucking love you so much. You really are the best thing in my life, and I swear I will always treat you right and love you until I die." He whispered hastily against my lips between kisses.

"I love you so much. Thank you."

The two of us held each other at the altar for a long, sweet moment, crying our emotions out for the world to see.

"God damn it, would you two stop." Ares interrupted our moment, earning a slap to the chest from Jade. "Gonna make me fucking cry and embarrass myself." He grumbled behind his hand while turning his tearful face away from us.

Unable to help it, Luciano and I gave out a good laugh before letting the priest wrap up the ceremony so we could move on to the reception. Which, thank fucking God, because apparently I was starving and didn't know it.

After a good while of sitting around and stuffing our faces with idle chit-chat shoved in between, we finally moved on to popping and pouring the champagne down the pyramid of glasses. "Are you sure you're okay, sweetheart? You never turn down good champagne." Luciano worried over me as we went from the glass pyramid of champagne to our cake.

"I had too much to drink last night, and I'm gonna throw up if I have a drop of alcohol in me right now." I lied smoothly through my reassuring smile as I stood beside him at our wedding cake.

Luciano opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it with a shake of his head. "I don't want to know what you girls did last night. I'm just gonna be ignorantly blissful." He mused with a chuckle before picking up the knife with me.

"To us." Luciano grinned happily at me for a second before cutting into the cake with me.

Keeping a calm smile on my face, I watched Luciano's face twist with confusion with a bated breath and a racing heart. "What the… Didn't we get white champagne for the cake flavor?" He asked in a small voice as he cut more slices into the cake and pulled them out.

Utterly confused after seeing all three tiers were blue on the inside, he looked at me for an answer. "Why the fuck is it blue?" He wasn't mad or upset, just very confused and concerned.

The calm smile on my face had unconsciously widened giddily at this point, and I couldn't help but feel like I looked crazy with how much my cheeks ached from the smile. With a nervous lick of my lips, I gently moved Luciano's face to the projector screen behind us, which had been playing a slideshow of various pictures of us. It wasn't now.

Inside of a slideshow, the screen remained frozen on one single picture of a grainy black-and-white ultrasound.

Leaning up to my stunned husband, I giggled softly into his ear and whispered, "Happy anniversary, my dear husband."

Now, as happy as I was about the news and the surprise, I couldn't help but grow concerned when he stood there in a stupor. "Luca… Uhh… Honey… Say something?" I softly tugged at his sleeve in hopes of getting his attention.

What I didn't expect was for him to whirl around with a huge grin and spin me around with a happy shout and laugh. "Is it really true? Our baby is inside of you right now?" He asked with a grin that would put The Joker to shame. "I'm going to be a dad?"

All I could manage was a happy sobbing nod of my head in response while I clung onto him for dear life.

"You guys! You see that! That's my son! I'm going to be a dad!" He shouted with glee as he continued to spin me around in his arms.

"Luciano, you're gonna make me throw up if you keep spinning me," I mentioned with a dry laugh while holding back the contents of my stomach from coming up to embarrass me on my wedding day.

Apologizing, he set me down and dropped to his knees to level his smiling face with my stomach. "Hey there, buddy." He spoke to my stomach with a gentle rub. "I already love you so much, and you're not even here yet. I swear, I will be the best dad ever to you."

"Yes, you are." I smiled lovingly down at Luciano as I ran a hand through his gelled hair. "We are going to be the best parents to our child."

Standing back up, Luciano grabbed my face and kissed me deeply. "I didn't think it was possible to love you any more than I do, but… Fuck, I love you so fucking much more."

After a round of applause and congratulations from everyone, the place settled down for Luciano and me to have our first dance. And, of course, I cried like a damn baby because of the emotions, which I blamed the hormones for throwing out of whack.

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