Page 9 of Princess of the Mafia

She rushed on as I paused. “She’s good wife material.” She let out a laugh. I could hear the love spilling out of her for her sister, whichever one she was. Not! “I swear.”

Ah, my curiosity would kill me one day, I was sure. “Which one is that?” I turned to find her cunning eyes on me. Manipulative to her bones. “I heard you met her already. Outside,” she said, a faint glint of darkness in her eyes. Couldn’t be love if she was sacrificing her sister like a sacred lamb. And that was what it was. No one gave their sister to me as anything but a sacrifice. If there was ever innocence in her, I would ruin her, break her, damage her. Because didn’t you know it? No amount of digging would find a kind bone in my body.

My jaw ticked as I contemplated her idea. Of course, I wasn’t going to agree to this. Good wife material, my ass. I’d seen the spitfire outside, and she was anything but that. Besides, I wasn’t allowing any woman to manipulate me. This deal was fucking off, and I was taking myself and my brothers back to New York. Maybe fuck that stewardess again. Go back to life as it had been. Like I’d wanted a wife in the first place.

So I yanked the door open and stepped out to the foyer filled with family. Everything had to be a big gathering in Sicily. There wasn’t a single breakfast, lunch, or dinner without some uncle or aunt at your table. I didn’t miss any of this and was more than happy to get back to New York.

My brothers were the only outsiders, and they stood to the side, watching the gathering like a crazy chicken show. Someone saw me and nudged Vitale, and he immediately strode towards me. My eyes caught on a cloud of pink seated at the window seat with headphones on. A cold awareness touched my back as the woman I was supposed to marry came to stand behind me.

“Everything alright?” Di Matteo asked, sensing the unease.

“Couldn’t be better. I am marrying her.”

The volume in the room dropped like bricks in the Hudson. Di Matteo’s face darkened and a woman’s breath hitched. The mamma, I think. Nico had a cold smile on his lips and Stefano was chuckling softly. What? All because I pointed at the pink cloud at the window sill?

CHAPTER FOUR

DARIA

The heaviness of silence reached me beyond the Break Free of Ariana Grande. My chest clogged as if something nasty blocked my airways. My fingers stopped tapping, and my eyes skittered across the room. Ariana droned, words about dying alive. Even as the entire room watched me like I was about to, even as I caught Mamma’s face red-lined with fury. My eyes coasted past to catch the two men in the doorway. My brother’s dark face and the other who had his finger pointed at me. What the hell had happened?

Movement orchestrated like a fast-forward after a pause. Mamma stalked over to me, yanked me to my feet, and pulled me up the stairs. She was so harsh that one stiletto twisted off my ankle. Half-way up, my glance jittered to the doorway. Vitale was striding to his office while the Don of New York stood and stared at me like I was the vice to his evil.

Mamma pulled me into my room and threw me onto the bed. There was a mad fury in her eyes that I’d never seen before. “Are you happy now?” she shrieked in my face before pushing off.

I sprang off the bed. I’d made my mamma mad too many times to count on one hand. But she’d never been this mad. Not even when I’d left the gas burner on and gone on my merry way.

“Mamma, I don’t know—” I didn’t really know what I was going to say. I only knew that Mamma whipped around and smacked me across the face for the very first time in my life. I stumbled back, and my breath left me in a whoosh. Shock bristled through my skin as my hand flew to my cheek. I wasn’t sure who was more shocked: me, Mamma, or Orietta standing near the doorway. The sound of skin hitting skin still echoed in the room, or perhaps it was just that my ear was ringing while Burn by Ellie Goulding played around my neck.

Mamma rushed towards me and snuffed my face in her chest. Her voice shook even from within the depth of her bosom. “Mi dispiace, tesoro mio. Mi dispiace.”

Confusion and pain marred my vision. I jerked away and fell to the bed, holding my hot cheek in my palm. Mamma dropped down next to me and wiped my tears away with fingers that teetered. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.

“This is why I told you to go away. Why couldn’t you listen?”

Orietta’s face darkened as she stepped into the room. Mamma looked at her as if noticing her for the first time. “What did he tell you?”

Orietta only shrugged her shoulders.

“He must have told you something,” Mamma muttered almost to herself. “We must set this right.” She stood up with determination in every bone of her body.

Confusion fuelled my words. “Set what right, Mamma?”

She whipped around, and I took a step back. Her eyes landed on my headphones around my neck. “Set what right?” She yanked the headphones off as if they were a rattle snake wrapped around my neck and snapped them in two. Medda! When had she gained such strength? “He wants to marry you now,” she screamed in my face.

What the minchia?

My eyes shot to Orietta for some kind of explanation. Any kind of explanation. But she only stood there with her lips in a tight line. I wasn’t sure if she was displeased or pleased about the situation. Displeased, I think.

“But I don’t want to marry that cuinnutu!” I muttered, sinking to my bed again. Just like that, he went from a future brother-in-law to an asshole like a ride in a theme park. It was already bad enough that he came for my sister, and then he changed his mind?

“It doesn’t matter what you want,” Orietta said tightly.

I looked at her. She was hurt. Of course, she was. What he did was rejection ten point zero, whatever his reason was. I needed to set this right so he would marry her.

I jerked upright and strode towards the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Mamma snapped.

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