Page 288 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

And one that would never come true.

But it was all I had.

I didn’t sleep – not one wink.

I just lay in bed and cried.

At some point in the middle of the night, though, I started thinking about things Alessandra had said.

I guess a part of you will be there.

Maybe that’s grounds for stopping the wedding!

Some kind of disaster so it can’t happen.

Maybe it was my exhaustion…

Maybe I’d gone insane from sorrow…

Or maybe after what I’d done in the chapel, a demon got hold of me.

But I began to realizeIcould stop the wedding all by myself.

I wouldn’t ‘out’ Isabella – there was no way I would do that –

But there was something else I could do that would stop everything in its tracks.

I was raised Catholic, but I’d been to a couple of Protestant weddings – and it had always shocked me when the priest (or preacher, or whatever Protestants called them) said,If anyone present knows of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.

I’d always looked around, holding my breath to see if anybody said anything.

My Protestant friends were kind of wild, so there was always a chance –

But nobody ever spoke up.

But there’s always a first time,I thought excitedly.

The only problem was that Catholic priests never said the part about ‘If anyone knows of any reason.’

Maybe it’s time they did,I thought grimly.

Or I can just say it my own fuckin’ self.

When the morning light peeked through the window, I hopped out of bed.

I had to get ready to go to a wedding.

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Valentino

Ididn’t go down to breakfast. I would have thrown up anything I tried to eat.

Nobody bothered me until 11 AM when a foot soldier knocked on my door. “The boss wants to see you in his study.”

I shuffled downstairs to see what the Devil had to say.

Don Vicari looked up at me angrily when I walked in –

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