Page 309 of Mafia Kings: Valentino

I couldn’t go out there with my heart exposed and have him say,You’re embarrassing me.

I don’t want you here.

LEAVE.

When he first told me about the arranged marriage and left for Sicily, it nearly killed me.

And when I walked out of the chapel yesterday,thathad almost finished the job.

I couldn’t stand in front of him and play the fool again.

I loved him…

But it was obvious he didn’t love me back.

Not enough, anyway.

And so I stayed there in the confessional booth, weeping for the love I’d lost…

The man I’d never get to marry…

And the fact that he’d never really loved me at all.

115

Valentino

Iwas standing there, lost in a sea of self-hatred, when suddenly everything got very quiet.

I glanced at Isabella.

She was staring at me in fright.

Behind her, Ludavica’s eyes were wide as saucers.

I looked at the priest.

He had his eyes fixed on me expectantly like I was supposed to say something.

I could feel the tension in the chapel –

Not just from the priest and Isabella but everybody in the audience.

Dario…

Niccolo…

Don Vicari.

Shit.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “Could you say that again?”

The priest looked annoyed. “I said, ‘Have you, Valentino Rosolini, come here to enter into marriage with Isabella Vicari, without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?’”

I stared at him –

But all I could think of was Cat.

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