“Don Vicari – may I speak to my brother in private?”Niccolo asked. I could hear the fear in his voice.

“No,” Vicari growled as he stared at me hatefully.

I stared right back at him. “I don’t want to marry your daughter. You know that. And she doesn’t want to marry me.”

Come on, you shithead – come on, be a proud motherfucker and say that if I don’t want your daughter, then me and my family can go fuck ourselves. COME ON –

But he just stared at me in silence.

Niccolo was panicking.“Don Vicari – ”

“Shut up,consigliere,”Vicari snarled.

That’s it, you prick – insult my brother!

Piss him off so bad he’s GUARANTEED to fuck you over if you don’t let me out of the deal!

But Niccolo kept quiet, much to my surprise.

Don Vicari stared at me in silence for another moment, then said coldly, “So you don’t want to marry my daughter.”

“She’s a nice person. I like her. But I don’t want to marry her. And she definitely doesn’t want to marry me.”

“And you know this how?”

“Because she told me.”

Don Vicari gave me that blood-curdling smile. “Too… fucking… bad.”

I gripped the arms of my chair in anger, but before I could say anything –

“Your brothers made a deal with me,” Vicari continued. “They don’t get to back out now just because the deal became less favorable for them since they signed.”

“They never signed shit,” I snarled.

“They made an oath. That’s more binding than any piece of paper.”

“Inever got a say.”

“Like I said before:too… fucking… bad.I arranged this marriage for business reasons. Reasons that have nothing to do with my daughter’s happiness. In fact, I couldn’t give ashitabout my daughter. She’s a means to an end to get what I want. I care even less aboutyou.”

I stared at him with complete hatred –

But at least the cards were all on the table now.

No more bullshit.

“So if you want out of the deal,consigliere,”Don Vicari said mockingly to the phone, “fine – but you’re going to be down one brother after I put a bullet in this one’s head.”

I wanted to kill him –

I wanted to leap across the desk and fucking gouge his eyes out –

“The wedding will proceed as planned,”Niccolo said coldly.

I stared at the phone in horror. “Nic – ”

“Valentino, when I left you in Catania, I told you to do your duty to your family. THIS IS NOT DOING YOUR DUTY TO YOUR FAMILY.”