Page 43 of Beautiful Revenge

He holds up his gun. “This will grant us permission.”

Finn’s hold on my arm is a tight vise that I know I will not be able to escape from as we head up the church’s front steps. People walking by shout out their congratulations and I have to push down the urge to scream at them to shut up.

Finn is taking everything from me. My agency. My ability to find a good match. Taking love from me. I will never have it with him. He’s robbing me of my life.

We enter the church and Finn saunters in like he owns the place, ignoring the people in the pews praying. A priest stands at the end of the aisle, reading from the bible.

“We’d like to get married,” Finn says, his voice echoing in the large chamber.

The priest frowns and looks up. “I’m right in the middle of a sermon.”

“You see, Father, I don’t give a fuck. You’re going to marry me to this girl right now. As you can see, she’s all dressed in her finest to get married. You will grant us this.”

“Normally I discuss plans to marry someone in my church before the wedding day. We go over a schedule. I need to make sure that you’re catholic.”

“We’re catholic. Now marry us.” He says it so dismissively. I want to crawl under one of these pews and hide from Finn forever.

“That’s not how this works.”

“Ok then.” Finn pulls out his gun, making people in the church scream and run for the exit. “Will this make you marry us? I will shoot you, Father, if you don’t.”

“I’m, I’m calling the police,” he stutters, running towards a room at the back but Finn fires his gun into the air, making everyone drop to their stomachs.

“You won’t be calling anyone, Father. Get back on your feet and marry me and my fiancée and we’ll be out of your hair. No one has to get hurt. Simple as that.”

“This isn’t right.”

Finn scoffs. “Do I look like a man who does the right thing? Now get up.” He grabs the priest by his robes and jerks him to his feet. “Marry us. Everyone else is free to leave. For once, I’m not in the mood to go on a killing spree.”

Everyone else in the church runs away without hesitation, leaving behind me, Finn, and the priest. It feels like the start of a bad joke but this is my real life.

Finn nods at the priest. “Marry us.”

With trembling fingers, he grabs his bible. “Uh, all right. But you should know that this is not allowed under the eyes of the Lord. He will punish you for this. Your marriage will not be seen as real.”

“Father, I have done things that I know will make me end up in jail. And I suspect the same of you. Diddle any choirboys lately, Father?”

He gasps. “How dare you accuse me of such things.”

I don’t say a word. I’m hoping someone is calling the police right now and they’ll show up and kill Finn and I won’t have to actually marry him.

I just hope I won’t end up in jail myself. Dante will be able to get me out. Dante can do anything.

“Just marry us,” Finn growls.

The priest finally starts to recite the typical marriage vows I’ve heard from the countless weddings I’ve attended over the years. When you’re a part of the Mafia, you’ve been to a lot of weddings. So many arranged marriages. So many political alliances.

I just never thought my own wedding day would look like this.

When we get to the vows, Finn grabs my hands and forces me to look at him.

“Do you…” The priest hesitates. “What is your name?”

“Finn Murphy.”

“And the girl?”

“Aria Romano,” Finn answers for me. I’m not sure I can speak even if I wanted to. None of this is romantic. None of this is what I deserve. This feels like a cheap back door wedding that happens when you end up pregnant.

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