Page 72 of DeLucas After Dark

“What’s going on here?” I ask, looking from my best friends to my mother for an explanation.

“What’s going on is that Marco was determined that he’s marrying you today. He’s not letting anything oranyonestop him,” Rashida says with a pointed look at my mother.

“Don’t get fresh, young girl,” Mommy says, slicking a hand over her sleek, grey-haired updo.

“This man has spent the last two months planning this day for you. He’s pulled in Rashida and me to help Nora with the details and took your notebook that you’d been writing your thoughts and ideas in to give us all a guideline,” Toya says.

Laughing, I say, “I’m gonna kick his.…” I trail off when I see my mother glaring at me.

“He knows that I’ve been looking for that journal everywhere! And he had it all this time?”

“He said that he wanted to be as stress-free as possible for you so that the only thing you had to do was show up and say I do,” Rashida explains.

“Mommy, how did you come to be here? You don’t like him, and neither does Daddy. Is he here?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Your father is here. As a matter of fact, he’s the reason that I’m here. He put his foot down and said enough was enough. We didn’t have to like Marco, but you will always be our baby girl, and you’ve done nothing to lose our support except love the wrong man.”

“He’s the right man…the only man for me.”

She steps closer and takes my face in her hands. Wiping the tears from my eyes, her face crinkles like she’s fighting back the tears. “I’ve been a foolish old woman. I thought maybe if we held out, you would come to your senses and give up this silliness and not do something so reckless as marry the mafia.”

I roll my eyes.

“But,” she continues, “What I couldn’t see was that your father’s and my actions were hurting you more. Do you know Marco tricked us into meeting him for brunch Thursday morning?”

I frown. “I knew that he had a brunch, but I thought it was for business.”

“Yeah, well, he handled business, all right,” my mother says, looking none too pleased. “He gave your father and me an ultimatum about being here for you this day and for the holidays. Now, the only thing you need to do is let Champion fix your face and hair, get yourself into this beautiful dress, and see what this man has planned for you.”

“This is a lot,” I say, dropping down on my bed.

“That’s fine. I can work with a lot, but I don’t have a lot of time, so all I need to know is…are you marrying the man or not?” Champion asks.

I look at my friends and mother, and I can tell they’re all holding their breaths. They can’t imagine what it might be like to tell Marco DeLuca no.

“I blamed Marco for messing up your wedding to Kenneth. From all accounts, you were going through with the ceremony until Marco showed up at your dressing room just minutes before you were to walk down that aisle. It took a lot of courage for him to do what he did, but I didn’t respect him. He could have chosen any day to tell you how he felt, and I was so pissed at you and him for a long time after that. I didn’t understand how I could raise a daughter to be so foolish that she’d mess up a thing with a good man.”

“So, you’ve been punishing me all this time.”

“I have. I should have encouraged you to slow things down. But here you are in another relationship with another man who was married when you were involved with him the first time. There’s no way that I can see you not getting hurt.”

“Mommy, I understand that. But if I’m going to be hurt, why not just be here to wipe my tears if it happens rather than being the one to contribute to that hurt?”

She grabs my face, pulls me in and kisses my forehead. “You’re right, sweetheart. Seeing Marco making the demands and concessions that he made for us to be here today lets me know that he loves you. Having your friends coordinate with his PA to make this day come true lets me know that he wants the world for you. He wants you to be happy.”

“He does, and he works at it all the time.”

“I can’t say that it’s easy to ignore that he’s in the mafia, or at least his family is,” she says.

I won’t address that because whatever she wants to think to make it easier to deal with, I’ll let her have it.

“But I have chosen to love my daughter in spite of what things appear to be. I don’t want to miss out on any more of your life. Your father and I decided that if we missed this, we might never forgive ourselves.”

I wrap my arms around my mother and squeeze her to me before turning my head and kissing her cheek.

“I love you, Mommy.”

“Love you, too, Piper.”

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