Page 64 of Savage Claim

I was standing in front of the long mirror in Amalia’s room, wearing a soft floral maxi-dress, turning this way and that to study myself. “I look so pregnant.”

Amalia snorted. “Youarepregnant,idiota.” She soothed her hands over my hair, which hung down and swept my shoulders. “Do you want me to pin this up? It looks pretty when it’s loose like this.”

I studied my face. Leaving the hair down would keep my facial scars covered for the most part. “Pull up the front,” I decided.

“Why would you do that?” Gemma asked from behind us. My sister was spread out on Amalia and Elio’s bed, still in her pajamas. She hadn’t offered to help with anything, but she wasn’t hiding in her room behind a locked door either. I was trying to see it as a positive sign.

“Lorenzo doesn’t like when I hide my scars on purpose.”

Gemma’s face scrunched at the mention of his name. “If it bothers you, do what you want. Who cares what he thinks?”

I glanced back at her through the mirror and tried to smile. “I do,” I said lightly. “I mean, I’m marrying him today.”

She scoffed. “I can’t for the life of me figure out why.”

It was a sentiment that she had shared with me several times over the last few days, and I had done my best to ignore her, but it was getting harder to do. Especially since the wedding was in a little over an hour. “You don’t have to figure it out,” I snarked. “I already have.”

“Gemma,” Amalia said, even as she started to gather the front strands of hair out of my face, “why don’t you go get ready?”

Gemma cut her eyes to Amalia. “Why would I?” she asked.

“Gem, please,” I said. “The ceremony is going to start soon.”

“So?” she asked mulishly. “I’m not going.”

Both Amalia and I turned to look at her. “You’re not?” I asked. It wasn’t an understatement to say that Gemma had been a pain in the ass, but I had done everything that I could to give her grace. I knew that she was traumatized, and it could be years before she began clawing her way out of it. But the idea of getting married without my sister standing beside me hurt in a way that was genuinely surprising. “You can’t even pretend to be happy for me for twenty minutes?”

Gemma’s face was grim. “No,” she said. “I can’t support what you’re doing.”

Amalia’s good-natured smile slipped from her face. It was probably the scariest expression I had ever seen on her. “Youcan’tsupport her?”

“Not when she’s marrying a monster.”

My nails dug into the palms of my hands. “I love him.”

Gemma stood up. “You’re going to end up like Mom,” she said and stomped out of the room.

A sob wrenched from my throat. I told my feet to go after her, beg her to understand, but Amalia caught me before I could even budge an inch. She forced me to look her in the face. “Do you want me to stall so that you can go talk to your sister, or do you want to finish getting ready?”

“I want to get ready,” I said, no hesitation.

“Okay,” Amalia said. “Let’s get you ready.”

She spent the next thirty or so minutes fussing with my hair and applying a small amount of makeup to my face, though she made it light so that my silver webbing of scars still showed. When itwas time to head outside, we walked by Gemma’s closed door. My heart banged against my ribs, but I didn’t slow down.

Gemma would come to realize that she missed out on something important to me, and a part of me hoped that she would regret it. Despite us living under the same roof for the first time in years, I had never felt so far away from her.

But today wasn’t about that, and when Amalia and I stepped out in the sunshine, and I saw Lorenzo waiting for me under the trees, a smile spread so widely across my face that it actually hurt a little.

Amalia’s grip loosened, but I held on to her harder. “Stand with me?” I asked her.

Our fingers threaded together. “Of course,” she promised. “I’ve got you.”

CHAPTER 41

Lorenzo

“Ido,” I said, staring into Isabella’s face. She had never looked more beautiful with the sunshine shimmering through the trees, highlighting the gold that ran through her hair.

---