Page 48 of Veiled Vows

“Oh my God.” My mother bursts into tears and pulls my knuckles against her lips. “Oh my poor darling.”

“I’m okay,” I insist gently. “Really, Roman saved me.”

“Alto is behind this?” Enzo approaches me and grasps my shoulder, turning me to face him. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“But we are not at peace with the Yakuza yet. How can you be so sure?”

“Roman knew. And that’s how he knew to look for me. You know the Yakuza and the Gattis have had agreements in the past, so it’s not unheard of.”

“But are you sure it was Alto?” His grip tightens on my shoulder. “Can you prove it?” For a moment, he looks gleeful. Like the attempt on my life is the spark he’s been looking for to make a move or take some kind of action. But if he does, then the work I’ve been putting in with Roman to keep all dangerous eyes off us goes up in smoke.

“No,” I say honestly. “I can’t prove it. But Roman is?—”

“This is your fault!”

I look at my mother, expecting to see her glaring at me preparing to tell me this is all my fault for putting myself in harm’s way but instead, she glares at Enzo.

“You’re putting our only baby in danger with this stupid wedding. I don’t care what Alto’s reasonings are. I don’t care if it was the Yakuza. What I care about is you ignited a partnership with terrible people, people who have hurt and harmed us in the past, and you don’t care about any of that because it’s getting you what you really want!”

My eyes lock with my father’s for a brief second and my heart skips a beat. This marriage was my idea and we both know it. Even though in public he took credit for the idea, and he’s been drinking up the success from our end, we both know who the real culprit is. I expect him to say as much, but he turns away from both of us.

“You don’t understand, my dear. This marriage is going to fix all of our problems.”

“How!” Mom stands and brushes past me. “Look at your daughter! Someone tried to kill her.”

“And would have succeeded if not for the very man she’s engaged to,” Enzo snaps, spinning to face Bianca. “Don’t you see that the very thing you are against is what saved her?”

“She wouldn’t have been in any danger in thefirstplace if you weren’t so obsessed with getting back trading routes we haven’t needed for ten years! We’re doing fine, and instead of pursuing real peace, you’re acting like a tyrant and putting all of us in danger. Look at your daughter! Look at her beautiful face!” Bianca glances at me and her face twists as more tears well in her eyes.

“Mom, I’m fine. I promise.” The instinct to defuse the situation swells, but this isn’t the first argument like this that I’ve witnessed.

Growing up, my mother’s soft heart often had her looking for a more peaceful solution to things, if she paid attention at all. To my father’s credit, he’s made tough decisions to keep this family going, and if we worked with my mother’s ideals, there wouldn’t be much of a family left. She seeks to avoid conflict at every opportunity, which doesn’t work in a world where conflict is the only way to keep the hyenas at bay.

“Call it off.” She looks between me and my father. “This isn’t worth it. A wedding to a monster who will treat her God knows how. Allying with a terrible family that does terrible things like this!” She throws one hand out toward me. “Just give them what they want, Enzo and leave them be. I can’t take this!”

“Bianca!” He grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her once. “Listen to yourself! They took our daughter from us all those years ago to trick us into giving up a large portion of our business. I want itback, do you hear me? I want it back because good faith gets us nowhere, and don’t you see? Merging with them means we can finally stomp them out because we are thebigger dog, and then all the fancy parties you cry about wanting to go to will be so eager to invite us because we will be the strongest weapons dealers within a hundred miles. People will flock to us, don’t you see?”

“Is that worth my baby getting hurt?” She shrugs him off and turns away. “I hate you, Enzo. I do. All you see is that, while I’m left alone worried all night about the safety of our child because someone tried to take her from me.Again.”

My lips part but the words don’t come. Guilt swells like a balloon just below my ribs and I want to reach out to her, but this song and dance is so familiar. Mom kicks up a fuss like this and they argue, then they make up and she gets something huge as an apology. If she wasn’t so floaty all the time, I’d suspect it was intentional.

“I’m okay,” I say instead. “Roman kept me safe.”

“And who will keep you safe from him, hmm?” She shakes her head, shrugging off Enzo’s attempt to comfort her. “If you weren’t spending time with him, you wouldn’t even be a target for Alto!”

We can’t know that.

In her mind I suspect she views the wedding as suddenly putting a target on me, but my father and I know that’s not true. The target has always been there. It exists on all of us because we’re Mafia, and all it takes is someone to finally decide to pull the trigger to bring all of this down.

“Bianca…” Enzo tries to touch her again, and this time she lets him. “You have to see how good this is for us as a family. For the business and revenge.”

“I don’t care about revenge, I care about our daughter!”

I step out of the room before the argument can reignite and head upstairs. This is my fault. Should I tell them about the Mancinis? At this point that will surely only make things worse. My mother admires that family greatly and will be heartbrokento learn they wanted rid of us, and my father’s pride will make him target them after he’s taken care of the Gattis.

It will make everything so much worse, so I have to keep it to myself. For my sake and for Roman’s.

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