Page 29 of My Solemn Vow
God, I hope Valor Cavanagh loves his daughter. At least enough to spare the person who saved her.
“Okay, so tell me everything.” Leticia slaps my side with the back of her hand.
It takes me a whole ten minutes to relay the two-minute interaction with Berto and the three-minute communication with the Cavanaghs back to her because Leticia asks a million questions.
“Well... I guess we should get dinner out of the way. Mamma already has a dress on order for you. It’s waiting on tailoring.” Leticia sighs.
“Good, I won’t have to shop then.” I let out a massive sigh to match.
If Francesca is ordering a dress, it would be because Gregorio told her to.
It won’t be much longer, and Leticia will have a marriage arranged for her. There will be a long engagement and a big fanfare leading up to a full weekend of events beyond a traditional wedding. Leticia is every bit ready to be the good Mafia wife. She’s been poised to please. Whereas, deep down, I’ve always known that however I ended up married, I wouldn’t be fawned over like some Italian Mafia princess. Leticia has hundreds of inspirations tagged away in her internet pin board, and her sliding off the bed and straightening her dress nervously is more than a tick. She’s itching to do something for this wedding now that she knows what’s happening.
“I’m getting you the something old, something new,something borrowed, and something blue. So that’ll be covered. It’s amazing how fast this all moves.”
I get up off my side and shake out my dress but keep my eyes on her. I don’t know how to tell her that it doesn’t matter. None of this really makes any difference to me.
Her eyes well with tears, and her bottom lip wobbles. “I wonder where you’ll live. Whoever it is probably won’t let you work. Oh... no. What will we do? I won’t get to see you every day. I just got you back.”
I want to comfort her and tell her that it’ll be okay. That I’ll be fine. But I won’t lie to her, and it’s too easy to get lost spiraling into the unknown. If I get soft and give into fear, then Berto and Gregorio win.
Neither Leticia’s tears, quivering lips, fallen shoulders, nor her arms wrapping around her middle break my resolve. She so easily shows all the feelings I wear guarded close to my heart.
Briskly, I round the bed and pull her into a hug, trying to protect her. I give up being honest. I can’t let her be this afraid.Ignorance is bliss. Spare her feelings.“It’ll be okay. They won’t keep us apart. I’ll call you all the time.”
“Promise?” she whines into my shoulder.
I squeeze, wobbling us back and forth. “Besides, it’s me they’re marrying off, not you. I’ll get married to an underling who’s happy to be considered important enough to be married off. No one will want the woman who called the truce. He’ll be easy to manage. Nothing will change between us at all.”
14
VALOR
THE WEDDING
“You expect me to what? Fuckin’ bring an enemy whore into my bed, into my home, and let her play mother to my daughter?” I snap at my father, my teeth clicking with the force.
Rage stews, swirling up my spine. My muscles coil and strain, pushing to shift to the form better suited for this much conflict. Here and now, I’d rather start a war than live in love.
I pace inside the small space by the church confessionals, fists clenching and unclenching, as I think about the ridiculous differences between me and a D’Medici. The most notable being how breakable she’ll be. “She’s a goddamn human.”
“Ahem.” Father Michael clears his throat.
“Sorry, Father,” I growl, trying to remember my language. At least to keep the higher power out of it, for his sake.
The collar of my white dress shirt is too tight. I want to unbutton it. I adjust the dark green tie, but it’s not enough.No, I want to be in my other shape. The messier and more destructive one.
When I married Holly, I promised her the usual ‘until death do us part,’ but it wasn’t supposed to be such a short time frame. It wasn’t supposed to be months after our little girl was born.
In the seven years I’ve grieved, I accepted that a new wife was eventually in the cards for me. But clenched fist, fangs fully bared, and squaring up with my father, I’m ready to fight for my new wife to be anyone but a fuckin’ D’Medici.
I shrug out of my suit jacket. My mother having picked out the most luxurious one I have, should have been an early indicator of the trouble to come. Silver cufflinks, dark green tie rather than black, and she bought me new shoes.I should have fucking known. How did I accept that this was only Sean’s funeral?I’ll blame the jet lag and being too trusting of my parents. Jack didn’t even lie to me because all I asked him as I changed in the back of the SUV was where we were headed. We are, in fact, at the church.Is it a lie through omission?I snarl.
We’ll put him in his place.My wolf decides.
The responsibility of being alpha wasn’t something I was ready to ascend to, but I can best my father and stop this. I can control my own fate. The memory of the taste of blood floods my mouth.
We can take his place.My wolf thinks too closely about killing my father, and I pause.
