“In the morning, my father woke me up an hour before I needed to be and ordered me to clean it up. Turns out, he had put mercury in my food. It was his way of telling me never to be late again. It worked. I never was late after that.” I looked down at the back of her head and frowned at myself. “I really don’t know why I’m telling you this. Hell, I would never tell you if you could understand. I guess… If you could understand me, it would be my way of telling you that just as your husband made you into the strong woman you are today, my father also made me the woman I am today. If I love someone, I don’t fight fairly. And I do love your son, Mrs. Belatoni, and there’s not a person on earth who could split me apart from him. Not even you.”
I noticed that she had stopped, so I looked down and found she was still crouched at my feet. But, she wasn’t moving. At first, I didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe she wasn’t well or something.
I was about to call out her name, when she suddenly spoke. “Finito,” she whispered before she quickly scattered out the door.
“Well, that was weird,” I said to no one. At least I understood what “finito” meant.
As I shook off the exchange, I walked up to the mirror to have a look. There were still three hours to go before the wedding, but I didn’t want to take the dress off. It made me feel beautiful.
As I positioned myself in front of the mirror, I sighed when I saw the image staring back at me. My dress was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and my hair was a surprise too. I looked like a completely different woman with it up in a bun. Daniella had also made sure that a couple of cheeky curls dangled at just the right position next to my face.
“Wow. Stunning… Absolutely stunning.”
I looked into the mirror towards the door and saw Chiara standing there. “I know. I don’t want to take it off.”
Chiara walked through the door and tsked at me. “Na-ah. You have to. We can’t increase the risk of it getting dirty. You can put it back on no more than an hour before the wedding.”
I groaned, but I did as I was told. Otherwise, I was quite sure I would never hear the end of it. Once I was dressed in normal clothes, we went downstairs for something to eat. I was worried that Luca would see me, but I was reassured that he was at the annexe getting ready, and that was where he would stay until it was time.
As we sat there, eating and chatting to pass the time, hoards of people—some of whom I had met and some I hadn’t—were rushing in and out the house with flowers, food, and balloons. It was a mass of craziness. The amount of food being brought in was enough to feed the five thousand. How they kept in great shape was anyone’s guess.
“Come with me,” Chiara said, tugging at my arm. I noticed she had a huge, impish grin on her face. I couldn’t help smiling back.
“What are you up to?”
She pulled at my arm again. “You’ll see.”
I followed her out of the kitchen and into the study where there was a mass of balloons and a helium bottle. Without saying a word, Chiara grabbed one of the deflated balloons and placed it over the helium bottle. She pumped it full of helium and placed it in her mouth to inhale.
“Hello, Clara,” she said in a real squeaky voice.
Both of us ended up in a fit of giggles. “Let me have a try,” I requested, walking up to her with my hand out. She let me have the balloon and I inhaled. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled…” I couldn’t finish as the giggles came out of me before I could. “We sound like chipmunks.” I laughed, and we both giggled harder.
The sound of someone’s voice stopped us in our tracks. Sophia was there, and she said something in Italian. Chiara nodded and looked at me. “It’s time to get you ready.”
A flurry of butterflies entered my stomach at the thought that I was about to become someone’s wife in just under an hour. “Okay,” I whispered, looking nervous.
Chiara grabbed my hand. “You’ll be fine.”
I nodded and followed Chiara out of the study and up towards the bedroom. I got dressed, and again, Chiara and Daniella were fussing around me. Once ready, I went downstairs and out towards the garden at the side of the house. It was the only place where there weren’t hoards of people. I excused myself, asking for a few minutes on my own. I needed to take deep breaths and work my way up to it. I was sure as anything that I wanted to be married to Luca with everything I had, but I was still nervous at the prospect of becoming someone’s wife for the first time ever.
As I paced back and forth, something caught the corner of my eye. I looked in the direction towards the parking lot and found Isabella charging towards me.
My face scowled. “Oooh no. No way in hell!” I shouted. I wasn’t about to let her of all people interrupt my wedding day. She had her chance, and now she could disappear right back into the hole from where she had come. I wasn’t about to let her spoil it.
As I stalked towards her, she smiled, and I noticed then that a couple of guards had started chasing after her. They were a little too late, but I was actually glad that they hadn’t caught her before I got a chance to have my say. I kind of got the feeling from our last meeting that she felt she had one over on me. Little did she know that I wasn’t the timid little woman, and she certainly was about to learn that.
As I got closer to her, so did the guards. I put my hand up to tell them to stop, making Isabella smile. “I am just here to congratulate…”
I didn’t let her finish. I wiped that smug look off her face with the hardest right hook I had ever given. Not only did it shock the hell out of her, but it also shocked the guards.
As I caught the smiles on all their faces, I shook my hand of the pain and looked down at Isabella’s crumpled state on the floor. She certainly didn’t look pristine now with her bloody nose and misshapen hair.
“Whatever you’ve come to say, I don’t want to hear it. You had your chance to suck the life out of Luca, and it fell back in your face. I’m the one standing in place now, and I’m the one who will give something to Luca that you could never give: my love and respect. Now, if you don’t mind, I have the love of my life to marry.” I nodded my head and motioned to the guards. “Please remove this filth from Sophia’s land.” They made a move to grab her, so I turned my back to walk towards the kitchen when I stopped dead in my tracks. Sophia was standing there staring. There was no expression, just a stare. How long had she been standing there for?
Great! If she didn’t hate me before, she would certainly hate me now. All I did was prove to her that some rotten, violent Irish woman was about to marry her son.
I inwardly groaned, and in my panic, I was about to defend my actions. In the end, I shook my head. “Oh, what fucking use is it anyway? You’ll never understand.” I made a move to walk past her, but she stopped me in my tracks.
In my shock, Sophia pulled me in for a hug and kissed both my cheeks. “Welcome to the family,” she said in perfect English.
I gasped. “You speak English?”
She saw my shocked face and smiled. “I was in prison for fourteen years. What else was I supposed to do?”
“But all this time?” I protested.
Sophia cupped my face with her hand. “I know you’re Irish, and I can forgive you for that. You will make a good wife for my Luca. And a good daughter for me.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “Thank you.”
She patted my cheek. “You’re welcome. And I am proud and happy to hear that my son can satisfy you in the bedroom. It just means I get to have lots of healthy and happy grandchildren.” With that, she smiled at the shock on my face, patted my cheek again, and walked off without another word.
“Holy shit!”
At first, I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot in shock. Did that just happen? As I was thinking that, I recounted all the things I had said to her, including my story about what my father did. I had never told a soul about that incident. I had bared it to Sophia while under the impression that she couldn’t understand me.
Sh
it! What did she think of me? My face reddened when I recalled all that I had said yesterday. I buried my head in my hands. “Oh, God,” I mumbled. I told Sophia that he had the biggest cock I had ever seen in my life and that he was the master of sex. Jeez, this couldn’t get any more embarrassing than it already was. How was I going to face her now?
“Clara, are you okay?”
My head snapped up to find Chiara staring at me with a worried frown. “I’m fine.” I laughed hysterically and started pacing. “Why didn’t you tell me that your mother could speak English?”
Chiara frowned. “What are you talking about? My mother can’t speak English.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Oh, yes, she can.”
She watched as I paced. “Why are you pacing like that? Did you say something to her?”
I nodded. “Oh, yes. I did more than say something to her. I practically gave her a blow-by-blow description of what Luca was like in bed.” Chiara burst out laughing. “It’s not funny.”
She laughed harder. “Oh, yes, it is.”
“How am I going to face her now?”
She walked up to me and held me still. “You will face her like you have been facing her since yesterday. With your head held high. My mother has always been a strong woman, and she needs to have another strong woman stand up to her at times. I know she hasn’t been too kind to you since you got here.”
I calmed a little, remembering what she had said. “She kissed me and welcomed me to the family.”
Chiara’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s a change from yesterday. This is good. Very good, in fact.” She frowned, turning her head away. “I can’t understand why she didn’t tell me she had learned English.”
“She said she learnt it in prison. She had very little else to do.”
She sighed, looking a little sad. “I guess that makes sense.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “You must have missed her. You were so young.”
She looked me in the eyes with a smile. “I was, but I had my grandmother to look after me. By the time she died, I was already an adult and able to look after myself. Yes, it was hard, but I could never say I didn’t get the love a child deserved while being brought up. My family is my life. We take care of each other … no matter what.”
The thought made me happy. “I like that.”
She saw my expression and pulled me in for a hug. “Luca told me you didn’t have the best parents growing up. But now, you have us. We’re your family now.”
I smiled gently at her. “Thank you. That is kind. Like you, though, I had someone who took care of me.” The thought of my aunt saddened me. I was about to get married, and she wasn’t here to witness it.
She smiled cheekily at me. “Ah. That would be Aunt Trudy, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting just now.”
I gasped. “What? She’s here?”
Chiara nodded. “Yep. Luca had her flown in, so she could see you getting married. She’s just arrived, and she’s desperate to see you. I came here to find you and let you know.”
“Where is she?”
Chiara smiled at my beaming face. “She’s in the kitchen.”
I quickly ran around the house and towards the kitchen door. Chiara was behind me, giggling as I went.
When I got to the kitchen, I found Trudy and Giuseppe talking. She was blushing at something he had said, and I almost rolled my eyes. Even Trudy wasn’t immune to the Belatoni charm.
I was about to say something to her, when she turned to look my way. When she did, she gasped and threw her hand over her mouth with a smile. Tears started to well in her eyes, as she got up from her chair and started walking towards me. “Oh, Clara. Look at you.” She perused me from the bottom of my dress and then back up to my face. “You look absolutely beautiful.”
“I thought you couldn’t get out of jury—”
“I think you already know by now that Luca has a certain way of making people bend to his will.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Of course.” I was sure there was someone he knew he could bribe in the jury offices. I shook my head and pulled her in for a hug. “Thank you for coming.”
She patted my back. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” She pulled away in a flurry towards her bag. “Let me get a picture.” She wiped her eyes, digging out her phone.
“Shall we go into the garden?” Giuseppe suggested.
Trudy nodded. “That would be perfect.”
The four of us trailed into the garden where Trudy started clicking away. After a couple of minutes of that, Alessandro came over to us. He wolf-whistled in my direction. “Wow! The future Mrs. Belatoni looks hot.”
I blushed and smacked his arm. “Oh, shut up, pretty boy.”
He looked disgruntled. “Pretty boy? And here I was thinking I could take you down the aisle.” He raised an eyebrow towards me.
“You would do that?” I asked in shock. Things had been so hectic lately that the very important issue of who was going to take me down the aisle hadn’t even come up.
“It’s only an offer. If you would prefer someone else, I won’t be offended.” He feigned a pout, making me laugh.
“Aww. How can I say no when the pretty boy gets all upset?”
Alessandro shook his head. “Seriously. Stop it with the pretty boy.”
I started laughing, but soon my laughter stopped when Tony ran up to us and said, “Everything’s ready.” He turned to me. “Your future husband is waiting for you.”
I nodded my head and took in a deep breath. Alessandro offered me his arm and smiled at me. The smile somewhat put me at ease, but my nerves didn’t completely dissipate.
“Are you ready?” Alessandro asked.
I took his arm and nodded. “Ready.”
Trudy took that moment to grab my arm and pull me in for a last-minute hug. “You really look beautiful. Luca is a very lucky man.”
“That he is,” Alessandro agreed. “He’s also a very strong man. It would definitely take one to handle you.”
He started laughing, and I gasped. “What on earth is that supposed to mean?”
He shook his head, still laughing. “Nothing. You look beautiful.”
“Pffft,” I said in return. “I’m going to tell Luca you said that.”
His eyes widened, and he actually looked scared. “Please don’t.”
I smiled. “I thought so.”
“Are we going?” Tony urged.
I nodded. “Let’s do this.” I looked towards the stairs and noticed Belinda and Mia dutifully waiting in their rose chiffon dresses with flowers in their hands. They looked simply beautiful.
As I approached, Belinda offered me my flowers and smiled. “You look gorgeous, Clara.”
I breathed out a nervous sigh. “Thank you.” Both Belinda and Mia gave me a quick peck on the cheek before they started down the stairs.
I took that moment to take a couple more deep breaths before we took to the stairs leading down to the vast garden below. I didn’t dare venture down there today, as I knew Luca may have been lurking about. As I took to the stairs, I saw all the rows and rows of people dutifully sitting down, waiting for my arrival. There must have been at least a hundred people there. The number of family and friends the Belatoni’s had was just staggering.
And I was about to become one of them.
Nerves shot straight to my stomach, and for a moment, I thought I was going to be sick. But then, Luca came into view, and all my nerves went away. He looked simply stunning in his three piece navy suit and pale blue tie. When his eyes landed on me, his reaction sent my heart fluttering. His eyes were a mixture of lust and adoration as I stepped closer towards him. Music was playing, and everyone was watching, but only Luca and I were there. We couldn’t keep our eyes off each other.
Once I was beside him, Alessandro offered my hand to Luca, and he accepted straight away, pulling me closer to whisper in my ear, “Have I died? Has an angel been sent to take me?” He kissed me tenderly
. “I have never seen a vision so beautiful. I am the luckiest man on earth.” He pulled away, smiling at me, and I was left robbed of speech.
The priest marrying us started talking in Italian, cutting our little connection. I paid attention to him, but I couldn’t understand a word that was said. Luca was soon on his knees, and when I looked around, everyone else was doing the same, so I joined in. It was only then, as I kneeled, that I noticed the cushion at my feet. Luca smiled towards me and held my hand as the priest recited a prayer. As this ended, we stood up, and finally, it seemed the vows were being said. Luca looked at me and said “I do,” before I heard my name being mentioned.
Once he fell silent, I looked in Luca’s direction. “What did he say?” I whispered.
Luca smiled and leaned in. “He said you have to honour and obey me.” I pulled my head back and was about to give him what for when he laughed softly. “I’m only joking, amore mio.”
“Now is not the time for jokes, Luca!” I whisper-hissed.
“He just asked if you accept the vows of being faithful and to support and raise our children.”
“Of course,” I said—a little too loudly. Everyone laughed, making me blush. “I mean, I do.” I smiled at the priest, and he smiled back, as he took the rings. He blessed them both before Luca picked one up and placed it on my finger. I did the same with the other. The priest said something, and everyone clapped.
Luca - You Will Be Mine (Sicilian Mafia #2) Page 19
