Myfratellocleared his throat. “Since you seem to have lost your fucking mind, just like I did all those years ago, I’m going to answer the question for you. A wedding without a bride is an eternal fucking bachelor party.” He turned and left me alone with my sons.
I met their eyes.
Amadeo stood taller, fixing his suit. “What I believeZioBrando is telling you is this, Papà. You are fucking this up—a love that was created in heaven after you suffered through hell to be blessed with it—because you are allowing your mind to rule you and not your heart.”
“Your mind should rule you in battles, Papà.” Ludovico fixed his suit. “Not in love.”
Amadeo took Ludovico by the shoulder and directed him toward the church.
It was as if their words had turned into blades, slicing the snake wrapped around my mind, releasing me from its hold. I shook my head, and my feet commanded me to move fully forward. Each frantic beat of my heart pushed my feet faster and faster.
“My wife,” I said to Romeo as he milled around with the rest of my family.
“In the storage building,” he said.
My wife was waiting in a building that housed the equivalent of fucking trash on the island—trash that people could not part with.
She was a clever one with the symbolism, my Amora.
My eyes met Brando’s, and he nodded at me. Scarlett squeezed his hand, her eyes watery, but her smile was bright.
My father stepped in front of me, and without a word, handed me a knife. I took it from him, slipping it into my pocket. The door to the storage building was locked. It sent a rush of panic over me, my heart beating wildly in my chest.
With one massive hit of my shoulder, one of the doors cracked down the center, and the flimsy lock gave. I did not even have to open the door. It swung open by itself.
“Oh,” she breathed, looking away from me. “You’re here.”
“You do not fucking belong here.” My voice was as crushed and rough as sand.
“Where do I belong, Rocco?” she whispered.
I hit my chest. “With me.”
“I’m not a part of your past. I’m here now. Your future.”
“You have become my entire life, my Amora.”
“You’re mine too,” she whispered.
“I was early,” I said, feeling it was important for her to know. I needed her eyes on mine, more than I needed air. “I was waiting.”
My entire life. I waited for her.
For the moment she would come into my life.
For this moment.
For the moments yet to come.
For eternity.
She nodded, swallowing hard. “Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?” she whispered, standing, giving me a full view of the true beauty that was all mine.
Her eyes came to mine.
My hand went to my heart with no conscious thought. Perhaps to make sure it was still beating. Perhaps it was to hold this moment close, allowing it time to become the center of my world. Perhaps it was for both reasons. For all fucking reasons.
The heart did not always share its reasons. But she was the only reason.
