‘A united front, right? No matter what happens, no matter what…issaid.’
‘Maria—’
She shook her head to cut off his question and removed her hand from his arm, visibly gathering herself. And he couldn’t quite work it out. This was her family. They were her people. The ones she had chosen over him, and probably would again, given half the chance. Stage fright. That’s all it must have been, he thought as he pushed through the wooden doors, the raised voices of moments ago falling away into complete silence.
Maria’s heart pounded in her ears. She hadn’t realised that she would be so…scared. Instinctively her gaze sought out Antonio and Ivy, her lifelines this evening, and a warm breath shivered through her as she saw Ivy’s obvious encouragement and Antonio’s clear and slightly murderous glare at Micha. It was enough to soften the edges of the tension around her body and allowed her the first smile she’d had since she and Ivy had left the bridal shop the day before.
As for the rest of the room, a total of thirty-five Gallos were seated at a banquetstyle table and she doubted the place settings had been an accident. Her distant cousins and aunts and uncles—related to Gio through his siblings—were at the far end of the table. Closer to the head was Alessina Gallo, Antonio’s mother and Gio’s eldest, sitting beside the middle brother, Maria’s Uncle Carlos. Their younger sister, who had been disowned by their father years before, was still only slowly making her way back into the family fold and had, according to Micha, politely declined. Her son Enzo and wife were also away, but would be there tomorrow. Her eyes rested on Rosa Rufina, the woman sitting at the left of the two seats at the head of the table where she and Micha would sit, and smiled.
It was instinctive. Maria hadn’t seen Rosa for years, the realisation hitting her with something like guilt. Gio had moved both Micha and Rosa to Paris, and Maria had been so consumed with her own feelings that she had forgotten the woman who had always treated her with a gentle, reserved kindness. It was still there in the older woman’s gaze when she met Maria’s, a small smile gracing her lips, but an understanding shining in her eyes that Maria didn’t think she’d get from her own family.
And then she looked to the couple that sat opposite Rosa. Her parents.
Her father refused to meet her gaze in what could only be the most obvious and blatant snub. The clenched jaw, the simmering anger—he’d have done better not to bother turning up. The shame of his disappointment burned her cheeks and her heart. Her mother’s eyes flickered to hers and then back to her plate, her apathy more painful than her father’s rejection.
Her fingers dug into the superfine black wool jacket over Micha’s forearms, sacrificing all the hard work she’d done to put on her armour. It was nothing but a mirage. White knuckles would have betrayed her, and she was about to withdraw when his large hand covered hers. She wasn’t entirely sure that he’d done it on purpose, but for a single breath his surprising act of kindness struck her dumb.
‘Thank you all for coming,’ Micha announced as he ushered her into the seat at the head of the table, before kissing his mother on the cheek and nodding at her father as if he wasn’t being so painfully and obviously rude.
As waiters came round and filled glasses, Micha welcomed her family on behalf of him and his mother. Proclaiming how happy he was that Maria and he had found each other. That he couldn’t have ever imagined another woman by his side and that tomorrow she would finally make him an honest man.
She flinched when someone down the far end had the audacity to scoff out loud.
He ignored it all. Instead, he was charming, not overly so, and witty; perfectly pitched. Maria had never seen him handle her family because his role had kept him primarily in Paris. She’d never really thought about how he would manage them, because she’d been so angry and so hurt that she’d refused to consider that he might actually be able to. But also because until now, the only person who had been able to wrangle the Gallos had been her grandfather.
God, she missed him. It was a strange thing. He might have never considered her truly worthy in her own right to take over Gallo Group, but he had still encouraged her, given her a role in the family business that made use of the skills other family members refused to acknowledge or credit her with. Yes, there was resentment there that she wasn’t good enough for him, but he had been clear about it, whereas everyone else pretended and smiled while ready to stab her in the back.
As the first course was served, she watched Micha as he interacted with her family, ignoring the obvious stares and open curiosity around the table. She wanted to speak to Antonio and Ivy, she wanted to be anywhere else than here, but she was trapped by her parents’ stony silence.
At some point her father got up from the table without even bothering to excuse himself. It was only when he didn’t come back that Maria began to notice—along with several other members of the family.
Clenching her jaw, she excused herself.
In the quiet of the hallway outside the private dining room, she finally found the space to breathe. She hadn’t realised how oppressive the sounds of the entire clan had been. Prising her eyes back open, she looked around for her father.
She heard him before she saw him.
‘Yes, you needed to know… No, I want to continue our good relationship and thought you would be interested in who you are doing business with… Well, after, things will continue as they were.’
Business? Her father was talking business? Now?
‘Papa,’ she said as she rounded the corner, to find him ending the call and slipping his mobile phone into his pocket.
He looked at her with such disdain that she flinched, but she wasn’t ready to back down. Not yet.
‘It’s my rehearsal dinner, Papa,’ she pleaded.
‘Rehearsal dinner? Isn’t it a little too late for that?’ he said, his gaze narrowing on her stomach. ‘You should have kept your legs closed. You had one job, one!’ he yelled, not bothering to keep his voice down. ‘You were supposed to marrywell. And instead you lay with that stray dog, Rufina.’
He might as well have slapped her. Her mouth fell open and she took a step back.
‘We’ll never be free of that bastard now.Never.And if you think for one moment that I’ll be paying for this farce of a wedding—’
‘That won’t be necessary, Luca.’
Maria froze at the sound of Micha’s voice from behind her.
Facing him, she saw the moment of shock in her father’s eyes, and watched it turn to anger and defiance.
