Obviously, it had taken an obscene amount of money to gently nudge the wheels of church policy to move so quickly but as he knew the priest, knew the money would be used for good causes, Micha didn’t begrudge it for one moment.
As he hastened along the ancient stone pathway to the side chapel of the church, he remembered what Antonio had said to him before leaving the restaurant last night.
She was broken after you left her. And if you do that to her again, they’ll never find your body.
The threat had been laughable, but the information had near devastated him. The only way he’d got through those first few years in Paris was the white-knuckled grip he’d had on his belief that she’d have left him anyway. He couldn’t have meant that much to her, because she would choose her family. A family that had never appreciated her. A family that had rejected her and still did. That’s what had stung the most. That he didn’t even stack up againstthem. But of course he hadn’t.
He’d known at the time that Antonio would take Maria’s side. He just hadn’t realised that it would form a rift of resentment that even time couldn’t breach.
She was broken after you left her.
Micha shook off his thoughts as he stepped into the cool, reverent interior of the church he had sneaked into when he was a child, seeking anything to assuage the ferocious summer heat. Because he’d not been able to go home. Because his father had still been there at the time, and would have given Micha a beating for sure.
And then later, after his father had left, he’d skulked in the shadows while his mother… He swallowed. There was something almost biblical about his feelings of his past and his future in that moment. Retaliation, redemption and in among it all Maria and their innocent child.
The priest’s footsteps on the cool stone floor were soft.
‘Micha.’
‘Father.’
‘It’s good to see you,’ Father Perosi greeted with a smile. ‘Though it’s been some time since your last confession.’
‘I was away.’
‘Mmm’ was all he said in response to Micha’s tenure in Paris. ‘And now you are back. With a bride.’
Micha nodded, peering over his shoulder where he caught sight of filled pews.
‘And in a hurry,’ Father Perosi chided gently.
‘Wasn’t I always?’
‘Si,’ the older man said with a smile in his eyes. ‘Ready?’
‘Just like that? No questions about whether I’m sure, whether I’m committed?’ Micha asked, only half teasing.
Father Perosi turned his considerably weighty gaze on him and Micha felt it pass beyond skin and bone until it felt as if he were gazing into Micha’s very soul.
‘You would not be here if you were neither sure nor committed.’
Micha nodded, knowing it as truth.
‘And besides, I think you gave your heart to this woman a very long time ago.’
Micha clenched his jaw and acknowledged, reluctantly, that the priest he’d known since childhood was right. Hehadgiven Maria his heart a very long time ago. But she had let it go, abandoned it,refusedit and now there was nothing but an empty space in his chest. Nothing to hope, nothing to want, nothing to hurt. Not again.
If she wasn’t carrying their child, they wouldn’t be here. So, while he was committed and sure about this marriage, he wasn’t naive enough to think it was anything other than a way to protect their child’s happiness. His happiness had never come into it.
Micha followed Father Perosi out of the small chapel into the main body of the church and towards the top of the aisle, ignoring the glares of the closest Gallos but landing on Antonio and the man beside him. Enzo Rossetti’s mother—Gio’s daughter—had been disowned by Gio years ago. But just before his death, Gio had reached out to Enzo and the two had become reacquainted. Micha had been only peripherally aware of the old man’s attempts to meddle in the American Italian’s life, as thankfully Gio had decided in this instance to do his own dirty work.
As such, Micha had only really encountered Enzo and his fiancée, Erin, a handful of times since Gio’s passing. Especially since before he passed, Gio had made Enzo a member of the Gallo Group board. Undoubtedly the man was as flippant as his playboy reputation suggested, but there was something deeper there that warned Micha not to believe all that had been said about Antonio and Maria’s cousin and respect the man’s surprisingly good business sense.
Antonio, still clearly angry with him from the night before, glared at Micha, who turned his attention back to the proceedings.
There was no best man, and Maria had no bridesmaid. She’d have probably chosen Ivy and he wouldn’t have minded, only it would have left him picking Antonio to stand behind him and while a certain amount of hostilities had subsided, given the détente reached over Micha and Ivy’s surprising friendship, they were very far from the childhood friends they had once been.
Father Perosi gave him one last knowing look, and then nodded to the musical director, who managed to seamlessly blend the ongoing background music into the wedding march.
