I’m going to have a loveless marriage, but for one night I got to feel like the center of someone’s universe.
It’ll have to be enough.
“Idon’t understand how you’re not at least a little curious.” Ivan stands at the window of the church this farce of a wedding is taking place. “You don’t want to see her?”
He holds the curtain back from the window, tempting me to watch my bride enter the back of the church.
I yawn.
“Leave him alone.” Vee pulls the curtain from her husband’s hand.
“I’m just saying, if she’s repulsive better to get your reaction over with now instead of at the altar when she shows up.” Ivan continues his attempt to get a rise out of me.
“What reaction do you want me to have if she’s repulsive?” I ask shoving out of the chair.
“We just want you to remember this girl is innocent, is all,” Vee says softly. “She’s being pushed into this, too.”
“She’s Tony’s sister.” I adjust my tie.
I might as well be wearing a prison uniform while I recite the unholy vows.
“Kaz.” Megan grabs my arm. “You can’t go into this marriage with so much anger and hatred. I have more guilt in this than she does.”
“No, Megan. You didn’t do anything wrong. Marco, Michael, and Tony. They are the guilty, not you.” I try to force a smile for her benefit.
She’d held onto unearned guilt since the very beginning of this war with the DeAngelos.
“Right, and this girl is the same.” Megan pushes.
I pull out my phone and take the call coming through. I only have an hour left of freedom, spending it hearing my own family defend any member of the DeAngelo family isn’t how I plan on spending it.
“Kaz. I have the coat,” Mikhail informs me.
“Is there anything in it?”
“A five-dollar bill in the pocket, nothing else.” Mikhail answers.
“The coat check didn’t know her name?”
“No. To be honest, even if she did, I don’t think she was going to give to me. She wasn’t all that happy about giving me the coat.”
“You had the ticket.”
“Yeah, but I’m me, and this coat doesn’t really look like something I’d be wearing. I told her it was my girlfriend’s coat, but she still looked suspicious.”
“It’s just a fucking coat.” I grind my teeth. “Did you ask anyone else?”
He laughs. “Ask who? You don’t even know the girl’s first name. Should I have walked around Lush and asked everyone if they recognized the coat? Or the brown-haired girl wearing it?”
He’s right, of course. The coat isn’t enough to find her.
“Fine.”
“What do you want me to do with the coat?”
“Hang on to it for now.”
“You gonna give it to your bride? You’re getting married in an hour, in case you forgot.”
