She looks like a witch, she’s speaking like she’s made of stone, and most guys in this chapel know of her own curse, the one that kills any man who tries to marry her.So the absolute silence that follows her words is no surprise.Some of the killers in here with us, men who had no trouble dealing death all night last night, look as though they’ve just seen the Devil as they make the sign of the cross and clutch the crucifixes hanging around their necks like they were pearls and they old, frightened women.They’re all as pale as the walls.
Ferro throws his head back and starts laughing, the harsh, loud sound cutting through the uneasy silence.Several of the men chuckle along while nervously looking at each other.I don’t blame them, Ferro looks deranged right now.I want to grab Goldie and carry her out of here to get her out of his path.But I also don’t want to draw any more attention to her.
“A curse?I dare any curse to cut me down,” Ferro says, his laughter still echoing off the walls.
Then he turns and faces the priest, who is just as pale as the rest.“Let’s get on with this.”
The priest starts talking in his solemn voice again and I turn to Goldie.She’s still staring directly at Ferro and if looks could kill, he’d be a dead man right now.
“You will have to learn to behave now,” I whisper to her.“Your daddy isn’t here to bail you out anymore.”
She turns that killing gaze on me and I feel it like a slice across the cheek.“I don’t need anyone to keep me safe.Least of all you.”
I grin, even though I don’t feel like laughing at all.“But you do, Goldie.I’m the only one standing between you and a fate you don’t even want to imagine.”
She shakes her head.“Let it come.I don’t need you and I don’t want you anywhere near me.”
A part of me wants to stalk out of this chapel and never look back.Let her get what she’s asking for and fend for herself.See how she likes it.
But I won’t do that.No matter how much she wants me dead.I understand that black hatred burning in her chest better than she does.I’ve lived with it for years, having been forced to work for the man who killed my family.I understand that hatred inside and out, forward and backwards.I know there’s no cure for it.I know it will never wane, let alone disappear.
But despite knowing all that, I still want her close to me.Even more than before.
Chapter4
GIANNA
The painof watching my little sister be married to the monster who attacked our family, and quite possibly killed our father, was unbearable, unthinkable, unrelenting.I felt like I was glass, getting smashed into a billion pieces and I couldn’t move, could hardly breathe.
The curse I laid on the man was my only weapon.The state I was in, I’m sure it worked.
The best curses come from great pain.That’s what an old woman in Italy told me years ago.If I understood her correctly.But I think I did.Back then I was still asking anyone who would listen about how to lift the curse hanging over me.Now I just hope Matteo tries to marry me next, so my curse will get him too, as it had the three men who tried to marry me before him.
I almost vomited as the man lifted Chiara’s thick veil and kissed her.The loathing on her face was absolute as his lips touched hers.She was squeezing hers together so tight there was white along the edges.
I didn’t see fear in her eyes as she looked at me.She just nodded and I understood it to mean she was thanking me for the curse.
Then the man dragged her out of the chapel and out of my sight.I wanted to run after them and snatch her from his arms.But Matteo took my arm and made me wait with him until everyone else left the chapel.
If I pretend I don’t see him it’s almost like he’s not here.
I’ve been doing it all day now, while being forced to sit through a wedding feast to celebrate my sister’s marriage.Doesn’t mean I don’t feel his eyes on me all the time.His gaze feels like the sun warming stone now.Gone is the all-encompassing, head-spinning joy his gaze on me used to bring just a day ago.
I haven’t been able to speak to my sister yet.The man she was forced to marry has kept her close to him all day.She’s still wearing that nasty old-style wedding dress he made her wear.All ruffles and so much lace she looks like she’s being eaten alive by it.In a way she is.
She wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anything like that before all this happened.She wouldn’t be caught dead in a wedding dress full stop.And now she’s married.I still can’t wrap my mind around that.And it makes me want to throw up every time I do.But the curse will get him.The one I laid or the one that hangs over me and which we all believed extended to my sisters as well.Maybe that’s why she looks so brave, because she knows that.There’s still no fear anywhere on her face.
It’s mostly men celebrating this wedding.They’ve been getting louder and drunker all afternoon.But there are about fifteen women here too, all young and pretty.All looking scared out of their minds.An older guy, the one who was Ferro’s best man at the wedding, is guarding them, sending away the drunk guys from getting near them.Luckily, those same drunk guys avoid me in a wide circle even without that kind of protection.Not that I need it, because Matteo is guarding me like a lion.
Night has fallen outside, and I have no idea how I got through this day.Or when it went away.A part of my mind is still in the dark garden of our family’s beach house, my heart thundering in my chest as I try to make sense of all the gunfire and yelling.As I try to make sense of what is happening.I didn’t yet know my life was over then.And I don’t accept it now.
Ferro wanders back to my sister’s side, picks up a glass of champagne and taps it with the blade of a knife.
The room falls silent almost immediately.Like they were all just pretending to be deep in revelry, but actually couldn’t wait to be interrupted.
“It’s time to make this marriage real,” he announces to the room.“But all of you, stay, drink to my health and the health of my unborn children.”
He looks at me as he says it, and a cold so deep passes over me I actually shiver.
