After waiting a couple beats to ensure I’m serious, Zeno lowers me back to my feet but remains close.
“Since that’s over with…” Alessio claps his hands together, like he didn’t just ruin the past year and a half. “I’d like to have that conversation alone.”
Behind me, Lev hovers nearer, but it’s Zeno who nudges me away. “Absolutely not. She’s not yours until the ceremony. An engagement doesn’t mean shit. Fuck off, Vitale.”
“Five minutes,” he gambles. “My fiancée and I have a few matters to discuss. Such as, how I expect her to behave as my wife and what all the freedoms of being raised outside of the mob may have accidentally created.” His eyes flick so quickly towards Lev, the message in them clear enough to make me reach for my brother’s elbow.
“I’ll talk to him if it’ll make him leave.”
“Not alone, you’re not.”
“Mancini, you will not be staying.”
“I’ll stay.” Vanessa approaches, resting a hand on Zeno’s shoulder.
They share a silent conversation before Zeno accepts her offer and gestures for Anastasia and Lev to follow him out of the restaurant.
Anastasia passes him, barely keeping even an inch between them when she bares her teeth and utters, “I offered to gut you. Feel lucky they denied me.”
Without taking his attention off me, Alessio drawls, “I’m sure you would have done it wonderfully,SignorinaPetrov. Great show, by the way.”
She leaves alongside Alessio’s men, until only Lev hesitates. He casts a glare towards Alessio, before it softens on me. There’s a message there, gone faster than I can read it.
Once the door is firmly shut, Alessio sighs like this whole thing is exhausting him. “They’re all so tense. No one realizes this marriage changes little. After all, we were together for months, Serafina. We’re familiar to one another.”
“I was dating a lie.”
“Maybe. Suppose time will tell.”
I won’t be giving you more time than a few hours.
“What did you bribe Amara with?”
He laughs harshly. “Oh,mio cara, that you believe my cousin required anything to do right by her family… No bribery needed.” Cold eyes, reminiscent of when we were dating and he’d get angry, drop to my left hand, which I quickly hide behind my back. “The ring truly suits you.”
The moment this is over, it’s being removed and not worn until the wedding.
His shoes tap over the tiled floor, only to be stopped by Vanessa, who positions herself between us, palms to his chest. “Talking doesn’t mean you need to be near her.”
He shrugs, undisturbed by her protectiveness, and turns for the nearest table instead, pulling a chair out with an irritating scrape and lowering himself into it. “Makes no difference. I haveonly a few things to say. Continue your semester in Russia, but make no mistake: once we are wed, you will be moving in with me. Your studies will not continue because no Vitale wife needs an education. You will be given your own room; I won’t be able to stand you in my bed every night. Be grateful.”
“Performance issues, huh?” Vanessa mocks. “Must be a bitch to deal with.”
He doesn’t blink at the derision. “After the ceremony, we’ll spend our wedding night in a hotel, where you will be made mine in every manner possible before you come up with the idiotic plan of running away with your lover. Speaking of,” he pauses, “you’ve already given him your virginity and denied me my right, so unfortunately, there’s nothing more to be done there. He’s stolen what was mine, and by contract, his life could be mine as well, if I choose to.”
“Only if you want the Bratva to rain terror on your asses,” Vanessa mutters, crossing her arms. “But please, Ibegyou to go after him. Give me that reason.”
He throws a sugary smile her way. “My, you’re going to be a doll for a sister-in-law…half-sister-in-law?” His lips purse, considering the term. “Talk about a fucked-up family tree, you two. Either way, since the past can’t be changed, what you two do between now and the wedding isn’t my business. But make no mistake, Serafina: once you walk down the aisle, every single part of you ismine. That means if he even looks your fucking way, I’ll have him slaughtered in front of you. After the wedding, you will never see him again. You will beSignoraVitale, with all expectations of that title, including producing my heir.” He stops talking—thankfully, because my stomach can’t handle any more of this man’s speech—but when his gaze scans me, he pauses on my stomach. “You better not be carrying a bastard. You won’t like me too much then.”
I don’t like you now.
“I’m not.” My period came the other day.
“Time will tell, won’t it?” He pushes to his feet and crosses the room, passing Vanessa on his way to the door. “Until then,SignorinaMancini. Do not disappoint me.”
He pushes out of the door and disappears. For the first time since he walked in earlier, I breathe, a full, deep breath that staggers into a sob, my legs crumpling beneath me. Vanessa catches me in a large hug, her grip tight around my waist. In this moment, I something shifts. In this moment, we’re truly sisters.
Bonded.
