“What do you say, Lina bella? Will you give me the chance to make you as happy as you make me? Will you share this life with me that without you will mean absolutely nothing? Will you do me the honors and be mine for as long as we both shall live?”
Chapter38
Lina
Tino’s stare at my hand in Leo’s curdled the blood in my veins. As I stood in his office, I was shaking like a kitten in the rain, while Leo was snickering. How could he not be scared of his dad when it was Tino Bellomo and he looked like he was gonna stab someone?
“With your permission, we’d like the wedding to be on Lina’s eighteenth birthday,” Leo said.
Tino didn’t reply. He seemed to be frozen in place, a deep line between his brows, two fingers rested on his temple, his thumb under his beard, the rest of his fingers covering half of his mouth but not the pinch to it. His legs crossed as he sat on the leather couch. He didn’t take his eyes off our clasped hands.
I tried to free my hand from Leo’s grasp, but he squeezed it, holding to it tighter. “I know it’s less than five months away but it’s—”
“Angelina,” he interrupted Leo, and I almost pissed myself.
“Y-yes, Tino?”
“Come sit beside me.”
Shoot. This was about the hand. Why did Leo have to provoke him all the time? I tugged my hand out of Leo’s tight grip. He wouldn’t let go easily, but I managed to break free. Then, my heart in my throat, I sank in the couch beside Tino.
“What do you say, Papà?”
“You know what I’m going to say.”
“I’ll take care of the Lanzas.”
“How?”
“I’ll tell them the truth. I can’t make their daughter happy.”
“And you expect them to just say congratulations?”
“They should.”
“In what world do you live in, Leo?”
“The same world that you do. The same world you dragged me in. If that world, with all its power, doesn’t make it possible for me to live with the one person my heart wants, then maybe I don’t belong there at all.”
Oh. My. God. I must admit, Leo was the bravest person I’d ever seen. To challenge and threaten Don Bellomo himself…
Or maybe Leo wasn’t brave at all and was just stupid.
Either way we were screwed. When I said yes, I knew it was a long shot. I didn’t expect Tino to approve of our marriage. He’d never give us his blessing. Heck, I didn’t expect Leo to go through with it and tell Tino.
Part of me only said yes to give Leo what he wanted so his fixation would fade, and maybe I’d find out it was nothing but an obsession, a need to have something he couldn’t have. After all, things like having a boy like Leo fall in love with a girl like me didn’t happen, not to people like me anyway.
I was wrong. Leo was going through with it with more determination than ever, and the other part of me that hoped he would was dancing with happiness.
However, happy fairytales didn’t belong in my world. Tino would never let this marriage happen, and I’d never want to come between a father and his son.
Tino’s leg dropped. The sound of his shoe hitting the floor made me flinch. He leaned forward, his hands clasped under his beard. “Give me a minute with Angelina.”
I gulped, glancing over at Leo.Don’t leave me alone with your scary father right now.
Leo smiled at me, but nothing would reassure me at the moment. “I’ll be right outside.”
