My chest heaved as the door closed behind him. I scampered to my feet, trying to stay as far away as possible from Tino, but he grabbed my wrist before I took a single step.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” I barely said.
He pulled me back down on the couch. “That’s right.”
I tried to swallow again but my mouth was as dry as a rock. I bent my head down with guilt.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
I did as he said. As always. I might tease him sometimes, but I always obeyed him in the end.
“I’ll ask you the same question I’ve been asking you since I knew about you and Leo. Do you love him?”
I’d been asking myself the same question, but the answer had never been a yes or a no.
“Do you love him?!” he roared.
Trembling hard, I just leaned back, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
“Answer me, goddamn it!”
“He loves me! That’s what matters.”
“That’s not my question.”
“Then yes. Leo is the only person thattrulythinks I’m worthy of having any man I want. He believes I’m good enough for him. Yes, I’ve started to love him, and I know with time I’ll love him with all my heart.”
The fury in his expression turned into something morbid, something that made me feel like the worst of traitors; I betrayed Tino’s trust. I stole his son away from him.
“I warned you he’d make you fall for him,” he mumbled.
“You shouldn’t have left us alone then.” I regretted the words as soon as they fell off my mouth. Why the hell would I say that?
I knew why. I was angry at him even if I had no right to be. I was angry he used me. I was angry he pretended to care. And above all, I was furious that he ignored that moment we had together.
But he was doing the right thing, and so should I.
“If the wedding is too soon, we can wait after my graduation. Either way, I won’t marry him without your approval. You have my word,” I said quickly in a feeble attempt to fix what I’d just done.
“Well, here’s my word, Angelina,” he whispered, but his voice thundered through me, bringing up a feeling I’d only experienced with…Marciano. Why would Tino’s whisper remind me of Marciano’s? Why did they sound so alike?
Why did my mind play those tricks on me? In this moment when I’d never needed clarity more?
My breath quivered as I exhaled, blinking away the tears and the confusion. “I’m all ears.”
“Congratulations.”
“Wha—”
He jutted up, leaving the whole office, leaving me behind in a pool of sweat and shock and disbelief.
Don Bellomo had just agreed to the wedding.
I was gonna marry Leo Bellomo, the Mafia boss’s son.
Chapter39
