Forbidden By Her Mafia Stepbrother novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Two Fingers

Massimo breaks two of Fabrizio's fingers in front of the family; the Don sets the wedding in thirty days and moves Wynne into Massimo's wing.

Wynne pushed the door open in time to see Fabrizio put his hand on the table.

He did it slowly, with a smile on his face, as if the capos watching him were the only thing in the room.

His right hand lay flat on the white cloth beside his plate, the diamond pinky ring catching the light.

Massimo stood behind his chair.

He had picked up the carving knife from the veal.

He turned it in his fingers and took it by the blade.

"Massimo," Fabrizio said, still smiling. "Cousin. It was a misunderstanding."

"She walked into a door," Massimo said.

"That's what I said."

"Which door?"

Fabrizio opened his mouth.

Massimo brought the handle of the knife down on his first two fingers.

The sound was small and dry, and then Fabrizio was screaming.

He pulled the hand into his chest and folded over it.

His chair went back and he hit the floor on his knees.

The glass in front of the nearest capo tipped, and the man caught it without a word and set it upright.

Nobody else moved.

Her mother had both hands pressed over her mouth, and the bracelet slid down her arm and caught on her knuckles.

Massimo laid the knife on the cloth, blade turned away, and wiped his hand on a napkin.

"That one is Friday," he said. "Anything else you did, you can tell my father."

"Massimo," Aurelio said.

His voice had not risen at all.

He had not stood, or put down his glass.

He looked at his son with plain pleasure.

"You've struck family at my table," he said. "Over a girl who is not your blood."

"She's under your roof, Papa."

"She is."

"Then he put his hand on your house."

Aurelio smiled and set his glass down.

"There is a rule about that," he said. "And there is a rule about a man who strikes his own at the Don's table. I will think about which rule is bigger."

He turned to the room.

"Gentlemen, I'm afraid the engagement is not changed by this. My nephew is a fool, and a fool can be married. The wedding is in thirty days, on my birthday."

Fabrizio was sobbing on the carpet, rocking, his hand cradled in his shirt.

"Thirty days," Aurelio said to Wynne, with great kindness. "And since Massimo is so concerned for your welfare, you will move into the east wing, where he can see you sleep. I think that's fair."

"No," Wynne said.

Everybody turned.

She had come three steps into the room without noticing, and her hands were shaking, and she put them behind her back.

"I won't be married to him in thirty days or in thirty years," she said. "He did this to me. You saw it."

"I saw a bruise," Aurelio said.

"The code says a man who marks his betrothed loses her."

The oldest of the capos lifted his head.

He had a heavy gray face and ears that had been broken twice, and he looked at her with open interest.

"The girl knows the code," he said.

"Her stepbrother has recited it enough," Aurelio said lightly.

It was true.

Massimo had said it to her through a closed door two years ago, the night she asked why she could not go out after ten.

He had said it was the only rule in the house that mattered, and she had not asked him anything else for a year.

"Then the table sits," Wynne said. "In front of the capos, under the code. I say Fabrizio marked me, and I say he forfeits."

"A sit-down," the old capo said slowly. "She can ask for it, Aurelio. It's the right of the woman."

Aurelio considered that.

He picked a crumb from the cloth, and Wynne's stomach went tight, because he was taking too long to be unhappy.

"Of course," he said. "Friday, at the restaurant. We'll let the capos decide whose hand is whose."

He nodded to Massimo.

"Take her upstairs."

"Wynne." Her mother's voice was thin. "Honey, please."

Wynne did not look at her.

Massimo had his hand out, not touching her, palm open toward the door.

She walked past him without a word.

He caught up with her on the stairs, and they climbed together, three steps apart, in silence.

On the second landing he said, without turning his head, "That was brave and it was stupid."

"I'd say it again."

"I know you would."

She stopped.

"Is that why you hit him?" she said. "Because I was brave?"

He took a while to answer.

"Because he put a mark on something," Massimo said, "and I wasn't there."

He started up again.

At the top, outside the door of the east wing, he turned and finally looked at her.

"You'll sleep in my wing tonight," he said.

"You can't forbid me."

"I've forbidden you everything for two years, Wynne. Do not argue with me about this one."

He opened the door.

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