Rejected at the Altar, Married to the Mafia Alpha novel · Chapter 2 of 32
Chapter 2: My Conditions
Chiara and Valerio complete a witnessed marriage under her terms, buying only a 72-hour stay. A collector posts an order dated before her rejection.
"That isn't my mother's thumb," I said.
Valerio held the case steady while I looked through the glass.
Damon reached across my shoulder for it.
Valerio closed the case before Damon touched the oath.
"You saw enough," he said.
"So did she," Damon answered.
At the depot, two black cars already waited across the street.
One bore the iron wolf seal of Orson's collection office.
The men inside watched residents carry supper through our front door.
Rita caught my hand at the gate.
"We can fight without this marriage."
"We can fight tomorrow if those cars let us have a door."
Valerio stayed far enough back to let us speak.
"What does marrying you actually buy?" I asked him.
"Outside Alpha standing. I can challenge collection on behalf of my spouse. A posted bond holds them for seventy-two hours."
"Only seventy-two?"
"After that, a tribunal has to extend it."
"Then say that inside, in front of everyone."
The depot smelled of bread and hot metal.
A woman waiting for supper stood in our doorway with a mixing bowl.
She saw Valerio's guards and planted her feet.
"They stay outside."
"They will," I said.
Valerio sent them to the pavement.
The woman looked him over.
"You can come in after you wash your hands."
He held up his spotless palms.
"I've been judged fairly."
In the kitchen, three tables had been laid with mismatched plates.
I told the residents exactly what Valerio had offered.
No one cheered at the word marriage.
They asked how long the door would stay open and whose guards would hold the key.
"My key," I said. "The stay is three days. We find proof before it ends."
A man at the nearest table asked what happened if we failed.
Outside, a collector crossed the street and photographed the windows.
Valerio answered him.
"They'll take the depot. I am putting my bond behind your chance to stop them."
I brought Valerio into the repair room.
The pack officiant came because Rita called him, not because Valerio ordered him.
He wore a plain coat over his ceremony clothes and brought the witness register.
Valerio's guard had written my conditions on two pages.
I crossed out a clause allowing guards inside during an emergency.
"If the building burns, ask me where to put them. If I can't answer, ask Rita."
Valerio accepted the change.
I added that any evidence of fraud belonged to the refuge.
"That makes it harder for me to shield it," he said.
"It makes it harder for you to bury it."
He signed both pages.
I signed after I had read them aloud.
The officiant checked our ages and asked each of us whether we chose this marriage freely.
"Yes," Valerio said.
I looked through the window at the collector beside his car.
The pressure was real, and so was the choice I had made at the altar.
"Yes. Under the written terms."
Rita and the guard witnessed the signatures.
The officiant joined our hands for a single breath, registered the civil marriage and pack union, then stepped back.
No bond appeared beneath my skin.
Valerio did not try to kiss me.
The officiant left the register open until the tribunal stamp returned.
I saw my new surname beside Valerio's and felt no magic in it.
The marriage gave us a tool, not an answer.
The collector across the street got back into his car.
Valerio sent the marriage certificate and bond to the tribunal desk.
We waited in the repair room until the stamped seventy-two-hour stay came back.
Only then did I let Rita serve the food.
Valerio's men remained outside by the gate, where residents had agreed they could stand.
Someone knocked hard on the outer door before I finished eating.
A different collector held a removal order under the porch light.
I saw the date before he spoke.
It had been issued yesterday.
Damon had ordered us out before he rejected me.
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