He Loved Me in Secret, Until I Became Someone He Could Never Have novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: The Union Hall Wedding

Dario didn't blink.

"Name them."

"One." I held up a finger. "I stay the Keeper. You never ask me what's on any Family's page. Not once. Not over dinner, not as a joke, not in bed."

"Done."

"Two. No more deciding things for me in the dark. If you're scared for me, you tell me. Out loud. Then we decide together."

"Done."

The line behind him had gone very quiet.

The old woman with the shopping cart was mouthing each condition to herself.

"Three," I said.

I put the ring down on the Accord, right on top of the line about seats and tables.

"You gave up your name at every table," I said. "You need a new one. Take mine."

For a second he just looked at me.

Then he started to laugh.

It was the crooked laugh from the ice house wall.

"Dario Mazzola," he said.

"It's a good name. It's on the glass."

"Your mother is going to be unbearable."

"My mother," said my mother, from behind the quarters, "is already unbearable. Answer the girl."

He picked up the ring off the Accord.

He took my left hand across the counter.

"Done," he said, and put it on me.

The lobby went up.

The pastry chef whistled through his fingers.

The old woman with the shopping cart hugged the tallest teller, who hugged her back.

The crossword teller ran out the front door to tell the shoe repair man, who had already heard through the wall.

We married on the last Saturday of July in the union hall on Caroline Street.

Not at Saint Leo's.

The priest from Saint Leo's came to us instead, and said it was the first wedding he'd ever done next to a bait cooler.

The night guard stood at the door of the hall with his laundry basket.

Every Family between Philadelphia and Richmond came as guests.

The Annapolis boss put in a revolver and a pair of sunglasses.

The Philadelphia boss put in a pistol, and his wife put in a pistol too, and he looked at her in horror.

The Richmond widow put in her little pearl-handled thing and a wedding card fat with cash.

The steward was the best man.

He'd asked to be.

He'd said nobody else on the pier knew where Dario kept the rings.

The crossword teller was the maid of honor.

She wore purple and held the steward's hand through the whole Mass.

I wore my mother's wedding dress, ivory satin with a hundred pearl buttons down the back.

My mother sewed me into the last ten.

← Chapter 30 · All chapters · Chapter 32 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend