She Took My Wedding, So I Married the Don novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Uncle

Silvio's uncle takes her chin in his fingers and Claire moves his hand away. He warns that six council men will sit in the church, and that he has invited Shane and Tara to watch.

Silvio's uncle sat in the front room in the big leather chair by the window.

It was the best chair in the house, and he had not been asked to sit in it.

He was about sixty, with silver hair combed back and a gold watch loose on his wrist.

He didn't stand up when we came in.

"So this is her," he said.

"Zio," Silvio said. "You could have called."

"I did. You didn't pick up." The uncle looked me over from my shoes to my hair. "Come here, girl. Let me see what my nephew found at midnight."

I stayed where I was.

"I'm Claire," I said. "I'm an emergency room nurse. I'm happy to talk, but I'll do it from here."

His eyebrows lifted.

Silvio's hand settled on the small of my back.

It was a light touch, and it stayed there.

I felt every finger of it through my dress.

"My nephew's marrying a nurse," the uncle said. "Tomorrow. At four. In a church I helped pay for."

"Yes."

"How long have you known him?"

I looked at Silvio, and Silvio looked at nothing.

I decided the truth was the only thing I could say fast enough.

"A month," I said. "He sat outside my mother's house on Sundays. I took him dinner."

"A plate of dinner."

"Pot roast, mostly. Once it was a ham."

Somewhere behind me, Bruno made a small sound.

The uncle laughed, once, with no warmth in it.

"A pot roast romance. And tonight you were engaged to somebody else."

"Until tonight, yes."

"Mr. Redford phoned me an hour ago," the uncle said. "He insures half the shops on Passyunk Avenue, and he was very upset. He said you walked out of your own dinner and got into my nephew's car."

My stomach went cold.

Shane had called this man within minutes of watching me leave.

"Then he knows where I am," I said. "He can stop worrying."

"Your mother owes this family a great deal of money." The uncle crossed one leg over the other. "You marry the man who holds the note, and the note goes away. That isn't a wedding. That's a purchase."

"My mother owes the money, not me."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because my sister is wearing my wedding dress tomorrow," I said. "And I'd like somebody in that church to be looking at me instead."

The room went quiet.

The uncle stood up, slowly, and came across the carpet, and I understood he had been waiting for this part.

He took my chin between his fingers and turned my face toward the lamp.

"Pretty enough," he said. "Not a Carrara girl. Not a woman who knows how to be quiet when she's told."

Silvio's hand left my back.

I put mine on the uncle's wrist before Silvio could do anything with his.

"Don't," I said.

The uncle looked down at my fingers.

I moved his hand away from my face and let it go.

"You don't touch me again," I said. "Not tomorrow, not Sunday, not at my own wedding."

Nobody in the room moved.

Silvio said nothing at all.

But a muscle moved in his jaw, and I saw that he was very close to smiling.

"She bites," the uncle said.

"She does," Silvio said.

"I'll be in the third pew tomorrow." The uncle fixed the cuff of his shirt. "With six men from the council. If there is a question about this girl, it gets asked at noon on Sunday, in front of all of them."

"There won't be a question."

"There's always a question." He took his coat from the arm of the sofa and stopped at the door. "I told Mr. Redford he should come tomorrow. He and the sister. A family ought to see a wedding."

"That's my wedding slot," I said. "It's in my name."

"Then they'll have a good view."

He looked at his watch.

"People like to record a wedding, Silvio. Tell your bride to smile."

The door shut behind him, and the house was quiet again.

Silvio let out a long, slow sigh and sat down in his father's chair.

"You moved his hand," he said.

"He touched my face."

"Nobody has moved that man's hand in thirty years."

"Then somebody was overdue."

He looked up at me from the leather chair, and for the first time that night, his face was open.

"Go to bed, Claire," he said. "Tomorrow he'll be watching everything you do."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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