Rejected at the Altar, Married to the Mafia Alpha novel · Chapter 3 of 32

Chapter 3: An Order Too Early

Chiara confronts Damon with the predating order; Bianca catches his lie. Damon reveals a sealed room behind the depot east wall.

"Who gave you this?" I asked the collector.

He kept the paper close to his chest.

"Pack office. I'm here to post it, not debate it."

Behind me, Valerio said, "The stay is stamped. You can't remove anyone."

"I was ordered to post this yesterday. It doesn't remove anyone tonight."

"Then post it without pretending it outranks the stay."

The collector looked at the two guards on the pavement and lowered his voice.

"I get paid to carry paper. Let me carry it."

I stepped aside.

He fastened the order to the depot door with four silver tacks.

The metal stung my nose.

I waited until he walked away, then pulled the page free.

"That is a public notice," Valerio said.

"Good. The public can see it in my hand."

Rita brought us the rest of supper wrapped in cloth.

I put the order on my workbench and set a heavy lamp over it.

The date was clear.

The order also named the depot's east wall as a place collectors must seal.

I put my finger over the line so Rita could see it.

"That wall is behind the pantry," she said.

Valerio looked at the order.

"Why seal a brick wall before clearing the beds?"

Rita touched the paper, then pulled her hand away.

I wanted to ask him who had written it.

The answer was down the street, preparing to bond with Bianca.

I took the order back to the pack hall.

Valerio came because the debt was still his account.

Rita came because nobody could stop her.

The ceremony had been stripped by the time we arrived.

White flowers lay in black trash bags by the doors.

Damon and Bianca stood under the last arch while a photographer packed his lights.

Damon saw the order in my hand and sent the photographer out.

"I thought you'd be enjoying your wedding night," he said.

"You ordered the depot emptied yesterday."

"My father handled the debt."

"You announced it tonight like a surprise."

"I was trying to spare you."

Bianca turned toward him.

"You told me the creditor called this afternoon."

"He did."

Valerio folded his arms.

"I called after noon. This order has an office stamp from yesterday morning."

Damon's face tightened.

"You can keep the building if you come back," he told me.

Bianca stepped away from his arm.

"That isn't what you said when I agreed to stand beside you."

"Stay out of it."

Bianca caught me beside the discarded flowers before I reached the copier.

She did not look at Valerio.

"I thought he told you," she said.

"About you? He told me today, with everyone watching."

She pulled a wilted white rose from its stem.

"He said you had already agreed it was over."

"Did he say that before or after he asked you to wear silver?"

Her cheeks colored.

"Three weeks ago."

I had spent those weeks fitting Rita's blue thread into the cord.

Bianca saw it in my hand.

"I'm sorry," she said, and I could hear how little room she had for the words.

"Then listen when I ask him about the east wall," I told her.

Damon called her from the altar.

She did not answer at once.

I left her beside the flowers and carried the order back to Damon.

I held it between him and Valerio.

"Why does it say you'll seal the east wall?"

Damon took a step forward.

"Give me that."

"No."

He reached anyway.

Valerio moved beside me, but I was already walking around the altar.

"You don't know what you're holding," Damon said.

"I know enough to keep a copy."

The pack hall had a small copier behind the reception desk.

I fed the page through while the three of them watched.

It took so long that I heard every turn of the machine.

I gave Damon his notice back.

His fingers brushed the stamped corner, then stopped.

"That room was closed before you were born," he said.

Damon looked at Rita, and for once he had nothing ready to say.

Rita went still beside me.

"There is a room," she said.

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