The Mafia Don's Vetoed Bride novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: A Ring Is Not a Release

Edoardo's men block the road and he claims she is still his bride; Vivi stands on the asphalt and holds him off with the Veto. In the car Cassio admits he has known about Lugano for eight months.

I got into the car because I had nowhere else to go.

Cassio Rinaldi sat beside me in the back and didn't speak until the house was out of sight.

"You didn't bring a bag," he said.

"I have a funeral dress and a phone."

"That's enough to start with."

I turned to look at him.

"Why were you at my mother's wake?"

"Your father and I have an arrangement. I stop by every spring."

"For dues."

"If that's what Carlo calls it."

He said it flatly, and I let it go.

I was thinking about the white envelope, and about how little my father had looked at it.

I was also thinking that I couldn't go to any place my father could name.

"Not your house either," I said. "Not if it's the first place anyone checks."

"It isn't. Nobody checks my house."

Before I could answer, the driver braked.

Two black sedans had stopped across the road ahead, nose to tail, blocking both lanes.

Men were stepping out of them with their jackets open.

I knew every face.

They were Mancuso men, and I had served half of them coffee at my engagement dinners.

"Stay down," Cassio said.

"No."

He looked at me.

"They're here for me," I said. "If I'm in the car, somebody gets shot over me."

I opened the door and stepped onto the asphalt in my black dress and my bare, swollen knees.

Cassio's driver got out on the other side with a pistol held low.

Edoardo walked up the center of the road.

He had changed his suit since the wake. He didn't look angry.

"Vivi," he said. "Come home, and we'll talk."

"I said all of it. There's nothing left to talk about."

"You said it in front of two hundred people, and you were grieving, and no one will hold it against you."

He held up the ring between two fingers.

"A ring in a palm isn't a release," he said. "In my family a Don releases a bride in writing."

"I'm not your bride."

"Your father signed the contract. Your wedding is Saturday."

"My mother's funeral is frozen for a year, and the only person who can lift that is me."

His eyes moved to Cassio, who had stepped out and now stood a pace behind me.

"Rinaldi," Edoardo said. "You always did like to turn up where you weren't invited."

"She invited me," Cassio said. "You can ask her."

I hadn't. I didn't correct him.

Edoardo took a step closer, and every gun on the road moved a little.

He dropped his voice, so only I could hear.

"Fabio is still in that house, Vivi. So is your father. Think about what happens to them if you make me look like a fool this week."

My mouth was dry.

My brother Fabio was a coward who had known about Lugano and said nothing.

I still didn't want him in the water.

"You listen to me," I said. "Every head of family in that room heard me use the Veto."

"I heard you."

"Then you know what it means if you lay a hand on me on a public road, in front of Rinaldi men."

I said it loud enough for the driver and the six Mancuso soldiers to hear.

"It means you broke the Veto in front of witnesses. Say it, Edoardo. Say you want that on your name."

The soldiers looked at each other.

Edoardo looked at me for a long time.

Then he put the ring in his pocket.

"Five days," he said. "On Saturday I come for you, and nothing you say will matter."

He turned to Cassio.

"Enjoy her while she's yours."

The sedans backed out of the road one at a time.

My legs went all at once, and Cassio's hand closed around my arm before I hit the ground.

He put me back in the car himself.

I sat there shaking, with my hands pressed between my knees.

"He's lying about the contract," Cassio said. "A contract that needs the bride to be willing isn't worth the paper."

"I know."

"And he wants Saturday because Saturday is when the docks change hands."

"I know that too."

The car pulled away.

"My mother is alive," I said to the window. "She's in Lugano with Silvia and the baby."

"I know."

I turned my head.

"You know where my mother is?"

"I know where Edoardo's wife is." He kept his eyes ahead. "Silvia Pagano has lived in a rented villa above Lake Lugano for eight months."

"You said you were coming to my mother's wake because of dues."

"I did."

"You've known about Lugano for eight months."

"Yes."

"And you let me kneel by that coffin all night."

For the first time, he didn't answer right away.

"I didn't know about the coffin," he said. "I'm sorry for that part."

It was only the part.

I heard it, and so did he.

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