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“We could leave if you want, you know?”
I kept my face neutral. “No, it would look like weakness. But we can just have two courses if you prefer to leave quickly.”
Emma slowly shook her head. “It’s okay. I can handle it. I’m used to people’s attention, and their judgment. Not quite this aggressive but still.”
“She shouldn’t have attacked you. It’s my fault her son’s dead. You are innocent. You didn’t even have a choice to marry me.”
Emma moved her hand across the table, then froze, uncertainty filling her eyes. Public displays of affection weren’t something I or anyone from my family were known for, but I put my hand on hers and left it there. People could know that she was mine and that I had no trouble showing it. Emma’s eyes softened. “If you ever want to talk…”
I cleared my throat and looked back down at the menu. “The gnocchi al tartufo and the spaghetti al nero de seppie are particularly good, but everything is delicious.”
“I’ll have the spaghetti then and the scaloppine afterward. I’d really love a dessert too.”
“Take whatever you like.”
I ordered two glasses of prosecco to start and a bottle of white wine to go with theprimi. Emma and I clinked glasses. Emma took two small sips while I emptied half the glass. “I’m not used to drinking much so I don’t know how much of the wine I’ll actually drink.”
“Don’t worry. I can hold my liquor.”
I was still a bit shaken over the confrontation, but after I’d drank my prosecco, I felt more relaxed. Of course, I still noticed the curious glances being cast our way. I had been prepared for those, but I hadn’t expected an incident from Samuel’s past to be the reason for it. I had been a child when Samuel had tried to save his sister. Domenico must have been with him and had lost his life cruelly. If he’d died because of torture at the hands of the Falcones, it must have been horrible. Had Samuel witnessed his death? Had he been tortured too?
I could tell from Samuel’s closed-off face and from the polite dinner conversation about food and the sights of Minneapolis that he upheld that he wasn’t willing to share anything. Definitely not here under the watchful eyes of so many people.
When we headed back to Samuel’s car after dinner, I felt unease at the idea of Samuel driving us home. He’d drunk a lot. But I couldn’t drive myself. “We could ask Leo to pick us up,” I said carefully.
Samuel shook his head. “I didn’t drink that much. I don’t feel intoxicated.”
He opened the passenger door for me. For him, the topic was obviously over. I knew Made Men drank and drove, but since my accident, I definitely was very aware when someone did it. I didn’t remember anything from the accident, or maybe my reaction would have been even stronger. Still, my heart rate picked up as I slid into the car and waited for Samuel to put my wheelchair in the trunk before he slid in beside me.
My pulse didn’t stop racing during the ride home, but I remained silent, not wanting to get into a fight with Samuel at this early stage of our marriage. I could tell this topic would make him angry if I confronted him more insistently. Nothing happened, but I was still relieved when we arrived at our mansion.
“I told you I’m not drunk,” Samuel said with a hint of annoyance before he got out of the car. He must have sensed my tension throughout the ride.
When he opened my door for me, I quickly gripped the handle of my wheelchair before Samuel could lift me and hoisted myself into it. I was too agitated. We walked up the ramp side by side, and I was trying to choose my words carefully, which proved very difficult. “I’m not sure it’s a good thing that you’re not drunk, considering how much you drank.” A glass of prosecco, a bottle of white wine, a glass of red, and a digestif.
His walk became stiffer, and his face closed off as he opened the front door for me. “You are my wife, not my mother.” His hard eyes met mine. “My word is law in our marriage, and you won’t tell me what to do. You won’t doubt my decisions, especially not in front of others, understood?”
I flinched as if he’d slapped me. Of course, I knew he held the reins in our marriage by tradition but for him to voice it likethat. “Understood.”
Before we’d left for the restaurant, I’d been eager to return home and be intimate with Samuel. Now? Not so much. Theevents of the evening had been unsettling in so many ways, and his words now simply were my tipping point. Nevertheless, I forced my voice to calm. “Would you mind if I tried to call Giorgia? I want to hear her take on the marriage to Renato.”
Samuel removed his jacket and hung it up in the cloakroom, then he turned to me in his form-fitting white shirt and gun holster. “Go ahead. I’ll have to call Renato anyway.”
With a tight smile, I moved toward the living room while Samuel disappeared in the direction of his office.
I closed my eyes briefly. Maybe I shouldn’t take Samuel’s harsh words to heart. The incident in the restaurant had definitely shaken him, even if he refused to admit it. I didn’t want to nag, but Samuel didn’t talk to me, so I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on. I had seen the brief flash of pain in his eyes when Domenico’s mother had attacked him. If he still carried so much guilt over his friend after all these years, he must have gone through a lot.
I positioned my wheelchair in front of the panoramic window and glanced out at the lake as I called Giorgia. It was already past ten, but unlike me, she was a night owl and spent at least an hour every night reading in bed.
“Emma! I tried to call you today, but you didn’t pick up.”
“Samuel and I had dinner at an Italian place so I had my phone on mute.”
“Date night? So things are going well?”
I pursed my lips. Were they going well? “It’s going better than anticipated, at least physically.” I blushed at the mention of our sex life.
Giorgia giggled. “You probably won’t share any details?”