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“Why are you here, Dominic?” the man behind the desk, smoking a cigar, asked after several awkward moments.

Dom knew this wasn’t going to end well, and even though Lucca had told him he would handle his father, Dominic still needed to face him, man-to-man. If he didn’t have the balls to face his fiancé’s father, then he didn’t deserve to marry her at all.

“Dante, I came to you out of respect to tell you—”

“That you’re fucking my daughter?” Dante finished for him. “You think I don’t know what is going on in my own damn business? You’ve been prancing around here with her for days.”

Flexing his jaw, Dominic managed to keep his cool, even with the boss’s blatant disrespect for a situation where he didn’t have the correct facts.

Beginning again, he spoke the words harshly so he would not be interrupted this time. “I came here to tell you that I’m marrying your daughter.”

Dante impassively puffed on his cigar.

“You already know,” Dominic said, not seeing any additional hatred in the man’s ice-blue eyes than what was already there.

He’d been more upset at the thought he was fucking his daughter under his roof than marrying her. Like everyone else, Dante was no different, assuming a man with the last name Luciano had bad intentions. Dominic Luciano had shown more respect to the Caruso boss’s daughter than his own soldiers, and it wouldn’t matter if he told him, Dante wouldn’t believe it.

“Unfortunately, my son has already informed me.” Grabbing the cigar from his mouth, he almost crushed it. “You should have listened to Lucca when he told you not to come see me. Whatever it is you want from me, Dominic, I’m not fucking interested. You can see yourself out.”

Nodding, Dom stood up, seeing that Lucca had been right, but the second his back turned, he turned right back around to face Dante a second time. “I didn’t come here as the Luciano boss; I came here as a man to speak with the father of the woman I love.”

“She hasn’t told you?” he asked, putting the cigar back to his mouth.

Dom’s brows furrowed. “Told me what?”

“When she cleared your name as One-Shot, I told Maria, if she saw you again, she would be dead to me.” The boss blew out a puff of smoke. “I knew no dance with my daughter would be harmless, and I was right.”

The rage that flowed through Dominic took everything he had to not let his fist meet that man’s face.

It hadn’t only been Lucca who had told him not to see him; Maria has said it as well. It was no wonder she didn’t want to invite him to the wedding. Dom didn’t want her to regret it one day, and it was part of the reason why he’d come, in hopes her father would be there to see his only daughter marry. Then again, Maria didn’t look at him as a father anymore—and there was no way she could after he’d disowned her.

“Those are unforgivable words, Dante, words you will come to regret once your son takes every last thing from you. When that happens, I want you to remember that it was you who managed to destroy the only precious thing you would have had left—and you did it all on your own.”

“You do not know what it’s like to father a child.” Dante’s cigar crashed as he hit his hands to the desk and stood. “And you do not know what it’s fucking like to have your daughter marry the son of the man who murdered your wife.”

“You don’t care to know a thing about me, Dante.” Dominic released his clenched fist as he went to the door. Dante would never see past the seven-letter name … “My father being Lucifer is all you’ll ever care to know.”

Fifty

The Truth Of It All

If it was up to Maria, they would have gone to the courthouse and tied the knot right after that ring was put on her finger. An imitation Elvis Presley could have married her for all she fucking cared, but Dominic wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t want a wedding that was a joke or one that looked like it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, even if it was. Maria, however, never saw herself committing to spending an eternity with a man in a church for everyone to witness. Hell, Maria hadn’t seen herself marrying anyone ever. So, they had compromised. They would have a small wedding for only family, not a joining of the two mafia families.

It was safer, as well, since One-Shot was still at-large. Another big meeting of the families would only end in more bloodshed as tensions were still high. It worked out for Maria, because a wedding was never what she wanted, and all Dominic wanted was a ceremony that held meaning, and if his siblings were there and he was marrying Maria, then that was all he cared about.