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But Signora Fioretti was incredibly fond of Massimo for rescuing her granddaughter. She beamed and said yes.
That was when I finally saw the Lucia that Massimo had fallen in love with.
He barely got out the questionWill you marry mewhen Lucia screamed out ‘Yes!’ and kissed him passionately.
I wondered with an ache in my heart if Sofia would have ever displayed that level of enthusiasm towards me.
I guess I’d never know.
However, I pushed her out of my mind. Everything else was going great –
Until the subject of Valentino’s impending marriage in Sicily came up.
Apparently, Alessandra was back to icing out Dario over the matter. The cold shoulder she gave her husband was positively Arctic.
I knew I was going to have to help Dario smooth it over –
But there was another conversation I had to have first.
I walked around, trying to find a quiet place to make a call. I finally settled on the hospital’s chapel, which was deserted at the moment.
A picture of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child hung on the wall at the front.
“Wish me luck,” I muttered to them, then hit a button on the screen.
Don Vicari answered. A moment later, he brought Valentino to the phone.
“He’s fine!” I told my youngest brother. “Massimo just woke up and he’s going to be fine!”
“Thank God,”he said weakly.
I gave him the details, then decided to play the sympathy card with Vicari. “Given the circumstances, can we postpone the wedding?”
“No,”the asshole said.
“Don Vicari, it’s only five days away. I’m not sure Massimo will have recovered enough to attend – ”
“Then let him stay in the hospital.”
Seriously, fuck this guy.
We argued back and forth, with me putting forward every reasonable argument I could think of, but Vicari refused to budge.
Valentino must have gotten tired of the back-and-forth because he butted in and asked,“What about Roberto?”
“Good news there, as well,” I said, though I was still pissed at Vicari. “He’s returning from Hong Kong around 8 o’clock tonight.”
“Did he – was he successful?”
Translation:
Did he get the 50 million euros back?
“VERY successful,” I said with a huge smile.
I should’ve anticipated what came next, considering who I was talking to –
But in my joy over Massimo and Roberto, I let my guard down and got blindsided.