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"What do you have against marriage, Mas?" Giancarlo asked finally.

"Nothing."

"Then it is Ynez you have a problem with?" Cesare's tone was skeptical. "I still remember how you were five years ago when she was still your mystery girl."

"I remember those days, too," Ezio felt obliged to add. "You described her as if she were the girl of your dreams—-"

"I never said she isn't that anymore."

Cesare exchanged looks with his other brothers. The stiffness of Massimo's tone made their brother sound as if he was feeling guilty and unable to accept the truth, rather than feeling offended on his girlfriend's behalf.

Giancarlo looked at his younger brother more closely. "If it is neither marriage nor Ynez that is keeping you from proposing to her, then what exactly is the problem? You cannot be worried aboutNonna,surely? She has made it clear that she will not force us to marry another woman if we have already found someone before she's picked a bride."

"Nonnahas nothing to do with my feelings about marriage. It's something else." Massimo's jaw clenched as he tried to find thewords that would not paint his lover in a bad light. "It is as if Ynez has...changed, and the girl I met the first time was a complete illusion."

"How you two met was not typical," Giancarlo reminded him. "Might it be possible that you've unfairly placed Ynez on a pedestal because of it?"

Even though Massimo could see the sense in his brother's words, his guts told him that was not the problem entirely between him and Ynez.

While the two of them had dated on and off for years, it had never feltcompletelyright between them, the way it had...the first time they had met. But because Ynez was also everything he wanted in a woman (and in Massimo's case, this simply meant Ynez was everything his gold-digging mother was not), he had convinced himself that it would be entirely unrealistic to ask for more.

"Do you think it is possible that something might have happened—-some life-changing incident," Ezio suggested, "and that could have caused her to change?"

Fuck.

Only one thing came to mind as soon as he heard his older brother's words. Ynez's childhood, like his, was no walk in the park. Not only had her father died early, also like his, but Ynez had a traumatic incident when she was still in high school...and Massimo could see why such an incident might cause Ynez to act like a completely different person at times.

CESARE AND PENELOPE'Swedding the next day was both a joyous and bittersweet occasion for Massimo to witness. As he and Cesare were of the same age but born to different mothers, the two of them had been pitted constantly against each other, and they had not been the best of friends growing up.

Adulthood, however, had changed all of that. The two of them had become thick as thieves, and no one knew better than Massimo how incredible it was for Cesare to end up falling in love with his arranged bride.

It was after over an hour of dancing that one of the family-owned choppers came to pick up the newlyweds, and since the bride and groom were no longer with them, Massimo was also ready to call it a night.

But just as he was about to get to his feet,La Stregacame over to the table he shared with his brothers, and the look on her still-lovely face had Massimo knowing right away something was up.

"May we speak in private, Massimo?"

A request from his grandmother was never truly a request, and Massimo obligingly walked the older woman to one of the private balconies circling the ballroom.

"Why do I have a feeling this isn't going to be good?" he asked her teasingly.

"Because you take after me," she answered archly.

"Conscienceless?"

"Intuitive."

A crooked smile touched Massimo's lips as he stepped back from his grandmother. "Since it is not your style to wastetime on flattering any of your grandsons—-what you're about to command me to do must be something incredibly important."

Since Potenziana saw no point beating around the bush, she simply met her grandson's gaze and said her piece.

"I have found a bride for you."

A muscle started ticking in Massimo's jaw. He had known this day would come sooner or later, but wasn't this a little too soon?

"Her parents and I expect both of you to be married in a fortnight."

"Am I allowed to know who she is before our wedding?"