Page 19

A ball-and-chain ceremony.

From across the room, even when Sandro’s face was expressionless, I could feel him beseeching me to play along.

The priest stood before us and looked uneasy. He kept patting his forehead as if he was sweating, which reminded me of the dress I was wearing and its high neckline.

Sandro stepped forward, but instead of going straight to me, he stopped by an empty chair and that was when I saw it. A bouquet of sunflowers.

I didn’t know whether to hate him or love him for it.

He walked toward me. A trace of a smile on his mouth. “A bride needs a bouquet.”

I stared at it. The room was just reduced to Sandro and me. It was a thoughtful gesture but out of place in the scheme of things.

“Bianca…” Sandro said with a warning in his tone.

Murmurings went around the room. He held it out again, so I took it.

I could feel his relief, as well as Tommy’s and the priest’s. This wasn’t over. If Sandro thought he could fix this charade with my favorite flower, he was mistaken. It was looking more and more like the grooms had switched.

A fleeting relief loosened my lungs. But until Renz was out of this hellhole and in a hospital, I couldn’t think of a future past that.

I lowered my eyes at the bouquet. Three sunflowers stared up at me, their merry faces giving me a tiny lift.

“Am I marrying you?” I asked, without looking at him.

“Yes.”

Tommy took his place at Sandro’s side as his best man. I was still reeling from the turn of events when the priest started, “We are gathered here today…

“Do you Bianca De Lucci take Alessandro Rossi as your lawfully wedded husband?”

The tears came. The irony of that statement just hit me where everything inside me revolted. Those were the words I dreamed of hearing ever since I turned twelve. That one day I was going to marry this man beside me.

I raised my eyes to Sandro.

He was staring grimly into my eyes. He didn’t want this, but he was doing this to save me. This was not the fairy tale I imagined, but the choice was out of my hands. I did this, Renz could go home.

“I do.”

The priest asked the same of Sandro, and he answered, “I do.”

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.”

I stared down at the bouquet and realized I’d mangled one sunflower and its petals lay torn at my feet.

“You may now kiss the bride.”

My head remained bowed.

His finger came under my chin and lifted it so I could look directly into his eyes. There was a trace of apology there.

And when his hard mouth touched mine, it was the briefest kiss in history.

It was worse than the time I kissed him by surprise.

He’d responded then, before pushing me away.

Now all I got was a pity kiss.