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But what about her? Would I make Sabrina stronger? Weaker? Will there be more of a target on my back because she's marrying me?I took her from a Syndicate prince, didn’t I? That… Kane guy. As much as I want to deny it, I know Sabrina is safer with Parker than without him. After all, he seems to know her better than she knows herself most days.
"Your mother was a great woman, Maksim." My father says, disrupting my thoughts.
"I know."
"Loved by both the Cosa Nostra and the Bratva. She was," his voice breaks "the most incredible woman I have ever known. We hated each other, did you know that? She hardly spoke English when we were married. She hated having been forced to marry me, and I didn't want her. I wanted to keep fucking whoever pleased my eye for the evening. I thought a wife would only slow me down..." he trails off and I can see the memories dancing behind his eyes. He shakes his head, and I don't interrupt him, seeing as this is the most he's ever talked about her.
"But then we were forced to live together, and I found that I lived for the moments she cursed me in Russian. And then all too soon... I simply lived... for her." I can hear his lungs rattle from where I stand. "I was distracted from my duties and matters at hand. Simply living to make my wife and my son happy, and it caught up to me. But she knew the snakes and the vermin in my gardens. Could spot them a mileaway... a queen rises from ashes and helps eradicate those that mean her king harm..." he takes another wet breath in.
"Your bride... you either keep her close when she makes you stronger... or you keep her at arm's length. And when she meets the famiglias, who are expecting your return soon," another wet gasp, "they will need to believe this marriage you have brought upon yourself... and vice versa, Maksim. They'll need to believe you love her... since you rejected the offers for their daughters over and over again... For you'll be blood by bond. And the famiglias... they don't forget."
That isexactlywhy I told Sabrina she had to seem in love with me the night of the charity fight – the heads here talk to the heads back in Italy. She passed that test with flying colors, obviously, and made it seem as though I was also smitten with her as well. Two unlikely beings, a lawyer and a crime boss, in love. She even made me believe she liked me, at least a little bit... but I realized the day of the plane incident, that she truly couldn't stand me. She doesn't want this marriage today any more than she wanted it the day her father told her.
I haven't made her feel welcomed or wanted, either.
She wants nothing to do with me.
She doesn't want the notoriety that will come with being my wife. Not my touch, not my kiss, not my money, not my heir, not even my protection. And it’s all my fault. Even though I watch her closely through screens, I don’t know who my wife really is. Brilliant, of course, a beautiful liar… but not much else.
There's a knock on the door, and I realize I've merely been staring at my father. I seem to do that a lot when I think of Sabrina, and I see what my father means - she's already a distraction. If I ever fall in love with this woman... I can't love her alone. I have duties to uphold. I have too much on my shoulders, this metaphorical crown thrust upon me at only thirty is so goddamn heavy, I feel at times my skull is cracking wide open.
Parker flashes through my mind just as another knock comes through. The way he loves her and how she seems to tolerate him.
"Hey cousin, everyone is seated. The priest is ready."
"One second," I call out to Kallum, my only cousin and head of the Chicago chapter, but keep my eyes steady on the man who's fading quickly before me. "It's a contract meant to bind us to the Syndicate... and nothing more."
He quirks a brow. "Il Sindicato?"
I nod.
"Ottimo."Very well.And then, "I trust you, son. With more than just my very life."
His empire, he doesn't say.
The one that dies with me.
I blink, and before I open the door of the Groom's suite and incline my head at Niko to let him know I'm ready, my father decides to leave me with a nugget of wisdom.
"If you fall for her, or you don't, be prepared to lose her. That's what this world is, Maksim. We are born alone... and we die alone."
Again, Parker flashes through my mind. "...All that matters is that she stays alive in your world until you get your money. And I think we both know that without me, she won't survive it."
Six hundred seventy-five thousand, four hundred twenty-three dollars and fifty-three cents.
That's how much this venue that hosts up to five hundred people cost us to rent for the weekend. It's a gorgeous, enormous, three-story rustic lodge we rented for our three hundred guests to stay, bordering New York and Canada. There's a large lake outside the venue where we're supposed to marry, with a mountain backdrop,“perfect for pictures,”then everyone will head inside the venue for the reception, which is decorated to absolute perfection.
It's a beautiful day, even with heavy clouds overhead that either promise a storm later or snow on that mountain. As I make my way down the hallway, Giovanni, my father's second and Kallum’s father, wheels him down to the elevator while Niko and I go down the grand staircase that splits the bridal suite from the groom's suite. At the base of the stairs is where the reception will be.
I have no idea how Sabrina pulled this off. It looks like I stepped into a fairytale. While the walls are oak, there are large champagne, cream and what I found out is calledrose pinkdrapes along the floor-to-ceiling windows. It all ebbs and flows together, along with the twinkling lights hung from each wooden pillar that holds up the ceiling.
It takes Niko and I six full minutes to walk from the base of the stairs, outside, past the seated guests, and to my place at the altar, also impeccably decorated with an archway. The priest waits patiently and then Raven comes by, taking her seat by the pianist. She looks like a little grim reaper cosplaying as a Barbie today, and when she inclines her head at me in a nod, I look at all the facesstaring back at me. I smile at Tildy and Derek, then find my father in the front seat on my side beside the rest of the heads and their wives. There's an empty seat beside him, with a picture frame holding my mother's photo.My father crosses himself, kisses his fingers, and gently places them on her photograph.
It all points to Sabrina.
Of course she would do something small and thoughtful like that.
I swallow down my emotions before I can even start to wonder if my mother would have loved my wife-to-be… I don’t have to wonder. I feel like I already know the answer.