Bianca shakes her head. “After everything we’ve been through, even though I’ve just had to save you from dying, you still want her?”
I nod. “I’ll want her for the rest of my days. I want a family with her. I can survive anything with her by my side.” I look at Lydia who is gazing up at me lovingly. My face softens for once. She’s making a new man out of me. My love for her is so strong that it became a matter of life and death. I clutch her to me.
“I don’t ever want us to be apart. I want to take care of you forever, this is meant to be. Lydia, be mine, marry me.”
Her face is shocked for a split second and then she smiles brightly. She knows as well as I do that this is the only way things can end for us. We’ve made it so far and now we have to take this all the way.
“Yes. Of course, I’ll marry you,” she whispers. I lean in to kiss her and it’s the sweetest kiss of my life. She won’t have to be scared anymore. I’m going to whisk her away from all of this craziness and give her the life she deserves. We’re going to make it to Rome. We’re going to see the world together. We’ll get married and have children together and be happy for the rest of our days, living in peace.
I set Lydia down on her feet and even though she’s still a little dizzy, she leans into me for support. That’s why I’m here, after all. I’m going to be her rock, for her sake and our baby. I look to Bianca and hope that she might have something positive to say to me.
But all she seems is angry. With her boot still holding Luca down, she’s never looked more powerful. She’s going to be perfect to run this family when I’m gone. I shake my head at her.
“Smile. Your brother is finally happy. You finally get to take your place as the head of the family.”
“I don’t want it. Not like this,” she hisses. She glares at Lydia. “You’ve ruined everything. I hope you know that.”
“Don’t speak to her like that,” I growl. “I thought you might’ve finally come to your senses. You just saved my life.”
She aims her gun right at me. “Maybe I should’ve shot you. You’d have more sense with a bullet through your brain.”
“Why can’t you just be happy for me?” I say. She purses her lips.
“She’s not right for you. This is wrong on so many levels. You’ll see, Lorenzo. She’s young and beautiful. She’ll break your heart and swap you for someone younger. You’ll see.”
“I would never do that,” Lydia says. She puts a hand on her stomach. “I love him. I love the baby we’re going to have...and I want you to be a part of it, Bianca. Please, give us a shot.”
“I’ll give you a shot,” Bianca snarls, cocking the gun again. “Get the hell out of here before I decide to actually shoot you. You’ve disgraced our family, Lorenzo. I never want to see your face again.”
The words hurt as much as I imagine a bullet would. She can’t be serious. But my sister is always serious, that’s the problem. Lydia’s hand clutches mine and I tug her back toward the house.
“Come on,” I say. “We don’t need her.”
But it hurts. My sister, turning her back on me feels like the biggest betrayal of my life. It’s always been the two of us against the world. Now she’s exiling me from her life as though I’ve done something much worse than fall in love. I don’t need anything more than Lydia in my life, but I wanted Bianca to see me thrive. I guess she doesn’t feel the same.
My head is held high as we walk away. Lydia squeezes my hand.
“Are you okay? Are you sure you want to do this? We could stay, we could make this work.”
I shake my head at her. “No, this isn’t my life anymore. I want to start afresh. Just me and you.”
“But won’t you miss it here?”
I glance back at Bianca. She’s threatening Luca, waving her gun around aggressively. I smile sadly to myself.
“No. I don’t think I will.”
CHAPTER TEN
TWO MONTHS LATER
Lydia
The Italian sun feels so welcoming on my shoulders that it’s hard to imagine that this whole thing is real. Not so long ago, I was living in the States, lucky to see the sun a few weeks a year. Now I’m here, on an Italian beach in the middle of nowhere, about to get married to the man of my dreams.
Everything has happened so fast. Now that I’m a few months pregnant, we knew we wanted to have the wedding before our first child arrives. Still, it also had to be perfect, and pulling off the perfect beach wedding in two months is no easy feat. We’ve had to fly in our guests from all over the place, but Lorenzo has handled that with all the money that he brought with him when we left Bianca and his mafia life behind. In many ways, I would’ve been happy for him to never touch that money again and make our own way, but I can’t complain since it’s paid for this beautiful wedding day and the diamond ring on my finger.
But as I wait now in my silk white dress for the ceremony to begin, I’m anxiously scanning the crowd for a familiar face. Bianca received her invite first, I made sure of it, and yet she’s the only one who never responded to our invitation. I was hoping she’d show up here today to try and make amends with Lorenzo, but since I have no idea whether she even read the invite, my hopes aren’t high of her showing up.
And I can see that it’s bothering Lorenzo too. He’s standing back at
