"When, Liam?" Yavin asked again.
"Her graduation is May 8th. I originally had planned to combine her graduation party with her wedding, at Tiernan's insistence. She has begged for it to be held on a different day so she can say goodbye to the life she would have chosen for herself. So melodramatic, she is."
"May 9th," Yavin grunted. "I'll allow her to have that last day with her classmates, but I'll be accompanying her and showing my support. We'll marry the next day."
Liam's face softened for a moment, obviously pleased with the concession on his daughter's behalf. "I'm sure she will appreciate it, Son."
Yavin swallowed. Nerves. Emotion. All of it in that one action. With a father who'd abandoned him at a young age, I suspected it would take him some time before he adjusted to the term. To a male voice calling him his son.
He had less than three months before Aoife was his wife.
I did not look forward to the conversation I needed to have with Matteo. If Sadie spending time with her friends and the risk of someone else telling him hadn't been enough, watching Yavin claim Aoife as his would have pushed me over the edge.
Sadie wasn't a dirty little secret that I wanted to hide away. She'd be my wife. She'd be the mother of my children one day.
All of that started with telling Matteo the truth and hoping he didn't kill me for it. Given his insistence that I not get involved with her in the first place, I didn't hold high hopes for surviving in one piece. Matteo didn't know Sadie, not really, despite all the time he'd spent with her because of Ivory's close relationship with her best friend. He hadn't bothered to see beneath the image she put forward and her admittedly over the top humor.
As Matteo shifted gears in the Aston and we made our way back to the estate, I drew in a deep breath. Did I tell him at the Estate? In the car where he could drive us off a cliff?
Choices, choices.
"How much trouble has she given you this far?" he asked, speeding around vehicles on the highway.
"Aside from trying to sneak out that first night, she's been fine. She puts up a front, but she's not stupid about it."
"Sadie's reckless. It's only a matter of time before she does something that puts herself in danger. Keep your guard up where she's concerned. I wouldn't be surprised if she was behaving well just to manipulate you into underestimating her," he grunted with a laugh. It was the first time I'd heard what came close to affection in his voice, as if Sadie had somehow wormed her way into his closed off soul.
"It doesn't matter much. Sadie knows I'm not going anywhere, and she's stuck with me," I answered. My finger tapped on the center console five times, taking comfort in knowing that the number brought Sadie solace. It made me feel oddly connected to her with such a simple action. "That's a permanent situation."
"War doesn't last forever, Enzo. Eventually she'll be able to go about her business without you in it," Matteo laughed. "I should think you know that better than anyone."
He pulled off the highway, approaching the turn he'd need to take to go toward the Estate. "Sadie isn't just a job for me. She's mine."
His grip tightened on the wheel. "I told you not to go there with her. She'll never be okay with being a Bellandi wife, and the whole thing will explode in my face when the two of you can't be in the same room. I won't have Ivory and Luna suffering because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants," he said through gritted teeth.
"And if Ivory had said no, would you have taken that at face value? Oh, wait," I murmured. "She said no, and you took her and married her, anyway. The same way I'll do with Sadie."
"It's one thing to take and push a woman you know wants you, but doing that to a woman who genuinely doesn't want to be with you goes against our code. She has to be willing, beneath all her hesitance to commit. She has to at least want you beneath that stubborn shit about us not being good for them."
I didn't think Matteo realized just how much like a predator he sounded. Most rapists brushed off the woman's response as being a game, as being something that she wanted but wouldn't admit.
The phrase "she begged me for it," automatically came to mind, but I'd also been there to see the results of his marriage with Ivory. The same for Lino and Samara and Ryker and Calla. There was something there. Something different, and we never raped our women.
"That's not a problem," I answered with a chuckle. "She's made it clear she wants me."
Matteo sighed, pissed off energy sparking within the car. "You already fucked her? When I specifically ordered you not to?"
"You don't get to determine where I put my dick, especially not when it comes to Sadie. There's not much that I'll fight you over, Matteo. But Sadie is it. I'll walk away for her."
Silence filled the car as he thought over my words, and eventually he pulled into the Estate. Anxiety pulled at me, making me feel desperate with the need to fill the silence. But I wouldn't be the one to crack. He shifted into park, turning a sly smile my way. “Fine,” he growled, dissatisfaction in his voice. “Maybe it's punishment enough that I'll get to sit back and enjoy watching you try to tame that," he said pointedly. Sadie stood in the front door, blocked by Scar's body as he kept her within the house. With a hand on her hips, she stared him down and poked him in the chest.
Matteo and I got out of the car, and I sighed as Scar turned his eyes our way and stepped out of Sadie's path.
