Union Of Death (Secrets of The Famiglia Part 2)

Chapter 29 (Aliyana)

I see Serena comparing dresses and she’s obviously isn’t liking hers very much when everyone gushes about Guilia’s dress, including her mother, Ilaria. In fact, for all Ilaria’s bitchiness, she has been a dream the entire wedding. She even backed ten dozen biscuits and 4 cakes just because she knows Guilia likes her cakes. I want to believe her niceness is real, I really do but I can’t. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“You look beautiful too Serena.” She beams at me and I wink before I grab my phone from the passage table and begin to walk down before my sister. The amount of people in our entrance hall is an easy sixty. From our old Zia Irene to our Uncle Thomas, and Capo Marcello standing next to Nicole, they were all here, seeing their not so virgin bride walking down the stairs before she gets to the car.

Deno is waiting downstairs, looking exceptionally neat in a tuxedo.

Our house is packed and it feels like a funeral the way everyone is glaring at me. It is almost like they all know my secrets like they can see I am hiding something or someone.

I know that is not possible. The phone in my hand vibrates at that moment. A reminder of that secret and what I now have to do.

A lot can happen in a few months, including losing your virginity to a man you have no intention of marrying. And My father is standing downstairs waiting to give my sister to the man I once thought I would marry.

Slow steps, one at a time, down I go, people whisper as I finally reach the bottom stairs.

After a quick, run and greet as my sister’s maid of honor, we take a half-hour to get to the Catholic Church.

Walking inside, I see Leonardo standing next to Marco and Deno by the alter, waiting with the Priest. For some insane reason, the news I heard this morning pops in my head. The shootout at the docks

about 2 days ago, was now the new talk of Seattle, they were calling it gang wars, blaming the Mexicans and I’m sure that is what Marco and Deno wanted to happen. Then again, I did stroke his coat when I practically told him it was the Outfit who killed his men.

I don't need to wonder about the extent of Marco’s crimes. I already know, and that is the reason the thoughts of us together, his naked body on top of mine, the taste of his lips as he kissed me with such abandoned play in my head and I find the courage not to go to him and beg him to forgive me.

In this moment I am strong enough. My attention is given to Leonardo who looks striking, with his now short-cropped hair and linen white suit and blue tie waiting next to his brothers’ looking every bit the nervous groom. My sister has grown fond of him. But now and again I still catch her looking at me like she needs me to give her permission. She has never needed my permission. My father is the only person my sister needs permission from and he has taken that away from her.

These last few days I am finding it very hard to believe that Papa is better than the other men but as I look at him enter the Church with Ilaria, like all these Italian Made-Men with their big rings and so much power, I'm finding it very hard to convince myself that my Papa is the man I have believed him to be, or am I blinded by the idea of better?

"Aliyana, a woman after my own heart," Gabriel’s voice snaps me out of my wicked thoughts as I spin around to look at him.

He is looking very handsome today, in a Navy-blue suit of finely tailored perfection.

I have not seen him since the day of my sister's Bachelorette and with Matteo now permanently serving as a watchdog for my Papa, I couldn’t even call Gabriel without Matteo breathing down my neck.

"If I was after your heart I would have it by now," I tell him as a small smile peeks through the corner of my lips.

“Sometimes you say the sweetest things Liya.”

I hug Gabriel, knowing this is my only chance for the day to let him know what happened, “Mero called, Vincent saw him, we moving him today.”

Gabriel pretends to kiss my cheek, “I’ll arrange the jet, Michel will let you know when to leave.”

I step back just as my father announces that they will be having dinner in the ballroom. My eyes land on my stepmother who is dressed in a lime green Vera Wang dress. She does not look very happy all of a sudden. And I know that it has nothing to do with my sister's marriage.

Which boggles my mind because I know for a fact that my stepmother wants me to get married but didn’t want Guilia to, and that I always presumed was because Guilia was the twin's free babysitter. Now I am not so sure.

“Sit next to me, Aliyana," Gabriel’s face has a slight grin as he says this.

"Why not, it will be better sitting with you than with her," I say as I tilt my head to the side.

He takes me by the elbow with his fingers touching my flesh. The touch is intimate, but this is Gabriel so I brush it off and we move together toward the ballroom.

"This must be hard for you, I hear your father and Filippo didn’t take your little scene too well the other night," Gabriel whispers closely in my ear.

“It is what it is." Marco’s words come out of my mouth and this is the first time since he said it that I can understand why.

Once, a not too long time ago what made it hard would be the feelings I have for him but today it is not my feelings making this hard, it is the extent of his crimes and those crimes extending to my friend.

I see Leonardo stand and talk to my father, their hands locked in a man shake as my father tells him something that has him smiling.

Matteo was very happy on our ride back home after we left the Manor, to share some of Leonardo's crimes as Guilia slept with her music blaring in her ears. To say the man didn't like Leonardo was putting his actual hate toward Leonardo mildly. I don't think the rest of the Catelli family did any better in his head. Which made Matteo a bit more tolerable.