“Ma Veneti?” I exclaimed in horror.
“He’d be honored to call you that,” interrupted Marco, a fucking smirk plastered across his face.
I really didn’t want to have to call this woman ‘Ma’. But this crazy family was determined to get their claws well and truly into me.
Dear God, what the fuck had I let myself in for?
ANNUNCIATA
The Marchianos departed shortly before dinner.
I was dying to talk to my papà, to persuade him that the marriage was a ridiculous idea. I hadn’t dared to say anything more in front of the Marchianos. My papà was kind to me, but even he drew the limit at being disobeyed in front of company.
I had no desire to give up my current life, my college degree, and the relative freedoms I had. And especially not when it meant that I would be under the thumb of a man like Lorenzo Marchiano—a man who was arrogant, bad-tempered, and condescending.
The way he’d spoken to me today kept running through my mind. He’d thought that women shouldn’t handle weapons, and he’d even mocked my costume—I couldn’t believe the nerve of the man. He probably also thought that women didn’t have the brain cells to study for a college degree and instead should spend all their time chained to the kitchen sink.
I sat at the dinner table with my parents and Aunt Priscilla. Also present were my two older brothers: Christian and Leoluca.
“You really fired a gun at him?” Christian chuckled, greatly amused at Aunt Priscilla’s retelling of events. “I’m pissed now that I missed the meeting—I would love to have seen the look on the Marchianos’ faces.”
“The only important thing is that the alliance remains intact now that we have agreed on a marriage between Anni and Lorenzo Marchiano,” said Papà in a serious voice.
I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “But Papà, surely you can’t expect me to marry him? He’s a murderer!”
“You won’t have to see that side of his life, Anni.” Papà took a sip of his wine as he spoke to me. “He’ll keep his work life separate from his home life, in the same way me and your brothers do.”
“I’m not talking about the Mafia stuff, Papà. I mean that he wanted to kill my cat costume. He’s a moggy-murderer. I bet he enjoys killing cats in his spare time—he looks like just the sort of man who would enjoy committing moggycides.”
“Anni, dear, I know the man,” Papà said in a placating voice. “Apart from extortion, drug dealing, and weapons trafficking, he’s a good man. He’s never killed a cat in his life. He only kills humans.”
“Are you sure, Papà?”
“Yes, I’m sure. There are no moggycides, my dear. The only things he commits are homicides.”
Talking about deaths, my thoughts drifted to his late wife. No one seemed to know how his first wife, Rita, had died, but that wasn’t unusual given that Mafia families were notoriously secretive about every aspect of their lives.
I chewed on my lower lip. Lorenzo Marchiano was rude, condescending, and overbearing. “It’s not as if I have a real choice in the matter, do I?” I asked glumly.
“No, Anni, you don’t,” said Papà in a steely voice. I knew that he wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. This was business for him.
I sighed in defeat. “I’ll guess I’ll have to marry him then.”
I’d always known that I would have to marry a murderer. Just as long as he kept away from killing kitties, then things would be fine…
CHAPTER 3
ANNUNCIATA
Two weeks later, I was in the den watching television, trying to take my mind off tomorrow’s engagement party.
My thoughts, however, kept wandering to Lorenzo.
I knew next to nothing about him except that his first wife was dead and he had two children.
I exhaled in frustration. I’d always planned to at least finish my college degree before I had to marry. My major was in math, and I enjoyed studying. I was sure I could be of use to Papà in his business, but no one had mentioned my college course when the engagement had been decided upon.
I decided it was best to keep quiet about it: if Lorenzo didn’t know about my degree, he couldn’t forbid me from carrying on with it.