Chapter Sixteen

With every step Cressida took closer to me, I knew she wasn’t the woman I wanted to marry. With every intake of breath, I knew I loved the woman sitting somewhere in this church. And with every furious beat of my condemned heart, I knew I could never be with the woman I loved.

I didn’t search the guests for Greta. We hadn’t spoken since I’d left Las Vegas with new scars. One of many on my body and the first one on my cold heart.

Who would have thought a woman would break my unbreakable heart?

Cressida arrived at my side, smiling as if she’d won the lottery, and I supposed she had. She was ambitious and as my wife she’d be at the top of the food chain.

I caught Marcella’s gaze in the first row. She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. I sent her a wry smile, remembering when I’d told her many years ago that I wouldn’t marry for love, that I’d have an arranged marriage and marry for the good of the Famiglia. Today those words became reality.

Today would mark a turning point in many ways.

But back then I’d thought love was a loser’s game and I’d be immune to it. That a Falcone would change it was almost comical.

That the Falcones were present today to celebrate the biggest wedding of the Famiglia was a fucking miracle in itself. It had taken considerable effort to make it happen. But if one thing was Remo’s greatest weakness then it was his hubris. He thought himself invincible. His arrogance trumped even my own.

That I married Cressida would guarantee that the Traditionalists would get their fill. They had our backs, ready to follow us on whatever crusade we planned. Maybe if Marcella had married in a traditional fashion, I would have had more freedom to be with Greta. But even then…The Falcones would have never let her go and even if I’d ripped her away, Greta would have always belonged to them. She had chosen her family and I had chosen mine. Love wasn’t written in my stars. Our world hardly left room for this kind of weakness. And that’s what it was.

I would never again show weakness.

Cressida cleared her throat, giving me an expectant look. I realized we’d arrived at the part of the ceremony where we were supposed to exchange vows and rings.

My heart had been half dead before I’d met Greta. With all the shit I’d lived through since Marcella had been kidnapped and all the horrors I’d witnessed and committed that was the natural course of things.

With her it had felt like the black piece of stone in my chest could actually be revived but today whatever good had remained inside of me shriveled and died. “I do.” The word tasted false and for the briefest moment I allowed myself to search for Greta in the crowd. But I didn’t have to search. My gaze was drawn to her as if a magnetic pull connected us, and one look in her kind doe eyes and my heartbeat stilled only to speed up.

I tore my eyes away, hoping nobody had noticed my moment of weakness. Today wasn’t time for it.

When I pushed the ring on Cressida’s finger, I felt nothing. I didn’t smile, only met her gaze. She was beaming up at me like the happy bride everyone expected her to be, but her eyes didn’t reflect true happiness. If anything, they held triumph. Today marked her victory over me. I’d tried to bring her down for insulting Marcella, and Cressida had turned the tables.

“Kiss me,” she hissed barely moving her lips, still maintaining the fake smile.

I bent down and pressed my lips against hers, not bothering to soften my mouth or to prolong this public display of affection. Applause rang out and I straightened, ignoring the furious glint in Cressida’s eyes. I’d told her what she’d get if we married. Love wasn’t part of the deal. If she thought, she could hold the reins in this marriage, she’d get a very nasty surprise.

What if you met your soulmate at the wrong time?

The words “I do” cut me like an acid-covered blade.

For a moment, the constant murmurs, intakes of breaths, rustling of clothes and sniffling in the church faded into the background, and I was focused only on one thing.

Amo Vitiello.

His gaze found mine for the fraction of a second, gray like the sky during a summer storm, before he turned back to the front.

I interlinked my fingers to stop them from shaking.

This day would change me. I loved my family, my life. I’d never longed for more, never wanted to leave my comfortable routine or familiar hometown. I’d never wanted for more than I had.

Until our paths crossed and Amo sunk his claws into my heart and soul.

I didn’t understand everything that went on between the sky and the earth. I didn’t believe in divine providence or fate.

Soulmates?

A sweet dream I’d never dreamed until he crashed through my bubble of contentment. Now a dream I never wanted became the nightmare I couldn’t shake, and a longing I’d never felt became a crushing need.

One that would never be sated.

“I do,” Cressida said.

The little flame of hope inside of me died and my hands became slack. Like a tsunami the sounds of the crowd around me crashed back down on me.

I’d grown up among cruel men.

But fate was so much crueler than any of them.

Amo Vitiello was my soulmate…

…and now married to another woman.