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The tension in the room was so thick that it pushed against me like a brick wall. I realized at that moment that Andres and I didn’t just clash together. We collided with the same strength of the Big Bang. We were an atomic bomb that, when ignited, would cause pure and utter devastation to those within a close enough vicinity.
There was a flurry of guests waiting for us downstairs, and the last thing they needed was a bloodied groom and bride walking down the aisle.
“Don't test me, then.” I pulled back and turned toward the vanity. “You’ve been warned, Valdez. The next time I strike, you will bleed.”
We held each other’s gazes in the mirror, neither one of us willing to back down. This was what happened when two Alphas came together. There was a fight for dominance. Too bad for him, I knew there was no way in Hell I would back down from that fight. I would not lose it. Ever.
Chapter Seven
Savina’s POV
I walked down to the foyer of the large estate we had rented out for the wedding. The guests were all waiting in the small hall we had turned into the ceremony area. I was sure that Andres and Valerio were in their positions as well.
I wondered if the groom had cooled his temper.
A joyful grin made it to my face as I thought of the way his features had contoured into varied expressions of anger and frustration.
Though Daniella had been nothing more than a whore, she was a competent enough wedding planner. She had brought my vision to life. The colors I had chosen matched wonderfully. The blue complimented the white and black I had chosen. I hadn’t been sure of this whole ‘gothic elegance’ she had tried to push, but now that I had peeked at the decorations, I saw the vision of what she had been going for.
I stood at the large closed doors with my white hybrid tea roses in hand. I had faced the most heinous of men. I had stared down the barrel of a gun and had knives held at my neck and never once did I falter. Not once did I crumble.
But as I stood at the entrance, I could feel the nerves. I was no longer this fearless boss who commanded hundreds of soldiers. I was but a little girl who yearned for the comfort of her parents and the support of her brother.
“Sei bellissima,” a voice I had not heard in months said behind me.
I turned to the door and stilled. Standing in the archway was my mother, Francesca Baratelli. The diamond of his world, as my father had once called her.
You wouldn’t think that the woman before me used to dazzle every room she walked into. Not because of her beauty, though it was striking, but because her inner light always radiated all around her.
But now… it was muted. It had dimmed as the scars of our deadly past had marred her heart.
“Mamma,” I gulped.
She looked bigger than the last time I had seen her when she relapsed. The depression had stopped her eating, and the doctors worried she could become anorexic. The treatments had been longer and more troublesome than the last. But I had a good feeling about this, this time. She looked like she wanted to fight to be here. She didn’t look like she was straining herself for every breath.
She was dressed in a navy-blue dress that hugged her body in all the right places. Her black hair was slicked back into an elegant bun, and she wore a white fascinator on top to tie the whole look together. She still wore her wedding ring. She refused to ever take it off. The diamond sparkled against the sunlight that streamed in from the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
“My daughter…” She walked toward me with slow and forced steps.
The last time she had seen me I had told her that if she wanted to let go, she could. I was prepared to lose her this time, but it looked like she wasn’t quite ready to let me go just yet.
She stood in front of me, leaving only but an arm's length between us. Her eyes moved up and down the length of my body until they finally came to rest on my face. I could see her taking in all of my features.
She was awake.
“You’ve grown. You’ve changed.” Her voice cracked under the emotion that weighed heavy in her chest.
“Mama…” I wiped the lone tear that trickled down her face. She looked more alive now than she had in the past nine years of her grieving the tragic loss. “You look beautiful.”
She had been in and out of facilities for the past few years. The grief had gripped her soul tightly and had caused her to make some otherwise irrational decisions.
Martina had found her the first time, and I had found her the other three. Four attempts on her own life to try and leave this earth to join my father and brother. It was only a week after the funeral when she first attempted. I was a newly appointed Boss with the vultures circling like the evil beings they were. They didn’t even give me a week to grieve and to gather myself. But that was the Mafia Underworld: the rules were unfair and unforgiving. They didn’t care about your current life situation. They only cared for power and how they could take it from you.
I had no time to handle my mother and the organization so I sent her away to a facility to get the treatment she needed. I hardly had time to visit her as I needed to familiarize myself with the books for the Syndicate and to this day it was one of my three major regrets.
Her soft caramel eyes appraised my body, drinking in this new version of me that she was yet to learn.
“You look gorgeous, cara.” Her voice cracked. The tear that I had wiped away was replaced by another. “You make the most beautiful bride.”
