“Did you lose your job at the candy store? Is your new business not doing well? Did Annika Auntie not get the elephant? Did you break up with Anil? Did Rose get a new tenant?” Dad was good at pointing out all the things that could go wrong with my life.
“What if I did something really bad? Would you still love me?” There was one thing I could do to salvage this situation, assuming I got out of the meeting with Mr. Angelini alive. It was drastic and involved going away, likely for five to ten years, but it would ensure Chloe and Olivia would always be safe. It made my heart hurt to think about it, and part of me needed to know if I would still have a place to land when it was over.
“You’ve already been in trouble with the law, and here you are drinking chai with me and working in my store. I think that answers your question,” Dad said. “What do you need? Do you have to flee the country? Do you need a new passport? A place to hide?”
“No, nothing like that.” It warmed me to know the efforts my dad would go to if I needed to escape.
“We’re here for you,” he said. “Whatever you need.”
“I would have liked to hear that when I was young.”
“That was a difficult time,” he said with a sigh. “Your brothers took up all our attention and we know you got lost in the shuffle. It has been a constant source of guilt for your mother and me. If you’d been difficult or loud or noisy, it might have been different. But you were just so good, so quiet, so willing to please. You didn’t make any waves. You didn’t ask for anything. You entertained yourself and that just made it too easy for us to focus on the boys, but we didn’t love you any less.”
“It was hard for me, Dad. I felt lonely and abandoned.” I’d never said those words out loud and it felt good to put them out there. “I just wanted some attention, to feel like I had a place in the family and that I was as important as everyone else. I wanted to feel loved.”
“I’m sorry, beta.” He ruffled my hair. “We know it wasn’t fair to you. We weren’t perfect parents. That’s why we’re trying so hard to find you a match. We can’t make up for the past, but we want to help you build a good future. We want you to be happy. We don’t want you to wind up alone.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?Jack picked me up outside the shop after I’d finished talking with my dad. After I’d shared the news of the meeting in our group chat, he had insisted on driving me to the Angelinis’ mansion, and to be honest, I didn’t want to go with anyone else. I was tired of being angry with him. Tired of hiding my feelings. Tired of not taking what I wanted.
“No motorcycle?” I climbed into the white serial killer van. With all the stress, I’d been looking forward to the chance to clear my mind with the focus that came with riding on the back of his bike.
“I thought this would make us look more professional.” He pulled away from the curb with a hard jerk of the wheel.
“Us?”
“I’m going in with you,” he said. “It’s not safe.”
“It’s a little too late to pretend you care.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. “Not that it matters. I have to go in alone. It’s my company. I’m the boss.” I pulled a bag of mixed candies from my purse. I always had one on hand for dire emergencies. If this was my last day on earth, I wanted to go stuffed with sweets.
“It’s a fake company,” he pointed out. “You’re a fake wedding planner. It’s not like you’ve got a reputation to protect. You’ve got no other clients.”
“Simone handed out my business cards at the gala,” I said. “Maybe someone will call me. Maybe this wedding will be a success, and everyone will ask Bella who she hired to plan the wedding, and next week my phone will be ringing off the hook.”
“I thought you were going to help Bella escape. She’s not going to be telling her friends what a great wedding planner you are if she’s hiding in a small villa in the middle of Tuscany.”
“Do you have a negative comment ready for everything I say?” I bit into a sour key and my mouth watered.
“Would it stop you from going into the mansion alone?”
“No. I like being a wedding planner.” I felt the truth of the words as soon as they dropped from my lips. “It’s the first thing I’ve ever done in my life that makes me feel alive. I’m good at it. I’m good at juggling all the vendors and the schedules, traveling around the city, meeting people, making plans, and exercising my creativity. Organizing the heist on top of it just made it even better. Someday, I’ll have enough money to make this business real, and I want to be ready for when that happens. I have to be able to deal with clients on my own—whether they’re bridezillas or Mafia bosses.”
“I still don’t like it,” he grumbled.
“You don’t get a choice,” I said. “But I like knowing that if I wanted, I wouldn’t have to do it alone.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?Even seated behind his giant mahogany desk, Mr. Angelini was an imposing man, especially when he spent the first few moments of our meeting staring at me in silence.
“Close the door.” He lifted his chin and gestured to one of the two bodyguards in the room.
I was flattered he thought I was such a threat, but two massive armed guards seemed a bit extreme.
After the door clicked shut, I focused on my breathing, but the cloying scent of cigar smoke made me choke on my second inhale.
“Any problems with the wedding plans?” he asked in a conversational tone that did nothing to relieve the tension that had frozen me in place.
“No problems,” I said with a conviction I didn’t feel in the least. “We’re all set for tomorrow.”
“Good.” He drummed his thick fingers on the desk. “The wedding must go ahead. You understand that.”
“I see no reason why it wouldn’t,” I said. “I’ve checked in with all the vendors, the priest, the musicians . . . Even the elephant will be here.”
“Excellent.”
“If that’s all you need . . .” I moved to stand, and he waved me down.
“There’s something else we need to discuss.”
Bile rose in my throat. Maybe the two guards were here to kill me and chop me into pieces and spirit me out of the house in the gym bag in the corner. Although I hadn’t seen a hatchet . . .
“I understand you had an altercation with my future son-in-law at the bridal dress shop.” His voice was cool, but his coal-black eyes burned with hellfire. “And that you spoke to the police.”
“Someone else called them,” I said quickly, in case he thought I’d ratted him out. “I told the detective in charge that it was just a misunderstanding. I didn’t want anything to spoil the wedding and I thought you’d prefer to handle the matter in-house.”
Had I misjudged Mr. Angelini? Maybe he’d been horrified when he found out what had happened. Maybe the gym bag was for Mario. Maybe Mario was already in there.
“Indeed I do.” He pulled a white envelope from the desk drawer and pushed it toward me.