Don Bowed To Me Chapter 26
My mother is frozen on the carpet.
Then a scream tears out of her, more animal than human.
“Hazel Vitale!”
She springs up from the carpet and lunges at me.
Her eyes are red in this moment. That completely unhinged, past-caring kind of red.
“You owe me an answer today!”
The soldier behind Sebastian steps forward.
Half a step before my mother reaches me, his hand locks around her wrist.
She’s held in place. Can’t move.
But her mouth doesn’t stop.
She jerks her head around and shrieks at me.
“Hazel Vitale!”
“You think just because you’re marrying into the Marchetti family you’ve won?”
“Listen up!”
Her eyes are locked onto mine.
“I’m telling you, tomorrow I’ll take out a full-page ad in the Providence paper.”
“I’m telling you. Tomorrow, I’m taking out a full-page ad in the Providence paper.”
“Dr. Hazel Vitale is a bastard the Vitale family picked up off the steps of a church!”
“I want every Family on the East Coast to see what kind of thing the Marchetti family is marrying!”
A collective gasp rips through the hall.
Sebastian’s jaw tightens for a fraction of a second.
I look at her. Give a contemptuous laugh.
I slowly stand up. Look down at my crazed mother.
The last thread of hope I ever held for maternal love dissolves.
“Mom, thank you.”
“I’ve been waiting twenty-eight years for that sentence.”
Even now, she still believes I clawed my way into the Marchetti family. That I used my body to hook Sebastian Marchetti.
She still refuses to acknowledge that the daughter she gave up on has real power of her own.
I turn to the entire hall.
“Everyone here tonight, I want you to witness this.”
“From tonight forward, I, Hazel Vitale, sever every tie with the Vitale family.”
“I am no longer Elena Vitale’s daughter. I am no longer sister to Elliot Vitale or Isabella Vitale.”
“The name Vitale, from tonight, has no connection to me.”
“Their honor, their disgrace, their rise, their fall, their births and deaths, none of it has anything to do with me.”
“Tomorrow morning, every Family representative here will receive formal documents severing my ties to the Vitale family.”
My mother snaps completely.
She’s still held by the soldier, thrashing, screaming.
“Hazel! You wouldn’t dare! You think a piece of paper can sever blood?”
“Isabella! Say something! You two are sisters!”
Isabella is on her knees on the carpet, shaking like a leaf.
She opens her mouth.
Not a single word comes out.
Because for the first time she is seeing clearly, Hazel is someone they cannot touch.
Camilla grabs the bottle of Krug from the head table.
Her eyes are red enough to bleed.
“Hazel Vitale! What gives you the right to live so well?”
She rushes at me, swinging the bottle at my head.
Sebastian steps forward.
One arm shoots out in front of me.
The Krug bottle slams into his forearm.
The bottle shatters. Glass and champagne spray everywhere.
Blood seeps out through the sleeve of his Brioni shirt.
Screams erupt across the hall.
Sebastian doesn’t look at his bleeding arm.
He just turns and looks at Camilla.
Camilla drops the bottle on the spot. The remaining glass scatters across the carpet. She staggers backward and collapses.
Sebastian speaks to the soldier behind him.
Voice calm, as if nothing just happened.
“Take Ms. Draghi home.”
“Tell her father to come to the Marchetti house himself to take her home.”
Camilla is still screaming as they haul her up.
“Hazel Vitale!”
“You think you’ve won?”
“You just married a good man!”
“You’re nothing! You’re nothing!”
The doors close behind her.
Every single person left in the Great Hall is afraid to breathe.
Sebastian turns, lifts his bleeding arm.
The blood has soaked through the Brioni sleeve, running all the way to his wrist.
I step forward.
“Your arm—”
Sebastian gives a small laugh.
“It doesn’t matter.”
He reaches out with his uninjured hand and takes mine.
Then turns to face the entire Great Hall.
“Since we’re all here tonight—”
Sebastian’s voice is clear.
“Let me make an announcement as well.”
The whole hall holds its breath.
Sebastian looks at the woman beside him.
“Dr. Hazel Vitale has just declared her separation from the Vitale family.”
“From tonight forward. Hazel belongs to the Marchetti family.”
“Every asset, every position, every status, every protection under the Marchetti name applies to her, effective immediately.”
“Behind her stands the entire Marchetti family.”
“Every person in this hall tonight, I want you to remember this.”
“Because from tonight forward.”
Sebastian smiles.
“Any word of disrespect toward Hazel is an act of war against the Marchetti family.”
Silence across the hall.
I look at him. Say nothing.
I just reach out. Slowly lift Sebastian’s bleeding arm.
I pull an ivory silk napkin from the head table.
Wind it, layer by layer, around his wound.
Sebastian lowers his head. His eyes soften as he watches me bandage him.
I speak low.
“Didn’t you say you were going to take your time chasing me?”
Sebastian’s breath catches for a beat.
“I was afraid that when you walked out that door, there would be no one behind you to protect you.”
My hands pause at the knot.
Sebastian keeps going. His voice pitched only for me to hear.
“Hazel. You don’t need to answer me right away.”
“Every word I said is what I mean. Whether you accept it or not doesn’t change that.”
I lower my head. Tie the silk into a clean shape.
I look up at him.
For the first time, with all those eyes on us, I squeeze his hand back.
“Let’s go,” I say.
Sebastian tilts his head. “Where?”
I smile.
“Home.”
Sebastian’s breath catches again.
He doesn’t say anything. He just holds my hand back.
We walk side by side toward the doors of the Great Hall.
At the doorway.
I stop and turn.
I give a small smile.
“By the way, my old classmates. Ten years from now, let’s do this again.”
“Let’s see what you all look like twenty years from now.”
The doors close behind us.