He Claimed My Sister So I Married A Mafia Don Chapter 04
You Gave Your Word
Dante stares at Bianca.
For a second, he waits for her to take it back.
Then the name sinks in.
Matteo Rinaldi.
He knows Matteo. Has sat across from him at dinners, watched older men stop talking when he began.
Adriana has known him for years.
“Last night?”
Bianca nods.
“Here?”
“Downstairs. It was small.”
Dante takes out his phone.
No message from Adriana.
Nothing since her reply to the planner confirming that her name had been removed.
He had read that one.
He remembers deciding not to reward her with an argument.
Bianca steps closer.
“The cars are waiting.”
He looks at the ivory dress.
“Take that off.”
Her face changes.
“What?”
“That was hers.”
“She left it. Your mother said I could wear it.”
“I don’t care what my mother said.”
A stylist appears at the end of the hall, then quietly retreats.
Bianca folds her arms over her waist.
“You knew we were doing this.”
“I knew what our fathers were arranging.”
“You approved it.”
“I thought Adriana would—”
He stops.
Bianca’s eyes fill.
“Come back?”
He says nothing.
“And then what? You’d send me upstairs to change?”
His phone rings.
His father.
Dante answers.
“Did you know about Rinaldi?”
“Yes.”
“And you let this happen?”
“Adriana isn’t my daughter.”
“You could have told me.”
“I told you she was finished. You said you understood.”
Dante walks toward the window.
Below, the driver opens the rear door of the waiting car.
White ribbons are tied around the handles.
Adriana chose those.
“I’m not getting engaged to Bianca.”
His father is silent for a moment.
Then, “You should have said that three weeks ago.”
“I’m saying it now.”
“Then you’ll come to the hotel and say it yourself.”
“Cancel it.”
“You authorized the arrangements. You can face the people who came because they believed you.”
Dante grips the phone.
“Where is Adriana?”
“Ask her.”
The call ends.
Bianca is watching him.
“You told me to choose the flowers,” she says.
“I told you to speak to the planner.”
“You said everything would be fine.”
He remembers saying it.
He had been reading a message from Adriana’s office about a hotel opening. She was still working, still attending meetings.
He had taken that as proof she wasn’t serious.
If she were really leaving him, surely her whole life would have stopped, too.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
Bianca shakes her head.
“You don’t get to pretend I imagined all of this.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He reaches for the door.
She catches his arm.
“Why her?”
Dante looks down at her fingers.
For five years, he had never made Bianca ask that question.
Adriana had asked it often enough for both of them.
He pulls free.
Vittorio Moretti is waiting downstairs.
“If you’re going to shout, leave.”
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere she wants to be.”
“She agreed to marry Rinaldi after six weeks?”
“She agreed to marry you after five years. You saw how that ended.”
Dante stops at the foot of the stairs.
“You wanted this marriage.”
“I wanted you to treat my daughter with respect.”
“Which one?”
Vittorio’s expression hardens.
Behind him, Elena looks away.
For a moment, Dante thinks someone will tell him this has gone far enough. That Adriana has made her point and is waiting in another room.
Nobody does.
He opens Matteo’s contact.
I need to speak to Adriana.
The reply comes while he is standing beside the decorated car.
I’ll ask her.
Dante waits.
The driver keeps the door open.