The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 04
I asked Hadrian what, exactly, postponing the registration would accomplish.
He was packing and didn’t even look up.
“What?”
I set the half-shredded paper in front of him.
He glanced at it and tossed it into the trash.
“That was a dare. Leo scribbled it down as a joke. You’re not taking that seriously, are you?”
“That’s your handwriting.”
“He copied it.”
“When you lie, Hadrian, your right hand goes to your watch.”
His hand was resting on his watchband.
The room went quiet for two seconds.
He lowered his hand and finally looked at me.
“Mireille, do you have to turn everything into a fight lately?”
“I just want an answer.”
“The answer is that I love you, and I am going to marry you. But I can’t get married and just throw away the friends who’ve been with me for years.”
His voice was steady.
Reassuring me, but also reminding an outsider with no Family status not to push him.
The night before they left, both our families and Hadrian’s core circle had dinner at a restaurant.
Hadrian said it was a pre-wedding gathering, and that they would also use it to set a new date for the registration and the formal family dinner.
The Bellini family boss, the adviser, and several capos were all there.
They weren’t there to witness a lovers’ spat.
They were there to confirm who would sit beside Hadrian as his wife when he rose higher in the family.
During dinner, Leo brought up the poll again.
“Mireille, seriously, don’t take that so hard.”
“It’s not that people hate you. It’s just that if you’re there, we have to watch what we say, what we do.”
Emily pushed a plate of fish toward me.
“Mireille, you’ve always been a worrier. Just relax a little. Everyone would love to have you around.”
Sarah nodded, too.
“See? Everyone’s trying to make peace.”
I set down my fork.
“Then let’s vote again.”
The long table fell instantly silent.
Several of the capos didn’t look up.
At a Bellini family dinner, silence was never neutral.
I looked at Hadrian.
“This time, no anonymous poll. In front of all these witnesses, you choose.”
“Choose what?”
“For tomorrow’s trip to the Hamptons, me or Chloe. Only one of us goes.”
Chloe immediately cut in. “Mireille, don’t make him choose because of me. I can stay behind.”
That was what she said, but her hand never left the handle of her suitcase.
She wore the De Luca family signet ring.
That ring told everyone at the table that she was not a woman who could simply be told to leave.
Hadrian’s expression darkened.
“All the arrangements are for seven people. If you come now, the seating, the rooms, the security detail—it all has to be reconfigured.”
“I have a ticket. The eighth one.”
“That seat’s for the bags.”
“The bags can be shipped.”
“It’ll make people uncomfortable.”
“So you’re still not choosing me.”
Hadrian reached over and took my wrist. His grip wasn’t hard, but it was inescapable.
That hand had once shielded me from danger. It could also, with a single order, cast someone out of his circle.
“Don’t do this in front of the boss and my men. If you really want to go, I’ll take you another time, just the two of us.”
“I’m only asking this once.”
He stared at me, the last of his patience gone.
“Fine. I choose Chloe.”
The people beside him froze.
The boss didn’t stop him.
So this was no longer a private trip. It was a public choice made by the underboss in front of Family witnesses.
Hadrian still didn’t let go of my wrist.
“Her political marriage just ended, and she’s under Bellini protection. This trip was for her, to help her get back on her feet.”
“We have the rest of our lives. Three days is nothing.”
I looked at the watch on his wrist.
He’d bought it with the first bonus he got after I sold my mother’s bracelet to pay off his debt.
He’d told me that as long as he wore it, he would never forget who had stood by him when he had nothing.
Now, that watch was pressing against my pulse.
I asked, “What was the rest of that note going to say? Postponing the registration would accomplish what?”
Hadrian was silent for a moment. Then, at last, he sighed.
“It would let Chloe relax. She was worried that after the marriage dinner, the group would drift apart.”
“So you already wanted to postpone it.”
“Only by a week. We’d do it as soon as we got back. Nothing would be affected.”
“And the poll? You started that, too?”
“Yes.”
“You had your capos and your friends vote on whether your fiancée was qualified to enter your inner circle, and then you showed me the result?”
“I wanted you to see that it wasn’t just me. That everyone felt you weren’t suited for this trip.”
He even softened his voice.
“Mireille, you always say I’m not honest with you. This time I put everyone’s opinion on the table, and you still can’t accept it.”
I nodded.
“I understand now.”
Hadrian’s expression eased. He thought I was finally done fighting.
I took the envelope with the old bus ticket out of my bag and set it in front of him.
“Then let’s hold one more vote.”
“What?”
“The question is whether Mireille should still marry Hadrian.”
I raised my own hand.
“My vote is no.”
I pulled my wrist free and stood to leave.
Hadrian didn’t chase after me. He just spoke from behind me.
“Don’t go too far. I’ve got a bus to catch in the morning. We’ll talk when I get back.”
Before the restaurant door closed, I heard Leo ask under his breath, “She’s not really calling off the wedding, is she?”
Hadrian laughed once.
“She doesn’t have it in her.”
The door shut behind me.
He didn’t know my flight to Austin left in two hours.