Chapter 2

The relatives saw where things were going. But the men standing beside Dominic's car kept them from saying a word on my behalf.

One by one they made excuses. Stepped back toward the porch. Toward their own cars. Toward anywhere else.

Ten minutes ago there had been fifty people in the driveway.

Now the driveway was empty. Just me. My mother. My father.

"The church keeps calling. Are we going or not?"

Dominic rolled the window down. That edge in his voice. Daring me.

Marissa already had her phone out, posting from beside him.

【Riding in the wedding car with Dominic today. Comfy seats. Could get used to this. 💍】

A picture of herself in the seat next to him.

The comments came in fast.

【OMG finally!! I always said you two were endgame.】

【Thank GOD it's not that uptight Whitfield girl. Dominic deserves better.】

【So happy for you.】

Congratulations poured in like a series of slaps.

And he liked the post.

"Nora. You want me to sit with you?"

My father took my hand. Voice low. Careful.

Dominic and I had been together seven years. Started at Cornell. Everyone I knew knew how much I loved him.

The Sterlings were a rising Mafia Family out of Newport. My father ran a two-bay auto shop in Cranston. I was nobody's daughter from nowhere important. The gap was Grand Canyon wide.

My father had been afraid he couldn't protect me. I'd never told him what Dominic really was.

But thirty years under the hoods of other men's cars had taught him things.

No ordinary man swaps his factory windows for ballistic glass.No ordinary man's driver carries a gun.

My father had figured it out on his own. He'd tried to stop this engagement for two years. He didn't come to two Christmases because of it.

But I insisted on marrying Dominic.

After graduation I clawed my way up. Nine shots of Woodford at a sit-down to close a deal. Never blinked.

I knew what I was to Dominic, and what I wasn't in Family. I wanted to be useful to him. I wanted to earn my seat at the Family table by helping him move the dirty money into the clean columns.

Five years to make it from admin to Chief of Staff at the Sterling firm. Running the properties. Running the construction contracts.

Running every piece of paper that let dirty dollars come out white. Standing at Dominic's right hand.

He'd sworn he kept work and us in separate rooms. Then Marissa Belrose walked in with a title and took the exact seat I'd bled five years to earn.

Dominic and I had our first real fight the day Marissa was hired.

Two weeks of silence. Ended without resolution.

Last night, packing my things, my father, who has never once bent for anyone, pulled me aside before he turned the light off.

"Whatever you decide from here on out, kiddo, your dad supports you. Just don't stop coming home."

I looked at Dominic now, at the way he was speaking to me, at what he had done to my parents' morning.

Dad. I understand now what you were afraid of. I don't want to marry him anymore.

I pulled the veil off my head. Dropped it on the pavement.

"Dominic. Take your people and go. I'm not marrying you."

Dominic's face darkened as he stepped out of the sedan.

"Nora. Playing hard-to-get doesn't work on me. Think carefully."

"Seven years with me. Wedding's half done. You walk now, you're a woman the Sterlings threw away. Who's going to take you after that?"

He said it in front of my parents. Didn't blink.

The sky had gone dark. A fine drizzle started.

Marissa saw Dominic get out. She slipped out of the car behind him.

"Nora. Sweetheart. This is just because you think Dominic and I are too close, right?"

"If you'll just get through the ceremony today. Give Dominic his moment. I promise. I'll turn in my notice tomorrow. I'll take care of the baby. I'll leave."

She said it looking straight into my eyes, her hand stroking her stomach in slow.

Then she threw herself against Dominic's chest, sobbing on cue.