Page 16 of Urgent Vows
I try to turn my head away, but he holds it in place, espresso brown eyes boring into mine. "I give you my vow. He will never touch you again."
"How can I trust you?" What is the vow of a made man worth when it is given to a woman, especially his wife? "You already broke the promise you made before God, the priest and our guests, to protect me."
Severu opens his mouth to speak, but I am not done. "My father spoke the same vows on his wedding day to my mother, but he broke them all."
He hadn't cherished or honored her, and he'd done the opposite of protect her.
"He hurt her too?" Severu's usually stoic tone reflects both shock and disbelief.
Had he really not known? Had his father been just as unaware?
"He killed her." It's the first time I've ever spoken the words aloud.
It is freeing and terrifying at the same time.
Will my husband believe me? My father is his consigliere, second in rank only to his brother, the underboss. Severu has been trusting my father to advise him since becoming don five years ago, and his father for two decades before that.
I have only been Severu's wife a matter of hours.
Chapter 6
SEVERU
My bride's claim that her father killed her mother is more shocking than when she said Francesco had abused his wife as well as his daughter.
How could my father have missed it? While we had rarely seen his daughters, Sara Jilani had accompanied her husband to dinners in our home. The Jilanis and my parents often attended social functions together.
My parents would have noticed if Francesco had been hurting Sara.
Catalina's assertion is the result of her resentment for her father's treatment of her. She's made him into the bogeyman to explain it to herself and to handle her own guilt.
When she was ten years old, my wife was running through the house, and she tripped her mother on the stairs. They both went tumbling. Sara Jilani died, her neck broken. Catalina was in the hospital for weeks with a broken leg.
Francesco was devastated. He tried not to, but he couldn't help blaming his daughter for the loss of his wife.
My father believed that was why he never tried to make a match for her despite the interest shown by other families. As the daughter of the Genovese consigliere, she had excellent prospects.
I loosen some of the pins from Catalina's hair, caramel curls tumbling down to give her a disheveled appearance. Her lips are swollen from my kisses and there is a pretty blush that goes from the top of her luscious curves to her neck.
She looks like I want her to look. A new bride who has been making out with her groom.
"Time to go." I stand and head to the door.
She makes a sound of disbelief. "You're not even going to ask me about it?"
"I know what happened," I tell her. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to be the one to make her face her own culpability in her mother's death.
She had been a child. It was an accident.
"Really? Because he told you?" she asks, her voice laced with disgust when she says the wordhe.
What does she want me to say? "I saw how upset your father was by Sara's death."
"You mean like how happy he looked dancing with me tonight? We both know that was a lie, or I wouldn't have this." She holds up her hand that is still red and swollen, despite the ice.
I change my mind about meeting the doctor at my home. I'm taking Catalina to our private hospital. I want her hand and her ribs X-rayed.
"We don't have time to talk about this now."
