Page 55 of Urgent Vows
"Never mind that. I know how to learn what I don't know. YouTube is awesome for tutorials."
"Then what did you mean?"
"I still don't have any makeup and the stuff I have at h…back in my old room is pretty sparse. Some mascara and a couple tubes of lipstick."
"Buy some while you are shopping for clothes today."
"I suppose." She frowns.
"My mother and sister will help you find what you need."
Catalina nods, her expression lightening. "I'm sure you are right."
"What is this really about, Catalina?" I don't believe she's this worried about something so small.
She sighs. "It's just hitting me what I signed up for."
"When you signed the marriage certificate you mean?"
"Yes."
"You are my wife."
"And you are a not only a made man, but you are the don. It's a lot."
"You were raised in the mafia lifestyle."
"Sort of. After he killed my mother, my father kept me on the periphery. My aunt and uncle were better, but I never received some of the training and mentorship Carlotta did. No one expected me to marry."
"Why not?"
"My father made it clear from the time I might have been promised that he wasn't going to look for a husband for me. He claimed it was because he could never forgive me for causing my mother's death. He wouldn't saddle an honorable man with a killer for a wife."
"He said that to you?" I want to bring the bastard back to life and torture him all over again.
"Yes, but I knew it was a lie. Just like he did. He couldn't risk letting me marry a good man because I might spill his secrets and he would be removed from his position as consigliere."
"That would have only been the first thing he had to worry about. At the very least, my father or I would have cut his tongue out for deceiving us."
"Oh. Is that what you did?"
"I thought you didn't want details."
"I don't. Not all of them, but I like the idea of his tongue being cut out for hiding what he did to my mother."
My wife is so perfect for me. She is innocent and kind, but with a streak of ruthlessness she'll need to stand by my side for the next fifty years, or more. "I did it for lying about you both."
"Good."
"Why didn't your father marry you off to someone like him?" As much as I despise the weakness my men show by being that way, there are a lot of made men in the mafia who bring violence home with them.
"If a man was like my father, then telling him the truth would have given him leverage over papà."
"So, you were trapped in Francesco's home, subject to his abuse."
"That's what he thought, yes."
"You had plans?" I ask, believing easily that even living as a prisoner in her father's house, Catalina had been plotting some kind of escape.
