Page 73 of Secrets of the Brother
My father pounded her on the back which sent her tipping forward.
The false hair she had added to give her hairstyle extra volume flipped up. When she straightened, it fell back onto her head at an awkward angle.
I had no intention of telling her.
I looked up at Nevio and caught him staring at my breasts which were indecently on display because of the corset design of the dress.
I stepped to the side, breaking his line of vision. “It was hardly that dramatic. Someone in the crowd shoved me from behind near thearrosticiniskewer grill. I briefly lost my footing.”
My mother clapped. “What a wonderful first meeting story to be able to tell your children!”
I lowered my head and glanced at Nevio through my lashes to see his reaction. Just because my parents were planning a wedding between the two of us didn’t mean this man was on board. After all, we had only just met. There was no reason to believe he would be interested. This could all be wishful thinking on my parents’ part.
Despite him saying that he knew me from school and had even had a crush on me, something about leaving me a valentine in my desk one year, I didn’t recall him or his family name. I could only presume he came from crazy-stupid money or else why would my parents be trying to play matchmaker?
Nevio placed an arm around my middle and pulled me close to his side as he beamed at my mother. “I couldn’t agree more.”
My father handed Nevio a rocks glass with a shot of Amaro over ice. “Here you go, son. We’ll share a quick one while the women finish getting dressed.”
Son?
I sidestepped again, breaking Nevio’s hold. One more step and I’d be sitting in the potted plant.
My mother snatched me around the upper arm and ushered me out of the room and into the powder room across the hall where she had left her purse.
She leaned over the counter and straightened her wig before she reapplied her thick, bright red lipstick. “I’m warning you. You had better put a smile on your face and behave tonight.”
“What exactly have you told that man?”
She tossed her lipstick in her purse. “What do you mean?”
“Is Nevio aware of your plan to marry us off?”
Something is not right.
No man in his twenties reacted that calmly to the idea of being married off to a woman he'd just met. How did my parents know Nevio and why was my father already calling himson? And what was with that whole bit about him being a knight in shining armor and me almost dying? Was it possible that had been a setup? It had seemed odd that I had been shoved so violently when there hadn’t been that big of a crowd and everyone had been standing calmly in line up until that point.
It felt like I was in one of those escape rooms in a movie and the walls were slowly closing in on me, but I didn’t have enough clues to solve the puzzle to save myself.
She ran her finger over her front teeth. “We have to go. They’re waiting.”
“Let me just run upstairs. I want to get a wrap for the party and my coat.”
Thankfully, I had a black gauze wrap I planned to wear during the event which would preserve at least some of my modesty.
“You’re not covering up.”
“Mother—”
“Claudia.”
“Claudia, it’s freezing outside for one and secondly my tits are hanging out of this dress.”
“Don’t say tits. Only trollops say tits.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about what trollops say and do, Mother.”
She slapped me across the cheek.
