The Wedding Was Never Mine to Lose

Halfway through the alliance ceremony that was meant to bind me to the man I had loved since childhood, his personal courier, Vittoria Rizzo, appeared in the doorway of the great hall pregnant.

Lorenzo Falcone held her by the arm and looked at me without a trace of guilt, his voice carrying across the silk and candlelight as though he were reading terms at a sit-down. "I know I can't take Vittoria as my bound wife. But I gave her my word. She'll have her ceremony, and the child will have a whole family."

"From today, she is my woman too. You will love the child in her belly as if it were your own blood."

The assembled families whispered among themselves, faces caught between shock and disbelief, made men and their wives trading looks along the long tables. My parents' fury was plain. They drew me aside, my mother's grip iron on my wrist, and told me to walk out, that no Valente should have to stand under such an insult.

My in-laws, the Falcones, pressed me the other way, murmuring about the bigger picture, about the alliance, about finishing what had been started before the eyes of every family in the city. All I could do was look at Lorenzo's indifferent face, and then at Vittoria's smug little smile. And I smiled too.

I pulled the corsage from my chest and threw it at her.

Then I turned to the man I'd loved for fifteen years and said, grinning, "A ceremony for three? How tasteless. I'll step aside and let her be the bride tonight."

"Congratulations on the pregnancy it's your wedding now."

And I clapped, loud and slow.

The entire hall fell silent in shock.

Lorenzo's face darkened. "Adriana. This is our day, and you have to make a scene, don't you?"

He had the nerve to call me the one making a scene.

At my own alliance ceremony, before every family that mattered, he openly stood behind his pregnant mistress and declared he would keep us both.

Did he think I would simply bow my head and take it?

I lifted the microphone from the hand of the master of ceremonies and spoke clearly, my voice steady enough to carry to the back tables where the enforcers stood along the walls. "Thank you all for coming. There's been a small change to the arrangement. Don't worry. The ceremony goes on. Only the bride has changed."

"Tonight's couple marries because of a child, so let's send them our blessings."

The room stayed silent. Not a glass moved.

Lorenzo's expression twisted darker still, and his parents' faces contorted with the shame of it, the whole Falcone bloodline sitting there exposed before the Commission's own.

I ignored them all and crossed the floor to my parents, forcing a smile as I reached them. "Papa. Mama. Let's go home."

Guilt sat heavy in my chest. My parents had never in their lives worn such humiliation, and it was mine that had put it on them.

My mother held my hand tightly, her eyes full of distress. My father rose from his seat, turned to the gathered families, and bowed. "I've arranged another table elsewhere. Every gift has been returned. Tonight, you drink and eat as my guests."

Watching Don Valente bow, my heart ached. In my whole life I had never once seen my father lower his head to any man. He had always been strong, always proud, the kind of proud that made grown made men straighten when he entered a room. But tonight, because of me, he turned his ring slow around his finger and bowed anyway.

Lorenzo and I had been raised in the same circles, close since we were children, but my parents had always stood against him.

We had fought about him more times than I could count. I used to think they were unfair, that they simply held some old grudge against the Falcone name. Now I understood how sharp their judgment had always been. They had seen the truth in him long before I let myself.

Lorenzo was never worthy of my love.

I used to believe he loved me the way I loved him. I thought he would never take anyone else. Since we were children I had followed him, watched his every move, adored him in silence.

Fifteen years had passed.

Fifteen years is such a long time. Even a heart made of stone should have softened by now. Lorenzo's never did.

That man stayed distant, always drifting toward some other woman.

Whenever he saw me, something in him closed. But no matter how many times he pushed me away, I went back, a moth to the flame, knowing I would burn and unable to turn from it.

I told myself that one day he would finally see my worth and love me with his whole heart. Instead reality slapped me across the face. He got a child on his courier. And then he brought her to our ceremony.

Lorenzo dared to humiliate me before my family, before my friends, before every family I had ever known, without a single thought for what it did to me.

Lorenzo never had me in his heart!

I gave up everything for him. I put him first in my life. I even broke faith with my own blood, went against Don Valente himself, for that man!

Yet, he wouldn't even grant me an honest alliance ceremony.

Watching him hold his courier's waist with one hand while touching her pregnant belly with the other, his eyes filled with tenderness to the point where I felt like I couldn't breathe!

That man didn't care about my love. He threw it away and stomped on it. I was exhausted. I couldn't love him anymore.

Just as my parents and the assembled families were turning to leave the hall, the Donna Falcone caught my mother's arm, her rings cold against Celia Valente's sleeve. "Signora Valente, what are you doing? Today is a great day for our children. You don't want the other families whispering, do you?"

Don Vito Falcone spoke up too, both hands folded over the head of his cane. "Yes, Lorenzo made a mistake, but you can settle accounts with him later. This is a matter for the young ones to handle between themselves. We, the old ones, should only watch."

My mother's laugh cut like a blade. "Watch? You want us to stand here and be shamed further before every family in this city? The Valente name has bled enough respect today."

My father said nothing. He only looked at me, and let me decide.

Lorenzo walked Vittoria up to me, his hand at her back, his eyes cold as a January river.

"Are you finished with your scene? Do you mean to drag both our families through the mud before you're satisfied?"

I let out a bitter laugh. Who was dragging whom through the mud? Me?

Vittoria looked at me, her eyes brimming. "Adriana, I'm so sorry. When I heard you and Don Falcone were to be joined, I came only to give you my blessing. But..."

Then she pressed one hand flat against her belly, shameless, and went on, "I never expected to fall pregnant. I know what I've done is wrong, and I'll take any punishment you name. But the child is innocent. I can't let my baby be born without a father's name."

She looked at me, pleading. "Adriana, you have a good heart. I know you wouldn't wish that on a child, would you?"

Before I could answer, my mother leveled a finger at Vittoria and her voice rose sharp enough to still the room. "What a shameless little climber! You crawl into bed with my daughter's promised man, get yourself with child, and now you come here to play the wounded lamb? I have never in my life seen anyone so without honor."

The Donna Falcone was quick to catch my mother's arm again.

"Oh, Signora Valente, please. Be calm. Vittoria isn't wrong. The child is innocent, after all."

Then she turned to me. "Adriana, don't you agree?"

My mother tore her arm free and her words came out cold as gun steel. "In-law? You are no kin of mine. My daughter is nothing to your son from this moment on."

She turned to me. "Adriana, we're leaving. Don't marry him. Let those three keep each other."

The Donna Falcone's fingers found her pearls and turned the strand a slow half-turn, her face darkening beneath the polite mask.

"What are you saying? We can't act in haste. Every family we know is watching this room. We should handle this the proper way."

She looked at me and softened her voice to honey. "Adriana, you've always been the sensible one. Speak to your mother. Don't give them all something to laugh about."

Lorenzo spoke, flat and cold. "Adriana, if you love me, you accept all of me. Vittoria carries my child. You should love that baby the same as you love me."

That man spoke as though it were my duty to raise another woman's child under his roof!

Don Vito Falcone looked from Vittoria to me and let out a long sigh, tapping the head of his cane twice against the marble floor. "Adriana, the Donna and I watched you grow up. We know what kind of woman you are. What's done is done. There's no sense in tearing the house down over it. What matters now is that we set things right."

I looked at him, calm as still water. "And how do you intend to set things right?"

He answered without a moment's hesitation. "First, you finish the ceremony and take your place as Lorenzo's wife. The child in Vittoria's belly is Lorenzo's blood, so it has to be born.

"But don't trouble yourself. You'll be the one to raise the child. You'll be its true mother. As for Vittoria, we give her a sum of cash and she disappears."

The Donna of the Falcone family agreed at once.

"Yes, yes. This is a good arrangement."

Vittoria added, one hand resting lightly against her belly, "I have no objections. Adriana, I'm sorry for everything. Once the child is born, you may raise it. I won't appear before you, or Lorenzo, or the child again."

Hearing this, I was so angry that I laughed.

Of course she had no objections.

Not only would she walk away with a fortune in tribute, she wouldn't even have to raise the child herself. Everything handed to her, clean, like a debt forgiven at a sit-down. Who in this life wouldn't dream of such an easy passage?

Lorenzo, growing impatient, cracked one knuckle of his right hand and said angrily, "Adriana, my parents have said everything that needs saying. Why are you still being so difficult?"

He looked at me coldly, and his voice went colder still. "If I didn't believe you loved me so much, I wouldn't even bother going through with this union."

"Then as you wish," I said firmly.

"We won't be married."

Lorenzo's eyes widened in disbelief.

My mother clapped her hands together in the hush of the room. "Well said, Adriana. I stand with you."

Across from her, Lorenzo's parents went pale.

"Adriana, an alliance like this is a serious matter. You can't simply walk away from it," Donna Falcone protested. "You have to think carefully."

Don Vito glared at his son. "Stop running your mouth and stand aside."

Lorenzo scowled at me before turning to steady Vittoria at his elbow.

His parents turned back to me, ready to make their case again.

I looked at them. All my life I had shown them respect, almost as though they were my own blood. But now they weren't thinking of me at all. They cared for one thing only: that I married Lorenzo and raised Vittoria's child.

Seeing they couldn't move me, Donna Falcone turned to my mother instead.

"Please, Don Valente, Donna Valente, talk some sense into her. Even if you won't think of us, think of your daughter. If she breaks this pact now, before all the families, it will ruin her standing."

Don Vito nodded quickly. "Yes. We must protect Adriana's respect in the eyes of the Cosa Nostra."

Something in their words rang false.

"So you're using my honor against me," I said coldly.

For a moment Lorenzo's parents looked uneasy, then recovered.

"Adriana, that isn't fair. We're thinking of you as well," Donna Falcone insisted.

"Yes, you must understand our good intentions," Don Vito added.

I scoffed and threw it back at them. "Good intentions? Your son betrayed me before the ceremony, and you're every bit as shameless as he is."

Disgusted, my mother took my hand, ready to lead me out again.

I shook my head and told her gently, "Mother, don't worry. This isn't over yet."

I turned back to the Falcones. "You've known about Lorenzo and Vittoria all along, haven't you? You hid it from me, pushed for this union, and made sure we swore the pact first. All so you could bring Vittoria's child into your bloodline without a single complication."

I let out a bitter laugh. "No wonder you were in such a hurry to have us bound before the ceremony. You thought it all through."

Again Lorenzo's parents looked uneasy, and again they smoothed the mask back into place.

"Adriana, this is for your own good," Don Vito said smoothly. "You truly love Lorenzo. This way you still take his name, and we welcome our grandson into the family. It's the perfect arrangement."

"Perfect arrangement? What a joke."

My mother was trembling with rage. Slowly, finger by finger, she drew off one glove.

"How dare you deceive my daughter like this? Is there no bottom to your shamelessness?"

Dropping all pretense, Donna Falcone touched the pearls at her throat and turned the strand a slow half-turn. "It's too late to protest now. Adriana and Lorenzo are already bound by oath. If you don't want your daughter carrying the mark of a broken pact, she should accept reality and stay in the union. It's in everyone's interest."

Don Vito smirked. "Adriana, think carefully. You don't want to walk into every sit-down for the rest of your life as a woman who couldn't hold her own marriage, do you?"

Vittoria, silent for a while, suddenly smiled. Her hand stayed pressed to her belly. "Adriana, it's only one more child. Raising it won't be so hard."

She sighed dramatically. "It was such a small thing, and you had to make it a war. Now both families are at each other's throats. Was it really worth it?"

"Hold your tongue!"

My mother's face burned red as she lunged at Vittoria, hand raised to strike.

I caught her quickly and turned to the Falcones, meeting every smug face in the room.

"Sorry to disappoint you."

Lorenzo's parents frowned.

"What do you mean?" Don Vito asked.

I crossed my arms. Then, unhurried, I smoothed a single crease from my sleeve.

"Lorenzo and I never swore the pact. It was never sanctioned. There is no union at all."