Undressed By The Mafia God novel Chapter 360

Chapter 360: There Will Be Speculation

What did they think she was going to do? Poison the food from up here? Set the courtyard on fire with sheer bitterness?

The insult of it nearly choked her. Her lips curled, and a furious sound escaped her. Of course. Of course this was what she had become to them now. A threat to be contained.

Bianca stepped back. The suite behind her, dim and dead, seemed suddenly preferable to standing there another second under Carol’s scrutiny. Her pride gathered around her.

With one last look toward the courtyard below, Bianca turned sharply and headed back inside the suite.

*****

Luca found his father in better shape than he had expected. He had gone up to Massimo’s suite that evening before dressing for the party, intending to check on him properly, Luca had seen the state he had been in after Julian. He had seen the way grief had hollowed him out. So yes, he was relieved to find him up, dressed, and moving.

Still, relief did not erase concern.

Massimo stood near the mirror adjusting his tie, the room lit softly now, no trace left of the dark, drunken collapse Carol had apparently found earlier. His hair was in order again, his shirt crisp, his face composed.

"I was coming to see how you were holding up," Luca said. "Looks like Mum’s presence here this morning helped..."

Massimo’s reflection flicked toward him in the mirror, and the faintest hint of a smile moved at one corner of his mouth. "Your mother," he said, tightening the knot of his tie, "has always had the uncanny ability to soothe me."

Luca made a sound that could have passed for a cough. "Or a good fuck," he muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately for him, Massimo’s hearing remained perfectly intact.

"I heard that," Don Genovese said, lifting one stern brow.

Luca straightened slightly. "Heard what?"

Massimo gave him a look in the mirror that said do not test me tonight.

Luca, because he did not wish to prolong this already traumatizing line of thought, lifted both hands in surrender. "I said nothing."

"You thought enough."

Massimo turned then, finally facing him fully, his tie set, his jacket still open. "You ready for tonight?" he asked.

"Always have been."

That earned him a small nod. Massimo seemed to weigh that before speaking again.

"You are announcing her to the world, Luca," he said. "There will be speculation," he continued. "A great deal of it. Especially," Massimo added, "with everyone still under the assumption that you are married to Bianca."

Luca knew what tonight meant. He knew the whispers it would start. The offense it would cause.

The questions it would raise among allies, enemies, extended family, every gossiping bastard with eyes and a surname.

Bianca had been his wife. Veronica would now stand beside him anyway. And once that happened, there would be no hiding from what came next. No easing people into it. No pretending this was anything less than exactly what it was: a choice. A claim. A future publicly named before the old one had fully died on paper.

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