For a moment, I watch her clean up her belongings until Raina comes out of the bathroom. Her hair is a simple half up, half down style of soft waves that cascade down her back, with two small pieces framing her face. “You look amazing.”
“So do you, babe.”
“Are you ready to get in your gown?” Lia asks softly, approaching my dress. Her hand shakes slightly as she brushes it against the fabric.
Blowing out a breath, she finally reaches for my dress, pulling it from the hook and cradling it in her arms.
Shrugging my white silk robe from my shoulders, I stand in my undergarments as Lia brings the wedding gown to me.
The closer she gets, the heavier the pit in my stomach feels.
The three of us say nothing as they help me into the gown, delicately holding the sleeves so I can slip my arms through them. The moment feels so wrong. We should be smiling and laughing, feeling giddy for this once in a lifetime moment we’re sharing.
But the room feels completely devoid of happiness.
Cecilia situates the tulle off my shoulders while Raina zips up the back. When they step back so we can all look at my reflection in the mirror, I notice tears lining Lia’s eyes.
“For what it’s worth,” Raina says as she blows out a shaky breath to hide the quiver in her voice. “You look absolutely divine.”
“Like a queen,” Lia’s voice is melancholy.
“Like a Paladino princess.” I can’t push away the sadness in my voice, and a single tear rolls down Cecilia’s cheek.
The sound of the hotel room phone ringing cuts the somber moment short, and Cecilia hurries across the room to answer it. Raina and I glance at each other, and I wonder who would be calling.
“Hello?”
The hairstylists whisper their goodbyes and well-wishes to me before they quietly leave the room, and I return my attention back to Lia.
Her brows crumple together as she listens to whoever is on the other end. “I don’t recognize that name. Hang on.”
Covering the speaker of the phone, she looks at me. “The front desk says your cousin Tate is here to see you?”
Immediately, my heart rate picks up. “I don’t have a cousin named Tate.”
Removing her hand from the speaker, Cecilia tells the front desk she’ll be right down and hangs up.
“I’ll go see who it is,” she says as she pulls on a pair of leggings under her robe, before untying the bow in the front and shrugging it off. Quickly, she throws on a chambray button down.
Within seconds, she’s out the door, not bothering to close it softly as she makes her exit.
“Why would someone pretend to be your cous—” A knock on the door slices through her sentence.
We both turn to look at it.
My eyes narrow as I shrug at Raina, assuming Lia left her keycard. Crossing the room, I answer it, expecting her to be there.
All at once, the air leaves my lungs with a harshwhooshas Sly comes into view on the other side of the doorway, staring at me with a fire in his eyes I haven’t seen in months. He’s wearing his signature all black look, this time with jeans and his leather motorcycle jacket over a t-shirt—looking like sex and sin, andmaking the butterflies dance in my stomach like they do every time I set my gaze on him.
“Sly,” I whisper, as he takes a step toward me and cups my cheek with his hand.
“Hello, piccola ladra.” His eyes roam down my body, taking in my appearance in my wedding gown. “Wow. You look breathtaking, Vincenza.”
He drinks me in, and as he does, a flood of emotion slams into me. I should be wearing this dress forhim.
Walking down the aisle tohim.
Reciting my wedding vows tohim.
