CHAPTER 8
Ariana's POV
The continuous tapping of my foot echoed off the walls, each tick driving my chest tighter.Time was slipping away; this was too risky.
A sound at the door made me jump.Mom stepped inside, and my focus vanished when I saw what she held — a gun.
“Mom, y-you...where did you get it?”My voice shook; my pulse thundered in my ears.This is happening.
“Don’t worry about that, Ariana,” she said, steady as iron.“You’ll go down and wait for me and your father.Before he comes downstairs I’ll stall him somehow.”I nodded.“Then I’ll come down and take you away from here.Just be ready.Don’t worry about Nicola — I’ll deal with him.”She clenched her jaw as I gripped my bouquet of lilies so tight my knuckles hurt.
She turned to leave and I pulled her into an embrace.“Mom, what if it doesn’t work?”I whispered.
She held me, then cupped my cheek when she let go.“Promise me that if none of this works — no matter what happens — you get out of here.Promise me, cara.”I closed my eyes and squeezed her hand.I didn’t want to imagine the worst, but she was right.If it failed, I had to leave — for the baby’s sake, if nothing else.
“Okay,” she said.“But you have to promise me the same thing.”
“I promise, tesoro.I promise.”
“I promise, Mom, that I’ll leave regardless,” I said.
She stepped back and left.The moment the door shut, my chest grew heavy and my stomach pitched; nausea rose up like a tide.I looked down at my flat stomach and clenched my teeth.If I died today, so would this innocent child.
God forgive me.
Alessandro — if only it were you at the altar waiting for me.
At last it was time.I walked down the church steps like I was walking into hell, head bowed while a church attendant guided me.Each step tightened the knot in my stomach.Mom should be distracting D’Angelo now; I had to be ready to run the second she signalled.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and my heart dropped; I couldn’t breathe.
Oh my God.
I froze.D’Angelo stood there with a smile I couldn’t read.He should have been upstairs — restrained or at least delayed — not standing at the altar as if nothing had happened.Panic flared when I realized Mom was nowhere to be seen.I scanned the room; she wasn’t there.Someone had stopped her.
D’Angelo offered his arm.“Shall we, dearie?”he whispered.
I gasped and looked over his shoulder.Nicola stood at the front, waiting.If Mom hadn’t stalled D’Angelo, if she hadn’t made it, then there was nothing left to do.I was going to marry Nicola today.
