He Always Says It Was an Accident

Caesar Greco stared at the ring on the table. As always, his brows furrowed, displaying his impatience. I knew he was about to get angry.

"The entire family is here," he said through gritted teeth. "Are you really going to throw a tantrum and embarrass me in front of everyone?"

I met his eyes and answered, "I'm not throwing a tantrum. I just don't think our relationship will work. I don't want to marry you anymore."

He picked up the ring. "Because of a ring? Even without the family ring, everyone here knows you're my wife. What's the difference?"

A wave of grievance washed over me.

"Clearly, being your wife and being the Donna are two different things. I went alone to negotiate with the arms dealers. I almost lost my life, and that's the only reason the elders in the family agreed to let you give me the ring. And—"

Caesar cut me off impatiently, "So, what is it you really want? To marry me or the power that comes with being the Donna? You keep saying you love me. You were the one who insisted on getting married, and now, you're calling it off.

"I honestly don't get what you want. Don't think that just because you've done a little for the family, you can start lording it over me."

So, this was how he saw it. To him, everything I had given and everything I had earned had become something ugly. Even my love for him came with doubts and questioning in return.

My sister, Anna Benedetti, noticed the tension between us and hurried onto the stage. "The engagement ceremony is about to start. Whatever it is, you can talk it through. Don't argue now."

She took Caesar's hand, her fingertips lightly brushing the web between his thumb and index finger. "You're a man. The least you can do is compromise a little."

Caesar let out a slow breath. The anger left him almost instantly.

"Yeah, I know," he muttered, sounding reluctant, with a hint of petulance in his voice.

Caesar's temper was infamous. Once he lost it, it was almost impossible to calm him down. The last person who had tried to talk him down ended up with a smashed head after Caesar threw a glass at him.

My hands tightened around the hems of my dress. It felt as though an invisible hand had gripped my heart.

Anna and I had grown up together in the same orphanage. Later, we were adopted by different families. After my adoptive parents died of illness, I became an orphan all over again.

Caesar had met Anna before he ever met me.

Once, when he was hiding from his would-be killers, he spent several days in a basement without anything to eat. Anna found him and gave him half a bottle of yogurt she hadn't finished.

For years afterward, he brought up that story to me again and again.

Ironically, he seemed to have forgotten that I had met him under the same circumstances. I met him while he was being hunted, too. I even took a bullet for him, though he also seemed to have forgotten that.

I stayed by Caesar's side for 15 years. I watched him rise from the Don's least favored child to the new Don himself. We had argued and fought countless times, and not once had he given in.

Once, when it was pouring, he drove off without me, leaving me to walk in the rain for two hours before I managed to get a cab home. He knew better than anyone that my old gunshot wound would ache for days whenever it got soaked.

Everyone said he was hard by nature, that he wasn't the type of man to put on a show or sweet-talk anyone, but they just simply hadn't seen the way he was with Anna.

He wasn't incapable of being gentle and loving. He just wasn't willing to present me with that side of him.