Lahat ng Kabanata ng Blood Wedding: A Mafia Romance: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

THALIAThe gun went off seven times.I counted each shot. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Sharp cracks that sounded wrong, muffled by the silencer but still loud enough to make my ears ring. Or maybe that was just the screaming. My screaming, I think, though it didn't sound like my voice at all.Rafael's body jerked with each impact. I felt it. Every single bullet that tore through him registered as a shudder against my chest, my stomach, my thighs. He'd thrown himself on top of me maybe two seconds earlier, his hand shoving my head down into the mattress hard enough that my teeth cut into my lip. I tasted copper. Blood. His blood was everywhere now, hot and wet, soaking through my wedding dress."Rafael. Rafael, please. Someone help!" My voice cracked. I tried to push him off, tried to see his face, but he was too heavy. Dead weight. The thought made me want to vomit.The shooter was gone. I'd seen them for maybe half a second before Rafael moved. A shadow in the doorway, so

THALIAMy father arrived the way he always did when he was pissed off, loud and impossible to ignore. I heard him before I saw him, his voice carrying through the hallways of the Torrisi compound as he demanded to see me immediately. Rosa had tried to give me breakfast earlier but I couldn't eat, my stomach was too twisted up in knots thinking about what was coming. Now it was here.The door to my room swung open without a knock. Dad stood there looking older than I remembered, his salt and pepper hair more salt than pepper now, lines around his mouth deeper. Behind him were my brothers. Nico first, twenty-eight and already taking over parts of the family operations. Then Vincent, twenty-six and always spoiling for a fight. Finally Luca, twenty-four and the most level-headed of the three even though that wasn't saying much."Out," Dad told them without looking back.My brothers hesitated but they knew better than to argue when he used that tone. They filed out and the door closed agai

THALIAThe chapel was small. Salvatore made sure of that, like he wanted to keep this wedding as quiet as possible, a shameful thing done in the dark. There were maybe thirty people scattered in the pews, most of them wearing expressions that ranged from uncomfortable to openly hostile. My family sat on one side, the Torrisis on the other, and the divide between them felt like a chasm nobody wanted to cross.I stood in the back room alone, staring at myself in a full-length mirror that had probably seen better, happier brides. The dress Rosa had arranged for me was simple. Black, because apparently wearing white twice in one week when your first husband died on your wedding night was too much even for this world. The fabric was nice, expensive, but it hung on me wrong. Everything felt wrong.My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I pressed them flat against my thighs, tried to steady myself, but it didn't work. Three days ago I'd married Rafael. Three days ago I'd watched him die. And now I w

THALIAI woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows and the realization that I couldn't spend another day locked in my room waiting for my life to happen to me. If I was going to be stuck here, trapped in a marriage to a man who hated me, living in a house full of people who partially blamed me for Rafael's death, then I needed to at least understand my surroundings.Nico wouldn't be here until tomorrow to start training. That gave me today to figure out the layout of this place on my own.I got dressed in jeans and a simple black sweater, tied my hair back, and headed out. The hallway was empty and quiet. Dante's door was closed and I had no idea if he was in there or if he'd already left for wherever he went when he wasn't destroying his room.I walked past Rafael's portrait without looking at it this time and made my way downstairs. The compound during the day felt different than it did at night. There were people moving around, staff cleaning and organizing, the hum of norm

THALIANico showed up at eight on the dot, which meant he'd probably been outside for ten minutes waiting so he wouldn't be early or late. That was Nico, precise about everything.I met him at the front entrance. He was dressed casually, jeans and a dark jacket, but I could see the gun holstered under his arm. He always carried now. All my brothers did."Ready?" he asked."As I'll ever be."We walked across the compound grounds toward a building I hadn't noticed before, tucked behind the main house and surrounded by trees. It looked like a barn from the outside but when Nico opened the door I saw it was actually a shooting range. A serious one, with multiple lanes and targets at varying distances."Salvatore had this built years ago," Nico said, flipping on the lights. "Family only. No staff allowed unless they're specifically training someone, he said we could do your training here, even though I’m sure he doesn’t think it’s necessary."The space smelled like gun oil and something me