Chapter Two

Sienna's POV

Vincent didn't ask any questions. He had his butler bring the first aid kit and patched up my heels himself.

He'd wrapped the gauze around twice before he finally spoke. "I've heard about all five engagement parties. The first two times, I was still making excuses for that boy. After that, I couldn't even be bothered to cover for him."

He pressed a cup of hot tea into my hands and sighed.

"Three years ago, I set this match up for you two myself. I thought he'd look out for you. Turns out I raised a no-good son. This is on me."

I held the cup, and my eyes started to sting.

My own mother couldn't be bothered to ask how I'd get home. The first person who actually cared was my fiancé's father.

"Padrino..."

"Don't call me that tonight." He waved a hand. "Call me Uncle Vincent, like you did when you were little."

The second I said it, the tears wouldn't stop.

He waited until I was done before he started telling me about Montreal.

"The Delacroix family's Don right now is a guy named Callum. I've met him twice. He's young, stubborn, hard to deal with. Winters up there are long, and the snow gets knee-deep."

"If the Commission hadn't been at a standoff with them for so many years, if we didn't need someone to break the ice, I could never bring myself to send you up there."

"Somebody has to," I said, wiping my eyes. "If both sides can sit down and talk, nobody else has to die. I want to do this."

I looked at him and added, "And I'll come back to see you every year."

He didn't say anything. He just patted the back of my hand.

That night I slept in his guest room. Early the next morning, he had his driver take me home.

My car was parked right outside the Conti house, and the keys had been tossed on the table in the entryway.

The house was quiet except for laughter coming from the walk-in closet upstairs.

"Turn around, let me get one more!" That was my mom. "Look how perfect the waist is. It's like it was made for you."

"She looks good in anything," Adrian said, laughing.

"Oh, stop it, you two." Marissa's voice was soft and sweet. She didn't sound like someone who'd had a headache all night.

I got to the doorway and stopped.

Marissa was standing in front of the full-length mirror, wearing my wedding dress.

I'd drawn the design for that dress myself, and I'd gone back and forth with the designer for three whole months.

Our initials and the wedding date were stitched into the lining of the skirt. That had been Adrian's idea. He said that way, when I walked down the aisle, we'd be walking it together.

Now those initials were hidden under Marissa's skirt, and Adrian was holding my veil, about to put it on her.

Mom took picture after picture on her phone. "She looks so much better in it than Sienna," she said, satisfied.

Marissa spotted me in the mirror and smiled. "Oh, you're back?"

The whole closet went silent.

"I had such a bad headache last night I couldn't sleep. Mom and Adrian didn't want me to feel awful, so they let me try on the dress to take my mind off it." She blinked at me. "You're not mad, are you?"

"What's she got to be mad about?" Mom said without even looking up.

Adrian set the veil down and moved half a step in front of Marissa, like he was afraid I'd go after the dress.

I looked at him. "You said you'd come back for me."

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"He's busy. He's got better things to do than babysit you," Mom answered for him. "You're a grown woman. It's not like you were going to get lost."

I swallowed my anger and turned to Marissa. "That's my wedding dress."

"I know." She smiled like she had no idea what the problem was. "Adrian said it was beautifully made, and he wanted to see how it looked on me."

"It's just a dress." Adrian frowned. "Once you marry into the Severino family, you can have anything you want."

"I spent three months on this dress!"

"Sienna, are you done?" Mom finally lowered her phone. "Marissa's not well. Would it kill you to let her have this one thing?"

"What about me?" My voice was shaking. "I'm your own daughter! Why have you always taken her side, ever since I was a kid?"

Mom was quiet for a few seconds. Then she said the same thing she always did.

"You're not like her."

I laughed until the tears came.

Every time I felt wronged, she brushed me off with that line. She said Marissa lost her mom when she was little, so she needed some extra love.

But my mom was standing right in front of me, alive and well, and she'd never once loved me like a daughter.

"She's just the kid my dad had on the side..."

Before I could finish, Adrian slapped me across the face.

"Watch your mouth."

My head snapped to the side. My lip had split, and I could taste blood. But my mind had never been clearer.

"Am I lying?" I looked up and stared him down. "My whole life, name one thing of mine I didn't have to give her. What's next? You?"

Adrian sighed. "Marissa and I are already married!"