Salvador Estaban, feared, dangerous Brazilian cartel leader, surprises himself when he falls for the nurse that caters to his and his men's injuries, Mona Capriotti. Little does he know, she's so much more than just the nurse...
We're on a plane to Italy now. We took a private jet as my father had urgent business. Salvador is sitting with my brothers and playing fifa.
Filomena had given me a necklace beforehand as a token of apology and I can't stop looking at it. It's golden, real gold, with a tiger pendant. Filomena must be quite the gypsie, because she said that's my spirit animal. "King of the jungle — scheming, intelligent, fast, beautiful and calm." That's what she said.
I can't bring myself to wearing it though. Maybe it's the fact that she gave me a spirit animal, or that she dresses like one, but I know gypsies give out curses like they're party bags. And Filomena clearly isn't very fond of me.
I sigh and put it in my bag. As far as I'm concerned, that piece of jewellery will never touch my neck.
***
We arrive in Milan and I go straight to the office. Salvador accompanies me and the boys go home.
I show him around, the place that my father, and his father and his father built from the ground up. There's a lot of pride attached to this building for me. The first work building owned by my family. Despite the illegitimate things that happened for us to get there...and still do.
"Where do you want to get married?" He asks as we walk around. The building is still lit from people working late and cleaners completing their shifts.
I think about it for a second. "I'm not sure. There are so many beautiful places. To be honest, I don't care where it is, as long as we get married."
He smiles at me, he walks with his hands in his pockets, and his shoulders move strongly as he walks.
"I feel the same way," he says "but, in the future, when you look back on the day we get married, where is it?"
"Catania." I say instinctively and he nods slowly.
"Then let's get married there." He wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses my forehead.
"Have you every been to Sicily?" I ask
"No...I've never been to Catania, never been to Sicily, never been to Italy. Never had to, until now."
"You'll love Sicily. Especially Catania." i say and then i stop and look at him and I'm about to open my mouth to speak when he interrupts me.
He smiles at me "I love whatever you love Bonita."
***
We've been in Italy for two weeks now, planning the wedding. I've gone to New York once just to check up on Alessio. I caught him having a party whereby he was loving up some poor girl.
Now we're in Catania, everything is coming together. We're getting married in a week. So soon. We wanted it to be as soon as possible. Everyone's been invited, we've realised that the perfect venue is the Catania family home and my father has given me my mother's wedding dress.
So many times Salvador insisted he saw it, I almost gave in once or twice but he has to wait.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It's silk and long and beautifully fitting. It smells like my mum, and that really hurts. But, I'm glad it smells like her, because it'll feel like she's right there with me when I walk down the aisle. It'll feel like she's right there, smiling at me brightly as I walk towards the man I love.
Salvador comes out and sits with me on the sun-beds. He sighs "ah I'm nervous Bonita." He admits.
"You don't want to marry me?" I smile and he looks over at me playfully.
"That's not it. I want to marry you more than anything. But doesn't this all feel too good for people like us?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean...have you ever had uninterrupted happiness for this long?"
"No..." I admit and he looks at me.
"We get what we put out in the world. What have we put out my love? Crime. Drugs. Violence. Death. Not happiness and love. Don't you feel that it's been too long since we've gotten a taste of our own medicine?"
I gulp. He's right. It's scary but true. People like us don't stay happy for this long. But instead of agreeing with him, I'll try to calm him down, make him believe he's talking nonsense.
"Don't create worries like this. Just be happy that we're happy. Be present, don't worry about the past and future. Okay?" I caress his hair and he hugs me quickly.
"You always know just what to say." He whispers. I smile, but I'm now skeptical. He's fucking right. The world doesn't grant stuff like this to people like us.
Author's Note:
Thinking of writing a sequel about Alessio and his love life/ becoming the king of the Capriotti mafia. What do you think?
