Unholy Matrimony (Unedited)

22

A

I should be working, more importantly I should be sniffing out a filthy, stealing rat.

Yet I was staring at my phone, the chatter of the meeting going on around me barely audible. I had been back in Sicily all of three days and I hadn't had a call or text from Nani. It made my skin feel like it was trying to jump off my bones.

"Don." I look up, Draco look at me with raised eyebrows as he gestures to the table full of men awaiting my response to a proposal I hadn't heard fully.
I clear my throat, pulling my gaze from my phone. "I don't like the numbers, I believe you all can margin more profit with the investment I'm making. Tweak it and I may reconsider." I dismiss with a wave of my hand, Draco being the only who remains and there a raise to his eyebrows but he doesn't speak on it.
I lean back and sigh as he shuffles a few papers around before producing a folder sliding it over the table.

"I can tell you why we weren't able to find your wife in the media, she has her mothers maiden name as her last. Delgado." The folder was as thin as a sheet of paper, not that I expected anything less. I lean forward at his words, reaching for the folder.
Even with her status within the music industry, Nalani was still absent in the medias eye. She only did over the phone interviews and never answered any personal questions, the very few photographs of her online were candid, taken from performances and more than most of then were blurred or blocked with that annoying boy. 

She was lowkey, almost completely off the radar and the same might as well be said when she's in front of you. She's never really present, not mentally.

"Maribel Delgado, Brian's first wife." Draco slid the photo onto the desk. A woman with strikingly similar features to Nalani was smiling back at me, her hair was tied up into a bun at the top of her head with red fabric and her eyes were squinting at the camera, a large almost crooked smile stretched across her face.

I had yet to see Nalani truly smile, I imagine it looked more or less like the photo before me. The more I looked at the photo the more I could only see my wife.

"Where is she now?" I thought out loud, it's not rare for men in the organization to keep a mistress or two, but a second marriage almost never happens. At least not within the Italian families, we were all operating on a gray moral compass- marriage was the only exception.
Brian's marriage to that intolerable woman was something that swept over my fathers desk as an invitation many years ago, I remember him looking at the card stock paper in disgust. His features twisting into a snarl before he lit it on fire.

"Dead. Her death certificate is dated almost twelve years ago, however the cause of death is sealed. I tried for a while before I got tired of my computer crashing. My guess is Brian doesn't want to stain his already rocky reputation within the families."  I rolled my tongue into the side of my cheek at his words, tilting my head into my palm as I hummed.

"Brian is sneaky." Most dons with a heir do not arrange a marriage for their daughters without wanting something of value in return. Brian gains really nothing from me taking over his businesses while he 'rest'. There was definitely a different motive at play here and it made me restless with irritation.

"I know." I respond. Glancing at my phone I click my teeth, "what was it you said? It'd be a shame to have to kill my father in law." Draco smirk matching my own sinister one as we left the conference room.

If there was one thing I learned from my father and uncles, was to be grateful I had no siblings, outside of Draco whose my brother by oath not blood.

My Uncle Joey was the type of uncle you kept at arms length, he was a made man but a bitter, greedy one. My cousin Arielle was like a sponge but only absorbed her fathers warped, anger look on the world.

I couldnt understand how people who lived like kings and queens were so miserable. I guess its true when they say money cant buy happiness.

"Nipote!" Joey is shorter than my dad but they share the same slicked back dark hair and shimmering blue eyes, although you couldnt tell the color of my fathers eyes if you looked at him today. Arielle had her mothers light blonde hair like myself although mine was on the darker side and dark brown eyes that reminded me of dolls growing up the way she'd stare off and hold her breath when she didnt get her way.

"Zio, cugina." I shake his hand and kiss the side of her stiff cheek before sitting at the table. Draco, unable to detach himself from his wife now that we've been back, was more than happy to take this freebie.

I didnt trust my uncles but I certainly expect them to follow our code. A boss cannot kill another boss, an attempt on the don is the ink on your death certificate.

My men were stationed outside, I hadnt planned on being here long. I was going to go home and call my wife to find out why she hasnt been calling me. I smirked to myself, imagining her sassed remark.

"How have you been? I hear your planning on taking a dame. Which lucky broad of the families have you chosen?" I sigh, watching him toss back the contents of his glass knowing its not his first. Leaning back I watch my cousin glare at her plate.

"None." Is all I offer, he of all people were the least worthy to know anything about my wife. Especially her name.

"So youre going to bring a mutt into the family, destroy the bloodline." Arielle spits the bitter words like venom but they dont sting the way she intends.

"Watch your mouth, cugina." I narrowed my gaze, hand twitching to stab her steak knife through her jugular. I waved the waiter off, my appetite lost.

"And if I dont, what will you do, Aziel? You do not scare me, your status does not scare me. You dont deserve it."

"Arielle, Silenzio! You're talking out of turn girl." Uncle Joey snapped, hand waving wilding as he gestured the waiter to pour him another glass. He looked to inebriated to actually care or stop the situation.

"-Your mother is a cunt who fucked her way to your father and your going to bring a filthy outsider into your own family." She scoffed, slamming her open palm on the table as she tossed her wine back. I glanced at my uncle who was shaking his head mumbling in italian. I chuckled, darkly as I shook my head. We all knew my mother was the youngest of the Agosti daughters and was sheltered for years until her arranged marriage to my father.

"Your mother was a whore for Rico Ajello while he was married, not to long before she tricked your father into marriage. How do you even know this is your child Joey?" I taunt her with a dangerous enjoyment to it. "The truth is your bitter and angry, over things beyond my control. Its not my fault your mother is a whore and mine is a saint. I am the don of this family, Arielle, if you fail to remember that again I wont hesitate to cut you from this family." I stand, fixing the sleeves of my jacket as angry tears leak out her face like a faucet, beside her my uncle has drank himself into a stilled silence, im not entirely sure if he heard my words or not or if he would even remember tomorrow, frankly i didnt care.

"Figlio di puttana, ti ammazzo!" I didnt even hear the gun engage over her screaming angry italian, the gunshot boomed over the rest of her words. For a while everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, the people around me screamed and scattered, tables clattered to the floor and dishes shattered.

I winced as my knee gave out and another gun shot rang out. That's when the stinging started to settle in. My chest seized tightly and my body jerked as another bang rang out. My men filling to door way im facing but my mouth feels full already and I cough to get the words out. Looking down at the wet substance that coats over my hands suddenly.

Its blood.

"Don! Get Don out of here!" There's someone vaguely screaming and it sounds like its right beside me and I wince again as I try to rise off my fallen knee, my body stings.

"Don!"

"Nani." I gasp as darkness clouds over my vision.