Bloody City: Temptations

Chapter Forty Nine

The day had finally come where Arianna and I were to be bound, where we were nothing but each others until the day that death would claim us into its cold embrace. I knew I wasn't ever going to be a deserving man of what kind of woman I was being given. I knew that she would have her reservations like all brides on their wedding day did in this life. I had always suspected that Aria may commit suicide to get away from me, that I would end up with another bride bloody in her dress, and that I'd need to wrap the woman I'd truly fell so deeply in love with in a carpet on the day I'd been anticipating for months.

Violetta hadn't gotten to see our marriage, hadn't even gotten the chance to stand at the alter or even ring shop for our day. She was cruelly taken from me, and though it may be sacrilege to think of your late wife on your wedding day, I had to wonder if perhaps in her final moments she had asked that I found love, like she had in life. She had done her best to be that love in my life, like a light to the darkness I seemed to always have in this world. So whether she had or not it seemed right to leave a thank you to the woman who had kick started my role in this life.

Standing in the center of the B row in the Genoa Cemetery I looked down at the polished stone grave declaring the name Violetta Blanche in silvery lettering a picture that had been left on the stone by her family in their last days showed the girl Violetta had been when she was taken from this world. Eighteen years old and still as beautiful as she had been the last time I'd seen her. Smiling, with her brown hair thrown about by the wind, and youthful. It was a heavy weight to remember that as things were I'd have been married to the girl whose grave I was at eight years. 

Kneeling down in the all black suit I wore, I set the tulip I'd found down on the stone, it's bright yellow tone perfectly expressing the kind of girl Violetta had been, and I could only remember who she was, Matteo knew that I wanted to leave to a better place with her, and Matteo being my brother had promised that he never would have let father know where I'd gone. Just perhaps this was always the man I was meant to become, I was the Don of the Salvatorini Familia, the Godfather over all of Europe, and now I was looking at the grave that seemed to mark the day everything changed for me, on the day that who I was would become embraced to its fullest.

Standing, I smoothed out the jacket and turned walking back towards the gloss black Maybach before sliding inside and pulling the door shut before Lino glanced into the mirror to me.

"The venue sir?" he asks and I nod before watching the graveyard fade into the rear mirror as we continued off through the winding roads of Riviera Italy until reaching the house where the wedding between Aria and I was going to commence though the shear amount of people here was beyond anything I had expected. Two Familia's top made members had come here, along with all of our associated Mafia's and some people that we were connected too.

 The house was large and definitely bigger then tradition required but it was the place where the Capo Dei Capi and his chosen bride were going to be made one by vows and words that only here would be true compared to most weddings. There was no way out until we truly did die, and I was too selfish a bastard to let Arianna be anyone else's beside my own.

Climbing from the car I rounded the back being greeted by some of the guards before heading inside of the house of the Familia. I then began making my way through the building until I found my brothers and other highly important made members to be the groomsmen which also included Aria's brothers while her bridesmaids would be her sister, my sisters, and the women who were with the groomsmen which had revealed a list of people that were close to the Valentino brothers should I ever need to pressure them. I doubted I would but being the Don had made me paranoid and always on the hunt for any weaknesses in anyone around me so I could either protect it or use it to my advantage. Either worked.