Chapter 5
Matteo let everyone believe the rehearsal would continue normally.
That was the trap.
Celeste loved it.
By the next afternoon, she had returned to smiling.
Pearls around her throat.
Hair perfect.
Voice warm.
She greeted guests as though she hadn't thrown my mother's dress into a swimming pool twenty-four hours earlier.
“Darling.”
She kissed my cheek in front of two capo wives.
“You look tired.”
Her hand remained on my arm.
Her nails pressed lightly into my skin.
“Try not to make another scene today.”
I smiled.
“You're touching me.”
Her smile widened.
“Then behave.”
One of the women beside us laughed nervously.
Celeste immediately softened her voice.
“Sofia's emotional. Wedding nerves.”
There it was.
The performance.
Concern in public.
Control underneath.
I stepped away.
Celeste called after me:
“Your mother never knew when to accept help either.”
I kept walking.
That was harder than turning around.
Matteo had asked me to trust him.
So I did.
The chapel rehearsal began at seven.
Guests filled the benches.
Adrian stood near the aisle in his capo pin.
Celeste sat in the front row.
Matteo stood beside the altar.
Everything looked normal.
Nothing was.
Half the bodyguards visible in the room weren't the ones assigned yesterday.
The west corridor appeared empty.
It wasn't.
Matteo had hidden men behind the service doors.
I knew because he'd told me.
Celeste didn't.
After the rehearsal ended, guests moved toward the terrace for drinks.
I stayed near the chapel.
Celeste approached.
“Still carrying that letter?”
I had folded my mother's page inside my clutch.
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“You should burn it.”
“Why?”
“Because dead people poison the living when we let them.”
“Is that what you're afraid of?”
Her smile vanished.
“I don't fear your mother.”
“No?”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“I watched Lucia beg men to believe her. Do you know what they did?”
My chest tightened.
Celeste whispered:
“They finished dinner.”
I stared at her.
She smiled again.
“She cried in this house and nobody left the table.”
The cruelty was deliberate.
She wanted me to imagine my mother alone.
Humiliated.
Powerless.
Celeste continued.
“That's what happens when women confuse emotion with authority.”
I swallowed.
“What did she want them to believe?”
Celeste's eyes sharpened.
Then she smiled.
“Ask your fiancé.”
She walked away.
Not toward the terrace.
Toward the west corridor.
Adrian followed five minutes later.
Exactly as Matteo expected.
I moved toward the small side sacristy.
Matteo was already inside.
A narrow opening in the wall carried voices clearly from the corridor beyond.
Celeste.
Adrian.
“You changed the guards too early,” Celeste hissed.
“I changed them when you told me.”
“Six weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are Bellandi men still everywhere?”
“Because Matteo changed the assignments back.”
Silence.
Celeste cursed.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“He knows.”
“He suspects.”
“He found my pin.”
“Because you dropped it like an idiot eighteen years ago.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
Matteo didn't move.
Adrian continued.
“Daniel grabbed me.”
“And you panicked.”
“He was bleeding.”
“You still lost the pin.”
My heart hammered.
It wasn't speculation anymore.
My father had confronted Adrian.
Adrian had been there.
Celeste had known.
Then Adrian said:
“Lucia saw too much.”
Celeste laughed softly.
“Lucia always saw too much.”
“What about Sofia?”
“She knows nothing.”
“She has the letter.”
“A frightened bride is easy to control.”
I felt Matteo's body change beside me.
Celeste continued.
“After tomorrow, she won't matter.”
Adrian hesitated.
“And Matteo?”
Celeste's answer came without emotion.
“Midnight.”
Pause.
“The chapel doors close.”
My blood turned cold.
Adrian asked:
“And if he refuses?”
Celeste said:
“Then Sofia learns why brides in this family obey.”
I stopped breathing.
Matteo's hand closed around mine.
Steady.
Silent.
Adrian laughed nervously.
“You really think he'll surrender three crews because we threaten her?”
Celeste's voice became colder.
“No.”
A pause.
“He'll surrender because he'll believe we can do to Sofia what we did to Bianca.”
Matteo went still.
His mother's name.
Adrian whispered:
“You said we never speak about that.”
Celeste replied:
“Then stop making me repeat myself.”
I turned toward Matteo.
His face had changed.
Not anger.
Something deeper.
His mother hadn't died in an accident.
May you like
Celeste had just admitted it.
And she still believed Matteo hadn't heard.
