She crosses her arms and gives me a long, hard stare—so reminiscent of how our mother used to look at me that I almost flinch back in my chair.
“Teo wanted it to be an intimate affair,” I reply, unashamedly throwing the man under the bus. “No one was supposed to know.”
“I’m yoursister.”
“Take it up with your husband.”
A fist slams down on my desk. I don’t flinch. “I don’t care what Teo did or did not want. I wantedyouto want me there.”
I meet her eyes—the same brown as mine, though somehow hers always seem so much deeper. “Had it been a wedding and not a business transaction, I would have made you my best man. That better?”
“A business transaction withvows, Leon. In front of a priest.” She throws her hands up in exasperation. “She has your last name now, for fuck’s sake.”
“You didn’t miss anything important.” I try not to sound bitter. I try not to think about anything that would make me feel bitter. Or anyone. “You knew it was a possibility, and it all happened quite quickly in the end.”
Isabella’s eyes squint slightly. “I never thought you’d actually go through with it.”
“What choice did I have?”
“If this is about heirs?—”
“Of course, it’s about heirs!” I feel my voice rising and try to reign it in. “You’ve married into the Guild. Mother is dead. There’s no one left here but me, and I can’t protect the people I love forever.”
Her expression softens. “That’s not your responsibility.”
“I’m your brother. You and Irina are the only family I have left. Of course, it’s my responsibility, Issy.”
Isabella’s shoulders sag as she flops down into the chair opposite me. “I can’t believe Irina will have to call her Aunty Mia now.”
I grunt noncommittally. I hadn’t even thought about introducing my wife to what was left of my family.
“You know, the first time I met her, she screamed in my face for disrupting Cas and Rocco’s wedding and put a knife to my throat?” Isabella grimaces as she says it.
I grimace back. “The first time I met her, she nearly choked me to death with her thighs.”
Isabella’s mouth twitches up at the unspoken innuendo.
“Don’t,” I point at her before she can start. “It wasn’t exactly a happy reunion.”
“I can’t imagine why she’d even agree to marry you, honestly.”
I shrug. “She seemed to be under the impression that her father’s life was at stake if she didn’t.”
Isabella blinks at me. “Who the hell threatened Marco?”
“No idea. She thought it was me. I thought it must have been Teo.”
“Teo wouldn’t,” she says with a firm belief in her husband, which I’m glad at least one of us holds.
“Either way, it happened. We’re married, it’s…it’s legal.” I quickly skirt over exactlyhowlegal it all is. “Mia Chiavari is a Natali now. That’s all you really missed.”
Isabella sighs and looks away from my desk, suddenly looking quite tired. “Can you give me a real reason?”
“I told you, I need an heir. The alliance needs me to have an heir, and I need the alliance to keep you safe.”
“Oh, screw the damn alliance for a second, all right?” she brushes me off entirely. “Why areyoudoing this?”
For a moment, I contemplate not telling her at all. My reasoning had been enough to satisfy both Teo and Mia before. They hadn’t needed anything else.
