AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Giana shoots up like a little kid going to an amusement park. “Hello, dear.” She pulls Pia into a hug, squeezing her tight. Pia looks at me over Giana’s shoulder and smiles. “My, you are a pretty thing.” She pats Pia’s cheek. “You and Dario are sure going to have beautiful babies.” Pia’s cheeks grow red. “Why was I not invited to the wedding? Dario, how could you?”
I gently pull Pia away from Giana before she squeezes the life out of her. “It was a sudden marriage.”
“It was a shotgun wedding,” Serafina says, not taking her eyes off her phone screen.
“What?” Giana exclaims.
“I mean, why else get married so fast?”
Pia leans into my side the more Serafina speaks. I speak up before this gets out of hand. “It was not a shotgun wedding. Pia is not pregnant.”
“Oh, good,” Giana breathes out. “I never knew you to ruin a girl’s reputation, Dario.”
Serafina snorts.
“Pia and I got married because I needed to protect her from her father. He was going to hurt her otherwise. I also wanted her for myself.”
“Good man,” Leo says, finally joining the conversation. “A strong man takes whatever he likes.”
“Still, you could have invited us to the wedding,” Giana grumbles.
“It really was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” I tell her. “You understand.”
She sighs. “I guess. Anyway, Pia, come tell me about yourself.” She sits down on the couch and pulls Pia down with her. I settle in beside my wife.
“She can’t,” Serafina says. “Remember. I said she was amute.”
“Oh, that’s right. Such a shame. A waste of a pretty face if you have no voice,” Giana replies.
Pia turns to me, frowning.
“Do not make fun of my wife,” I tell both Giana and Serafina. “There’s nothing wrong with being mute.”
“Isn’t there, though?” Serafina finally looks up from her phone. “I mean, how do you even talk with her when she can’t talk back?”
Giana points at Serafina. “That’s a good point. How do you two communicate?”
“Pia types what she wants to say on her phone. Simple as that.”
“But that must be so cumbersome!” You’d think Giana was just told that the sky is falling, not that Pia uses the phone to communicate.
“Not really.” Pia eases into me more, and I press my hand on her back, letting her know that I got her. I wanted her to be mine, and I made her mine. Now, it’s my time to show her that I can continue protecting her. “It’s pretty easy. Isn’t it, Pia?”
Pia nods, smiling a little bit.
“I just think it makes you sound stupid,” Serafina says so casually that if you weren’t paying attention to her words, you’d assume she was complimenting you. “I mean, who can’t talk?”
Pia deflates, and the minute she does, anger rises in me.
“What makes you sound stupid is bullying an innocent person,” I snap back at my sister.
Serafina sits up straighter in her seat. “I’m not the one who brought some rando into our house.”
“Well, if you don’t like it, then, by all means, leave.”
Adelina cuts in. “Ok, this is getting a little intense. Let’s not say something we’ll regret later. Right, guys?”
Giana watches the exchange like she desperately needs a bowl of popcorn in front of her. Leo has already fallen asleep on the couch.
