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I knew all that. I loved all that about him, but I hated that Mia’s only perception of her brother was this. I wanted her to have the same hope I had. I wanted her to believe Antonio was worthy of being filled with love. None of them saw it, though. They just accepted him like this because it was comfortable.
Before I could speak, Mia continued. It was almost like she was trying to assure me. It was sweet of her, but I really didn’t like it. “When you marry a man that is not very conventional, you have to love them the way they are. That’s what I learned from my marriage.”
Oh, hell no. It was not the same at all. I was not going to accept Antonio as he was because it was wrong. I wanted to be his cure. I was not scared of losing my comfort like them.
I didn’t want to be rude, so I smiled but still knew my words were going to put more sadness in Mia’s eyes. I had to say it, though.
“Our situations are not the same, Mia, because Salvatore loves you back.”
She looked at me like I punched her in the gut. She was sad for me. I hated it. I hated that she was so ready to accept it.
Luckily before we could continue, Antonio came and took over the cooking job. Mia left, looking distressed.
As Antonio was cooking, I casually put my hand on his chest. I needed to feel his heart, and despite what everyone said, it was in there. Beating.
Antonio
After Mia and I were done cooking, we prepared the long table in the garden. The weather was quite good. Everybody liked having our family meals out in the open. We tried to have one of these at least every two months. But today was also Isabella’s birthday. We couldn’t go to the Lake House because of work but decided to have the family dinner and also decided to go there as soon as we could.
This time, my parents were not here since they were busy preparing for the move. They wanted to live somewhere peaceful after my father’s retirement.
My father wanted to give the mansion to Alessio alongside his title. He offered it to me first, but I was comfortable in my penthouse in the city for now. Alessio, on the other hand, had a toddler and Isabella wanted them to move to a house.
It made more sense to give it to him. I would move into a house when I had to. For now, I really liked being in the city. I didn’t know what Priscilla felt about it, though. Maybe I needed to talk to her.
“Why is there no meat here?” Salvatore asked with a disgusted face.
“Everything is delicious. Just eat it.” I knew it was. I was very good at cooking.
He shook his head. “It would be more delicious if there was meat.”
“Priscilla is trying to be a vegetarian,” I explained and felt her getting pink beside me.
“I am not,” Salvatore answered.
“Well, she gets sidetracked when someone else eats meat next to her.” She didn’t have a very strong will. When I had a type of meat she liked next to her, she always picked my food and then felt so sad that she was not able to change her diet. I didn’t want her to get sad again. I ate meat in her absence and cooked only vegetarian food today. It was not a big deal anyway. It tasted good.
Salvatore grumbled as Mia and Isabella laughed. Alessio and Verona took food into their plate silently, but Valerio carried the same displeased expression Salvatore had. He would usually side with me in everything, but he never did when it was about Priscilla. I still haven’t had a talk with him about that. I saw him less than before since most of my time was spent with Priscilla now.
Valerio slowly shook his head in disapproval. “Sal and Alessio, I understand, but I was not expecting you to get whipped too, Antonio.”
Everybody tried to contain their laughter. I didn’t take any offense, though. “Happy wife, happy life. You will understand when you get married.”
Valerio rolled his eyes, and Verona sent him a side glance. “You are just jealous. There is no one left for you to hang out with.”
If anyone told him that, he would probably get mad, but to Verona, he didn’t. He was never anything but cheerful towards her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her. “Not at all. I have you.”
Priscilla’s sneeze cut their sweet moment.
“Bless you,” almost all of us said.
“Thank you,” she answered and smiled shyly.
I could tell she was pleased by me favoring her, but she was also embarrassed. It was hard to understand what would actually make her shy. It didn’t cause any problems, but I still hated not knowing.
I also hated her sneeze. What the fuck was with that?
Yet, I didn’t want to seem crazy in front of my family. They knew I was a logical man and, for some reason, thought that it was not logical at all to take care of my wife. They were just delusional. Everything I did regarding Priscilla was reasonable, but they just wanted to be delusional to get some more amusement out of my marriage. I didn’t like that at all, but if I told them, they would just joke around the topic more.
