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When I opened the box, there was the most beautiful white dress inside. It was a little aged, and the tissue paper inside the box had yellowed, but the white satin was untouched. I held it up a little to see more of it and looked over at my father quizzically.
“What’s this about, Daddy?” I asked.
“Just…” he paused, his mouth open as if he wanted to say something but then thought against it. “Put it on, honey. We have someplace to be.”
He turned and left me to put the dress on.
It was far too dressy for any place I had ever been to. It was seamless satin with lace covering the back, letting my skin show through. A line of buttons went all the way down the back. The front was plain, but the sleeves went up to an off-the-shoulder neckline that I had to say made me look stunning. I was officially in love with the dress.
I paired it with a pair of silver heels I had in my closet, the closest color I had that would go, and added a simple natural pearl necklace and matching teardrop pearl earrings. I did my hair in a single French braid down the back and then pulled it to the side, so it draped forward over one shoulder. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I could hardly believe I was looking at myself.
Cautious but a little excited, I walked out of my room to find my father standing by the front door. When he looked at me, I gave a small twirl.
“How do I look?” I asked. I could swear there were tears in my father’s eyes.
“You look gorgeous, honey. Are you ready to go?”
“Almost. Can you get the rest of the buttons in the back? I couldn’t reach it.” I said, turning my back to him. He said nothing as he fumbled with the buttons, doing his best to do them up. Something was definitely wrong, though. His hands were shaking.
“Daddy… what’s wrong?”
“Nothing sweetheart, we just… we have somewhere to be,” was all he said.
He helped me get into our car, and he drove. He was silent the whole ride, and I kept looking over at him, wishing he would talk to me. Maybe I could help? Maybe I could at least make him feel better about whatever it was. I could help try to find solutions, but he wouldn’t say anything. I asked him what was wrong again, but he refused to answer. He just white-knuckled the wheel and kept looking forward.
I watched the city pass by from my window, wondering what we could possibly be doing. The dress was gorgeous but way too dressy for anything except a gala or a ball, but it was one in the afternoon on a Saturday. What high-priced party would be happening now? Besides, if we were going somewhere special, wouldn’t my dad have dressed up too? He was in his usual business attire—a brown suit with brown shoes, a white shirt, and a brown plaid tie. He had a hat to go with, but he wasn’t wearing it.
Nothing about this made sense, and when we pulled up in front of the courthouse, I was even more confused. At first, I thought he was just stopping to pick up paperwork or something, but when he opened my door and helped me out onto the brick walkway leading to marble steps, I was taken aback. What was I doing dressed up at the courthouse?
A horrible thought crossed my mind and made me stop following him.
“Daddy, are you… are you going to jail?”
“No, no honey, nothing like that. I promise,” he assured me, coming back to me to take my arm in his. He started pulling me forward again and I went, knowing that no matter what was going on, it was important to him. He was sweating, and his face was red. He was jittery, and his voice was shaky. “Just come along, you’ll find out soon enough.”
“Okay…”
I didn’t like this, but there was little else I could do. I walked with him into the courthouse and, instead of heading to the front desk, he went straight down the large hallway to the right. At the end of the hallway, he turned us left, then directly into the room on the right.
Inside, there was a very large desk, behind which stood an old man in a black robe. A judge, by the look of him. On the right, standing before the desk, were two men that looked a lot alike; however, one was much older. They wore matching black suits, though the older man had on a purple tie and the younger man a blue one. They both had slicked-back black hair and dark eyes and held the same displeased looks on their faces.
However, when they saw that we had arrived, the demeanor of the older one brightened, and he came forward with open arms to hug my father, then me—kissing me on each cheek before letting me go.
“Ah good, good!” the older guy said. “I thought maybe you had gone back on our deal, Ray!”
“No, I… I couldn’t do that,” he said, and I could feel the frown line appear on my forehead.What deal?
“No, you couldn't, could you?” the older guy said and slapped my father on the back.
I wanted to yell and scream at them to tell me what was going on, but I refrained. I had seen the older guy before, now that I thought about it. His name was Marco, but I couldn’t remember much more than that, other than that he worked with my father. Okay, so this was a Mafia thing. That explained why Daddy was nervous. But then, why was I here? Daddy had always been so careful to keep me out of his business.
“Are we ready to go?” the judge asked, and Marco nodded, returning to his place beside the younger guy, whom I assumed now was his son. They looked so much alike that there was no way he couldn’t be.
“We are,” Marco answered, and my father motioned for me to stand next to the unnamed stranger. I did as I was told, my curiosity now stronger than my stubbornness.
The judge cleared his throat and looked down at the papers on his desk.
“We are going to make this very simple as I have all the paperwork and proper licenses here. Everything looks like it’s in order, so all I need are the signatures of Mr. Morelli and Miss Segreto on the marriage certificate and Miss Segreto’s signature on the name change paperwork, and we are good to go if the happy couple don’t want a ceremony.”
