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“Did you mean it?” Rosie’s voice is soft for the first time, her hand wrapping around mine before I can walk further into the office.
“Mean what?”
“The fireplace.”
“I did.” I shrug my blazer off and hang it on the coat rack.
“That’s really nice. Thank you,” she says.
Rilo’s voice ruins the one sincere moment between Rosie and me. “Are you ready? I have the contract and the marriage license.” He tosses the remainder of his cigar into his drink to put it out. “I have a meeting in an hour elsewhere.”
He opens the folder and places the contract and the marriage license on the table, handing me a fountain pen.
“Sign it so I can get out of here.”
“Wait,” Rosie protests. “Already? You want me to sign the marriage license and that’s it?”
I sign the contract because Carmine had one made for his wife and I amended it with a few extra things for Rosie last night. Then I sign the marriage license, handing her the pen next. “What did you expect?” I ask her. “Surely, you didn’t want a wedding, flowers, and a dress for this?” I tease slightly, knowing she wouldn’t have wanted that with me.
She snatches the pen away from me and gives me a dirty look. “With you? No. Like every girl I had a dream of getting married, what I wanted, what I wanted my dress to look like, but like everything else in my life right now, I’m not surprised that’s never going to happen.”
I don’t let my facial expression show my disappointment in myself. I’m in front of Rilo and I have to remain passive and uncaring. I don’t like that I’m taking yet another dream away from her. I had forgotten most women love the traditional wedding and dream about it most of their lives.
Maybe in the future, when she doesn’t hate me so much, I’ll be able to give her that.
“We’ll have to talk about that one day,” I say to her, wanting to give her hope.
She shakes her head in disbelief, placing the end of the pen against her chin while she reads over the contract out loud.
“Terms of marriage between Rosie O’Connor and Aristide Milazzo are as follows:
- An agreement has been made between the two parties. Rosie O’Connor has agreed to marry and have a child (the child must be conceived and born within one year) with Aristide Milazzo to save her family’s store and protect her from the law and rival mafia boss due to the fact she murdered a rival mafia’s man.
- Both parties share the same bed.
- They are to raise our child together. She will be a part of this baby’s life. A child needs a mother.”
“That’s…nice of you to add the last part, but after this contract is over, we will get an annulment as if it never happened, and then I’ll have a real wedding with my real husband,” she says, her voice tired and bored while she reads.
Anger swells in my chest and my teeth clench together hard. “Rilo, will you go wait in the kitchen?” My voice trembles with uncontained lividity.
Rosie hears and she looks up at me, taking a step away as if I’m going to hurt her.
Never in my life would I or will I raise my hand to a woman.
“I’m going to prepare myself some food,” Rilo informs me.
“I don’t care.” I open the door for him to leave. “I need a moment alone with my wife.”
“Not your wife yet. I’m reading every line of this contract, so I’m not taken by surprise.”
“Good luck,” Rilo tells me as he walks out, and I can’t help but slam the door behind him.
“Is that what you think? That this isn’t a real marriage? I’m not going to be a real husband? I’m not going to take care of you, provide for you, protect you?”
“You can do all those things but you’re missing the main ingredient in making a marriage work,” she says, flipping the page of the contract. She looks up at me, “Love, Mr. Milazzo.”
“Who says I can’t get you to fall in love with me?” I step forward, wanting the challenge more than ever.
