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Once we’re all in the back of the car, I reach for Maddie’s hand. We took a separate jet. The last thing I wanted was to spend hours stuck in the air with everyone else, especially with a whole month of their bullshit ahead of us.
“What are we going to do for a month?” Liliana asks, as if reading my mind.
“Spend time with your grandmother,” I tell her. “It’s what she wants.”
“Okay. Maybe I’ll take her shopping and to lunch. Oh, Ma, we could take her to that gallery we found last year,” Liliana suggests.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s do that,” Maddie agrees.
I look at my daughter. I couldn’t be prouder of my children, even if they areheathensat times. Right now, though, Liliana is showing just how sweet she is. She’s caring, loyal, and has a heart of gold. If only her choice in men were better… or nonexistent…
“Travis is going to try to visit. They have an off weekend in a couple of weeks,” she says, ruining the whole sweet image of her I just had in my head.
Yeah, nonexistent would be great right now.
“He wasn’t invited,” I grunt.
Maddie scowls at me. “Yes, he was. If Liliana wants Travis to visit, then he will and you will refrain from threatening to shoot him.”
“Fine, I won’t shoot him. I won’t have to. Alessandro can do it for me—he’s twenty-three in case you haven’t heard,” I say, eyeing my son with a raised brow.
“Sure, but nowhere important. I need him to win the Cup, Pops.” He shrugs. Alessandro is a huge hockey fan, and my daughter’s current boyfriend just happens to be an NHL player.
“You know, you could just go and get a girlfriend, so you have your own life to worry about, instead of interfering in mine,” Liliana tells her brother.
“Why the f…freakwould I want a girlfriend when I can have a new pus—shit, a new woman every night?” Alessandro says, trying his best to censor himself before I have to.
Good on him, because I was getting ready to slap him again.
“He gets that from you,” Maddie tells me.
“Me? If I recall correctly, I spent weeks following your ass around, trying to get you to give me the time of day.”
“More accurately, you stalked me, and then decided I was yours,” my wife tries to remind me.
“Well, was I wrong?” I smirk.
“No, you weren’t. Still, before you met me, you were just like he is now,” Maddie says.
“No, I wasn’t,” I insist, but she’s not wrong. I really was.
The car pulls into the Donatello estate a few minutes later, and we all pile out. “I’m going to find a room before everyone else gets here,” Liliana declares as she disappears into the house.
This property is huge. The house itself has twenty bedrooms. It’s a former palace that has been in the Donatello family for generations. So I’m honestly not sure what my daughter’s rush is. There is no bad choice when it comes to guest rooms.
Then again, maybe Liliana has a point…
I take Maddie’s hand and tug her towards the entrance. “Come on, I want that room in the west, away from everyone else,” I say, leading my wife in the direction of the bedroom I always choose when I visit.
“When’s the ceremony?” Maddie asks as soon as we enter the room. She means the handover between my father and me, the one where I officially take over the Valentino family and he steps down. Even thinking about it feels otherworldly, if I’m honest.
“I’m not sure. It’ll be this month sometime, over at the Valentino estate,” I tell her.
“And this is a men only event, right? Made men only?”
“Yes,” I tell her.
“Can you record it for me so I can watch?” she asks.
