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Liam: I’ll be right down.
I never wanted to have secrets from Jamie again, but this particular issue required delicacy, and I had to speak with Matt about my discoveries before telling her everything I thought I knew.
I tiptoed out of the apartment and sprinted down the stairs. The elevator was too slow for the current of energy soaring through my body right now.
As always, Matt’s demeanor gave absolutely nothing away. If he was nervous, anxious, or happy, one could never tell unless he wanted you to. To the ones who knew him better, like myself, there were small tells that could allow us to hint at what was going through that calculative mind of his.
Our fucking fate had just been written in stone, and Matt just stood there as if it was any given Monday.
“Spit it out already.” I urged as soon as I reached him and no one was in hearing range.
“It’s settled.” He simply said, taking a drag out of a cigarette he had lit before I arrived. “I’ll be marrying Francesca in two weeks, give or take. We’ll stick to the schedule.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. You’re free, Little Brother.” He smiled for the first time, pulling me in for a hug with the signature hard, manly pats on the back.
“That’s fucking good to know. But we’ll be changing our plans again, Big Brother.”
“What do you mean?”
“This.” I handed him my phone, showing him the pictures I had taken of the ring before giving it back to Jamie. “I told you about her father, right? I had Jimmy do some digging, and every fucking lead hit a wall except for this.”
His mouth was wide open as he flipped back and forth through the pictures, his mind not wanting to believe what his eyes were seeing.
“That belonged to her mother.”
His head whipped up like a spring, his eyes boring into mine and searching my face for any kind of uncertainty.
“That belongs to…”
“Yup,” I replied before he could finish. “You don’t need to marry Francesca, Matt. Jamie is an Amato, Enzo’s daughter, and if I marry her, our families are tied.”
Matt stood there looking at me, taking that damn thing to his mouth and inhaling until the whole cigarette was practically gone. I could see the wheels in his head turning as he thought this through, the silence between us growing in tension.
“No.” He grunted, flicking the cigarette butt to the floor before stomping on it as if the damn thing was about to come alive and hunt him down. “We proceed as planned. I just need you to keep this under wraps for two weeks before you talk to Don Amato and confirm it’s real. Have you told Jamie?”
“I’m sorry. Pause right there. What? You still want to marry the Amato girl?” I glared at him, watching as he scratched his perfectly trimmed beard without saying a word. “You do like her.”
“I like my promised seat in The Commission if I marry her. So stop being so emotional and let’s get our facts straight.”
I was dumbstruck, to say the least. There was more to it than what Matt led on. His precious seat in The Commission would be just as secured by marrying Francesca or anyone else.
“What did she do to you?” I asked, intrigued, picking on him and enjoying seeing Matt getting riled up about it. He didn’t want to admit it, but there was something special about her in his eyes.
“Fuck off. She can’t know about what you just told me. So keep your fucking mouth shut for the next two weeks and pretend you don’t know anything until after she says ‘I do.’”
“Sure thing, Boss.” I saluted with a grin on my face that annoyed the fuck out of my brother.
We set our facts straight and aligned our stories before I ran up the stairs with a renewed joy under my step. I couldn’t get up there quick enough.
I burst into the apartment, startling Jamie, her head whipping up from the book she was eagerly devouring. She perused me intensely before placing the book down beside her and standing up in slow motion, making her way towards me.
“Really?” She asked, her face lit in a smile that came straight from her heart.
“Really,” I assured, wrapping her into my embrace and kissing her as if it were the first time.
This right here was what Heaven was made of.
