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She moves forward, lifting her hand to my face. “Are you sure she’s what you want? No deceptions or lies.”
I nod once, my expression serious.
“And she wants you, too?”
“Yeah, she does.”
My mom smiles. “Have you been treating her well?”
“I’ve been trying my best,” I say with a smile of my own.
Her smile slips. “Oh. What have I done? She’s going to hate me.”
“Tori could never. I promise,” I assure her. “Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything.”
“No need. I’ll do it. I’ll apologize and explain myself,” she tells me. “I need to start getting to know my future daughter-in-law. And she’s Italian. You did so well,mi amore.”
And just like that, she’s giddy.
“That’s way into the future. Tori needs to finish her residency before we even consider marriage. She has her board exams next year.”
Damn. I have no clue where that came from. She and I have never spoken about marriage before. But I want it. With her. I want everything with her.
Mom grins like she can read my thoughts. “I’m so proud of you,cara. And I can’t believe you’re with a doctor!”
“Yeah, it’s fucking crazy.”
“And amazing. It’s amazing,” she says softly. I lean down so she can kiss my cheek. “Oh, and Carlo? You need to tell her parents the truth. You can’t keep deceiving them. It’s not right.”
I sigh softly. “I know,Mamma.”
CHAPTER21
Tori
“It’ll be fine, Tori,” Daniella says, rubbing my arms comfortingly.
It will most certainly not be fine. A woman who could very well be my mother-in-law clearly despises me, and I have no idea what to do. I don’t even know why. I’m this close to losing my shit right now.
Carlo and his mother return and I launch to my feet. Mrs. D’Angelo smiles at me. It’s an uncomfortable, awkward kind of smile. When I look at Carlo, though, all he offers is a quick thumbs up before his eyes roam the room, landing on his brother.
“Topher!” he barks. “Outside, now.”
Topher gulps and gets to his feet, doing as his brother asks. I’m a little worried when I catch the murderous expression on Carlo’s face. Thankfully, Christian goes with them so I’m sure whatever’s going on won’t escalate.
Mrs. D’Angelo’s still standing by the doorway. She looks at me. “Astoria, dear, I’m very sorry about my actions earlier. Can I speak to you?”
“See, I told you she’d come around,” Daniella whispers in my ear.
“You scared us, Martina,” Katherine tells her.
Mrs. D’Angelo smiles warmly. She’s still waiting for me so I shuffle forward and let her lead me into a hallway. With her standing in front of me, I realize she’s really small. She can’t be more than five-foot-three, but that doesn’t stop her from being intimidating as hell. I can barely look her in the eye.
“I’ll apologize again,cara. It wasn’t my intention to be so rude. I just… I was worried because I heard some unseemly things about your relationship with my son.”
“Unseemly?” I question politely.
“Yes. I heard you started out pretending to be in a fake relationship.”
