Arranged Mafia Marriage

Christian

I gaze through the glass partition that separates me from my triplet. After listening to Nonna, I had walked out of the waiting room and run into the doctor who’d operated on my brother. He’d ushered me into the room adjoining the recovery room, where the man who looks very much like Xander lays on a bed.

His eyes are shut, his skin is pale, and the white sheets of the bed he lays on are a stark contrast to the darkness of his hair. I take in his features again; that familiar high forehead, the patrician nose, the square jaw… All so similar to Xander, and yet, not. For one, while Xander was more on the slender side, this man is far more bulked up. Also, something about the shape of his face is a little different. Like he’s Xander, but with subtle changes woven into his features. He’s Xander, but not, for my twin is dead. He’s never coming back, and this…

This man will never take his place. Whoever he is… He is a stranger. One who tried to kill me… So, why the hell did he step in front of Theresa to protect her? I am not sure. I hear a sniff and turn to find her standing next to me.

“He’s going to wake up,” she says with quiet determination as she presses her palm into the glass partition, “he has to wake up.” Her gaze burns with an inner light that borders on the verge of obsession. Uh-oh.

“Theresa.” I touch her shoulder, and she blinks as if coming out of a daze. She inclines her head in my direction without taking her gaze off of the unconscious figure.

“Theresa?”

“Hmm?”

“You know he’s not Xander, right?”

“What?” She whips her head around in my direction. “Of course, he is Xander; why would you say that he isn’t?”

“But he isn’t, Theresa,” I say gently. “Xander’s dead, Theresa, he-”

“Don’t say that,” she whispers fiercely. “Don’t talk about him as if he’s gone because he’s not.” She jerks her chin in the direction of the sleeping figure. “He’s sleeping right there; can’t you see?”

I blow out a breath. This is going to be so much more complicated than I had anticipated. When he wakes up-and he is going to wake up-he is going to be faced with people who want him to take Xander’s place… And that is not a comfortable situation. Just having a twin and often being mistaken for him becomes tiresome very quickly. And this man, whoever he is, is no doubt going to be expected to pick up from where Xander left off. Hell, much as I see him very much as a stranger and don’t want to think of him as Xander, every time I look at him, I can’t help but see Xander.

I roll my shoulders. “He’s not Xander, Theresa; can’t you see that?”

“Yes, I can. Of course, I can.” She whips her head around in my direction. “You think I’m delusional to see Xander in this…this stranger who took a bullet for me, don’t you?”

“I…” I hold my hands up, “I am only saying the truth.”

“The truth is that despite loving your wife and marrying her, at the first sign of conflict, you lost your balls and decided to turn your back on her.”

“Now hold on,” I growl, “you don’t know what went on between me and Aurora.”

“Oh yeah?” She tosses her hair over her shoulder. “I know that she loves you and that you adore her. When you guys are in the same room together, you can’t take your gaze off of her and yet… You ran from her. You’re still running from her; from the chance of finding true love, the kind that I thought I could have with Xander. And you?” She looks me up and down. “Your wife is still here, and yet you waste time over stupid semantics, and waste the opportunity you’ve been given. If only you were in my shoes, you’d know just how much of an ass you’re being right now.”Belongs © to NôvelDrama.Org.

“Excuse me?” I narrow my gaze on her. “You’re distraught. I understand that you’re not thinking clearly.”

“Oh, I am thinking much more clearly than you.” She turns back to stare at the unconscious man on the bed. “I know that my only chance of happiness lies with this…this stranger. Someone who I don’t know, and yet, who I feel a connection with. Someone who didn’t know me, and who put his life on the line for me. Someone who has the face of the love of my life and with whom I’ve been given a second chance. One I don’t intend to waste… Unlike you.”

“What are you trying to say?” I scowl.

“What she means is, what are you still doing here, Christian?” Seb stalks over to join us.

“What do you mean?” I shoot him a sideways glance. “I’m waiting for him to recover consciousness.”

“Which may not be for a while.”

“So?” I shove my hands in my pockets. Gesu Cristo, does everyone in this family have it in for me, or what?

“So,” he snorts, “do you want me to spell it out for you?”

“No idea what you mean.” I hunch my shoulders.

“Cazzo, you still here, stronzo?” Massimo prowls over to stand behind me.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because everyone can see the truth, except you.” Luca wanders over to flank Massimo.

“The fuck is going on?” I turn to glance between my brothers. “Can’t a man just get some space to do… Whatever it is I’m doing?”

“No.” Michael leans his shoulder against the frame of the doorway.

“Not you too.” I scowl at him. “Don’t you have a Mafia empire to run or something?”

“Not when one of my brothers is lying wounded, and the other is hurting so much, he’s acting like a complete carogna.”

He uses the word that implies I’m lower than rotted meat, and anger sluices through my veins.

“Fuck off, Michael,” I growl. “You may be Don, but that doesn’t give you permission to interfere in my personal life.”

Theresa glances between us. “I’m going to hunt down the doctor and badger him until he allows me into Xander’s room to see him. If I hold his hand, I’m sure he will awaken faster; I know he will.” She spins around, pushes past the men, and rushes out of the room.

“Damn,” I shake my head, “that woman is sure doing an incredible job of fooling herself.”

“Because she’s not afraid to grab at her chance for happiness with both hands?”

“You mean fool herself into believing that man lying in there is her future, when it’s more likely he’s going to wake up and hate her… And all of us, probably.”

“I know what Nonna said earlier must have come as a shock,” Luca offers.

“Shock?” I laugh. “Which part are you talking about? The fact that the woman I thought was my mother isn’t really my mother, or that Nonna and our father decided to split the three of us when we were born, so my blood mother could leave with my triplet?”

“Christian,” Massimo grips my shoulder, “it doesn’t make you less of our brother.”

I squeeze my fingers into fists. Of course, I know that. Just because my brothers are my half-brothers does not change anything… Except that my entire life to-date has been very much a lie. “Fuck,” I shake my head, “this entire conversation is doing my head in.”

“I understand…” Seb’s lips twist. “It hasn’t been easy living with the fact that I’m not a legitimate part of the family.”

“Being a legitimate son isn’t all that it’s cut out to be either,” Luca snorts.

Silence descends on the space. The tension in the air ratchets up. I glance over to find Michael scowling at Luca.

“You chose your way to make your disapproval known to the world,” Michael snaps, referring to how Luca had helped Karma escape when she had run from Michael. This was before the two had gotten back together and realized they were in love and wanted to spend their lives together. And isn’t that what I want too? So why did I let go of her? Why didn’t I allow myself to listen to her? To forgive her for her mistakes?

“And I am sorry for what I did. I apologized to you, didn’t I?” Luca offers.

“And you were lucky I chose to look past your digressions.” Michael scowls. The two glare at each other, then Michael blows out a breath, “Not here to dwell over the past, brother.”

Luca jerks his chin, “Me neither.” He walks over to Michael and holds out his hand, “We good?”

Michael grips his hand. “For now.” The two shake, then Luca turns toward me and both of them glare at me with twin expressions of frustration.

“What?” I lean forward on the balls of my feet. “If you guys have something to say, then you better spit it out.”

Michael pushes off of the door and stalks over to me. “It’s been a lot to take in, but it doesn’t change the fact that you would be an idiot if you let her walk away, and if there’s one thing I can say about you, Christian, you are the most level-headed man I know. Perhaps, the most rational. It’s why I made you the consigliere. It’s why I know you are going to the airport, and you are going to stop her.”

“I am?” I glance around at the faces of my brothers. “I am.”