Deadly Nightshade by Sem Thornwood

Chapter 21

Isabella

My father sent me to the lake house again.

Last time I came here to be away from Panaro, but now it was my punishment. According to everybody, I did nothing wrong, but my dad never needed a reason to punish me. I honestly thought he would have kept me in the house and torture me himself. Turns out he was too far gone to check up on me. Also, he was aware that keeping me away from Alessio was a good enough punishment.

He couldn’t stop us from texting or calling, though. I mean, I guess he could have tried by taking my phone away, but he didn’t try, but as I gathered from our texts, he was going hard on Alessio. He was busier than ever.

He always sent me a good morning text, but never a good night text. My previous insecurities sometimes came back regarding his nighttime activities. Before, I got jealous thinking about it, but I also knew that I didn’t have a right to be jealous. Now I did. I was promised to marry him, and I didn’t want him to be with other women. I knew he was highly obsessed with me, but it didn’t mean he was going to have only me. I needed to have that talk with him, but I didn’t want to have that on the phone. It was too serious of a topic for that.

I first learned I was to go to the lake house from Alessio. When I went back to my room from the cigar lounge, it was hard to sleep, so I was looking at my fake social media. Then a text from Alessio popped up.

Alessio: I was going to sneak into your room, but your father was kind enough to escort me to my car.

I did stop to roll my eyes to my father’s unnecessary protectiveness before replying.

Isabella: It is okay. It won’t be a very good idea anyway. Verona is sleeping with me.

Alessio: That’s nice.

Alessio: He is sending you to the lake house.

For a moment, I was too dumbfounded that I almost texted “Who?” but I stopped myself in time. Of course, my father was sending me back. He must have liked having me away from home.

Isabella: So, we won’t see each other until the wedding?

Even the question was a little sad, it made me smile after I wrote it. When I talked about a wedding just days before, it came with a panic attack, but now it was all different. Now talking about weddings made me happy.

A wedding meant finally being free of my father.

A wedding meant finally being with Alessio.

Alessio: I’ll try something, but I am not sure, Sweetheart. Anyway, it will be over soon.

He was right, so I didn’t bitch about it when he couldn’t find a way to see me.

I tried to argue with my father, but it was a dead-end like always. I asked him how I could plan a wedding if I cannot see Alessio, but he just told me I can do that the same way I did for my previous wedding. I also asked him about when we were going to get an engagement party, but he said it was unnecessary and inappropriate so shortly after Panaro’s death. It was not a wedding he was proud of, so we didn’t need to make a big deal about it. And even an engagement party would be the perfect excuse to see Alessio. I was kind of happy we didn’t have one. I wanted to have the wedding as fast as possible.

Neither of us wanted a big affair. We just wanted people who are close to us and wanted to make it happen as fast as possible. Aunt Pippa said that every nice place in Chicago was booked up. Earlier she could find was four months from my first wedding. Which was too long.

I knew she was tired of planning two weddings back-to-back, so this time I stepped up. Mia also decided to help. Even though she was still struggling with school, she made time.

We decided that we didn’t need a fancy ballroom after all. We didn’t want too many people anyway. We decided to have the wedding at the Mazzoni mansion. It had a great garden, and it was more than enough for the little wedding we wanted. Also, it gave us the opportunity to plan it in just two months. We were going to get married on April 20th.

Because my father didn’t let me come back to Chicago, Aunt Pippa and Mia came to see me on a weekend. One of their goals was to see me in my wedding dress. It was not an actual wedding dress. Since we wanted to have a casual wedding, I wanted to wear a white boho dress. I bought it online, and it was really cute, but Aunt Pippa insisted on seeing it with her own eyes before letting me wear that. She was also more excited about this wedding like the rest of us. I mean, after all, it was her stepson’s wedding.

I told Alessio about my more casual dress choice. I didn’t send him a picture of my dress but send some similar ones. He was on board with it. He was never the three-pieced-suit guy anyway. I told him it might look cute if he wore suspenders, but he rejected. Apparently, that would make him look funny. I didn’t fight him on the matter, but I told him he was forbidden to dress fully in black.

“Oh my god, Bells, it looks so good!” Mia clapped her hands. All of her disinterest was now turned into enthusiasm.

I swirled around one more time. I really loved my dress.

Aunt Pippa rose from her seat and came to my back. “The waist is a little baggy.”

“I think it is okay,” I said. It didn’t look bad.

“No, I am not letting you get married in a dress that is not perfect.” I giggled as she pinched the fabric on either side of my waist. “Let me pin it, then we took it with us to Chicago.”

“Okay.” I was not about to argue with Aunt Pippa because she wanted the wedding to be perfect. “But don’t let Alessio see it.”

This time Aunt Pippa pinched my side, making me cry with surprise. “Do you think I am stupid?”

I caressed my side because that woman knew how to hurt. Mia was giggling like crazy on the sofa.

When Aunt Pippa left to get some needles, I looked at myself in the mirror. Then I asked Mia without looking. “Did your dress fit well?” I have chosen coral-colored dresses for her and Verona. Aunt Pippa was still against Verona being my bridesmaid, but she asked me to, and I didn’t want to upset my little sister.

Mia didn’t answer me, but when she talked, her voice came a lot closer than before. “I have something for you.”

I turned around; she was holding a small red parcel in her hands. “What is that.”

“Well, you didn’t have time to have an engagement party, and your dad doesn’t let Alessio see you. So, I have to be the one to give you this. Not the most romantic way, but he wanted you to have it before the wedding.”

I reached for the parcel she held out for me. I was stunned. I wasn’t expecting an engagement ring. I thought our wedding rings which we chose together via texting would be enough. I didn’t need an engagement ring, but still when I opened the parcel I was too excited.

And there stood the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. The diamond was smaller than Panaro’s ring, and the band was gold. It was not a ring; it was an art piece. The band was exquisite. That goldwork reminded me of the hair combs Alessio bought me on my sixteenth birthday. That man knew his jewelry.

“This is so beautiful,” I murmured, mesmerized.

Mia nodded in excitement. “I know, right. And he was so nervous that you are not going to like it.”

I took out the ring to put it on my finger. A little smile played on my lips. Imagining Alessio getting nervous about my reaction was too amusing to me. “How could he even think that. It is beautiful.”

“Well, it is, but honestly, Bella, you would like it even if it was not.”

My brows came together, and my eyes widen. “Are you saying that I don’t have a sense of style?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Oh no, you do. It’s just you would like it because it was from Alessio.”

“Probably,” I accepted. Then I looked at the beautiful ring on my finger. Under the glowing sunlight, it looked magical. “But it helps that he choose something pretty.”

I could only find some time alone after we took the measurements for the dress and took it off. Mia and Aunt Pippa were downstairs arguing about what was the best way to do osso buco. I wanted to call Alessio, but it was early, and I didn’t know if he was busy or not, so I just texted him.

Isabella: Mia gave me the ring. I loved it.

A few seconds later, my phone started ringing. Okay, he was not busy, I guess.

I answered immediately. “Hey.”

“Did you really like it?” his voice came so excited that it made my heart flip.

“Yes. I don’t know how you do it, but you always find the best jewelry.”

He chuckled. “I have them handmade specifically.”

Okay, that shouldn’t have meant anything bad to me, but it did. It made me wonder if this was a regular thing for him. Did he have a goldsmith to make these amazing pieces of jewelry for many of his girls? Did he have many girls?

Shit, I wanted to ask, but this was not the time and not the place. I had to have this talk face to face, and that meant I had to have it after we were married. It was shitty. So, I couldn’t help but ask about the goldsmith. “Oh, so you have a guy for that?”

“Of course, I do,” he says confidently, and all of my happiness just left the room.

I didn’t want to show it to him, but I could not just keep talking sweetly after this. I was just too far gone. I didn’t even know if this was real, but there was no reason for it to not be the reality. He was young and handsome. He wanted to have me, yes, but it didn’t mean he was not going to cheat on me.

“Thank you,” I said because I couldn’t think of anything else. I was just too sad because of all these thoughts. “I didn’t want to disturb you; that’s why I didn’t call.”

“No problem, Sweetheart. I was just in the middle of carving a Russian.”

Okay, all the previous thoughts left my brain. My eyes were too wide. “Are you serious?”

Big laughter erupted on the other side of the phone. It put me at ease for a little while. He must have been joking. But then he said, “You can never know.”

Luckily it gave me the perfect opportunity to escape. “Okay, this is disturbing. I am hanging up.”

“I was joking.”

“Well, still.”

His laughing tone got silent for a while, and then he asked seriously, “Are we good?”

Not really, but it was not the time. “We are.”

“Good,” he breathed out, sounding relieved. “Only twenty-five days to go. Can’t wait.”

Him counting the days to our wedding did touch me, but his feelings towards me were not connected to his sex life. “See you at the altar.”

He laughed one last time and said, “See you,” before hanging up.

I was more than happy to marry Alessio, and there was nothing that could change my mind about this, but still, I was anxious. We were not a normal couple. Our world did have different rules. It was normal for a husband to cheat on his wife, but I didn’t think I could bear the idea of Alessio with other women. I was almost certain that he was having sex with random women these days. It was probably hard for a man to go without it for so long, or at least the men in our circles acted like it was. I just hoped that he would stop when we got married. I hoped that I could be enough for him because he was enough for me in every regard.