A hush fell over the crowd. I held my breath, worried people might revolt, but except for a few disapproving faces most people accepted the verdict.
I braced myself when Dad raised his gun and shot first one then the other man. I barely flinched. The kidnapping and watching Earl’s death had hardened me to a certain amount of brutality. I guessed I had him to thank for finally having the guts to join the Famiglia.
Maddox’s face reflected surprise. “I didn’t think your old man would really go through with it.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t call him that here,” I said, amused.
Maddox gave me a quick grin but Dad caught his gaze and they nodded at each other, which was probably a sort of peace treaty in secret male code.
Then it was my turn. Dad motioned for me to join him on the platform. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I climbed up to stand by his side.
The crowd looked even bigger from this vantage point, and I couldn’t deny it, I was nervous.
“Change is inevitable,” Dad said in a booming voice. “The future doesn’t wait for us to catch up. It’ll run us over if we let it, and I have no intention to let anyone steer this boat except for me.” He pointed at me. “Like I told several of you during meetings, my daughter Marcella will join the business.”
Everyone stared at me and their doubt made me only more determined to prove myself to each of them. Dad handed me one of his daggers. It glittered under the flickering floodlights blasting light down on us from the corners.
I looked Dad in the eye and slid the blade along the tender flesh of my palm. My insides briefly turned but I bit the inside of my cheek to stay focused.
“Born in Blood,
Sworn in Blood,
I enter alive and
“I leave dead,” I said firmly, and any doubt I’d felt evaporated in that moment. This was my destiny. The Famiglia ran in my blood like it ran in Amo’s.
I pulled the blade away and faced the crowd, presenting my cut and letting blood drip down on the platform.
The entire hall intoned the words I’d just spoken. Goose bumps erupted all over my body. My gaze caught Maddox and the pride in his gave me a sense of belonging.
I was finally an official part of the Famiglia. Of course, this was only the beginning. I’d spent the rest of my life proving myself to all the men who thought a woman’s only job was to warm her husband’s bed.
I didn’t want to be that woman and thanks to the freedoms Dad allowed me I’d never have to be.
Marriage had never been the plan. I always imagined having an old lady at some point, a woman I’d temporarily tolerate at my side until she, like the ones before her, would annoy the shit out of me and I’d dump her. Love until death do us part had seemed like something out of a chick flick I’d never watch.
A life without Marcella was a torture I didn’t even want to consider. Eternity with her? My only desire. If there were a closer bond than marriage, then I would have chosen it. I wanted Marcella to belong to me forever, and I wanted to belong to her. I wanted every fucker who wrinkled their noses at our bond, and particularly at me, to know that Marcella and I belonged together, that nothing in this world could part us. Even Luca Vitiello hadn’t been able to do it.
I’d tried to prove myself to him over the last six months, helping him strike down several rogue Earl supporters and protecting Marcella as well as I could. But he and I still never talked anything but business and despite Marcella’s and Aria’s insistence, I’d never been invited to a family dinner.
I couldn’t really blame him. If I had a daughter like Marcella, I’d make anyone’s life hell who dared to think he was worthy of her. Maybe today would finally tip the scale in my favor, or maybe it would make him lose his shit.
The bouncer only nodded as I stepped into the Sphere. To think that the day would come that I could come and go in a Famiglia club still was hard to believe. Today it wasn’t business that brought me here. I headed into the back where the office was and knocked.
“Come in,” sounded Luca’s deep voice.
I had to admit I was a bit nervous. Marcella loved her father and undoubtedly wanted his approval.
I walked inside. Luca sat behind his desk, typing something on his laptop. He sat back in his chair and pointed at the chair across from him. I sat down and briefly felt like my young self during one of my many visits to the headmaster’s office.