Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“That’s fair. Probably closer to the truth, too.”
“That is the truth!”
Carina just laughed, but she turned in her woolly, dark blue gown, a careful choice for a winter wedding, to find Salvatore quiet in the doorway. “Hey, babe.”
Vanna passed a look at him over her shoulder, greeting simply, “Salvatore.”
“Vanna. How are things?”
“Quiet. Different. Nice.”
“I heard the executor of Giorgio’s estate has begun liquidating the remaining assets.”
He didn’t bother to ask how the investigation into the apparent murder-slash-suicide of Giorgio, his son, and the other man in the equation had been going, as he already knew.
Vanna reached into the bassinet belonging to Dove. “Apparently. Nico should expect a good half of it, split between him and Carmen.”
“And what about you?”
She shrugged, never turning to look at him and Carina as they met in the middle of the room to embrace. He pressed a kiss to the top of his wife’s head, careful of her already slicked back chignon and the makeup on her face.
“He made sure I would be taken care of,” Vanna informed like she was ordering coffee and not speaking of the death of her husband. “Which means I won’t have to return to my father for anything significant, anyhow. That’s what counts.”
Salvatore cleared his throat, knowing the woman wouldn’t want to get too deep into that topic. “Well, in the meantime, if you do need something,” he replied while Carina squeezed his hand.
Vanna looked back at him one more time, nodding. “Thank you.”
“Just not this thing,” Salvatore clarified, only half joking, as he tilted his head toward Carina at his side.
Her hand swatted his back.
Vanna only laughed, her eyes darting between the two before her attention went right back to the twins in their beds. “No, uh, I don’t think I can...compete. I learned that a while ago, Sal. No worries there.”
He didn’t worry. He simply knew the past because it painted them all again and again.
Carina checked the delicate Cartier watch on her wrist. “You need to go get Frankie so we can get her dressed and downstairs. And where’s Nico? He’s your responsibility today, Sal. You wanted this wedding to happen before she was nine months pregnant, so we didn’t have water breaking on the priest’s feet.”
A snort echoed from Vanna.
Salvatore pushed his daughter’s wedding to the top of his priority list the moment he could stop praying that the smallest of his babies would finally make it off supplemented oxygen and be released from the NICU. It only took six weeks for her to get those walking papers, but they assured she would a week after her birth. His little Dove Darling got released once her weight hit five pounds, a week ago. He’d let Carina go ahead with the wedding planning a month earlier, giving her a timeline that made her squint at him for days every time he entered a room.
She could do it, he told her. He had all the faith.
“Well, where is he?” Carina asked again.
Salvatore didn’t know, and he didn’t want to admit it because Carina would have his nuts for losing the kid with less than two hours to go until showtime. “He was with Larkin and Carmen last I saw.”
Vanna filled in details he didn’t have. “Carmen is practicing her walk down the aisle downstairs. Or she was, after I put the presents on the table.”
“Oh, I bet I know exactly where Nico is,” Salvatore muttered.
“So, go get them,” his wife replied, turning him toward the door. “And don’t forget the gifts you’re supposed to give her now, not after, Sal.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
In the doorway, he turned back again to find Carina settling in beside Vanna once more. The low, one-inch, heeled boots she opted to wear with her dress made him sigh. The doctors told her three months, and yet, somehow his wife snuck in a pair of wedges into the hospital closer to home that they got the babies and her transferred to a couple of days after their birth.
“So, is Sissy helping with them?” Vanna asked as Salvatore finally turned to leave.
“If I ask,” Carina replied. “But...I want to do this.”
“You are doing it, beautiful. Look at them, you’ve already done it. What do you mean?”
Carina’s sigh sounded further away as Salvatore strolled down the hallway, but he didn’t miss her fading words, either. “Yeah, I know. Anyway, Sissy’s already said where she’s going as soon as they need her. Which, she should. Right?”
“Those two will be grateful for the help, that’s for sure.”
Eventually, he lost their conversation entirely the farther he walked down the hallway. It took him a few minutes to navigate the wing into his daughter’s side where, unsurprisingly, he found her bedroom door closed, and with a quick check, locked.
Salvatore knocked hard. A shriek followed. Then, a scuffle.
“Nico,” Sal called loudly on the other side of the door, “I know you were told to stay out of the upstairs for this exact reason.”