Chapter 20 - THE WEDDING NELL REFUSED TO HAVE
Z
Carmine listened to the tape twice.
The first time, he said nothing.
The second time, he stopped it halfway through.
“Again.”
Dana Mercer looked at him.
“You heard it.”
“Again.”
Nell sat beside him inside the federal interview room.
Charlotte sat across the table.
Thomas Avery stood near the wall.
Daniel Avery was in the hospital with two broken ribs and a concussion.
The stolen tape had been found on his kitchen floor.
No fingerprints.
No explanation.
Mercer pressed play.
Lydia's voice came first.
“If you touch Nell, I give everything to Anthony.”
Bellarose laughed.
“You think Anthony Orsini wants your evidence?”
“He wants you gone.”
“He wants his son alive.”
Silence on the tape.
Lydia asked, “What does Carmine have to do with this?”
Bellarose answered.
“Everything.”
Then static.
A chair moved.
Bellarose continued.
“Anthony understands cooperation because I explained what happens to boys whose fathers become heroes.”
Carmine stopped the tape.
His face had emptied.
Nell looked at him.
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen.”
Charlotte's eyes closed.
“My father threatened you.”
Carmine did not answer.
He was somewhere else.
Fifteen years old.
Street festival.
School.
His mother's sewing room.
His father becoming more controlling year after year.
Suddenly old memories were rearranging themselves.
Anthony refusing to let Carmine walk alone.
Anthony placing guards outside school.
Anthony exploding when Vincent took Carmine to a baseball game without permission.
Carmine had believed his father was controlling.
Perhaps he had been terrified.
Mercer said, “This doesn't excuse Anthony.”
“I know.”
Carmine's answer came instantly.
Nell watched him.
That mattered.
He was not reaching for absolution.
Mercer continued.
“But it explains why Bellarose believed Anthony wouldn't cooperate.”
“He had leverage.”
“Yes.”
Carmine looked at Charlotte.
“Did your father ever mention me?”
She nodded reluctantly.
“When I was younger.”
“What?”
“He called you Anthony's leash.”
Silence.
Nell saw the words hit.
Carmine stood.
He walked toward the window.
Nell followed but did not touch him.
Not yet.
“What are you thinking?”
“That every memory I have of my father keeps changing.”
“Memory does that.”
“He was guilty.”
“Yes.”
“He was also afraid for me.”
“Yes.”
“I hated him for controlling me.”
“You probably had reasons.”
Carmine turned.
“And now?”
Nell understood the question.
Was he supposed to forgive Anthony?
Rewrite childhood?
Turn fear into love?
“No.”
Carmine frowned.
“No what?”
“You don't have to decide what it means today.”
For once, he accepted that.
Three weeks later, Nell postponed the wedding.
Palmira blamed the federal government.
Benny blamed paperwork.
Odette blamed both.
Carmine blamed no one.
They stood inside Fontaine Bakery after closing.
Nell removed the wedding planning binder from beneath the counter.
Carmine stared at it.
“You bought a binder?”
“Odette bought a binder.”
“That makes more sense.”
Nell closed it.
“I want to postpone.”
Carmine's face became still.
“Why?”
“My father.”
Emmett's health had worsened.
Two small strokes in six weeks.
Nothing catastrophic.
Everything cumulative.
He slept more.
Remembered less.
Some days Nell visited and he thought she was Lydia.
Other days he knew Nell immediately and forgot five minutes later.
The wedding was scheduled for September.
The doctor had stopped making promises about September.
Carmine looked at her.
“You want him there.”
“Yes.”
“Then we move it sooner.”
Nell shook her head.
“I don't want to rush a wedding because I'm afraid someone will die.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“I don't know what I want.”
Carmine stepped closer.
“Then we don't get married until you do.”
She looked up.
“That easy?”
“No.”
His mouth tightened.
“I already paid a deposit.”
Nell laughed through tears.
“How much?”
“You don't want to know.”
“I absolutely do.”
“You'll become angry.”
“Carmine.”
“Palmira chose flowers.”
“Oh God.”
“Exactly.”
She laughed harder.
Then cried.
Carmine held her.
No speeches.
No solutions.
Just arms.
Two days later, Emmett asked Nell why she was not married yet.
She stared at him.
They were sitting beside his window.
“Dad?”
“You got the ring.”
Nell looked at her hand.
“Yes.”
“So?”
Her eyes filled.
“I'm waiting.”
“For what?”
She almost said you.
Instead she asked, “Do you want to be there?”
Emmett frowned.
“At what?”
The moment disappeared.
Nell looked away.
Then he touched her hand.
“Your mother wore yellow.”
Nell froze.
“What?”
“Wedding flowers.”
His eyes became clearer.
“Terrible yellow things.”
Nell laughed.
“Did she like them?”
“No.”
“Then why did she have them?”
“Her mother chose.”
Nell smiled.
Emmett squeezed her fingers.
“Don't let old people choose flowers.”
She laughed through tears.
“I won't.”
His gaze moved to the ring.
“Anthony's boy?”
“Yes.”
“Good man?”
Nell thought carefully.
“Yes.”
“Perfect?”
“No.”
Emmett nodded.
“Better.”
Her throat closed.
He leaned back.
“Marry the man while you know why.”
Nell stared.
“Dad…”
But Emmett was already drifting.
The next morning, Nell walked into the Orsini estate carrying the planning binder.
Palmira looked up from breakfast.
“September?”
“No.”
Palmira frowned.
Nell placed the binder down.
“Three weeks.”
Carmine nearly dropped his coffee.
“Three?”
“Yes.”
“Three weeks?”
“Yes.”
Palmira stood.
“That is impossible.”
Nell looked at her.
“Good.”
Benny entered at the exact wrong moment.
“What is impossible?”
Carmine answered.
“My wedding.”
Benny smiled.
“That was always obvious.”
Nell ignored him.
“No ballroom.”
Palmira looked offended.
“No cathedral.”
More offended.
“No two hundred guests.”
Palmira sat slowly as if physically injured.
Nell continued.
“Fontaine Bakery.”
Carmine stared.
“The bakery?”
“The courtyard.”
Palmira whispered something in Italian.
Nell pointed toward her.
“And no yellow flowers.”
Palmira looked shocked.
“I would never.”
“Good.”
Carmine was smiling now.
Nell looked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You're enjoying this.”
“Immensely.”
Then the phone rang.
Benny answered.
His smile disappeared.
“Boss.”
Carmine looked over.
Benny listened.
Then said, “When?”
A long pause.
Nell's stomach tightened.
Carmine saw it.
Benny slowly lowered the receiver.
“They arrested the man who attacked Daniel Avery.”
Mercer had found him through traffic cameras.
A former Bellarose security contractor.
He had been paid to retrieve the tape.
But not by Conrad Bellarose.
Conrad had been in federal custody with monitored communication.
Carmine asked, “Who paid him?”
Benny looked toward Nell.
“The transfer came from a trust.”
Nell already knew.
“Which trust?”
Benny's face hardened.
“The Fontaine Restoration Trust.”
Someone was still using the account.
Someone who had access after Bellarose fell.
May you like
Someone who wanted Lydia's tape badly enough to nearly kill Daniel Avery.
And in three weeks, Nell Fontaine was supposed to stand in a bakery courtyard and marry Carmine Orsini while an enemy neither of them could name was still moving money beneath her family's name.
