Aria sighed. She met my gaze. “I hope they weren’t too rude.”
“I survived,” I said with a smile.
Luca rose to his feet and went over to his wife. “If he ever hurt Marcella, you’d be the first to ask me to kill him, admit it.”
Aria’s face remained kind as she said, “Yes, but that’s beside the point. Maddox has no intention to hurt Marcella, right?”
Despite her kind face, her question almost terrified me more than Luca. “I’m not even dreaming of it.”
“Good.” She made an inviting gesture. “Why don’t you join me in the dining room while I set up the table? Marcella still needs a couple of minutes to get ready.”
Luca frowned, obviously not liking the idea of me alone with his wife. I rolled my eyes skywards. I was practically his son-in-law, at some point he’d have to tone down the distrust.
“Of course,” I said, pretty sure there wasn’t another acceptable answer to Aria’s invitation and absolutely certain that this was another test I had to pass: talking to the matriarch of the Vitiello clan alone. Maybe she didn’t show it as openly as Luca but Aria wasn’t any less protective of her daughter.
I followed Aria into the dining room. The table looked pretty set in my eyes, but I had never been the guy for fancy dinners.
Aria opened a cupboard and took out silver cutlery. She handed me the forks and spoons but kept the steak knives to herself. I didn’t doubt she’d use them if I fucked with her little girl, even if she wasn’t as experienced at handling weapons. Women were the more creative sex when it came to weapons.
“Ready to stab me if I mess up?” I asked, smirking.
Aria glanced down at the knife she’d just put down beside a plate then at the ones in her hand. She smiled. “I’m not really the violent type.”
“I would have been surprised if you’d have ever used a knife.”
“Oh, I did. I once stabbed a Bratva soldier who’d attacked our house in the Hamptons,” she said it so lightly that I was sure she was joking but her expression didn’t show any humor.
I shook my head. “I can’t see it, sorry.”
She smiled. “There’s more below the surface you can’t see.”
“What’s below Marcella’s surface?” I asked curiously. I was fairly confident that I knew Marcella as well as one could ever know another person. The way we’d met and the beginning of our relationship just revealed her most vulnerable but also her fiercest sides. Few people ever got to see those.
Aria tilted her head to the side. “I think you can see more than most and what you haven’t seen yet, I’m sure you’ll discover soon enough, if she wants it.”
I nodded. I cleared my throat, not sure how to say what I’d wanted to say for a long time. “I never apologized to you for the pain I caused you.”
Aria put the knives down, fully turning to me, waiting for me to elaborate. I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“I never meant to cause you pain when I kidnapped Marcella.”
“Any mother would feel pain if her child was kidnapped.”
“I know. I see that now but back then I was so focused on revenge, anything else faded into the background.”
“You wanted to hurt my husband and ultimately kill him.”
I cringed. “Yeah. I’m not earning any early son-in-law bonus points here, am I?”
Aria smiled. “We’ve all made mistakes that hurt others, it comes with the world we live in. We can only make sure that we don’t hurt the people we love.”
“I swear I won’t ever hurt Marcella. For one, she wouldn’t let me, because she’s the fiercest woman I know, and I could never live with myself if I did.”
“Not to mention that the men of my family would kill you in a very unpleasant way.”
“Yeah, that’s certainly another deterrent, but not the main one.”
My eyes registered movement from the corner of my eye. Marcella had just entered the room, as usual taking center stage of my attention. She wore a forest green jumpsuit that accentuated her curves in all the right places and satin high heels of the same color. Her outfit made me want to take her to a secluded spot for a little one on one time.
I met her halfway, impatient for her to reach me. Being separated from her during most nights and even some time during the day felt wrong after having her around pretty much 24/7 during her captivity. If it weren’t for the Famiglia’s old-fashioned traditions, we would have lived under the same roof already. I couldn’t wait to share an apartment with her even if I’d never lived with a woman before and would have to get used to her level of cleanliness.
She met her mother’s gaze. “Thank you for saving him from Amo, Matteo, and Dad.”