By Honor I Crumble

Chapter 14

*I DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS. THEY ALL BELONG TO OUR QUEEN CORA REILLY*

Song Rec: You by Alex Condliffe and Lamb Hands

Here She Comes Again by Röyskopp

Present

Aurora

The mint dress was stupidly itchy. I was convinced that Elena had specifically added more sequins and crystals to the dress to make me look like an idiot.

"You look..." Carlotta stammered with a cringe. As if on cue Alessio and Massimo burst out laughing. The light green monstrosity was a deep V A-line, with enough sparkles for me to be seen from Mars.

"I'm sorry Rora, but that is the ugliest dress I have seen in my whole life. I mean that girl did you so dirty" Massimo said between laughs. "Talk about a revenge dress." With his last statement, the room fell quiet, the elephant in the room taking over again.

"Aurora stop acting like a fucking idiot. Just go tell him you want to leave and he'll follow you in a second. We don't need anyone's help. Especially the Outfit's" said Alessio.

Maybe he was right. Maybe things were just that simple. Of course, we all knew better. I definitely did not know better because how had I gotten myself into this? How was I about to walk down the aisle as a fucking bride's maid to the love of my life? Pregnant? Knocked up? Literally growing a child? I hadn't told anyone. I hadn't even taken the pregnancy test in my house in case anyone found it. After puking my brains out at Greta's wedding, I'd ran down to the CVS on the fucking Vegas strip, to take a pregnancy test in that nasty ass bathrom.

I didn't cry when he gave me a cold look for leaving Greta's wedding early and I didn't cry when I saw the two lines on the test. I was numb, immune to pain, joy, anger, sadness. What could I possibly feel right now? I hated dresses with a fiery passion. And yet, here I was, wearing one for a complete stranger. I was pregnant and in the stupidity of the mafia, what should have been the happiest moment of my life, was the worst moment of my life. I'd never felt fear the way I did in that dirty CVS bathroom. Not even when dad found my cigarettes in junior year. I was well and truly fucked.

"Let's go, I need to see if Elena needs anything. The rest of her wedding party is already here" I said. I didn't need to overthink this. It was the end anyways. A quick trip to the clinic would save my ass.

Nevio

I knew how to tie a tie. Yet, for some reason, mom insisted on tying my tie for me today.

"Stop moving Nevio, I swear sometimes you act like you are still eight years old" she muttered under her breath with a sharp tug on my neck. I had never let anyone get so close to my neck before. Except Aurora. There wasn't a part of me that she didn't own. There was a strange look on mom's face. I had become too familiar with it since Greta's pregnancy. It was a mixture of sorrow, anger, frustration and judgment.

"What's wrong mom?" I asked.

"My son is being an idiot, that's what's wrong!" she said with a sharper tug on my neck. She could choke me out at this point and I'd say thank you to escape this fucking hoax of a wedding.

"Come now Angel, you don't want to kill him just yet" said dad. He grabbed a grape from the fruit bowl in my room and plopped it in his mouth. Why the actual fuck was there a fruit bowl in my room? I didn't fucking eat fruits. He was pissed. I knew it because we were the same. He had never bent anyone's will, and here he was. Getting ready for the second wedding because Dante Cavallaro said so.

"I know you don't want to marry her, Nevio. Even if you act like you don't care I can see the denial in your eyes."

I did too. They were my fucking eyes. But I was going to. Aurora hated me. Enough to bring another man with her, one that was her classmate from med school AND a part of the Famiglia. I knew he was good for her, but I still wanted to carve his face up for whispering in her ear. I wanted to cut his hands off and mail them to him for touching her. I wanted to ruin him for even thinking he could have some place in her heart. Maybe I would after the fucking ceremony. We all hated ceremonious bullshit in the Camorra because that's what it was. Bullshit. No one gave a rat's ass about loving each other. There was no true consent for marriage in the mafia. We were all pawns and the worst irony of it was that I had been played. The master had become the puppet.