Chapter XXXII

I was still standing on the lawn and looked around. Lorenzo came to me and patted me on the shoulder.

"I'll tell father, he won't be coming back any time soon."

I nodded to my brother and looked after him when Marco came around the corner towards me.

He looked at me in surprise. "What happened?" It was obvious that he had overslept again. I just shook my head and walked past my little brother. I have to see Anastasia now.

end of the flashback

The priest tore me out of my thoughts.

"I ask you first to publicly declare that you are determined to enter into this Christian marriage.

I ask you Dante Adriano Martinelli. Have you come here to enter into marriage with your bride Anastasia Vasilyevna Petrova after careful consideration and of your own free will?"

I looked over at Anastasia, who had her gaze fixed straight ahead.

"Yes," but my gaze remained fixed on her.

"Do you want to love and respect your wife and remain faithful to her all the days of her life?"

"Yes," inwardly I prayed to God for forgiveness that I am standing here today and have already made this vow, but cannot say that I love or ever will.

The priest now looked at my fiancée, who had not even moved up to that point, even our hands were still entwined.

"I'm asking you, Anastasia Vasilyevna Romanov. Have you come here to enter into marriage with your fiancé Dante Adriano Martinelli after careful consideration and of your own free will?"

Anastasia still didn't move. There was an uncomfortable silence. My heart was pounding in my chest. She has no choice but to say yes, that's the contract, but her pause still makes me nervous.

I squeezed her hand, which was in mine.

It was as if Anastasia had awakened from her trance, because her gaze was directed at me. She looked at me in shock. Her eyes were wide open. Her gaze was so lost that I thought she had blocked out everything since the beginning of the ceremony and was only now realizing that she was standing here next to me.

She turned away from me and a quiet "yes" came from her lips.

It seemed to have been loud enough for the priest, because he continued.

"Will you love and respect your husband and remain faithful to him all the days of his life?"

A somewhat louder "Yes" came from Anastasia.

"Are you both ready to accept the children that God wants to give you and to raise them in the spirit of Christ and his Church?"

Anastasia's face shot back to me, but I continued to look at the priest. I knew, unlike her, that this question would come and even though I will raise my children according to the laws of my family and not the Church, I answered "yes". Most members of the Mafia have been in churches, including the Mafia family, but we use them more for our traditions and customs. None of us get married in a church because of our loyalty to God, but because our ancestors did too. It is also somewhat ironic that the Mafia families in particular are still so devoted to God.

Anastasia must have recovered by now, because she suddenly let go of my hand as if she had been burned.

"Yes," she lowered her head and looked at the floor.

"So now they enter into a marriage bond before God and the church by saying the wedding words. Then they put the ring of fidelity on each other's hands." I turned to Luca, who handed me a ring. I turned back to Anastasia and put my hand on her chin to lift her head and turn her towards me. Then I took her left hand in mine and looked into her eyes.

"Anastasia, in the sight of God I accept you as my wife. I promise you fidelity in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I will love, respect and honor you all the days of my life."

I put the ring on her left ring finger. Anastasia looked at the wedding ring, which was now next to her engagement ring. She turned to Chiara, who also handed her a ring.

I held out my hand to her, which she took in hers.

"Dante, in the sight of God, I accept you as my husband. I promise you my loyalty in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I want to love, respect and honor you all the days of my life." she rattled off emotionlessly.

After a few seconds, she slipped the ring onto my left ring finger with the words "Wear this ring as a sign of our love and loyalty."

Then she let go of my hand and looked back at the priest. I kept my gaze on her and memorized every detail of her. She looked even more beautiful today.

"I hereby declare you husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride."

He addressed the last part to me.

Anastasia's body stiffened and she moved slightly away from me. Is my girl trying to escape from me?

I reduced our distance by taking a step toward her. I put my hand on her waist and turned her towards me in one swing. Her eyes were wide open again and stared at me in disbelief. Her head shook slightly, but that wasn't going to stop me.

I put my other hand on her back and let it slide up her neck. Then I pulled her closer to me and leaned down slightly. Her body was still tense. I had to suppress a grin because she was suddenly so taciturn. If I had known that a kiss would silence her, I would have done it on the second day.

Our faces were only a few centimeters apart. I heard her inhale sharply, which I took as a sign to come closer to her. My hand wandered to her cheek and I stroked her cheek with my thumb to calm her down a bit.

When her body had calmed down a bit, I put my hand on her neck again and held her head so that she didn't turn her head away.

I closed my eyes and put my lips on hers. My lips moved slightly on her soft, full lips, which were still motionless. I increased the pressure and tilted her head slightly to the left so I could get even closer.

After a few seconds, her lips also began to move in unison with mine. I grinned into our kiss and pulled her even closer to me. Suddenly I heard her sigh and felt her lips open slightly. I took advantage of this and pushed my tongue between her lips. Our tongues fought a battle for dominance, which I won. She put her hand on my upper arm and held on to it.

I didn't know how long our kiss had been going on when I heard the guests clapping and cheering.

Anastasia pulled away from me and looked at me in shock. I grinned at her devilishly and took her hand and pulled her down the altar towards the exit. Now I could breathe a sigh of relief because my girl is finally mine.

Anastasia

He kept pulling me towards the exit. I still couldn't believe it, he really did it. I mean, I'm not naive, I knew that we had to seal the marriage with a kiss, but I still hoped that this was all a bad dream that I would wake up from at any second. Again, thoughts of his warm lips crept into my head and I got goosebumps when I thought about the feeling. I had really returned the kiss, even though I didn't want to. In that moment, I wasn't me, not the girl who wanted to run away from here as far as her feet would carry her. No, I was like butter in his hands. Only when I heard the cheering of our guests did I wake up from the trance and even then it took me a few seconds to pull myself together. When we

arrived at the pavilion, Dante led me inside. For the first time, I saw the interior furnishings, as I hadn't managed to enter the pavilion during the engagement. Inside there was a huge dance floor set up, as well as a bar on each side. The dance floor was surrounded by round tables and there was a beautifully decorated table directly opposite us. That was probably for us, but contrary to my opinion, Dante led me in the other direction. He stopped on the dance floor and looked at me with a crooked grin. We still hadn't exchanged a word since the ceremony. I was so lost in thought that I only noticed it now.

I heard more people coming in and I turned to them. It was the Martinelli family. They were all standing behind us and looking at us happily, even Sergio was smiling.

"Anastasia, Amore." Dante tried to get my attention, so I turned back to him, but just as I was about to look at him I saw a large screen.

Tears formed in my eyes and I couldn't and didn't want to hold them back.

"Ivan," I whispered.

Ivan and Isabella could be seen on the screen. Dante came up to me and put his hand around my waist, which I only noticed in passing because I couldn't stop looking at Ivan's face. To my surprise, he looked happy and Isabella smiled at the camera too, although I didn't know if it was because of Ivan or because she was seeing her family again. I heard Valeria talking to her daughter behind me, but I couldn't concentrate on anything but Ivan.

"Hey сестрёнка" (little sister) , he broke the silence between us and brought me back to the here and now. I had to grin from ear to ear.

My feet led me closer to the screen until Dante stopped me after a few meters and then whispered in my ear.

"Amore, he can see you better if you stand further away." I just nodded, still a little absent-minded.

"You look beautiful, mom would be proud of you, always remember that." I continued to look at him and tried to find my voice again. The thought of my mother didn't really help, which Dante must have noticed because he held me even closer to him. Over time I had noticed that he did that when he was trying to protect me or control the situation. Which was strange because we hardly knew each other.

I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to Ivan.

"Thanks, little brother, how are you?"

Ivan had also put a hand over Isabella, who was still having her own conversation with her family, except for Dante. He was still standing next to me and looking at me.

"We are fine, how are you? Все хорошо? (Everything is fine)

The Russian language was our way of giving hidden answers, although I don't think Dante is checking them. Surely one of his family members spoke Russian, or the conversation was recorded. I guess Ivan does the same in Moscow. But I still couldn't believe that I could see him. It was as if he was here.

Ivan told me about the news at home and, as I had already suspected, my aunt couldn't come because my father had stopped her.

After we said goodbye, Ivan promised me that he would call me tomorrow. When the screen went black, I looked at Dante, who was standing next to me the whole time. I didn't know if he was doing this to support me or to check on me. A queasy feeling spread through me. Even if he was next to me to make sure I didn't say anything wrong, he had still allowed this connection to be cut off.

Dante pulled me over to his brothers, who were already waiting for us.

"And Anastasia, did you like Dante's present?" Marco asked me as soon as we got to them.

I looked from him to Dante and looked at him in horror. That was my present? He had really done it for me? I couldn't believe his words.

"Yes, it was incredibly nice, thank you." That was the only answer I could get out, as I was still standing there in shock. I said the last part to Dante while turning my head in his direction. He just grinned at me and then nodded.

"Yes, he worked on it for almost two days to make it work," Marco added. Dante turned to Marco in a flash.

"

Don't you have to go do something, Marco?" he said sternly. What does Marco mean by he worked on it for two days.