smooth halt at the foot of th

g at the top of the steps. My father stood tall and imposing in an impeccably tailored suit, both han

eir faces froze. Dante stepped out with Bianca at his side, and the t

ckles went white. His gaze pinned Dante with a silen

-eyed innocence, and glibly explained to my parents

ying up the steps, falling all over themselves to back up Bianca's story. The

Soothed, they came down the grand steps with the

door handle and pulled.

y corpse had slumped sideways. My lifeless body was pressed dead a

mafia don. He strode up to Dante and demanded, in a voice like a blade

nxiously against the tinted window, tapping gently, coaxing me i

er was suffoc

ll clang ringing across the courtyard. Through the glass, he berated me at the top of hi

hered before the cathedral's towering doors began to whisper. Rumor spread like wildfire

he whisperers like a blade. The killing intent in it was

eremony. Then he planted himself in front of the locked door, arms crossed over his b

ing wind. At last, Dante's patience ran dry, and

esitation, they plugged the bypass cable into the hidden port on the polished door frame; with a sh

wide, and the piercing winter

mooth my magnificent train. Valentina hurried up behind he

h my back and knees, and lifted my heavy, lifeless body out of the

and his eyes reddened. He stepped forward and

er-brotherly roughness laced with warning, a s

o heaven before everyone present. His deep, powerful voice rolled across the silent courtyard as he vowed

reached to lift my wedding veil-and my unsupported head lo

his fingers could close on it, driftin

nd crumbled along my jawline, flaking away in horrifying fragments, exposing my ghastly purple neck

ash, horrifying dark-purple lividity had already seeped into the flesh-the unmistakable fac

a signal. The grand wedding march suddenly thundered through the dome, blaring cheerfully from the outdoor speaker

ng at my swollen, purple, dead fac

d from deep in her throat, and she flung hersel