Not His Destiny

Chapter 11

“What do you want now?” Celeste asks the second she opens the door, her chin lifted in a mulish and arrogant look. " To beat me? Just wait till my husband gets back, I’m going to tell him all of you ganged up on me.”

Her eyes flood with tears. She looks like a kicked rat, veins in her face and neck bulging. “Your sister punched me in the nose and broke my teeth. See?”

I stare at her, so full of hate I don’t even know where to put it, but the cautious, thinking part of me steps in, grabs my shoulder, and pulls me back.

“Why did you do this?” I hold up the torn invitation cards.

“I didn’t do it,” Celeste says, frowning at me. “Your insane mother did. I was telling her to stop when Elvira, that arrogant child, came in and started yelling at me.”

My fist trembles as I crush the paper in my hand. “My mother did this?”

“Yes. Are you going to accuse me too?” She frowns harder. “Is this how it’s going to be when you marry my son? You and your family ganging up on me?” Her tears look almost real, and it makes me sick.

“What happened?”

Andre’s voice behind me freezes me in place. I slowly turn and find him scowling at me, his eyes dark. Behind him, Dante stands there too, scanning the living room with a confused look.

Relief slips out of me in a quiet breath.

Celeste shoves me aside before I can speak and rushes into her husband’s arms, looking small and breakable against him.

“They’re attacking me,” she cries. “Just look, look.” She shows him the bruises on her face and elbow.

Andre strides toward me, a menacing alpha aura rolling off his muscular form in punishing waves.

“Did you do this to my wife?” he demands, glaring. His brown eyes flash blue with anger. I recognize that look immediately, he wants to hurt me. I’ve seen it too many times to mistake it.

“That’s enough,” Dante cuts in, his own aura surging and crushing his father’s. “Let’s find out what really happened here.”

He steps into the center of the room, picks up a scarf, Celeste’s, from the floor, then looks at me. “What happened, Cici?”

I drag in the breath his father stole from me and walk around them to stand in front of him.

“I’m not sure,” I say as calmly as I can. “I came home and found Celeste and Elvira arguing.”

“Arguing? She attacked me!” Celeste screams from her husband’s arms. I ignore her like she’s a buzzing mosquito.

“Then I found this.” I hold out the paper to Dante. I wait for recognition. He looks at it, then back at me.

“What is this?”

The words knock the air out of me.

Lia guides Mom into the living room. “Dante, your mother ripped the wedding decorations to shreds,” she says. “Elvira saw her doing it and confronted her, and then your mother slapped her.”

“I didn’t slap her! She was being rude. I only meant to touch her face, but then she went crazy and attacked me. Instead of correcting her sister, Cici came and insulted me, accused me of touching her things when I would never go near them. It was her mother who did it.”

“Mom was with me the whole time. Don’t lie,” Lia snaps, hot with rare anger.

“The whole time, Lia?” Celeste taunts. “You think I didn’t see you sneaking off earlier to meet that boy?”

My head snaps toward her. What boy?

Lia avoids my eyes.

“I didn’t go meet any boy,” she says quickly. “I was just getting clothes from the line, that’s all. I was gone for, like, five minutes. Not enough time for Mom to do any of this.” She grips Mom’s shoulder when she tries to move toward Celeste, a snarl on her face.

“Look, they’re just assuming I did it when it could’ve been their mother.”

“Is it even important?” Andre says, turning to Dante. “Who cares if they’re destroyed? Is that a reason to attack and beat her up?”

“Tell me about it,” Celeste nods firmly, crossing her arms.

All I can do is stand there, watching, waiting to hear what Dante will say, whether he’ll stand with me or against me. This isn’t just my stuff, it’s ours. Our wedding. But then again, he said we should postpone this morning. It doesn’t even look like he remembers we’re getting married. I handled everything myself because I thought he’d be too busy, thought I was saving him the stress, but Dante doesn’t even seem to care.

He lets the paper slip from his fingers to the floor. “Whatever happened to the invitations, it’s done. We can just buy new ones.” He turns to his mother. “But I hope to God it wasn’t you who destroyed Cici’s things, Mom,” he says, stepping closer. “Because if I find out it was you, you’re not going to like what I’ll do.”

Celeste’s eyes flash with something petulant, but she stays quiet.

Dante walks over to me and takes my arm. “I’m sorry. I know it sucks. I’ll buy new ones tomorrow. I promise.”

My lips tremble. I want to tell him it’s not about the invitations, or even the fact that his mother destroyed them. It’s that he doesn’t care. Not about any of it. Not about us getting married this Friday. It’s like it doesn’t even exist to him.

I force myself to breathe. Be patient, Cici. Calm down. Turning this into a fight won’t get you anywhere.

So I nod. I force a smile and nod again. “Yeah. Okay.” I pull away from him and head into the kitchen. And just as immediately, Celeste breaks into rude words after me. It's nothing I haven't heard before and I tune most of it out.

Once inside, I press my hands over my eyes and just breathe.

It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.

“Cici?” Lia’s voice comes from behind me, soft and cautious like she is testing me.

I turn, trying to act normal. “What?”

“It’s… are you okay?” she asks.

I nod, then cross my arms, forcing my focus elsewhere. “What boy did you go out to meet?”