Chapter 1: Wedded Bliss
April 6, 1996
"Now, by the power vested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride," Father Venitilli intoned the words that Claudia Zacchara had heard in her nightmares for months. However, instead of waking up screaming, Claudia found herself pressing her lips to the man across from her with a sense of relief. She had married Bobby and perhaps in time Luis Alcazar might really be only a distant memory. Perhaps…
"I will always cherish you," Bobby whispered as they separated from a kiss passionate enough to make Claudia look forward to her wedding night, but chaste enough to keep her mother in law from having heart palpitations or one of her other hysterical ailments.
Isabella Mancusi was already anxious enough about the timing of their wedding. She didn't understand how her son could marry a woman less than two months after meeting her. She really didn't understand when Claudia swore she wasn't pregnant. She wasn't, which was a blessing of great proportions since it certainly wouldn't have been Bobby's baby if she had been.
Bobby had claimed he had to marry her post haste because he couldn't live without her any longer. Claudia had thought that was almost as lame an explanation as the lines he had fed her when they first met. However, somehow Isabella Mancusi had accepted that so Claudia had held her tongue.
As they processed out of the church Claudia recalled their first meeting with a smile. At the time she hadn't realized the night would change her life, but it had.
February 10, 1996
At the bar in the Montecito, Claudia Zacchara fiddled with the swizzle stick in her rum and coke which was slightly heavy on the rum even though she still wasn't quite twenty-one. There had to be some advantages to being a Zacchara, because there were sure a lot of disadvantages. Luis Alcazar was one of those disadvantages.
In a word the man was insane. Claudia wondered if that was why her father enjoyed doing business with him. Just like her father, Luis was rash, short tempered, and violent. He was also way too old for her. He had just turned thirty-six, she wouldn't be twenty one until October. Still Claudia was about to be trapped in an arranged marriage with a man who terrified her. Their union would unite the Zacchara and Alcazar territories and Claudia was sure it included something on the side for her father's attorney, Trevor Lansing, because he was definitely in support of it.
In a weak, and overly optimistic, moment, Claudia had attempted to tell her father how much Luis scared her, that he had forced himself on her. For half of a second she had almost believed her father had cared. But then he had said, but once you are married then it will no longer be considered rape and any disillusions that her father was something less than a pathologic merciless evil man were quickly dispelled.
Once you're married, it's no longer rape, the words echoed through Claudia's head as she took another gulp of her drink.
"Siete troppo bello per gridare," the dark-haired man sitting beside her said.
Claudia looked over at him carefully. He had olive skin and slightly rugged features but they were refined enough that he looked more handsome than coarse. "I'm not crying," she protested in English rather than the Italian he had addressed her with.
He reached over and wiped away the single tear that had escaped down her cheek. "Così conoscete l'italiano, la lingua di amore," he said.
Claudia grimaced at his line, and she was sure that was what it was. Yes, she knew Italian, it was her family's native tongue. She supposed from the look of her new suitor that it might have been his as well. Plus, she had just spent two years at finishing school in Milan. Honestly it had been the best time of her life. She loved Italy, the art, the fashion, the food, the wine, the absence of Trevor and her father. It had been quite close to bliss, well until Luis Alcazar had shown up.
According to Trevor, the pathologic Zacchara family attorney, when Luis had forced himself upon her he had merely been ensuring that all terms of the agreement were to his satisfaction. Claudia shuddered as she remembered that horrible night. She shuddered again as she realized she still had not escaped the nightmare, and if she married Luis she never would. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Così pensate che conosciate che cosa l'amore è?
Her new suitor merely smiled and said, "Forse lo ho bisogno di mostrarlo."
"Ma neppure non conosco il vostro nome," Claudia protested as a slight smile formed on her lips.
"Sono Bobby Mancusi e siete la donna che più bella mi sono incontrato mai."
Claudia still saw Bobby's words as exaggerations and lame pick up lines. She also saw that Bobby did cherish her. That was why he was marrying her to protect her from her father and Luis Alcazar. Perhaps it wasn't quite the fairy tale that Bobby had told his mother, but, no other man had ever sworn to love, cherish, and protect her. She trusted Bobby and that had to count for something. Perhaps it counted for everything.
***Italian Translations if you want them:
-You are too beautiful to cry.
-So you know Italian, the language of love.
-So you think you know what love is?
-Maybe I need you to show me…
-But I don't even know your name!
-I am Bobby Mancusi and you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met.***