Her breath caught. Yes. Yes, it was. She didn’t understand it. She stared in wonder at their linked hands. “I still feel it. How is that possible? I released you.”
Sev crouched in front of her. “Gianna, you should have told us this long ago. We would have explained the truth.” Pain ripped through his gaze. “My parents never felt The Inferno for each other. My father married my mother for her fortune, not because he loved her. He loved another woman, Cara Moretti. She was his Inferno soul mate.”
“But Aunt Laura said she felt The Inferno.”
Sev’s mouth compressed. “I’m sure Mamma thought she did. Though Babbo never loved her, not the way she deserved. That didn’t change the fact that she adored him. I think she wanted to feel The Inferno. So she convinced herself she did. But it wasn’t true.”
In all the years since her thirteenth birthday, not once had Gianna ever considered the possibility that her uncle had lied to her aunt. That he could have done such an awful thing to his wife. But he had. Considering how hard the knowledge hit her, it had to be far worse for Sev. Impulsively she threw her arms around his neck and wrapped him up in a fierce hug.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
He patted her back. “I already knew most of it,” he reassured her. “I didn’t realize he’d used The Inferno to convince my mother to marry him. But it isn’t that big of a surprise, considering some of the other things he’s done.”
The information had also hit Primo and Nonna hard, particularly her grandmother. But there had always been a steely strength buried beneath Nonna’s sweetness. “This is a happy occasion, not a sad one,” she informed her family. “We are finished here, yes? It is time for the wedding.”
“No,” Constantine said. His hands slid from Gianna’s shoulders and he stood, folding his arms across his chest. “We’re not getting married. Not yet.”
Gianna rose and spun to face him, panic flaring to life. “Constantine?”
“You released me. That suggests you wanted to be released, too.”
Her panic grew, breaking across her in great, messy waves. “No. No, that’s not true.”
“Then why release me?”
She took a step in his direction. “Don’t you understand? I don’t want you to marry me because you’re honor-bound. I don’t want you to marry me because of The Inferno. I want you to love me.” Her voice broke and it took her a moment to gather herself sufficiently to speak again. “I want you to love me. Just me.”
Constantine closed his eyes. He reached for her hand and before she could guess his intentions, slipped her engagement ring from her finger. Her entire family stiffened. Francesca gasped, while Ariana murmured a broken, “Oh, no.” He ignored them all.
“Have you never once looked at your ring?”
Gianna stared in horror. “You mean take it off? Before we were married?”
“Of course I mean take it off,” he said in exasperation.
“Oh, no. It’s bad luck,” the women chimed in, practically in unison.
He released a sigh. “Got it. Well, I chose it very, very carefully. Sev can attest to that.”
Her cousin nodded. “It took hours. He must have gone through every ring in the entire Eternity line before he settled on this one,” he informed her.
Constantine nodded. “That’s because all the rings have names. It’s part of what makes them so special. I needed one with the perfect name.” He tilted it so she could see the tiny script inside the band. “Read what it says.”
She needed a moment to blink the tears away. The letters swam into focus, forming words. Before All Else…Love. Then she was crying again. “Do you really mean it?”
“I really mean it, piccola. Honor means everything to me, you know this. But you… You are my heart and soul.” He returned the ring to her finger, this time with an attitude of permanence. “You are not Laura and I am not Dominic. It’s our love that makes this marriage honorable. Without it, there would be no honor in the vows we take.”
Gianna flung herself into Constantine’s embrace. “I was afraid you’d feel trapped. That one day you’d resent me.”