Even my aunt will be paid off.” He sounded tired now as if his own plot burdened him in some way. Guilt, remorse, was that what she heard, she wondered.
“I don’t have to meet her, do I?” Another barely spoken question, but one she had to know the answer to.
“Who?” His eyebrows came down in confusion, but he still didn’t look at her. She didn’t look at him either, but she could see the frown from the side of her eyes.
“Your aunt, the woman that’s caused this?” She waved her hands in the air and turned to face him at last. “If she’d have just left well enough alone, I’d be destitute, but at least I wouldn’t be sprawled on the barrel you have me over.”
She wasn’t sure where this assertive person she’d suddenly become had come from, but she was going with it. It was probably sheer bravado, she thought but didn’t care.
“If your mom hadn’t,” he started. The immediate glare that the beginning of that sentence caused stopped him. “If my uncle hadn’t…”
“It doesn’t matter who started that crap all those years ago, she decided to carry it on. She decided that tormenting a dying woman was a fun way to get her jollies. Well, she’s fucked me over, so I hope she’s happy. The feud continues.”
“Let’s not argue, Marie,” he sighed out and turned to her. “We’ll be down here for a month more, at least, but then I have to get back to New York. We have to get back to New York. You might meet her, you might not, I don’t know. But I’ll be there, so you’ll be safe.”
“Fine.” She didn’t have a whole lot more to say to him, so she leaned back against her car again. “Is that all?”
“I’ll need some paperwork from you, and we’ll have to apply for a marriage license together. So, we should meet up once you’ve decided on a dress. Oh, here, use this to buy whatever you want.” He moved towards her, pulled out his wallet, and took out a credit card.
She stared at it, at the name on the card, and felt her heart seize up. Whatever she wanted? She wanted to buy his love, to be his love, she didn’t want that stupid card. For a moment, she almost ran away, but then she remembered that stack of bills on her kitchen table. She might even be able to save the house if he was going to pay off the debts she now owed. Her hand shook slightly as she took the card and slid it into her back pocket.
“Thanks.” That was all because she couldn’t think of what else to say.
“I’ll wait for your call then.” He stopped and turned to her. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“I will.” She turned to open her car door. “See you later.”
“Indeed, you will, Marie,” his deep voice promised. She looked at him as she slid into her car seat and turned the engine over. He didn’t seem like the chastened schoolboy anymore, he looked like a grown man with plans to make her his.
She swallowed and decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to ask him about her wifely duties yet. His eyes told her there was one duty he was still very much interested in.
She put the car in drive, despite her body’s demand to go back to him, and sped down the drive. Rocks from the graveled surface flew out behind the car as she raced away, but she didn’t care about the damage those rocks might do. She had to get away, otherwise, she’d make a fool out of herself.
Her thoughts froze as she drove down the road, her movements were automatic. She made it home in one piece, and let herself into the quiet house. She went to the coffee pot and turned it on. She needed the jolt it would give her. She flipped on the radio and waited for the gurgle to tell her the coffee had brewed.
She had a month, at the most, before he expected her to go to New York with him. There was business down here, he’d said, and she had to wonder what that business was. Was it drugs? More than likely it was something to do with gambling.
Her mom used to go on about mobsters and how Marie needed to stay away from Mafia boys. Well, it was more than obvious that she’d failed to avoid those kinds of boys. She’d