Children of Vice (Children of Vice #1)(45)

If my father wasn’t going to be at my dead mother’s side, I’d be there.





FOURTEEN


“You and this world will remember me.”

~ Bonnie and Clyde





IVY


I, like many girls, always dreamed of my wedding day. Being engaged once before, I’d already started planning.

My colors were going to be deep red, sunset orange, and cream.

I wanted roses. Not just any roses but deep red, just barely blooming pink, and white roses.

My dress was going to be made by Mrs. Crenshaw down on 2nd street.

The wedding was supposed to be huge. The whole block was invited to come.

It’s funny how life works out, huh?

There were no colors. And we hadn’t even thought of flowers until we’d gotten here and so we used the pink and purple tulips Ethan’s aunt Coraline had brought for Evelyn. My dress, it was white, thankfully, and not by Mrs. Crenshaw, but Diane von Fürstenberg. And though Ethan’s family was big, it was hardly huge. Nothing in my life came out the way I’d tried to plan it.

Nothing. And yet…

“Ethan Antonio Giovanni Callahan, do you take Ivy O’Davoren to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

“I do.” He didn’t hesitate, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Ivy O’Davoren, do you take Ethan Antonio Giovanni Callahan to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

“I do,” I answered softly, frozen under the power of his gaze.

The priest went on. “Are you prepared, as you follow the path of marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?”

“Yes,” he and I said at the same time.

“Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?”

Children!

“Yes,” Ethan said alone and raised his eyebrow at me when I didn’t speak. He squeezed my hand slightly.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Rings,” he called for them.

And Wyatt, even to his surprise, was the one who gave it to him. Ethan gave him a strange look, but Wyatt ignored him, stepping back, and Ethan focused back on me.

“With this ring, I bind my life to yours, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. It is a symbol of my eternal love, my everlasting friendship, and the promise of all my tomorrows. An outward reminder of our inner unity. I forsake all others, I choose you, until death do us part,” Ethan said, sliding the gold ring back onto my finger until it met with the engagement ring.

Taking the gold ring from Donatella, I slid it up his finger, repeating the words back to him. “With this ring, I bind my life to yours, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. It is a symbol of my eternal love, my everlasting friendship, and the promise of all my tomorrows. An outward reminder of our inner unity. I forsake all others, I choose you, until death do us part.”

“What God joins together, let no one put asunder. May you both be blessed. Mr. Callahan, you may kiss your wife.”

He kissed me as if…as if we’d spent the afternoon making love in his room. I tried not to give in…but damn his lips, they were sinful and drew me right in.

“Mr. and Mrs. Callahan,” the priest called, forcing us to break apart, to the snickers of his family. Reaching up to the corner of my lip, I wiped it. “Congratulations,” the priest added.

“Well damn, I feel old, the boy is married,” his uncle Neal said, a big man, his beard hair grown out from the photo I’d seen of him and graying.

“Boy?” Ethan asked.

But Neal ignored him and was the first to hug me and whisper, “Try to love him and end his brokenness.”

I was so stunned, and he let go so quickly, cracking a joke I didn’t understand or follow before his wife, Mina, her hair cut short, kissed both sides of my cheeks.

Next up was his uncle Declan, whose dark brown hair had little flecks of white in it. He didn’t hug me, just looked me up and down and then glanced back at Ethan. “She’s far too pretty for you.”

His wife, Coraline, whose brown skin had not a single imperfection, smacked his arm and hugged me tightly. She smelled like fresh rain and it made me relax.

“I was the closest to Ethan’s mother,” she said and for some reason both Neal and Declan scoffed and tried not to laugh. When she glared at them, both of them looked away. Her brown eyes back on me, she opened a box…inside was a Revolver.

“Of f*cking course.” Declan shook his head. “Excuse me, Father.”

“I believe in the 2nd Amendment,” he said with his hand actually on the Bible.

“There are two?” Ethan muttered, his eyes fixed on the gun. He reached into his jacket, picking out the same gun. It was only slightly bigger.

“Thank you,” I said, running my hand over the barrel. She closed the box, stepping back. Dona was next up.

She hugged a little too tightly, whispering, “You betray my brother, I’ll kill you with that gun.”