𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

24 | The Family Sacrifice

I lifted my head from the ice cold bath behind me, Tom pushing my hair back out of my face as I recited the following after him:

"As burns this saint, so will burn my soul.
If I am to betray The Family, my flesh will burn like the saint watching over us. I am no longer to be judged by other men, only I am to judge myself.
I will always reserve a bullet for myself, in acts of protecting The Family at my forefront.
I enter The Family alive and will leave The Family dead."

It was a similar procedure to Tom's baptism as the Godfather, except I was one of the few women to be entered into The Family as an official member. As the Godfather, Tom could vouch for the fact I had killed someone as a sacrifice and nobody had to know who it was except for him. Thank fuck nobody here knew that I had killed a Maniscalo.

Except Haz and Robyn.

Tom took blood from my trigger finger with the same dagger used for everyone after it was placed above the fire. He then wiped it on the image of archangel Michael, held both of his hands around mine and raised it up. He took a deep breath, kissed my finger tips and looked at me, a look as if to say everything was alright.

I'll admit, it's weird seeing my own blood smeared slightly on Tom's bottom lip whilst my wet hair dripped down the back of my dress. His family were watching me from the front pews, Nikki looking especially blank. Tom kissed both sides of my face as I walked to the priest who did the same.

After the image burnt, the crowd threw their familiar red rose petals in the air and the baptism had finished. Tom passed me a towel to ring the water out of my hair and I dabbed it off my face as to not ruin my makeup. Unlike babies in a normal baptism, The Family just dip the back of your head in the water to cleanse 'the past behind you' and keep your face dry to focus on seeing the future.

People moved to the bar, started socialising amongst themselves and as usual, started to drink. Apparently whenever people were initiated, the guests all liked to celebrate by getting drunk.

I looked over at Haz and Robyn who smiled up at me, Robyn lightly clapping her hands together excitedly. She threw her arms around me in a hug when we walked over to them, telling me I was brave for making such a commitment to The Family. Robyn hadn't been initiated into The Family, she wasn't ready to kill someone in order to be welcomed in. For now, she's just be happy being engaged to Harrison.

"You did great up there dude, your first baptism being your girlfriend? So good," Haz said hugging Tom and sipping his drink.

"The fact it was her and not some young guy, made it harder. I didn't want to hurt her by cutting into her finger. I was nervous I'd forget the words, I've been practicing half my life but seeing this gorgeous face staring back at me made me forget what I was doing. And I saw how long it took to do her hair this morning," Tom joked, kissing my cheek.

"You didn't look nervous up there at all," I smiled, pecking his lips and grinning.

"God, you two are so fucking in love. Even since you got back from the kidnapping you two have gotten even closer," Haz taunted.

"Lucky there's nobody else in our house, they wouldn't be able to sleep with the noise we make," Tom teased back, making me hit his chest. Whenever Tom and Haz are together, they always try to boast about their sex lives; it's such a boy thing. Robyn and I are used to it now, we just roll our eyes and sigh.

Tom put his arm around me and squeezed my waist excitedly, kissing my shoulder and telling me he was 'so fucking proud' as we now made our way over to his family. His brothers each hugged me and Nikki then kissed each side of my face; a usual Mafia ritual.

I still can't tell if Nikki even likes me.
Ever since the news broke out that Sofia had 'taken her own life' Nikki seemed pretty upset. We had a memorial with lighting dumb fucking candles and whatever, Tom pretended to be sad and I shed a few tears. Luckily, the only people who knew she was back in Tom's life were his family, Haz and Robyn. Nobody knew she was back in town so nobody knew we could even be suspects. Nobody could pin her murder on me.

"So I guess you're one of us now..." Nikki said gently, nodding to herself as she looked at me. Her gaze felt like she was seeing deep into my soul, figuring me out as she always did.

"Well I'm in this for life, I'll die if I'm not," I responded back to her, trying to make light of the awkward encounter. It was true, as much as I wanted to be with Tom for as long as he'd love me, I was now in The Family for life regardless. Tom still standing with his arm around me chuckled, as he watched his mother smile at me for the first time.

"That's the type of dedication I want to see a woman give my son," she said with tears in her eyes, bringing me into a hug and stroking the back of my wet head.

Is this it? Does Nikki Holland finally approve of me? Was she just testing me all along to see if I was worth it for not only Tom, but for The Family? Maybe that's why the only woman Tom dated was Sofia, because she was already in The Family.

"Welcome to the family love," she said still hugging me, eventually letting go and clarifying she meant the Hollands and not the mafia.