LOGINShare
Chapter 3 Double Whammy
Last Updated:
2025-05-15 18:15:56(Emmeline)
My heart is pounding so fast, I can hear the blood rushing through my head.
“What makes you think that, sweetie?” I ask, wondering if he’ll notice that my voice is 2 octaves higher than usual.
He runs to my bedroom and comes back a minute later waving around a picture I keep in a box under my bed.
A picture I haven’t looked at in years, because it hurts too much.
It’s of me and Asher. Laughing, carefree and desperately in love.
It was taken about 2 months before his disappearance, just after we got engaged.
My first instinct is to lie. To tell him that of course that man on the news isn’t his daddy.
But anyone with halfway decent eyesight can see that it’s the same person.
He’s even more handsome now that he’s older, but it’s undeniably the same person.
I crouch down, taking the picture from his hand gently.
“Yes, baby. I think it is. He disappeared before I knew you were in my belly and he used a different name when I knew him.”
Jackson considers my answer, glancing back at the television before looking at me again.
“Is my daddy a bad man?” he asks.
Before I can respond he rushes ahead. “Sometimes I’m bad and you tell me you don’t like the thing I did, but you still love me. We can still love my daddy and help him be better. Can we be a family now, mama?”
“Sweetheart, I haven’t spoken to him in a very long time. And the bad things he’s done is not the same as snacking cookies before dinner,” I try and explain.
It seems I’ve taught him so much about forgiveness and love, that he has a shaky grasp on crimes and consequences.
I eventually get him into bed and after reading 4 books he finally falls asleep.
Unfortunately there’s nobody to read me stories and I toss and turn all night.
For years all I wanted was one hour with Asher.
The opportunity to ask him why he deserted me. What I’d done wrong to make him run away.
Now I have a million more questions.
Did he ever actually love me?
Why lie to me and ask me to marry him, only to disappear?
I never got the impression that he was a psychopath, but nobody else could be so convincing about loving someone, knowing they were going to break their heart soon.
He murdered his own father!
I don’t know how his sudden resurfacing is going to impact me and Jackson, but I’m terrified of what the future holds.
***
Jackson is very quiet on the ride to school and he has that fiercely determined look on his face that Asher would sometimes get.
Nothing could keep him from attaining whatever he set his mind to when he looked like that.
“Jackson, are you alright?” I ask carefully. “Do you want to talk about what you found out last night?”
He shakes his head, “No thank you, mama. I’m fine.”
“Sweetie, you’d talk to me if you were planning on doing anything, right?” I ask.
“Look, mama! A kitty!” he shouts, pointing out his window.
I don’t know if I’ve just been given some of my own medicine by a 4-year old, or if he was really distracted by a cat – which I didn’t see - but there’s no more time for talking, we’ve arrived at his school.
***
“Relax, Emmeline. I know he’s a very smart kid, but he’s only 4 and he’s safe and sound at school,” Rosa tries to calm me when I arrive at work.
“Besides, it took us years and we weren’t able to track down Asher Giordano. There’s no way for Jackson to find him.”
She’s right.
Of course she’s right.
And Jackson is a very smart kid. I’m going to have to sit him down tonight and talk to him openly about everything. Answer all of his questions, no matter how much it hurts to talk about the past.
He has to understand that there is no future where Asher can be a part of our lives.
He’s a wanted man who will be arrested soon and there’s no way I’m letting him get anywhere close to Jackson.
We’ve always been fine on our own and there’s no reason for that to change now.
I feel a bit calmer now that I’ve made up my mind.
Tonight I’ll talk to Jackson and tomorrow I’ll come clean to Elias.
It’s good that I’ve found out what kind of man Asher is. I can finally get closure and move on with my life.
I should thank my lucky stars that he never knew about Jackson and now he never will.
I go looking for a new book for Jackson during my lunch break.
He loves dinosaurs and it will be good to have a distraction after a heavy and difficult conversation.
I’m waiting in the check-out line when my phone starts ringing. My heart skips a beat when I see Miss Ally flashing across my screen.
It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
“Hello,” I answer on the second ring.
“Oh my God, Emmeline. I’m so sorry, but Jackson’s missing. The kids all went outside for recess and he didn’t come back to class after. We’ve looked everywhere, but he’s not on the school premises.”
Latest chapter
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 68 Crosshairs
SebastianThe bar is one of those places that forgets its own name after midnight. I pick the table with my back to the wall and a view of the door because I used to mistake paranoia for a phase and it turned out to be a skill set.Bruce arrives without announcing himself. One second there’s a chair, the next there’s a wall of man sitting in it. Black T-shirt, clean jaw, the kind of stillness that makes other people fidget.He folds his forearms on the table. “Tell me.”I slide my phone across the scarred wood. He scans the screen from a distance, cataloging like he does doorframes and fire escapes. The photo of me and Emmeline on those courthouse steps. The spreadsheets.“They want me to step down from the Bureau,” I say.“Because you’re close to something,” he says, and it isn’t a question.“The account numbers are elegant forgery. The dates are almost right. The offshore shells are real, just not mine. If the SEC sees this without context, I’m radioactive.”Bruce reaches, opens a se
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 67 Heat in the Shadows
EmmelineHe locks the door without looking away from me.Click. The kind of sound that lands between my ribs and blooms there.“Come here,” Asher says.The coat slides from his shoulders, heavy with rain. His hands find my jaw like he’s checking the hinge on a door he intends to walk through.He moves first. No preamble. No safety rails except the ones we always keep for each other. Mouth on mine, pressure decisive, that bite-soft glide that strips thought and leaves the body fluent.My back meets the wall. My palms find his shoulders. He’s warm through the shirt. Solid. The kind of strength that isn’t just muscle but power.His hand brackets my throat, squeezing lightly, heat and claim, his thumb finding the flutter of my pulse. “Breathe.”I do. In on a three-count, out on a five. The world steadies and then tilts harder when he kisses the point under my ear that unspools my spine. My head hits the wall with a soft thud. He catches it with his palm and laughs like a sinner in church.
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 66 The Warning
AsherMy captains ring the long table like constellations I used to navigate by. Bruce stands at my right shoulder, a dark planet with its own gravity.Emmeline’s words are still in my blood. Put the crown on. Use every tool. I can taste them the way I taste her. Steel and honey. I’ve already made the calls, put men on schools, on routes, on the places my enemies sleep and pretend it’s safe. What I haven’t done yet is say it out loud.I open my mouth just as Bruce’s phone vibrates.He glances at the screen, and the small, bare shift in his jaw is enough to tell me the night just changed. He steps close, voice pitched for me alone. “Nico didn’t check in.”Nico. Forty-two. Drove for my father when I was still a problem in cufflinks. Taught me the quiet parts of survival. How to breathe through an ambush, how to keep your eyes up in a crowd.“Where?” I ask.Bruce answers with motion. We’re already walking to the car. “Something’s come up. Wait here,” I tell the room.We cut through the c
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 65 Pressure Points
EmmelineI’m halfway through a piece of toast when my phone starts vibrating across the counter like it wants to escape.Three texts from Sarah. Elias’s campaign manager.You seeing this???Turn on Cityline.We need you at HQ.I unmute the TV and the caption slaps me in the face. IS THE BOY SCOUT A BAGMAN? Elias’s smiling campaign photo sits beside a grainy still of Asher stepping out of a black car. The segment host has the smooth voice of a snake oil salesman.“Anonymous financial records obtained overnight appear to show a pattern of-”I don’t hear the rest. I’m already scrolling the linked article. Screenshots. Red circles. Arrows. A “timeline” that stitches unrelated events into a story where Elias is Asher’s friendly neighborhood money launderer.Asher appears in the doorway, tie loose, shirt sleeves rolled, dangerously sexy without trying. “What happened?”“Vescari happened,” I say, shoving my arms into the coat. “They’re hitting Elias. Anonymous bank records, out-of-context ph
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 64 Confession
CaterinaThere’s a particular kind of dark right before dawn when New York holds its breath and decides whether to behave.I stand barefoot on the kitchen tile, staring at the window like I can see Palermo through the glass if I focus hard enough. The espresso machine purrs and I pour without tasting. My hands are steady. That’s how I know I’m afraid.Bruce ghosts past the doorway, a mountain in a black T-shirt. He does it every hour. Checking all the doors and windows. The ritual should annoy me. It seduces me instead. A man who treats safety like worship is a dangerous prayer to answer.I’m not here for prayers. I’m here to confess.Emmeline pads in, hair braided back, Asher’s hoodie swallowing her small frame. She looks like soft sleep and sharp corners. Mrs. Giordano. The title sits on her like a crown she didn’t ask for and wears anyway.“Couldn’t sleep?” she asks, voice low. The house is full of men who will be awake soon. For a moment, it’s just us.“Not really.”I sink onto a
My Runaway Mafia Groom Wants Me Back Chapter 63 A Mother’s Intuition
EmmelineThe house is too quiet after midnight. I lie awake and listen to the faint hush of cars down on the avenue. My hand rests on my stomach like a promise and a threat. I am not prey. I am a mother. Those are different animals.Asher comes in at one twenty-three, tie in his pocket, coat open, winter air clinging to him.“How was it?” I ask.He meets my eyes in the mirror, loosening his cuffs. “Contained.”“Contained is not a report. It’s a prayer.”A beat of amusement ghosts across his mouth and dies. “I met the captains. Not all. A handful. Enough to make it clear things have changed.”“Did you say the words?” I sit up, knees to my chest, the strap of my negligee falling down to my collarbone. “Did you claim your crown back?”“Not yet.” He turns, taking me in like I’m a cliff he has to climb. “I won’t swing a wrecking ball through our life because a grandmother in widow’s black wants to play chess from Palermo.”“She nearly set fire to our son’s school,” I say, voice even. “She
You may also like
Ruined In Love
Taevya130.1K viewsItalian Men
Sunshine106.8K viewsFlames and Roses
Babyofsun102.1K viewsMAFIA RULES
SweetGina103262.2K viewsKiss Me Goodbye, Mafia Don
Chihiro493 viewsMafia Kingpin: A Dark Organized Crime Romance
A. Hayat407 viewsMafia’s Hidden Flame
Maddie Brooks375 viewsRalph’s Repentance
Early Bird679 views
