Chapter 7

Knowing he didn't like kids’ presence around him, Esme decided to take Elea away from there, especially when her kid was crying so much. But the moment she attempted to take Elea away, the kid detached herself from her arms.

Esme turned confused, seeing Elea running away from her.

“Lea….” She tried to stop her kid but Elea already ran towards the direction where he was standing. 

Esme's breathing hitched, seeing her daughter stopping right in front of him. The kid took her head upward and looked at him where she clutched his pants because she was barely reaching his knees.

The kid was looking quite tiny in front of his tall and broad frame.

“I want to go with mumma, uncle….” little Elea requested that uncle in front of her because the kid had also understood that everyone here listened to this uncle. She had witnessed it last night where everyone was listening to everything he was telling, so her innocent mind believed her mumma was also going to listen to this uncle.

The mafia boss travelled his eyes down where he saw the kid staring at him with her glossy eyes.

“Mumma is not taking me with her,” the kid told him. Her tears didn't stop falling, which again brought that unknown and unfamiliar shaking inside his chest. 

The kid gently shook his pants. 

“Please tell mumma…to take me with her, uncle. I want to go with mumma,” the kid stared at him with her hope filled eyes, which were also dripping tears continuously. 

His lips remained sealed. He didn't utter a single word but just continued to stare into those wide grey eyes of the kid, which everyone around them noticed, especially Esme, whose heart had already started pounding in dread.

Esme ran towards them.

“Lea….” She immediately detached her kid’s hold from his clothes which made Elea burst into tears again.

Esme hurriedly picked up Elea in her arms and thought about taking her away from there but his words halted her steps.

“Take your daughter with you,” the mafia boss's decision stunned everyone, especially Maeve and Calix. They both passed each other a startled look because they both were aware of how their boss was. He didn't prefer kids’ involvement in any moment of his life but yet….he was allowing Esme to take her daughter with her…to his own wedding.

Esme turned around and looked at him, shocked too. She also could not believe how and why he was letting her little daughter do what she wanted, specifically today, which might be one of the biggest days of his life.

Esme saw him stepping closer to her. He looked at her before he travelled his eyes towards Elea, who was in her embrace and was staring at him with her teary eyes.

He sighed which Esme noticed.

“Take the kid with you and make sure to be with her all the time there,” saying that he walked past them and left the hall. Calix also followed him out.

Revolving around, Esme looked at his retracting figure, confused, shocked and most importantly, puzzled.

Why did this ruthless man agree to the words of her child?

“Mumma…that uncle is a good uncle,” Elea's voice took Esme out of her thoughts. She looked at Elea, who had finally stopped crying because now she knew her mumma was going to take her with her.

“Mumma, I will wear my blue dress,” the kid hugged her mother, happily now. Esme breathed out before caressing Elea's back and then she looked at Maeve, whose gaze was already on them in a way like…she had already sensed something strange between them.

For how long would she be able to hide this secret that her daughter was the child of the owner of this deadly manor?

…………..

Taking a puff of cigarette, his eyes were scanning his wedding attire hanging before him, which was an expensive suit, but his mind was still stuck at that mother daughter duo. 

He still didn't know why he allowed that kid to come with her mother to his wedding. He didn't know why he could not just ignore that kid’s request and tears. 

Firstly, he spared that maid’s life even after she dared to go against his words and now he could not go against her little daughter's words.

His mind could not comprehend his own actions. What kind of changes that maid and her child were bringing in his life and most importantly, why was he even letting those changes affect him?

It had never happened before. He had never allowed anyone to make him go against his own rules in life but….now he was going against his own self for this mother and her kid out of sudden.

“Boss….” Calix's voice interrupted his thoughts.

“All the wedding preparations are done. The Rossi Family and their daughter have also reached here, so everything is going as per your plan,” Calix uttered. He silently listened.

“All the media and big personalities are here, so everyone is going to find out today that you are marrying the Rossi Cartel’s heiress,”

Hearing Calix, he slowly bobbed his head. The Rossi Cartel used to be one of his biggest competitors which he decided to remove for once and all from his life completely but when he was about to overpower that Cartel, the head of that Cartel offered a negotiation of marrying his daughter to him. He agreed not just only because Rossi Cartel was also one of the strongest cartels in their underworld but also because he didn't believe in marriage and all those things, so this wedding was strictly a negotiation and a business deal for him, which was going to make him more powerful, and he desired nothing but power…at any cost.

“Keep an eye on the security. We should….”

“Boss,” a guard hurriedly stepped inside the room. Both the men looked towards him.

“Koen Rossi and his wife want to meet you right now. They are waiting outside,” the guard uttered, confusing Luka.

“Send them in,” he replied. The guard bowed and left, and within a few seconds, the head of the Rossi Cartel, Koen Rossi and his wife, Lavena Rossi, stepped inside the room.

They both looked extremely terrified and panicked. Lavena Rossi even had tears in her eyes, which intensified his confusion.

“What happened?” He asked them.

They both looked at each other before trailing their gaze at him. Koen Rossi stepped forward.

“Mr. Salvino….my daughter….” He hesitated. Terror was evident in his voice.

“My daughter e…escaped from this wedding with her lover,” the moment those words came out of Koen Rossi's mouth, his jaw clenched, not because he f*cking cared about his bride but because he had a reputation to maintain which that f*cking woman thought about staining by running away from this wedding.

“We are sorry. She….” Koen Rossi shut his mouth as she witnessed Luka taking his gun out and pressed it against his forehead.

Calix turned alert.

“Your f*cking daughter is just as worthless as you but I won't let her ruin my image, Rossi,” he growled, touching the trigger of his gun. Koen Rossi's eyes watered because everyone in that room was aware of how his hand never shook while taking a life.

“But now….you will pay for your f*cking daughter’s action,” he spat at him.

“No…please…please let him go,” Lavena Rossi joined her hands in front of him. She fell on her knees and cupped his leg.

“Please let him go…” she begged him while crying but Luka signalled Calix to take her away, which Calix instantly followed and dragged Lavena away from him.

“Please forgive us, Mr. Salvino. I….” He shoved the gun inside Koen’s mouth, shutting him completely. Without even caring for once that he was about to take a life, Luka was just going to pull the trigger when suddenly his ears caught those loud giggles and that gentle voice.

“Lea….now you are turning into a naughty baby, wait..” 

The mafia don turned his head towards the open window of that room from where those voices were entering, and there his eyes found his maid playing with her daughter. She was tickling her child and they both were laughing loudly.

This was the very first time his gaze was witnessing something like this…. something so pure, so harmless and so alluring. A mother was playing with her child and even the brutal mafia boss knew nothing could be more beautiful than this.

His fingers retracted from the trigger as his eyes stared at both the mother daughter duo. His eyes refused to blink away from them.

Exhaling a sigh, he turned his head around and violently pushed Koen on the ground. 

“Get both of them,” he commanded Calix, who immediately nodded and called their guards.

His men took Koen and his wife away from there, who continued to cry and beg him but his ears turned deaf to their voices because currently they were completely occupied by the chirping happy voice of his maid and her little kid.

Luka again travelled his eyes towards Esme and Elea and this time, he witnessed his maid feeding something to her kid with a big smile on her face. 

His gaze got stuck at Esme's smile, which seemed to radiate serenity and hope…something he never had and he never even desired to have….until right now.

“Boss, should we call off the wedding now?” Calix asked his boss, a bit afraid because he was aware of how short tempered his boss was and how severe his anger issues could be, but Calix went shocked when he saw a smirk appearing on his boss’s face, instead of anger. His grey eyes were fixed towards the window, which made Calix follow the direction of his gaze too, and there he saw Esme with her little daughter.

“No….there’s no need to call off the wedding,” Luka spoke out, confusing Calix, until he heard his next words.

“Call my new maid here,” he uttered, staring at Esme’s beguiling smile, which widened his smirk.

“Esme Hadley will be my bride now…..” his gaze remained attached to his new maid, whom he had now chosen to make his wife, unaware of how much this deadly decision of his was going to cost him.