Semua Bab MARRIED TO THE MAFIA: Bab 161 - Bab 170

LilaI must have drifted off.One minute I was watching the sunlight flicker across the water; the next, I felt the brush of Luca’s thumb along my temple.I opened my eyes slowly, blinking up at him.He looked so different in this soft, golden light.Less like the man everyone feared and more like the one I’d glimpsed in rare moments the one who had held me through my mother’s last days, who had whispered that he loved me like it cost him something to admit it.“Did I fall asleep?” I mumbled.His mouth curved just a little.“For about twenty minutes.”“Why didn’t you wake me?”“You looked peaceful,” he said simply.I felt my cheeks heat as I propped myself up on an elbow.“Were you watching me?”“Yes,” he said, not bothering to pretend otherwise.I huffed a laugh and rubbed a hand over my face.“You’re impossible.”“So you’ve mentioned.”His fingers brushed a stray hair from my cheek.For a moment, neither of us spoke.The waves rolled in and out, the rhythm slow and hypnotic.It felt

LilaThe lock clicked into place with a soft finality that made my chest ache.I rested my palm against the door, willing my heart to slow.It didn’t.For a long moment, I just stood there, trying to pretend the quiet meant everything would be all right.It didn’t.The house felt wrong.Too bright. Too loud. Too empty.I turned away from the door and crossed to the bed, sinking down on the edge.My hands were still trembling.Anna was gone.Taken, God only knew where, or why.I thought about the way she’d looked at breakfast just a few days ago tired, yes, but almost peaceful, like she was finally starting to believe she’d earned a place here again.I thought about the softness in her voice when she’d asked me if I was scared.And the way she’d touched my hand in that quiet, tentative way that made me ache for every moment she’d lost with her sons.The air in the room felt too thin.I pressed a hand to my stomach, closing my eyes.The baby moved a soft flutter against my palm and for a

LucaNight fell and the calls kept coming.Enzo had mobilized every contact we had in three states.Men I’d paid for years to keep their ears to the ground.Men who owed me favors they’d never wanted to collect.By the time the grandfather clock in the hall struck midnight, I’d spoken to so many voices I could barely keep them straight.Some of them lied.Some of them tried to stall me.But fear is a powerful motivator, and eventually, someone broke.I stood in the library, the doors shut tight against the house’s noise, and listened as Enzo’s contact told me exactly what I’d suspected:That the Carillos hadn’t just come to collect the debt.They’d come because Anna had promised them something she couldn’t deliver.Leverage.A guarantee that if they let her keep laundering their money, she’d use my companies to push through shipments no other syndicate would touch.I pinched the bridge of my nose and exhaled slowly, tasting bile at the back of my throat.My mother, my own mother offeri

LilaI didn’t sleep.Not even a little.By dawn, my body ached from lying stiff and awake on the bed, listening to every creak in the hall, every distant footstep.By the time the sun started filtering through the terrace doors, I knew I couldn’t do it anymore.Couldn’t sit here and pretend I didn’t feel it that awful, gnawing certainty in my gut that something was wrong.Worse, that everyone knew it but me.I pushed myself out of bed, my legs shaky.My heart thudded with each step as I crossed the suite, pulled a robe around my shoulders, and slipped into the hallway.The house was too quiet, that oppressive hush that made every sound echo off the high ceilings.A guard at the end of the corridor inclined his head when he saw me, his gaze flicking politely over my shoulder, as if he was trying not to look too closely at my rumpled hair, my red eyes.“Where is he?” I asked.He didn’t need me to clarify who.“Mr. Romano is in the study,” he said quietly.I nodded and kept walking.With

LucaThe car was waiting at the front steps when I emerged from the house.The morning was grey and cold, a damp wind sweeping in off the coast. It matched the hollow churn in my gut.I paused for a second on the top step, gripping the railing tighter than I meant to.The driver, Marco opened the back door without a word. He didn’t look at me.I couldn’t blame him.No one liked to look too long when a man was about to go hunt down his own mother.I forced myself to move, every step a reminder that I was still weaker than I’d ever admit. The cane hit the flagstones with a dull, deliberate rhythm, like a metronome marking the seconds before everything collapsed.Once I was in the car, Marco shut the door and took his place behind the wheel.Enzo climbed into the front passenger seat. He twisted around to look at me, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses.“They were seen again,” he said without preamble.My jaw tensed.“Where?”“West, toward the coast. A rental car registered to a shell com