All Chapters of Becoming the Forbidden Possession of the Mafia Boss: Chapter 181 - Chapter 187

Adrian’s POVThe Moretti estate gates looked different today. Bigger guards. More guns. Eyes watching me like I was some stranger trying to break in instead of family coming home. The iron gates and stone lions that had become familiar over the past seven years now felt like walls built to keep me out.I rolled up to the checkpoint expecting the usual quick wave-through from security. Instead, four armed men surrounded my car, hands hovering over their guns like they were expecting trouble.The main guard walked to my window, all business and no warmth. “State your business, sir.”State my business. Here. At what was supposed to be my father’s house. The disrespect burned like acid in my throat.“Have you forgotten who I am?” I kept my voice steady, but anger leaked through anyway.Before the guard could answer, Peter stepped out of the security booth. Leonardo’s personal bodyguard still looked like he’d stepped off the pages of a magazine, every crease perfect, every button in place.

Nikolai’s POVThe call came through while I was reviewing security footage from last night. Adrian’s name lit up my screen, and I answered before the second ring.“Where are you?” I asked instead of hello.“Driving back.” His voice sounded flat, scraped clean of emotion. “The Moretti estate was a dead end. Literally.”I waited, letting the silence stretch until he was ready to fill it. The security monitors in front of me showed the estate’s perimeter, guards making their rounds like everything was normal. Like we hadn’t just covered up a murder less than twenty-four hours ago.“Derek showed up with a gun,” Adrian finally said. “Drunk off his ass, screaming about how I killed Francisco.”My hand tightened around the phone. “Did he shoot?”“Leonardo talked him down.” A pause, then a bitter laugh. “My father saved my life and still wouldn’t let me through the gates. Security protocols, apparently. I’m too much of a Mancini now to be trusted as a Moretti.”The pain in his voice made some

Adrian’s POVMy foot was killing me by the time Nikolai got back. I’d been pacing the study for an hour, ignoring the doctor’s orders about staying off it. The bandage felt too tight, my shoe pinched wrong, and every step sent sharp little reminders that I’d been shot less than two days ago.Diego had called thirty minutes earlier. “Boss wants you to know he’s on his way back. Says you need to talk about your wife.”Your wife. Like Isabelle was some stranger I’d picked up at a bar instead of someone I’d been married to for three years. Though honestly, sometimes it felt that way. We lived in the same house, shared the same last name, and were about to have a kid together. But we didn’t share a bed, didn’t share secrets, and definitely didn’t share the kind of intimacy that made a marriage real.The study door opened and Nikolai walked in looking like he’d aged five years in two hours. Whatever Leonardo had said to him wasn’t good news.“How’d it go?”“About as well as expected.” He d

Nikolai’s POVGregory had the bugs laid out on my desk like evidence at a crime scene. Twelve tiny devices, each one no bigger than a button, each one representing months of our private conversations getting recorded and sent to God knows where.“Found them in every major room,” Gregory said, pointing at each one. “Your study, the conference room, Adrian’s bedroom, the main hall, even the kitchen. This one—” he held up a particularly small device “—was in the frame of that painting you like. The one your mother gave you.”That detail hit harder than it should have. Someone had touched my mother’s painting, violated something personal, just to plant a bug that would let them spy on my life.“How long have they been there?”“Based on the battery life? At least six months. Maybe longer.” Gregory pulled up something on his laptop. “But here’s where it gets interesting. These aren’t cheap Amazon bugs. This is military-grade surveillance equipment. The kind that costs serious money and req