Semua Bab Onenight with the Mafia: Bab 11 - Bab 19

Chapter TwelveTwo years had passed since Maxine became a mother, and though time had marched forward, it hadn't made things easier. If anything, it had layered new challenges on top of the old ones. Noah was now a toddler—lively, curious, and utterly exhausting. He ran through rooms like a whirlwind, leaving chaos in his wake and joy in her heart. But love didn’t pay bills, and joy didn’t make ends meet.Maxine worked tirelessly, stringing together part-time jobs while her parents helped watch Noah. She waited tables at a cafe three days a week, assisted in the university’s art lab twice a week, and picked up freelance sketch commissions late into the night. Her dreams of becoming an architect hadn’t faded, but they had been forced to coexist with a reality that left little room for luxury.Her parents had become her safety net. Her mother, always nurturing, handled daycare duty when Maxine’s shifts overlapped. Her father—now more involved than she could’ve hoped for—took to feeding N

Balancing the life of a student, intern, and mother was like juggling knives on a tightrope—and Maxine Green was always just one misstep away from everything crashing down.Her days began before the sun had even stretched across the sky. At 5:30 a.m., she was up, brushing her teeth while packing Noah’s snacks, ironing her clothes in the dim light of the kitchen, and gulping down weak coffee while bouncing a half-awake toddler on her hip. Noah, now three and filled with a thousand questions, had his own rhythm—a rhythm that didn’t always match hers.“Do you have to go, Mama?” he would ask with wide, sleepy eyes as she buttoned up her coat.Her heart would squeeze every time.“Just for a little while, baby. I’ll be back before you know it.”She would drop him off with her mother, offer a rushed kiss on the cheek, and sprint toward the bus stop with her bag over one shoulder and her dreams packed inside it like precious cargo.Frank Wright’s firm was no place for weakness. The atmosphere

Maxine’s life had finally begun to follow a rhythm, the kind she once thought she’d never reclaim after that night with Thomas. It wasn’t perfect—not even close—but for the first time in a long while, there was a sense of stability. She’d clawed her way out of that haunting spiral of depression, built a life around her son Noah, her studies, and her job, and though she still carried invisible wounds, they no longer bled at every thought of the past.But even so, the scars throbbed in moments of quiet. Especially in the hours just before sleep, when the world fell silent, and she was left alone with her thoughts. That night with Thomas had twisted her life into something unrecognizable, splintered her dreams into pieces. Sometimes, she thought she had glued them back together. Other times, she feared she was only pretending. No matter how much she smiled or how far she ran, there was always a small, heavy stone of worry lodged somewhere deep inside her. An unnamed fear. A lingering sha

Maxine hadn’t expected her schedule to shift so suddenly, but with half the staff either quitting or conveniently falling “sick,” she found herself filling more roles than ever at Frank Wright’s firm. For the past two weeks, she had been working full time—no longer juggling art school on the side, no longer returning home before dusk. Between motherhood, architecture, and sleepless nights, Maxine felt the tension creeping under her skin.And now, to top it off, she had to visit the construction site of the secretive mansion they had been designing.“Do I really have to go?” she asked Frank that morning as she packed her portfolio.Frank didn’t even look up. “Yes. Peter’s waiting. He’ll drive you.”Maxine sighed and grabbed her sketch folder, the familiar unease settling into her stomach. There was something off about this entire project, and today, for the first time, she’d be standing in the middle of it.Peter, cheerful as ever, was already waiting in the parking lot, leaning casual

The engine hummed beneath his fingertips like a caged beast, quiet and restrained.Damien Thomas Ledger sat in the back seat of the black Mercedes, parked discreetly beneath the veil of trees bordering the estate. He leaned back, his fingers caresses beneath his chin as he watched her.Maxine Green.Even from this distance, he could see the way the wind pulled loose strands of her hair, how she squinted in the bright sunlight as she shaded her eyes and surveyed the skeletal framework of the mansion. She looked older than the last time he'd seen her, but not in a bad way. Stronger. Sharper. Resilient.And yet something in him ached at the sight of her.The last time they’d spoken, it hadn’t really been a conversation. A single night. A mistake, she probably thought. But for him? It was the one time in a long, blood-soaked life where something had felt clean.He hadn’t meant to keep tabs on her.He’d told himself, walk away. Walk away and let her forget.But he couldn’t.It started as a