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Home / Mafia / Healing The Devil I Once Loved / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of Healing The Devil I Once Loved: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

225 Chapters

CHAPTER 1

ZARIA What could possibly be worse than discovering you’re nothing more than a legal surrogate in your own marriage? Maybe the fact that I didn’t even see it coming. I’m only in this house, in his life, because she cannot give him a child, and he needs an heir to keep his place as the mafia boss. That’s all I am! Someone with a working womb. He made me feel special so that I would relax around him… so I would trust him… so I would sleep with him. And like a fool in love, I gave him everything. My heart. My hope. My virginity. All because I believed he cared. “You know I keep my promises,” Renzo said softly to Elix, in that gentle voice I thought was meant only for me. Renzo, the man everyone knows as cruel, violent, and cold has always been strangely tender with me. Patient. Careful. Almost loving. Or so I thought. Turns out it was all just a convenient performance. A role he played to get what he wanted. “I already told you my arrangement with Zaria,” he continu

CHAPTER 2

ZARIA “Are you okay?”His voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I blinked rapidly, lifting my eyes to Renzo while forcing a small, shaky smile onto my face.“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat lightly. “I’m fine.”A lie.But if I wanted any chance of escaping him, him and the powerful family he was born into, I needed to lie. I needed to act perfectly normal. I needed to be careful…extra careful.Trying to slip away from a man raised in a syndicate, a man feared by police and respected by criminals, was going to be nearly impossible. “Have you gone for your monthly checkup?” Renzo asked as he walked closer. He stood behind me, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. We stared at our reflections in the mirror.“We have to make sure you’re fine,” he added softly.More like you want to check if I’m pregnant.Slowly getting up from the vanity chair, I turned to face him fully, reaching for his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze, playing the role of the devoted wife he expected.“I’m fine,”

CHAPTER 3

ZARIA I had waited a full two weeks before daring to use the parcel I received at Richard’s birthday party. I couldn’t act immediately, Renzo would have noticed. Any tiny change in my behavior or any shift in routine, could trigger his suspicion. And if he suspected even for a second… escape would become impossible.So for two long, exhausting weeks, I played the perfect wife.I smiled when he looked at me.I laughed at the right moments.“Ma’am,” May, the housekeeper's daughter, called out to me. “The water is hot enough now.”Blinking back into reality, I glanced at the whistling kettle. “Thank you May.”During these two weeks, I have built a routine, one that Renzo appreciated a little too much. I started making him tea every night, something to help him sleep better and calm his mind.The timing was perfect.After the birthday party, he developed a cough from his nonstop smoking. The tea seemed to help, so he relied on it.He didn’t know that I was relying on it too for a complet

CHAPTER 4

ZARIA Finally. The plane touched down with a soft jolt that rattled through my bones, and for an irrational second, my heartbeat increased in tempo as if Renzo himself might be standing at the end of the runway, waiting with that calm, terrifying smile. My fingers curled tightly around the armrest, until the aircraft slowed and the engines’ roar softened into something almost gentle. I was really here. Brazil. A different continent. A different life. A different name stamped inside the passport tucked deep inside my bag. As the seatbelt sign blinked off, people around me stood, stretching, chatting, complaining about the heat, the flight, and the wait ahead… I remained seated for a few extra seconds, pressing my palm against my stomach again. “We made it,” I whispered, squeezing a little. “You’re safe. I promise.” The promise felt fragile, but I held onto it. It had gotten me this far anyway. The airport was loud, humid, and alive. Portuguese words flew around me whi

CHAPTER 5

ZARIA At a small clinic across town, a kind-faced nurse confirmed what I already knew. “You’re about eight weeks,” she said softly, smiling at me. “Everything looks normal.” Normal indeed. That night, sitting alone in my apartment, I finally cried. I cried for the woman I had been when I married Renzo. I cried for the lies, the humiliation, and the years stolen from me. I cried for the fear that still stopped me from leaving him forever. And then, slowly, the tears stopped. Come to think of it, somewhere, far away, Renzo Dominico was tearing his world apart, searching for me, and refusing to accept that I had slipped through his webbed fingers. But here, in this small apartment in Brazil, I was no longer his wife. _______ 2 WEEKS LATER 2 weeks in Brazil taught me one thing: choosing to live was one thing, but learning how to disappear convincingly was another entirely. I couldn’t simply exist in Brazil and hope time would do the rest. Hope had failed me once alr

CHAPTER 6

ZARIA “W…Who is it?” The knock came again, firmer this time… as if to tell me whoever stood on the other side knew exactly why they were there. To take me away. My breath caught in my chest, but I forced my voice to come out almost carelessly. “I’m coming,” I called out perfectly… the way it would if I were annoyed at being disturbed this late at night. And instead of moving towards the door, I tiptoed towards my phone lying on the table beside the couch. I picked it up, swiped quickly, and started recording. I turned the screen face down and set it carefully on the small shelf near the door, angled toward the handle, close enough to capture sound. My fingers trembled only slightly as I adjusted it. Whoever was knocking needed to believe I was still inside, still approaching. “I said I’m coming,” I repeated, a little irritated. The suitcase waited where I had left it, tucked neatly beside the hallway wall. I wrapped my hand around the handle and lifted it without he

CHAPTER 7

ZARIA Of course it did.I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to stay calm and not draw attention to myself as I tugged the stubborn strap free from the conveyor edge. “Fucking, let go!” I gritted out, only for it to come loose, throwing me off balance, and I bumped straight into someone behind me.“Oof…sorry!” a man said at the same time, steadying himself and then me before I could even process the impact.“I’m sorry,” I replied automatically, taking a big step backwards, searching around for exits, faces, cameras…“Hey!” Large fingers snapped a bit too close to my face. I turned my attention to the man who was still… there.He was smiling now. “Looks like the bag is winning today.”I frowned, glancing down at my luggage and then back at him.Yeah, right. “I think it has personal issues with authority,” I said before I could stop myself, immediately wondering why I had said anything at all.He didn't notice, chuckling softly. “That makes two of us.”I nodded once, noncommittally, and

CHAPTER 8

ZARIA I didn’t look at him after that. The words hung between us… ugly, and I hated that I had said them, hated that they had come out so easily, like my mouth was already trained to hurt first before being hurt. Wang went quiet immediately. His eyes dropped back to the book in his hands, but he wasn’t reading anymore. I could tell by the way the page never turned. I stared straight ahead, my heart beating too fast for no reason that made sense. I hadn’t meant to snap like that. Or maybe I had. I wasn’t sure anymore. That made it worse. The rest of the flight passed in a strange silence that wasn’t heavy but wasn’t comfortable either. Wang didn't try to speak again and I found myself noticing the absence of his voice… The cabin lights dimmed as people slept. A baby cried somewhere behind us. I closed my eyes but didn’t sleep because every time I shifted, I was aware of Wang beside me, still, polite, giving me space without making it obvious. When the plane finally lan

CHAPTER 9

ZARIA … I stared at the handbag like it might bite me if I touched it. The phone vibrated again, longer this time. The driver glanced at me. “Message?” he asked lightly. I forced a breath. “Yes.” My fingers slid into my bag and closed around the phone. It felt hotter than it should have. When I pulled it out, the screen lit up immediately. Unknown number. My throat tightened. The light turned green and the taxi moved again. I glanced out the window, watching a place that didn’t know me or care about my past. “Hmm.” The man nodded cheerfully, returning to his earlier thought. “Driving is boring but you see talking? Ahhhh… it keeps me He added after a moment. “That man looks nice. Very honest.” “You don’t know him,” I replied, my eyes never leaving the phone. He shrugged, “I read people well.” I narrowed my eyes at him, forcing a smile and wondering what else he could tell me. “Then what do you see when you look at me?” He didn’t answer immediately. The silence w

CHAPTER 10

RENZO Fuck me… Zaria! The thought didn’t finish. No, it didn’t even land properly. It detonated somewhere behind my eyes… loud, furious, and confused, then slipped through my fingers like smoke because nothing responded the way it should have. My body couldn't rise. My hand couldn't come up. My mouth couldn't shape her name the way it wanted to. Instead, there was pressure at the back of my head that exploded into a ringing so violent it drowned everything else. For a fraction of a second, just a fraction, I tried to understand exactly what had happened. All I could remember was… she had taken so long to prepare my tea… It had been her.Zaria.My beautiful Zaria. “Renzo?” She called softly, lifting my hands and letting them drop. Then realization hit in the most humiliating manner, flooding my entire consciousness. It hurt somewhere deep. A place of trust that had never been trained to take such blows of betrayal. And I trusted her so damned much! “Arghhh!” There

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