Todos os capítulos de The mafia king’s substitute husband: Capítulo 101 - Capítulo 110

THE LETTER FROM THOMASSALVATORE'S POVAnother letter arrives from Thomas a few months later, longer this time.He reads it alone first, in his study, and finds Thomas has written not just about his own life but about an idea he's apparently been turning over since their first exchange of letters.I teach fourth grade now, as I mentioned, Thomas writes. A lot of my students come from houses where things are hard in ways children shouldn't have to carry alone. I keep thinking about that field, about how one small thing, just pulling you back before you fell, mattered enough that you remembered it twenty years later. I wonder sometimes how many of my own students might be carrying something like that, waiting for someone to notice.I don't know if this is overstepping, given how new our correspondence still is, but I wanted to ask if you'd ever consider supporting something for kids like that. Not charity exactly. More like making sure somebody's paying attention before things go as wro

THE OLD WARSALVATORE'S POVA man Salvatore hasn't seen in years requests a meeting through formal channels, careful and respectful in a way that signals old history rather than new threat, and Salvatore agrees to it mostly out of curiosity about what could bring someone from that part of his life back around after so long.The man's name is Giovanni, once one of Dario's lieutenants, though he split from that organization years before the final collapse, disillusioned, apparently, long before Salvatore ever put an end to it entirely."I won't take much of your time," Giovanni says, seated across from Salvatore's desk, Nico standing near the door out of old habit even though he's mostly retired from this kind of work now. "I wanted to say something to you directly, something I should have said a long time ago.""Go ahead.""I knew what Dario was planning, toward the end," Giovanni admits, something heavy in his voice. "Not the specifics. Not that he'd take your husband. But I knew he w

THE QUIET YEARSELIAN'S POVLeo grows tall enough that he no longer needs the step stool to reach the top kitchen shelf. Sofia loses her front teeth within weeks of each other, delighted by the gap it leaves in her smile. My mother starts joining us for dinner some Sundays without needing an invitation extended first, simply assuming now, correctly, that she's welcome.I notice the changes in myself too, slower to catalogue because they're harder to see from the inside. I stop flinching at raised voices in crowded rooms. I stop automatically counting exits the moment I enter somewhere new, though Salvatore tells me, fondly, that he still catches himself doing it sometimes, old habits apparently taking even longer to fully release their grip than the fear that built them.Salvatore's hair has started going gray at the temples, something that happened gradually enough that I didn't notice until Leo pointed it out one afternoon with the particular bluntness of a thirteen-year-old."You'r

SOFIA QUESTIONROSA’S POVSofia finds me folding clothes one afternoon and stands beside the basket, watching me for a while before she speaks.“Mama, why doesn’t Leo look like Uncle Elian or Uncle Salvatore?”I pause with one of Nico’s shirts in my hands.“Everyone says he’s their son,” she continues, “but he doesn’t look like either of them.”I put the shirt aside and turn to face her. She isn’t trying to be rude. She’s simply curious, and I don’t want her to feel that asking is wrong.“Leo is their son,” I tell her. “He just wasn’t born to them. He had other parents before Uncle Elian and Uncle Salvatore adopted him.”“Why couldn’t his first parents keep him?”“That’s something only they could fully explain, sweetheart. But giving him up doesn’t mean they never loved him. Sometimes adults have problems they can’t solve, even when they love their children.”She thinks about that for a moment before climbing onto the chair beside me.“So Uncle Elian and Uncle Salvatore chose him?”“Y

LEO’S FIRST LOVEELIAN’S POVLeo barely spoke during dinner that evening. He answered when we asked him questions, but his attention kept wandering, and twice I caught him staring at his plate with a smile he quickly tried to hide.I knew that look. I’d worn it myself years ago.I decided not to embarrass him by asking questions in front of everyone. Sofia, unfortunately, had no such consideration for her brother.“So, when are you going to talk to Beatriz?” she asked while we were having dessert.Leo nearly dropped his spoon.“Why are you bringing her up?”“Because you’ve been staring at her for weeks, and it’s getting embarrassing.”“I don’t stare at her.”Sofia raised her eyebrows. “You looked at her so much on Friday that I thought you were trying to memorize her face.”Salvatore laughed into his glass, and I had to look away to hide my smile.“Can you leave me alone?” Leo muttered.“Of course.” Sofia picked up her spoon. “Just tell me when the wedding is so I can find a dress.”“