After Death Mafia Short Stories & Mistress Marriage Novels

To end the war between the Marinos and the Valentes, I married Theodore Valente, the first love I'd once walked out on. On our wedding night, that proud, untouchable man held me and wept. Night after night, his broad frame covered mine as he made love to me. Theodore's sweet whispers made me blush, and a secret thrill went through me. Maybe he still loved me after all. But then the man I thought loved me did the unthinkable. He shot my father in the head, right in front of me. He put cement shoes on my brother and sent him to the bottom of the sea. He had my mother and sister shaved bald, then handed them over to his bodyguards to abuse however they pleased. By the time I escaped to save them, the torture had already driven them insane... My beloved husband looked at me coldly, his voice dripping with scorn. "Did you really think I still loved you? "Stop dreaming. You really thought marrying me would erase the humiliation you caused when you walked out on me? Or my hatred for your father after he killed so many members of my family?" Theodore wouldn't let me die. If I did, he'd kill my mother and my sister. He kept me as his wife in name only, yet night after night, he forced me to watch him sleep with a stand-in who looked just like me. Then the day came when his lover got pregnant. He grabbed me by the throat. "Once the baby's born, you and I are getting a divorce. My child won't be a bastard." I smiled, nodded, and promised I'd cooperate fully. After all, a doctor had diagnosed me with late-stage stomach cancer just yesterday. I didn't have another week to live.

The night we fought for the port, I took a ricin-laced bullet for my husband, Don Nick Valenti. As I lay dying, Dr. Bruno Esposito, the Valenti family's doctor, brought out the last dose of antiserum. He said a shot right away would save me. But Nick injected the lifesaving serum into Mia Conti instead. Mia suddenly developed stomach cramps, so Nick ordered Bruno to give her the antiserum slowly through an IV. He ignored the fact that I could barely breathe and my skin was turning blue. Isabella Valenti, Nick's mother and the former Donna, clutched her crucifix. “Your wife is the one who was poisoned, Nick! Why are you saving Mia?” Nick pressed a cotton ball to Mia's arm to stop the bleeding. “Mia's been sheltered her whole life. She's never had so much as a scratch. Julia's survived more gunshot wounds than I can count. She'll pull through this one too.” Isabella's face went cold and hard. “Julia has pulled you out of gunfire at least ten times. Her father and brother both died helping you seize power! And you won't even give her the antiserum that could save her life?” Nick's voice was cold. “Mother, I never forced them to do any of it! When Julia married me, she made her vows before God. She loves me. She chose all of this.” He came over to my bed and touched my face. “Julia, I know you're stronger than this. I'll have Bruno do everything he can. You're my wife and the Donna of the Valenti family.” He looked as tender as he had the night before, when he had held me in his arms. I looked at the empty syringe in his hand, and suddenly, none of it felt worth it anymore. “Nick Valenti! You had better pray I don't survive. “Because if I do, you'll answer to God for everything you've done!”

My husband is the Don of the entire New York East Coast Mafia. For ten years, I dimmed my own light to be his perfect silent partner, the dutiful wife who gave him the perfect heir. I thought we were the lovers who wou ld die for each other. Then came a mere associat. My husband and son had formed an alliance with the woman who seem want to take my place. But they just said, "Elena, you have the crown and the kingdom. She has nothing but us. Be generous." So, to make her smile, my husband trampled on my dignity again and again. To please her, my son affectionately calls her "Mom." In their eyes, I was the iron wall, the woman who would swallow any insult for the sake of the family honor. Until the fire. My husband locked me inside the burning room, to let me "reflect" on my jealousy. He didn't know that the fire didn't kill me. But it burned away the last ash of my love for him.