The car ride was silent except for the sound of Mira’s soft breathing beside . My knuckles ached from how tightly I was gripping the armrest, but I couldn’t release it. If I did, I wasn’t sure what else I would break.
Donna Carla. My own mother. The one person I thought would never disappoint . And yet, she managed to shatter in a way no enemy ever could.
I had stood at her bedside, heart in my throat, relieved beyond words that she had survived. And what did she give in return? A declaration that she was in love with a man young enough to be her son. A man I didn’t know, couldn’t vet, couldn’t control.
Alejandro. I morized the na the mont it left his mouth. His face, his posture, the way he had the audacity to stretch his hand to for a handshake. He was no more than a boy in my eyes, yet he stood there acting like he belonged in her life. Acting like he had the right to breathe the sa air as my mother.
It burned.
"Fuck happiness," I repeated under my breath, my voice low and sharp. Mira shifted beside but didn’t say anything this ti. She had learned. Or maybe she was just scared. I didn’t bla her.
The problem wasn’t just my mother’s choice. It was what it symbolized.
Control.
My mother... she had defied in front of witnesses, made look weak in my own territory. She had given a man a stranger access to her room, to her life, without consulting . If my own mother could make choices that undermined , what ssage did that send to the rest of the families watching? That Jace Romano could be defied? That I wasn’t in control of my own house?
Unacceptable.
I wonder how long this had been going on under my nose. It was not befitting of soone of her status to play such childish gas.
My phone buzzed against my thigh. I pulled it out, already knowing who it would be. I had texted him as soon as I stord out of the hospital room.
"Tomas," I said flatly.
"Boss, we ran a quick background check on Alejandro. He’s clean, Don. No affiliations, no priors. On paper, he’s nobody."
On paper. I hated that phrase. It always ant there was sothing missing.
My jaw ticked before I spoke again. "Dig deeper. I want to know where he was born, where he’s lived, who he’s spoken to, who he’s fucked, and where he takes a piss every morning. Understand?"
"Yes, Don."
I hung up before he could respond further.
Mira glanced at from the corner of her eye, her lips pressed together like she wanted to speak but thought better of it. Smart. My temper was too close to the edge, and the wrong word would send over.
Massimo’s na clawed its way into my thoughts again, and my stomach tightened. That motherfucker.
My mother had ntioned a New York gang. I knew his fingerprints were all over it. He wasn’t just testing anymore. He was trying to dismantle everything. Piece by piece.
And now this Alejandro... was he part of it? A pawn Massimo had slipped into my house while I was distracted? Or was it worse had my own mother invited the enemy into our family with open arms? Suspicion filled my veins as well as paranoia. Everything and everyone made anxious these days.
I raked a hand through my hair, gripping the strands until it hurt.
I couldn’t afford to think like a son anymore. I had to think like a Don.
"We’re in love," my mother’s voice still echoed in my thoughts. Never in my life had I ever been so blindsided. I would never have seen this coming in a million years.
I couldn’t tell if she was just trying to ss . I wished that was the case because even though my father had been dead for a really long ti, I could not fathom the thought of my mother being with anyone else.
I shifted in my seat, finally glancing at Mira. Her face was turned to the window, her expression unreadable in the dim streetlights passing by. For a second, guilt twisted in my gut. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She was just dragged into a world where every shadow was a threat.
Instinctively, I pulled her close. She was rigid for a couple of seconds before softening in my arms.
"I didn’t an to yell at you like that."
She was quiet. So I tried again.
"I’m sorry."
Mira nodded but her eye were still looking in the other direction.
I almost shook my head in disbelief. Just a few monts ago, I was a raging mafia don, ready to set turn everything upside down because my mother had suddenly introduced to her lover and now I was here pleading with my wife to forgive for transferring my aggression.
"I don’t like it when you yell Jace," she said softly.
The guilt that was a small dot in my chest grew into a gaping hole.
"I know," I planted a kiss in the middle of her hair.
"I won’t yell at you again."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
Mira intertwined her pinky finger with mine. I had to hide my amusent because she seed absolutely serious.
"And if you yell at again?"
"I’ll book you a vacation to any place of your choice."
Her grin was so wide it felt like the sun showering its rays.
"That sounds like a plan. I look forward to it." She stretched her hand forth for a handshake. But I captured her lips with mine instead savoring the taste of the raspberry juice from lunch on her tongue.
Things may not have been the smoothest between Mira and I... but she was mine. And if Massimo thought he could use my mother, my wife, or anyone else as leverage against , he was about to learn the kind of man he was truly dealing with.
War was coming.
And I was ready to set the world on fire.
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