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Chapter Six
Huling Na-update:
2025-03-23 16:51:54Lila.
I woke up to the unfamiliar bedroom walls, I was still in Lucas childhood home, the events of the previous night started coming back one by one, and could instantly feel my face turning pink from the humiliation he had put me through.
A big part of me wished all this was a bad dream, but the more I registered the surrounding the more real it got. I almost had sex with Luca last night and when he found out I was a virgin he humiliated me.
I slowly got out of bed, putting on my robe, l needed to get ready and get out of here as soon as I possibly could.
I was about to get in the shower, when I heard a gentle knock on the door.
"Come in" I yelled from the bathroom, and I heard the door open slowly.
Luca never did anything slowly, so I definitely knew it was not him.
"Excuse me miss." I got out of the bathroom, and it was Maria, the house keeper.
"Good morning Maria, you can just call me Lila please." I said with a smile,
"I am supposed to get you to come down for breakfast." she said casually, my heart instantly skipped a beat.
"Is Luca already there?"
"No, he left yesterday, his father sent me."
My heart sank, I didn't know why but a big part of me wanted him to be still here. But if he left I knew exactly where he went, right into Vanessa's arms.
That thought alone made me flinch with anger, why did I even care? This was not areal relationship, nothing about this was real, I was just a pawn In a game playing my part.
But why did it feel like I was selling my soul in the process?
"Thanks Maria, I will be down in a few minutes." I said trying to keep a straight face.
She just smiled and left the room.
I sat back down on the bed and picked up my phone, there was no missed call from him not even a text.
I slowly put on some pajamas and went down for breakfast.
Richard, Luca's dad was already sitting in the dining room table.
"Good morning sir." I said with a forced smile as I joined him.
He looked up at me for what seemed like eternity, his face indifferent, he did not seems so happy to see me.
"Where is that good for nothing son of mine?" he asked looking around like he was expecting him to make an appearance.
"He is not here sir, he left." I said sitting down avoiding his eye contact.
"Where did he go?"
"I don't really know sir, he didn't say." i amswered genuinely.
"You are his fiancée, soon to be wife."
"Yes sir, I am.."
"And yet you have no idea where your soon to be huaband is?"
"He doesn't tell me everything sir."
"He is with that married woman, isn't he?" he asked with a straight face.
"I really don't know sir." I said feeling uncomfortable with the whole conversation
He laughed sarcastically and went back to eating his food like it was nothing.
We ate in total silence, the only visible noises from the cutlery.
"How much did he pay you?" Richard finally said, catching me off guard, I almost choked on my food when he suddenly asked that, a part of me. Had wished that he had finished grilling me.
"Excuse me sir." i asked, acting oblivious to what he was asking.
"How much did he pay you to act like his fiancee, because I can double that." he said, "And Lila, don't play dumb with me, how much?"
"I don't know what you are talking about sir." I said, my hands sweating now, if Luca knew I was having this conversation with his father, things could get ugly for me.
"Don't do that." he said, his eyes on me now, he looked furious.
"You should maybe talk to your son sir, I don't want to get in trouble with him and he will not be too happy with me for talking to you about this. ."
"I am talking to you about your relationship, you are in love with him right, I mean you are marrying him."
"I really don't want to get in the middle of this...please sir " I begged him.
"You came into my house, I welcomed you with open arms, you are my food, slept in my bed, the least you can do is be honest with me." he said angrily, "How much did he pay you to pretend to be his fiancee."
"He didn't pay me I promise," I blurted out. "he just paid for my mother's hospital bills, my mother she is sick, cancer. I had no other option I swear."
"I am not condemning you Lila," he started, his tone softer now. "I just want the truth that's all."
"My mother's bills was about one hundred thousand dollars including the chemo she will undergo, he paid for it and all I had to do was act like his madly in love fiancee. That's all."
"Which hospital is she in? Your mother I mean."
"St Mary's"
He did not say another word instead he just got up and left leaving me there confused and terrified at the same time.
He was about to open the door when he turned back and looked at me our eyes locked.
"You are too good for that good for nothing son of mine Lila," he then left without saying anything else.
What did he mean I was too good?
As soon as he was gone, I got up and headed back upstairs, this time I decided to call Luca and let him know his father knew the truth about our fake relationship. But his phone went straight to voice mail.
I had to get out of this house, I needed to go back to the hospital and see my mom.
Kaugnay na kabanata
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Seven
Lila. The drive back to the hospital was quick, but my mind was pre occupied by last night's events and todays. I thought we had shared a moment with Luca. But he had bolted, No note, no nothing and his phone was going straight to voice mail. I stepped into the hospital lobby, the sterile smell of antiseptic hanging heavy in the air, I hated hospitals because of this very smell. I remember when I came to see my dad over a decade ago, this very smell still lingered in my brain. It felt like I had gone back to tha exact time ten years ago. The memories were still fresh, it almost like it just happened. The doctor had said my father had no fighting chance, every organ in his body was failing. But were still hopeful. I remember sitting on one of the benches outside my dad's room, waiting for him to get out of surgery, we were hopeful, we prayed, we really prayed, but then the doctor came and I remember I almost knew instantly just by how he was talking to my mother. I could not go th
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-23MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Eight
LilaSo many things were running through my mind, Luca had transferred my mom to one of the most expensive cancer treatment facilities in New York. Why would he do that? I asked myself still trying to call him, his phone was going straight to voice mail. A random number that knew about my mother was texting me, none of this was making any sense to me at allMy heels clicked sharply against the concrete as I walked through the dimly lit parking lot, the chill of the evening air biting at my skin. All kinds of thoughts running through my mind, I was so confused. As I approached my car, a shadow shifted at the far end of the parking lot where my car was parked. The figure moved closer, revealing a man in a worn leather jacket, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.Lila’s stomach turned with fear, as I looked around, there was no one else, and I knew even if I tried to scream it would be pointless. No one would hear me from down here. I didn’t recognize him, but the way he stood there,
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-23MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Nine.
Lila The ride to the new hospital where my mom had been transferred to was only a few minutes away from where I was. I could tell it was fancy before I even got inside, It screamed rich. But everything about this whole thing just felt fishy. Luca was still unreachable yet he had been able to have my mom moved to another hospital in a span of a few hours. "Hey, I am here to see..." I was immediately cut short."We have been expecting you miss Lila, I will show you to your mom's room." The nurse said smiling, everything here was much nicer."How do you know who I am?" I asked curious."You are Luca's fiancee, ofcourse we know who you are." she said smiling as she suggested I follow her."Is he here?" I asked casually, hoping the answer would be yes."Who?""Luca, is he still here?" she looked at me confused now,"What are you talking about? Luca as not stepped foot here yet.""I am so confused, then who had my mother admitted here?""oooh, that'll.." she was cut short by a depeer vo
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-24MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Ten
Luca. She had been blowing me up all day and it was starting to irritate me. I thought she understood what this was, yes, yesterday I had crossed a line, we both had but it was a mistake. I had no intention of getting involved with Lila romantically, she was not even my type. I checked my phone and I saw that she had texted me to meet her at a club where she used to work. It was where I had seen her for the very first time there. I was about to put my phone down when I saw an incoming call from my dad.He never called me ever which is why this was so weird. I let it still go to voicemail. "I have to go meet up with Lila, she had been blowing me up all morning, my dad too, something seems off." I said to Vanessa who was still in bed."I don't like that girl Luca, does she understand what this is because she is acting like you are in a real relationship."I could tell Vanessa was clearly pissed off just by the way she was talking, her voice tone seemed cold. I sat back on the bed,
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-25MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Eleven
Richard. It had been over ten years since I last saw Christine. But i never imagined the next time I would see her, that it would be in this state. But even sick, she still looked as beautiful as the last time I Saw her. I watched her sleep, my fingers trailing over her soft cheeks. She seemed so peaceful.She slowly opened her eyes, "Hey," I said caressing her hand slowly and softly, "I did not mean to wake you up, I'm sorry." "It's okay, where is she?" Christine asked looking around the room."She went out for a cup of coffee. Promised her I will stay with you until she came back.""oooh."I sat there in silence watching her, "I am so sorry this is happening to you Christine.""Life right?" she said jokingly, but I could see the pain in her eyes.We sat in total silence for a while. "You know they can't get married Richard, you can't let them marry each other." she finally said."I don't think that is up to us Christine, they are adults and if they love each other we can't stan
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-25MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Twelve
Luca. "What can't Lila know?" I asked confused. "Dad, what are you doing here? Do you know Lila's mom?""You are engaged to her daughter, I thought it would be a good gesture for all of us to get acquainted since we are going to be family anyway.""Woow, that's nice of you dad," I said patting his back, "Lila told me you are the one that had her transfered here too, thank you.""it's the least I can do, she deserves the best."Something was definitely going on and I could just sense it, but I was not mad at it either, my father was showing interest in something other than himself for the first time. "So what should Lila not know? I heard you say Lila should never find out.""It's nothing, I just don't want her to live her life worrying about me." her mother said and just like Lila, she was a terrible liar too."Well, I'm glad the whole family is here, so we can tell them our news." Lila said from the door, she had a box of cup cakes in her hand."What news?" my father asked, his ton
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-25MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Thirteen
Luca. I had just found out I needed a new kidney. I sat on the chair looking outside, taking in the view. My father, Richard, stood at the window, staring out at the parking lot below. His face was pale, but his eyes were distant, lost in thought. The kidney test results had come in just moments ago. And I knew instantly something was wrong. To be fair I knew something was wrong when he was taking the test, he did not seem too eager to do it. After a long silence, my father still holding the results in his hands, he finally spoke up, his voice low, almost like he was unsure of what he was about to say. "Your test came back, Luca… I… I wasn’t a match." He paused, turning away from the window and facing me now, no indifference in his face. "But that’s not the worst part." he continued and all kinds of things were running through my mind. It was natural for family members not to match so I really had no idea why he seemed so sad we weren't a match. We had enough money in the world t
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-25MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Fourteen
Luca. It had been a few minutes since my dad dropped the big bombshell news on my lap and somehow it still felt like a bad dream, and a big part of me wished I would just wake up and all of it would be gone. I admit I had my own differencea with Richard, but so did every father and son. But I loved the man, I loved being his son, and now I did not know who I was anymore or who I was supposed to be. I couldn't even be mad because the person I really wanted to be mad at was my mother and I had no clue where she was. "Hey, how are you feeling?" Lila said from the door, she had a bunch of flowers with her. "Since you are going to be staying here for a while I brought this to brighten up your room." she said smiling as she put the flowers in a vase. "Thank you, that's thoughtful of you." i said slowly, trying to sound normal even though I was dying inside. "Hey, what's wrong? Something is wrong" she said sitting on the foot of my bed. "I am okay." i lied, did not want to burden he
Huling Na-update : 2025-03-25
Pinakabagong kabanata
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty Five
Lila"What does he mean by this Jenny? What did you say to him? Where did he go?" My legs nearly give out. I stagger to the couch, the letter fluttering in my trembling hands. The paper is warm from my grip, but his words cut through me like ice.Gone where, Luca? None of this was making an sense, I had only stepped out for a few minutes, waht could she have possibly said to him. I read faster, eyes blurring from more than just the tears building behind them. As if trying to find an hidden message behind the message. But there was no hidden message, it was just as plain as it read. I was about to get up, when I saw another note, a little hidden like he didn't want someone to find it. He had placed it below the fruit bowl, neatly folded. I picked the note, careful not to seem suspicious to Jenny who seemed unfazed by any of this. 'Lila, I couldn’t stay. I know you’ll hate me for this, and I deserve that. But after hearing her, hearing what she said, it wasn’t enough. There is mo
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty Four
Lila. We all sit down on the floor, our legs crossed facing each other, the letter in his hand. I nudge him to go ahead and open it. It's now or never. Luca’s fingers tremble as he breaks the seal on the letter. I watch his knuckles, turn white against the yellowed paper, and my heart is a fist punching inside my ribs.He doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t look at me. Just starts reading.I feel useless. Like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff watching someone I love tumble off it in slow motion and there’s nothing I can do to catch him. Nothing I can say to soften the crash.The silence is unbearable. I move closer to him. “Luca?” I say softly, His eyes scan line after line, but it’s like the words are dragging him under. His jaw is clenched so tight I swear I can hear the tension grinding in his teeth. When he finally speaks, it’s a whisper, brittle and sharp like glass underfoot.“She says she left because of him. My dad. She says... she wanted to come back. But he threatened her.”
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty Three
Luca.I wasn’t even sure how I got home. The sidewalk bent and curved like a snake, and the streetlights flared and flickered like firecrackers, and I was just stumbling through it all like I didn’t belong in the world anymore. My keys missed the lock three times before the door gave way under my weight. The house was too quiet. Like it knew something I didn’t.My head buzzed like a goddamn beehive. My stomach was a pit. Everything in me was too full, too much whiskey, too many thoughts, too many years of things I never said out loud.I didn’t mean to go to her room.I didn’t even think. My feet just carried me there. Like they remembered something I had forgotten.Lila’s door was open. That soft glow of her bedside lamp leaked into the hallway, golden and warm. She was curled up on her bed, legs folded, book in hand, glasses perched low on her nose like they always were when she got serious about something. Her eyes flicked up when I leaned against the doorframe like I was trying to
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty Two
Richard. The air suddenly becomes cold and I can tell something is definitely wrong by how Jenny is acting and so quiet. I shut the door behind the detectives and follow them into the living room like I’m in a dream. Jenny’s already sitting on the edge of the couch, hands in her lap, eyes locked on the floor like a kid caught shoplifting.“What’s going on?” I ask as I sit across from Jenny and the two detectives. The taller one, introduces himself as, Detective Harlan before he glances at his partner, then back at me.“We are looking into a cold case,” he says. “A missing person from 1999. You knew a man named Marcus Wynn?”The name hits like a slap. He was the reason me and Jenny fought so much in our marriage. "Yeah. I knew Marcus." He was Jenny’s friend. Or so she said. A musician. Used to crash on our couch sometimes in the months before she left. The kind of guy who always had a half smile and a cigarette behind his ear. After she disappeared, so did he.“Why are you asking
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty Two
Richard. I shut the door behind the detectives and follow them into the living room like I’m in a dream. Jenny’s already sitting on the edge of the couch, hands in her lap, eyes locked on the floor like a kid caught shoplifting.“What’s going on?” I ask.The taller one, Detective Harlan glances at his partner, then back at me.“We’re looking into a cold case,” he says. “A missing person from 1999. You knew a man named Marcus Wynn?”The name hits like a slap.Yeah. I knew Marcus.He was Jenny’s friend. Or so she said. A musician. Used to crash on our couch sometimes in the months before she left. The kind of guy who always had a half smile and a cigarette behind his ear. After she disappeared, so did he.“Why are you asking about him now?” I say carefully.“He never resurfaced,” Harlan says. “No employment, no ID activity, nothing. It’s like he vanished off the face of the earth.”“And what does that have to do with Jenny?” My voice is sharp now. Protective. Angry even Harlan looks
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty One
Richard. Every scenario that I come up with leads me to just doing the right thing no matter how bad I didn't want to. I know if I don't Luca about his mother and she dies without making things right with him, he will never forgive me if he found out she tried to reach out and I didn't tell him. It’s Sunday afternoon when I finally decide to do it. Two days since Jenny left again. Two days staring at the folded letter like it’s a bomb waiting to go off. Because it is. Luca texts me that he’s stopping by to help with the gutters, like I’m too old to hold a damn ladder. I tell him sure, come by. Bring that wrench you stole from my garage five years ago. He laughs in a text. Says he might.I make coffee. Black. Strong. The kind that punches you awake. I sit at the kitchen table and place the letter dead center between us.It’s cloudy outside. A fitting day for the news I was about to drop in his laps. I appreciated the fact that his wife Lila had not mentioned anything to him yet, h
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Sixty
Richard. It’s been four days.Four long, dragging, claustrophobic days since Jenny stood in my living room and detonated twenty five years of silence with three words: I have cancer and I am dying. And now every time I pass the mirror in the hallway, I catch my own reflection and flinch, because I don’t recognize the man looking back. He’s waiting. Holding his breath. Listening for a knock that may never come.I wanted to tell Luca about his mother, that she was back and she was dying. Anothet part of me hates her and Saw this is her karma, she did not deserve to see the amazing man Luca had turned out to become. She didn't deserve to say goodbye to him. But why was I feeling so much guilt over it. Luca came by last night, as he does every Thursday. Same routine. He brings dinner some overpriced vegan thing Lila cooks and we sit in awkward silence, pretending we’re just two men, not a father and son still sutured together by old wounds.He doesn’t know she was here.I don’t tell h
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Fifty Nine
Richard. I still remember the last time I saw her, I replayed it so many times in my head that at some point it just stuck. I used to make up scenarios in my head about what would happen if I ever saw her again, but over the years I gave up.I didn't think she would ever come back, I did not even know if she was still alive. I had hired some of the best private investigators, but none was ever successful in finding her. As soon as she left, her trail went cold. It was like looking for a ghost, it was like she never existed at all. So I let it go and over the years accepted that I might never see her again or find out what happened to her. Clearly I was wrong, because she was back in the flesh and she still looked the same, but age had catched up. "Richard." she said, My name. That voice. I hadn’t heard it in twenty five years, and still, it hit like a freight train. I didn’t move right away. Thought maybe it was a ghost, a trick of the old walls. "Jenny." I managed to say, T
MARRIED TO THE MAFIA Chapter Fifty Eight
Lila. I could not believe this was actually happening to me. I took another test and the results were the same. I was pregnant. I stared at the stick. Still. Two pink lines. Still.It had been five minutes. Ten maybe. Or an hour? I couldn’t tell anymore. My hands were cold and shaking . My heartbeat pounded in my ears like a bass drum in an empty hall. I tried to breathe. In. Out. Slow. Steady.Pregnant.The word looped in my brain like a song I hated but couldn’t stop humming. I sat on the edge of the bathtub, knees pressed to my chest, the test trembling in my fingers. A thousand thoughts crashed together in my head like a demolition site how? Well, obviously how. But... now what? What the hell was I supposed to do now?We hadn't even had a real conversation with Luca for over a week now, and I was supposed to just casually tell him that now I was pregnant. I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted metal. I’d rehearsed it a dozen ways in my head soft, careful, maybe over dinner, o
