For some reason which was later revealed to be infatuation, Maya abhorred the sight of Alessandro and Gianna together. The husband always tried to woo Gianna, while the wife started trying to seduce Alessandro, who everyone saw as her father.I was waiting for Alessandro to make his way downstairs. I’d been waiting at the dinner table for an hour now and there was no sign of him.I’d walked in on Maya running her hands over Alessandro’s body in a seductive manner. It wasn't until I cleared my throat that they realized there was someone else in the room. I didn’t know what to make of it and I’d been on my way to tell Alessandro that I couldn’t stay under the same roof with Mike anymore. I’d taken several days of harassment from him and it was becoming unbearable and I couldn’t do it any longer. Despite my warnings and harsh words, Mike didn’t relent in trying to win me back much to my chagrin. Every time I tried to talk to Maya about her husband’s excesses, she wouldn’t give me the
The air was hot and damp, filled with dust and noise. I quickly crossed the express road leaving the honking from the cars littered on the expressway behind. There was a rapid traffic flow of cars on the expressway and people walking fast trying to cross before the traffic eased up. There was constant honking and swerving around the sluggish drivers, the walking people shouted and dodged the car before they got hit. This was Los Angeles at its finest.I averted my gaze back to the sight in front of me and walked briskly for about ten minutes before coming to a stop. Sometimes a car would slow down and a boy would emerge from the shadows towards the driver's window. A short conversation would ensure that money and goods would change hands within the blink of an eye. Then the boy would retreat back into the shadows and wait for the next car to pull up. I waited and watched the same procedure happen over and over again, my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness and I could see the nu
I sat in the car sheathed in the dark as I watched them through my binoculars, he was the same guy that drove the Saints, if he was here then my assumptions were right. I lifted the binoculars again as I watched the man in a black hoodie and jean stroll to and fro across the entire length of the house. I had a clear view of the front door. The man walked up the stairs to the door. His eyes were glued to the phone in his hand. A white cable led to ear buds which were hiding in the hoodie. The man paused at the door as he knocked twice before the door was flung ajar, giving me a little glimpse of the grainy view of the interior decor. The security was loose. I would bet the security cameras weren't working. I threw down my binoculars and opened the dashboard and pulled out the Steyr GB. Alessandro didn’t like me doing this but I forced him to give me his word and he did. Although he had assisted by making everything easier for me by providing the necessary assistance and support I w
I flung the case straight at Donald, making sure his forehead took the most damage before retrieving my gun beneath my coat and taking out the rest with a single shot straight to the heart. I knew I was lucky these men were amateurs. Maybe luck was on my side today.I could hear sobbing coming from behind as I forced the door open. My heart ripped into shreds as I saw them caked in the dirt with their hands bound and their mouths gagged, fear evident in their eyes.I rushed towards them untangling the ropes that held them.Antonio had lied to me. My goods weren’t here. "I need you all to get the hell out of here and don’t tell anyone what you saw here today. Do you understand me?” I said, my voice menacing. The memories of the past came flooding in, I could only hope I kept my promise this time. I turned the faucet in the bathroom on and lifted the shiny knob, the shower spraying water down on them before leaving them to change their clothes. I rummaged through the drawers placed i
True to his words, Alessandro took over the entire operation and spearheaded the subtle attacks on my father’s mafia to weaken his hold over it, making him prone to attacks and coups which I would be leading when the time was right. Alessandro called for a meeting to plan the order of attacks on my father’s mafia. The limo took the right corner as it came up on Paparazzi Street. My heart beat out a dull rhythm as I caught sight of the high-rise building where I would be walking in a matter of minutes. I told Alessandro that I would be safe going in on my own but he had insisted on making sure nothing went wrong. In truth, I knew he didn't trust me any longer after the ordeal with Antonio and I had to regain his trust, he needed to know I wasn’t going to spiral out of control again, and to do that, I had to make a grand entrance and walk through the front door of the company with the security detail he arranged for me.It was the mafia’s policy not to let people without appointments
Alessandro’s heist had been successful. I didn’t know how he managed it and he wouldn’t tell me either but he had nearly every single person working on the docks in his pockets. His men had barely done anything other than take the opium and engage in a small scuffle that lasted for about two minutes before my father’s men were overpowered and sent running away with their tails between their legs. I knew Alessandro wielded influence but it was only now that I was beginning to understand how powerful he was. “Are you sure my father wouldn’t know you’re behind this latest attack on his shipment?” I asked. We were seated in the dining room a few hours after returning from the docks. It was pretty late but we were both famished and the cook had been kind enough to cook something for us. “Why? Did you notice something out of the ordinary?” Alessandro asked as he put a slice of pizza in his mouth. “They wore your mafia colors, Alessandro, and you let the men escape. They’re going to te
Alessandro’s POVMaking promises wasn’t my thing and I made it a habit not to let myself overindulge when it comes to situations like these but when I saw the dejected look on Gianna’s face, I couldn’t help myself but promise to always be there for her. I knew what it was like trying to make a name for yourself in a world like ours and I’d passed through great difficulties before I became who I was today so it was easy for me to resonate with how she felt. But I also knew that whatever I faced would be little compared to the tribulations that would come her way if she got her heart's desire. Never has it happened that a woman led a mafia and I was pretty certain that if it were up to a voting process, Gianna would still lose an election to her airhead of a brother despite everything she’s done for the mafia. Traditions were hard to break in the mafia and it took years, decades even, in some cases before certain laws were revisited and reversed. I could count on one finger the numbe
t didn’t take long for the Los Angeles police department to pin the fight that happened at the docks to my father after obtaining evidence from a hidden CCTV camera. I wondered if Alessandro knew about it beforehand but he didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask. I half-expected the police to show up on our doorsteps for questioning but they never did and my best guess was that Alessandro had taken care of the problem like he always did. The police got a search warrant for the house and a few of my father’s establishments but as I’d already known, they found nothing to back up their claims of my father being a mafia lord much to their disappointment. But if there was one thing everyone knew, it was that they weren’t going to go away. They’d always be in the shadows—waiting for one slip-up before swooping in to make their arrest. My father was a very formidable man, one of the most shrewd businessmen I’d ever seen but there was only so much one man could do. His choice of making Migu
Alessandro's POVIt's been a week since Gianna left and we've searched virtually everywhere she's ever been to and reached out to nearly everyone she's connected to here in the United States but we haven't managed to find her just yet. My best guess was that she had left the country or worse. Yoda had pleaded with me to refrain from any negative thoughts but I knew better than to leave any angle exposed anymore. I had to prepare myself for the worst-case scenario and that was it.The board meetings that my half-brother had incited ended with me putting a gun inside his mouth and threatening to kill him and every member of his family if he ever dared to use this situation to make his move for my crown ever again. He'd been the number one name on my suspect list but after a thorough investigation, he was found clean and I moved on to the next target–Lydia. She'd somehow gotten news that I was about to hold her hostage and she managed to leave the house amidst the commotion. It wasn'
Alessandro's POV"What the hell did you just say to me?" I yelled, pushing myself off the chair as it clattered to the ground noisily. "I–I, She's, I–" The guard stammered, making me more irate as I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall."I'll give you one more chance to talk and if you don't, I'll kill you," I said in a menacing tone before releasing my hold on his neck and watching him crumple to the floor, coughing."Where's Gianna, my wife?" I asked again."She's missing." It felt as if my whole world had come crashing down on me. I was so close, so close to actualizing my dream so why did this have to happen at this point? "We've searched the grounds and we've managed to track the car she escaped into the airport but there's no CCTV footage of her ever getting into the airport and her name isn't on any flight list. We've run multiple checks into possible aliases she might used, but we've come up with nothing. Her phone was found inside the car and her mess
My eyes flung open as I let out a huge sigh of relief as I tried to normalize my haggard breathing. It had been all a dream, a very bad dream that I had just woken up from. I peered around the room, trying to figure out where I was and at the same time I was struggling to see with all the bright lights making their way into my eyes. Segments of the dreams flashed before my eyes, accelerating my heartbeat for a few seconds before I calmed down. It was only a dream, none of it was real. I wasn’t going to die. I tried to get rid of the bad dream that I had just woken up from and I was trying to figure out where I was. I was lying on a bed in a white room, the environment seemed oddly calm and peaceful enough. I lifted my hands towards my eyes to see that I had a cannula with a drip stuck in my left hand. I was beginning to piece everything together from my state, the room, and other equipment that was coming into my line of sight. I couldn’t do this anymore. Waking up every morning a
Alessandro has been trying to talk to me ever since I walked in on the moment he was having with his secretary. He’s called me dramatic and deemed my actions as a result of my pregnancy hormones but I knew I wasn’t driven by emotions rather, but by the truth. I knew what I saw when I walked into his office and I knew Alessandro as well—to some extent and that included knowing he hated being touched inappropriately and that meant the secretary wouldn’t have flung herself at him if it hadn’t happened before. It was pretty obvious that they had a relationship. I didn’t know what nature and I couldn’t bring myself to ask him but it was far from formal. Something had happened between them before or during our marriage. “You’ve refused to speak to me ever since you got back from Alessandro’s office, Gianna. I’m worried and I don’t like the look on your face.” Lydia had incessantly bugged me about telling her what happened but I didn’t know how to express the shame I felt. I feel so stup
It was almost as if that particularly good week didn't exist because everything went downhill after that. I had believed that my marriage was going to experience a turnaround and everything would be back to the way it once was before I got pregnant but it was all in my head. I exactly pinpoint what went wrong because there were so many things happening at the same time and I didn't have any control over any part of it. It all started when I had a brief talk with Lydia–telling her that my marriage was back on track my insecurities seemed to have vanished away and I was planning on doing something for Alessandro that would serve as a form of apology for even thinking that he would cheat on me with his secretaries. "I never pegged you as a lover girl, Gianna." Lydia laughed as she sipped wine from the glass cup in her head. "Well, I've always been one. Besides, I don't think I've done a lot of things for Alessandro for a while now. He's always turning down my offers, claiming he ha
A week had passed since my late-night discussion with Luciana and I hadn’t stopped thinking about her last words before she left. Gianna isn’t Mara, she never will be.If I wanted her to stay, I had to give her a good reason that wouldn’t make her want to leave if the chance ever arose. I had to make her feel loved and make her see that I was in love with her as well, hoping that someday she would fall in love with me and become mine when we were certain that this was what we both wanted. Lydia had been feeding me some bits of information and I didn’t know what to make of it. She was a close friend and she’d always been around for the past two decades so I was pretty sure that she wouldn’t want to lie to me but hearing what she was saying about Gianna was a lot for me to take in.I felt bad after brushing off her offer of having dinner earlier so I had to make it up to her by coming home earlier than I’ve done for the past few weeks but I was reluctant to talk to her yet.“I’ve been
Alessandro’s POVI was starting to catch feelings for Gianna despite our initial agreement and I didn’t know what to make of it. I didn’t want it to happen but it seemed I could do nothing about it despite how hard I tried to keep a leash on my feelings, it kept on gnawing at me, forcing me to see her in a different light. It’s been nearly a year since I stumbled upon her in the club and within that period, she had grown into her own woman. Maturing beyond her years and becoming a favorite in the pack. Her pregnancy was starting to show even more and it added to her beauty if that was even possible or maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me, trying to force me to acknowledge how I truly felt. She rarely spoke about her former home anymore but I knew she hadn’t forgotten. The baby was the only thing on her mind right now and when she’d given birth, she’d focus on taking control of the mafia.Oftentimes when we’ve spent the evenings taking a stroll through the woods, I’ve come
Lydia’s POVIt had taken me several months to come up with this plan and I wasn’t going to fail. Not now, not ever. Everything I’ve ever worked for depended on the success of this plan and I was willing to risk everything and anything to ensure that it succeeded. Not everything I told Gianna had been a lie. The truth was that we were a lot more similar than I would’ve loved to admit but that was the truth. I had a father who wanted to hand over everything we built to my brother who was unfit for the role despite my protests, he wasn’t going to change his mind and I didn’t have it in me to stay calm and watch everything be taken away from me. What neither Alessandro nor Gianna knew was that I’d left home for the past three years and I’d been bouncing around countries, trying to build a name for myself before going back to Russia to claim my birthright. During my visits to the United States with my family when I was a teenager, I fell in love with Alessandro, who was a decade older
Having Lydia around wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and for the first few weeks, she had carried herself accordingly. A small part of me had believed she was here to take Alessandro from me and despite the conversations we’ve had in the past, I wasn’t quite convinced until I saw it for myself. We’d grown closer as the days went by, she often joined Delight, Andra, and me in the gardens now and then as we shared a bottle of wine and traded jokes about our love lives.My relationship with Alessandro was deteriorating rapidly as we had both preferred to act delusional about the incoming split rather than discuss it like civilized adults. He would often give me the excuse that he had a lot to do at the office and between that and combining controlling Syrius’ investments, he never had any time for me. Every morning before I woke, he’d be gone and his side of the bed would be cold.I couldn’t talk to Yoda about this and I couldn’t tell the girls either, so I kept it within myself,