All Chapters of Onenight with the Mafia: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

Chapter TwelveTwo years had passed since Maxine became a mother, and though time had marched forward, it hadn't made things easier. If anything, it had layered new challenges on top of the old ones. Noah was now a toddler—lively, curious, and utterly exhausting. He ran through rooms like a whirlwind, leaving chaos in his wake and joy in her heart. But love didn’t pay bills, and joy didn’t make ends meet.Maxine worked tirelessly, stringing together part-time jobs while her parents helped watch Noah. She waited tables at a cafe three days a week, assisted in the university’s art lab twice a week, and picked up freelance sketch commissions late into the night. Her dreams of becoming an architect hadn’t faded, but they had been forced to coexist with a reality that left little room for luxury.Her parents had become her safety net. Her mother, always nurturing, handled daycare duty when Maxine’s shifts overlapped. Her father—now more involved than she could’ve hoped for—took to feeding N

Balancing the life of a student, intern, and mother was like juggling knives on a tightrope—and Maxine Green was always just one misstep away from everything crashing down.Her days began before the sun had even stretched across the sky. At 5:30 a.m., she was up, brushing her teeth while packing Noah’s snacks, ironing her clothes in the dim light of the kitchen, and gulping down weak coffee while bouncing a half-awake toddler on her hip. Noah, now three and filled with a thousand questions, had his own rhythm—a rhythm that didn’t always match hers.“Do you have to go, Mama?” he would ask with wide, sleepy eyes as she buttoned up her coat.Her heart would squeeze every time.“Just for a little while, baby. I’ll be back before you know it.”She would drop him off with her mother, offer a rushed kiss on the cheek, and sprint toward the bus stop with her bag over one shoulder and her dreams packed inside it like precious cargo.Frank Wright’s firm was no place for weakness. The atmosphere