Page 36 of Broken Mafia Bride
My lungs lock. My heart slams against my ribs like it’s trying to break out. I stumble back, gripping the edge of the counter to stay upright.
“Herfather?” The words slice out of me, sharp and rising. “What do you mean, her father?”
My thoughts spin.Raffaele?Has he found us? Or someone else? Someone worse? One of the men who took me before? One of the ghosts I’ve spent years trying to outrun?
“How could you let her go?” My voice trembles, fury barely holding back the scream. “You’re supposed to keep her here until a registered guardian signs her out!”
“She seemed fine!” the woman stammers. “She smiled—she held his hand—I didn’t think?—”
“You didn’tthink?” The words come out in a hiss, low and dangerous. My hands are shaking now, barely able to grip my phone. Panic is devouring me whole.
Oh god. Noemi.
I lash out and grab her by the collar. “I don’t care if she was smiling and whistling a merry tune. If anything fucking happens to my daughter, I’ll?—”
“Mama,” a small voice says, cutting me off.
I still and glance over my shoulder. Noemi is standing there, wearing a face-splitting smile. She’s holding an ice cream cone in one hand and the other is in a man’s hand. I unclench my hand from the woman’s collar, finger by finger, feeling blood fill my limbs again.
“Hey, baby,” I croak, trying not to break down and sob.
She crosses over to me, arms wide open, and I go down on my knees and wrap her small body into a hug. “Uncle Marco’s back and he bought me ice cream, and he said he’s going to take me to the dog shelter tomorrow, and he’s going to get me purple rain boots so I don’t ruin my sneakers, and?—”
“Slow down,” Marco laughs, stepping forward. “Hey, Ariel.”
“Y-you didn’t tell me you were coming around.”
“Surprise,” he deadpans, and I choke out a laugh. I haven’t seen Marco in the two years since he went back to Italy, and even though we talk over the phone and do a lot of video calls, I have to admit that seeing him in the flesh is far different from seeing him on a screen.
I rise to my feet and fall into his arms, tears burning the back of my eyes. I’ve been doing pretty well on my own since he left, but I must admit that I’ve missed him. I inhale the familiar scent of that laundry detergent he likes and the cologne he uses.
When I pull away, I notice for the first time that he’s put on more muscle, and he’s let his beard grow out. It’s not just my imagination that he’s gotten more attractive. I can even see some of the other moms stealing glances at him.
“You have fans,” I tease him. “I think that lady over there in yellow is going to leave a pool of saliva behind if she doesn’t shut her jaw soon.”
“What does that mean?” my daughter asks, eyebrows pulled together.
“Yeah, Ariel,” he grins. “What does that mean?”
“Shut up,” I laugh. “I can’t believe you’re back. You didn’t tell me you were coming back. For a second, I thought…”
“Noemi is fine,” he assures me softly. “I took a two-week leave and decided to come spend it with my two favorite people.”
“I’m your favorite person,” my daughter says excitedly, grabbing his hand. “Let’s go see Doctor Si’s babies.”
“I missed you,” I tell Marco quietly as we walk out of the school building.
A soft look enters his eyes as he looks over at me. With a sigh, he grabs my other hand, putting himself between Noemi and me. She rattles on about how she got a gold star on her homework, and for a short amount of time, it feels perfect, like we’re a family.
For that short amount of time, I think it’s possible; I think we can make it work.
But then Noemi turns her blue eyes up at me—the exact shade of Raffaele’s, sharp and searching—and my breath catches.
Just like that, the illusion shatters.
No matter how much I want this—Marco, Noemi, a quiet life wrapped in laughter and routine—I can’t pretend. Not when every time I look at my daughter, I see the man I ran from… the man I still dream about.
Whatever this moment feels like, it’s a beautiful illusion. The three of us were never meant to be a family.
