Page 67 of Broken Mafia Bride
Her eyebrows rise, and her gaze shifts over his shoulder to meet mine. I clock the panic in her eyes immediately. A part of her knows this is about to happen, and it makes my stomach churn with even more guilt.
After everything Isabella has done for me, how can I repay her like this? I can’t be the one to ruin whatever it is they’ve built over the years. At least, not like this.
“About what?” Isabella asks.
“It’s about?—”
“Our child was kidnapped,” I blurt out.
The room is suddenly plunged into silence. It only lasts a heartbeat, though. Two sets of eyes fall on me, and then their disbelief explodes out of them simultaneously.
“What?!” they bark.
20
RAFFAELE
“What do you mean,our child has been kidnapped?” I grit out, trying to process this new information.
“Noemi was kidnapped about nineteen days ago.” Tears well up in Giulia’s eyes, and she hurriedly wipes them off, sniffing.
“When were you going to tell me about this? You should have led with that.” My fingers close into fists at my sides.
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” she says softly. “You’d just stepped into Casa Bianca, and suddenly I was supposed to explain that you have a daughter—and that she’s been taken.”
“And whose fault is that?” I snort.
She jerks back like my words just slapped her across the face. While a part of me is apologetic, another small, horrible part wants to hurt her, wants to see her as broken and miserable as I have been for years.
I want to lash out, blame her, tell her that Noemi would never have been taken if she were with me. But I know that’s not fair, and regardless of everything, my feelings for Giulia are still more than whatever hurt I’ve felt.
I drag a hand over my face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have?—”
“Do you have any leads about who took her?” Isabella steps forward, brows drawn together.
I spin around to face Isabella, something clicking at the back of my mind—her last statement hadn’t held an ounce of surprise.
“You knew she was pregnant. You knew she’d been carrying my child, and you never thought to tell me.”
“I had no idea if she was alive, Raff,” Isabella points out. “What use would telling you have been? You’ve been off the deep end since you lost Giulia. The last thing I wanted was to make you live with not just one, but two losses.”
A humorless laugh escapes my mouth. “Is there anything else you’re keeping from me for the sake of protecting me from going off the deep end?”
Her mouth tightens into a thin line. Something flashes in her eyes, there and gone for barely a second. And just when I think she’s going to speak, she sighs and turns back to Giulia.
“How did this happen?”
Giulia’s face pales, her hands suddenly trembling.
“There was a woman… she came to the door asking for help, and I let her into my house.” Her voice cracks. “I let that monster in with a smile, and she took my baby.”
The fury that rushes through me is staggering. It’s a combination of the betrayal I feel at all the secrets between Giulia and me, and the fact that someone has our daughter. In the space of a day, I’ve found out that Giulia is alive, we have a daughter, and that daughter, whom I’m yet to meet, is missing.
“I can’t believe it didn’t even cross your mind to reach out to me after she was taken.” I try to keep my voice calm, but it comes out angry and hurt. “I could have been helping you to search for her this whole time. She’d have been home by now.”
“I didn’t have a choice!” She suddenly takes a step forward, eyes flashing. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted towake up one day with no memory, to have my child taken from me, and to be alone in this nightmare?”
My mouth curls up into a small, mocking smirk. “You were hardly alone. Or are we really going to act like the fisherman wasn’t there the whole time, trying to take my place?”
