Page 98 of Mafia Mistress

Chapter Twenty-Four

Francesca

My bedroom lookedthe same but I felt completely different. Instead of the usual dread I experienced while inside these walls, I was relaxed. There were little touches of me everywhere, from the lipstick on the side table to the bra I’d flung onto a chair. It was familiar, and I realized I didn’t hate being here any longer.

Was that because of Fausto and Rome? Had I let his charm twist my mind into accepting this?

Or was I as dark inside as he believed?

Was he also experiencing this insane connection between us, the burning need for each other that felt too big, too important to be only lust?

I’d spent my life searching for something more, a way to find myself outside of my father’s orbit, as my mother had wanted. And I never felt more like myself than when I was with Fausto. It was like he was peeling away the unimportant layers and helping me learn who I was underneath. Not to mention I was discovering my gorgeous devil in a three-piece suit could be tender and sweet, as well.

Mine? Was I really thinking Fausto belonged to me?

My dick belongs to you, monella.

If that’s what he was offering, I would take it. Grinning to myself, I plugged in my phone to charge and noticed a voicemail. It was from a Toronto area code, but I didn’t recognize the number. Not many people had my new cell number. Was this one of my sisters?

I hit play.

“Frankie, this is your father. Call me right away, but wait until you are alone.” Papà had found my number? Gia or Emma must have given it to him.

Biting my lip, I called him back. He answered on the first ring. “Frankie. Are you alone?”

“Ciao, Papà. Yes, I’m alone.”

“Good.” I could hear him breathing hard, like he was angry. “I cannot believe you have dishonored this family and let him turn you into a whore. Are you so selfish as to not consider how your actions affect anyone else?”

My mouth dropped open and my stomach burned with embarrassment. Was he serious? “I am not a whore.”

“You were not pure. You gave your most precious gift, your only worth, to some stronzo here in Toronto. This boy was caught crawling out of your window.”

My only worth? Rage coiled in my throat and I had to swallow it down to speak. “I am more than just my virginity. I want to go to school—”

“You stupid girl,” he snapped. “You are worth nothing. You are disgraced, and your sisters will suffer for this. Who will marry them now?”

I hadn’t intended for this to affect Emma and Gia, but my sisters didn’t want mafia husbands either. We were all better off choosing our own husbands. “Plenty of men outside your business will marry them. Which is what they deserve—a life outside all of this. And I don’t care what I am worth to you. I never wanted to be used like a commodity, traded to some man for him to own.”

“That is exactly what happened, you foolish slut, except you’ve let him have you without marrying you. He’s made you his mistress, and everyone will soon learn of it.”

I’d never heard him speak such hurtful words, calling me stupid and a slut. I hadn’t ever thought he’d treat me with such little respect, but clearly he didn’t care about me or my happiness. Perhaps he never had. “It is a temporary thing. I am still planning to come home and go to school.” I would find a way. Somehow.

“There is no school for you, certainly not now.”

He couldn’t mean that. This was all I had talked about for years. “But you promised Mama.”

“I promised her I would send you for a semester of school. After that I planned to bring you home and find you a husband.”

A semester? What the hell?

I gripped the phone tightly, my entire body locking in horror. “How could you do that? All Mama wanted was for us to get an education before we married.”

“Your mother is dead, Frankie. I am your father and you should have done exactly what I said. Instead you disobeyed and dishonored me. Now I must cut you off from our family to try and save it.”

“Cut me off? What does that mean?”

“It means you are a stain on our family’s honor. The only way to repair it is to remove that stain. You are no longer my daughter.”

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