Page 37 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

The thought of being forced to let another woman raise my son made me want to throw up.

I remembered my mother showing me how to put on makeup and choosing clothing that would impress the men around me.

At the time, it had seemed like a lot of fun to get to join the ranks of the adult women in my family. They had always seemed so glamorous and grown up.

Now I realized that most of them were playacting to appease their husbands. They were pretending that they were important to their men so that they might be allowed to keep their standing and their safety.

After I went into hiding, I was often angry at my beauty. If I had been ugly, I think Elio would have broken the engagement and moved on to marry someone else.

I would have been free.

I wipe a hand through the steam gathering on the mirror and turn away. I climb into the shower and let the warm water run over me in a soothing caress.

What I have to remember is that I am smart, capable, and intelligent.

Even if Elio only wants my body and doesn’t value my mind, I don’t have to allow his opinion of me to cloud my own feelings about myself.

I need to thank my lucky stars that I am still pretty enough to attract his interest.

There will be time enough for intelligence and ingenuity once I have gotten away from the Baldinis.

Chapter Fifteen

Elio

My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to see who is calling me. I smile a little when I see Luca Baldinis number on the screen.

“Luca,” I say, placing the phone on speaker so that I can continue to use both hands while I talk to him.

I step back from the canvas on the easel in front of me and look at it with my head tilted to the side. It looks like Kate already, and I have only just begun to rough out the image.

It has been a long time since I chose to paint, but I’m glad to see that my talent has not deserted me.

“She wants to see you.”

I have to admit that I appreciate how direct Luca is. He never beats around the bush.

“Fine. When?” I ask, picking up my paint brush and sweeping it over the background of the image to fill in some of the blank space with color.

“Tonight.”

I smile again and dip my brush into the jug of water on the table next to me.

“Fine,” I reply. I let Luca hang up the call since my hands are occupied with my art.

I step back again from the painting and try to decide how much color to place in Kate’s cheeks. Should I paint her the way she looks right after she’s enjoyed an orgasm, flushed and panting? Or should I paint her the way that she looks when she has gotten dressed up to go out for the night?

I decide I like freshly-fucked Kate the best and start mixing up some red paint to use to fill in her cheeks. As I swirl colors together on my palette, I realize I have missed painting more than I thought. Kate used to love my art and she encouraged me to paint anything that I wanted after I came back from training sessions with my father.

Often, the images were dark and depressing, because my heart felt like pulp in my chest and my dreams were filled with blood and violence. She had never asked what the painting meant and had simply told me that my talent was a gift and placed another clean canvas on the easel before me.

I realize now, that these actions were signs of her love for me. As a young man who was spoiled and indulged, I had believed that it was the duty of everyone to treat me in this fashion.

When my father died, I realized just how wrong that impression had been. The world did not spoil you just because you were a powerful man. People who loved you spoiled you because they loved you.

Was that what she was so angry about? Did she resent helping me to manage my demons without getting any such care in kind? Even if that was not the reason that she had run away to Marco for help, it was surely a failing that I needed to correct now.

I thought about what we should do tonight during our visit. I want her to trust me, to know that I value her for more than just her body. However, I know that I cannot show her the love that she clearly desires.

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