Page 47 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

Lilianna Genovese

Four weeks.

It had been four weeks since the failed wedding, yet it had been less than one week since we’d almost been killed. It felt like an eternity had passed since the day I made the wrong decision. If I had just allowed Matteo to take the shot and take out the Don, everything would have worked out. Maybe it was weak for me to have so much mercy and humanity within me. Maybe I did have too soft a heart.

If I could go back now, I would have allowed Matteo to do what he’d planned.

I couldn’t go back, but I could certainly move forward, and I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

I would let him kill Vlad and Aelita when we got the opportunity again.

Maybe I wouldn’t ever get to explain myself. Maybe they would never know that I was responsible for their deaths. Maybe I’d never find the bodies of my family. If I would have let Matteo take the shot when he’d had the chance, this would be over.

Instead, the Petrovs had gone so far underground that not even Marcus could find a trace of them, and that was my fault.

If I took over as Don, though… If I took that role, we’d have double the resources. Double the weapons. Double everything. If we had that much manpower, we could take the entire Russian territory and kill every single Petrov who didn’t stand down.

I knew what I needed to do, but the thought of so many people dying was something I didn’t think I could handle.

Still, what was the alternative?

Matteo strode into the room as I watched Callum playing with a firetruck on the floor. We both looked up in tandem as my thoughts were cut short. Matteo’s gaze fixed on me. “Get out of your head. We have somewhere to go this evening.”

* * *

I couldn’t remember ever dressing in a ballgown so elegant.

Matteo had somehow managed to order a dress that fit as if it were custom-made for my body. The fabric clung to my curves, loosening gently at my knees enough that I could easily walk. The dress itself brushed the floor, even with the matching three-inch heels on my feet. The silver shone in the bright light of Matteo’s bedroom, but under the evening sky, I found the glittering to be more subdued, and more beautiful.

When I’d announced that I was ready and strode into Matteo’s bedroom earlier, I hadn’t expected his reaction.

Matteo had halted, taking one step backward as he looked at me.

I had a similar reaction to him in his entirely black suit. It fit him well. The silky undershirt clung to his chest, revealing the sculpted shape of it. The tailored fit somehow managed to hide the bulk of his muscles, but as he shifted, I saw hints of them beneath the clothing. His tall, lean build was perfect for this tuxedo.

“You’re a vision,” he whispered.

He stared at me for a long moment, and I found myself looking over the dress to ensure there wasn’t something wrong with it. When I lifted my gaze again, Matteo’s eyes darkened as his eyes dipped, gaze lingering on a few choice places.

Almost as if in a trance, he strode forward and grabbed my hand. He pulled it to his lips and left a small kiss there, restraint rippling in every part of his body.

His hand hadn’t left mine since leaving his place. Either on my thigh, my hand, or the small of my back, he touched me constantly.

My stomach had wound itself into various knots, and each additional glance only added to the uncontrollable yearning he caused inside of me.

“Is there a reason you haven’t told me what we are doing?” I asked as the driver pulled into a valet spot in front of a building. From the number of expensive cars in the lot, I couldn’t begin to guess what we were doing. We’d done so many mafia-related tasks in my month here that this came as a shock. Especially when I saw a handful of uniformed officers strolling through the venue.

“This is a charity auction.”

“Charity?” I asked with a chuckle. He had to be kidding, but…he wasn’t laughing.

He nodded. “I frequent them. They have quarterly auctions, and the proceeds go to the underprivileged kids in the area.”

“The kids?”

My mind struggled to understand the reason he’d come to these things, especially with law enforcement milling around so freely. If there was one thing that my father had instilled in me, it was a pathological desire to stay away from the police. They wanted nothing more than to destroy us and our businesses.

“It benefits me in a variety of ways,” he said, pasting a smile on his lips as we strode through the door.

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