Page 1 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

Chapter One

Lilianna Genovese

For the first time in three years, I looked into my brother’s eyes. I’d prepared myself for the cold, unyielding eyes that my father had shown me every day throughout my entire childhood. I’d expected to find nothing of the brother who had once been my best friend.

Miraculously, though, his eyes were still warm. Young, even.

His lifelong path of becoming a Don in the Italian mafia hadn’t taken its toll as I’d expected. The light green around the irises was the same as it always had been. My best friend and brother. Silas.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him and his crooked grin until he waved at me from across the room.

I gave a small wave back as his eyes drifted to the small boy trailing beside me. Silas narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow. I looked away before I could read anything more in his expression.

He was marrying a woman I’d never met, and I had a son he didn’t know existed.

Nobody knew Callum existed. For over two years, I’d kept him out of the mob life, and I wouldn’t let it drag us back. We were here for the wedding, and then we’d fly back to Italy tomorrow afternoon. That was non-negotiable.

My eyes drifted to my father sitting in the front row, his spine as straight as an undisturbed oak tree after years of growth. Immovable. Stiff. All the things my father had been as long as I could remember. All the things I’d expected Silas to become while I was gone.

Today was going to be full of difficult interactions.

I ushered Callum into a row of seats near the back of the room, and he sat at my side. “Hair up,” he said, pointing to another guest a row in front of us.

“Yes, it’s up,” I said, scanning the room for the other familiar faces. I couldn’t keep my attention from the salt and pepper hair that had been my father’s trademark look for the past decade. He was the person I least wanted to see. If I could avoid talking to him, I would.

He wouldn’t be pleased when he saw me here.

This wedding was only happening because I’d bailed on the arranged marriage that was meant to unite two branches of organized crime. I hadn’t married the Petrov heir, whom he’d expected me to marry, and Silas was here to remedy that betrayal. He was marrying the Don’s daughter after I’d bailed on his son.

“Mommy,” Callum said, hitting my leg. “Uncle.”

I glanced back at my brother and exhaled slowly. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him until now. I hadn’t realized how important our late-night conversations and the dreams we’d shared to escape had been to me. We’d talked about running across the country with one another or going to Italy to live with our family there. He wanted out of this life as much as I did, but here he stood, ready to give up everything for the sake of our father’s approval.

Meanwhile, I’d followed our dreams of moving to Italy, and he didn’t even know it.

Disgust sat in my chest as I considered all the experiences I’d had without him, all because of our father and his desire to have an heir.

I glanced at the men standing at my brother’s side, and the disgust quickly turned into something slippery and more unpredictable. My heart sped up as I fought to control my breathing.

Matteo Costello.

I knew I’d see him here, but I hadn’t fully prepared to see my brother’s best friend standing at his side. The man I’d adored since childhood.

The man who gave me Callum.

His sleek black hair hung in curls that nearly reached his shoulders, but the top had been slicked back with gel. His dark eyes focused on the crowd, and I slouched in my seat, doing my best to blend into the background. He towered over the other men in the group, standing well over six feet tall. He always looked slim and the tuxedo he wore today draped beautifully over the lean muscles in his arms and back—muscles I had spent hours of my childhood drooling over.

But that childlike lust meant nothing now.

Especially not after his father died and he was named Don.

I wouldn’t be trapped in the mafia life after the lengths I’d gone to get out of it.

“Is anyone sitting here?” a man with dark hair and a Russian accent asked, looking between me and Callum.

I tore my gaze from Matteo and cleared my throat, gesturing to the seat.

“Help yourself.”

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