Page 81 of Ruthless Mafia Daddy

Her eyes lit up briefly. I would’ve missed them if I had blinked before she relaxed into giving me a detailed rundown of her day, starting from the time she woke to this moment.

I had a feeling she was being overly transparent to let me know she had changed, and while I appreciated that, I wasn’t sure I liked it very much.

“How about you? How was your day?” she asked, peering at me through her lashes.

“Nothing as exciting as yours. Just work and stuff.”

Her face fell, and her lips shaped into a small ‘o,’ and I immediately realized my mistake.

“My day was fine, Arielle. Enzo came over, and we had a meeting with a company in London. I’m aiming to open a hotel there, and after that, I returned to my office and did some paperwork before returning home.”

A small smile touched her lips, and against my better judgment, I found myself smiling in return.

“So, did you cook all of these, or did Maya and Jason help?”

“Nah. I cooked everything myself,” she replied, and my eyes almost doubled in size.

“I worked in a restaurant in Italy, so I picked up some mean cooking skills,” she added, answering the question in my head.

She made it sound so easy, but I know it couldn’t have been that easy with a baby. I finally decided to open the conversation I’d been avoiding for a long time.

“How did you do it? The pregnancy, Jason, work. All of it. How did you do it all alone?”

Her smile faltered a bit, and she laid her cutlery down before taking a deep breath. “It wasn’t so bad in the beginning. I had some money on me when I left, and it sustained me for most of the pregnancy and provided adequate healthcare and housing, but the money eventually ran out. We had to relocate to a different neighborhood. That was when the challenges set in, and I had to start juggling jobs. Jason was only six months old, and I could barely afford a sitter, but thankfully, Anna came along and offered to sit him whenever I had work, and that made things a bit easier. So, when I saw that flyer about the vacancy in your company, I rushed in headfirst without doing any form of research.”

I sat in silence, letting her words sink in. I couldn’t fathom what she had gone through, and the fact that I hadn’t been there for her had me in pain.

“You should’ve told me, Arielle,” I muttered softly.

“I couldn’t. I was scared to my bones, and I had nowhere to turn. I have no family to love me unconditionally, and I knew Father would force me to get rid of him.”

“So, do you regret it?”

Her brows furrowed slightly. “Getting pregnant for you?”

“No. Applying to my company,” I clarified, holding her gaze. I needed to know where her head was.

“At first, I did, but with time, I came to appreciate it. Jason is so happy with you, and now, I can’t imagine a different life for him.”

“I’m glad Jason is happy, Arielle, but I’m asking about you. Do you regret running into me?”

“No,” she replied after a pause, and I felt myself release a breath I never knew I was holding.

From there, we went into her upbringing and life at the orphanage. If we were going to move forward, I needed to know everything about her. It turned out to be a very heavy topic, and by the time she was done, I had emptied a full bottle of wine, and anger simmered beneath me for everything she had gone through.

Tension eventually gave way to light conversations, and Arielle ended up taking me on a trip down memory lane. She showed me pictures and videos of Jason at various points in his life. When he sprouted his first set of teeth, when he took his first step, and when he said his first words.

“You know there was not a day that passed that I didn’t think of you,” her voice came out in whispers, her eyes not leaving mine. “I subscribed to every newsletter in New York and googled your name every morning in a desperate attempt to feel a bit closer to you.”

Her confession clung tightly to the air between us, and I felt something thicken in my throat, making it impossible for me to force out a word.

When I did not say a word, her face fell by a fraction, but she quickly replaced it with a smile. “Oh. I forgot to show you this one.” She cleared her throat, playing a video on her phone, and the moment was gone as soon as it arrived. It was my fault.

“This was his first day at school, and he wouldn’t let go of me. I intend to keep this one and show it to him when he starts feeling like a big boy.”

The video rolled by with Jason screaming out his lungs and holding on to Arielle as his teachers attempted to pry him from her arms. It was both hilarious and heartwarming, and I could totally see him growing to hate the video.

“He’s got quite a grip,” I commented, lifting my face to find Arielle’s very close to mine. We must’ve moved closer as we watched the videos together.

---