Page 32 of Unwanted Marriage with the Mafia Boss

Adriano might have wanted to keep an eye on me himself, especially if he didn’t think he could trust his men after one of them tried to help me. Or he showed the feed to someone. My mom and dad? I’ll have to take a risk and ask him because I can’t stand the uncertainty. It’s driving me crazy.

When Adriano walks out of the bathroom, I force my gaze away and stare at the wall. Once I hear the closet door close, I look at him. He’s fully dressed, and he tosses a key on the bed next to me.

“Take off your cuff,” he says. “Let’s eat something.”

He has his gun out. I push myself up and unlock the cuff. As I place the cuff and the key on the nightstand, he nods toward the door.

“You know where the dining room is,” he says.

I do, and he’s right behind me, with his gun. Rocco is right in the hallway too. Again no chance for me to try something or grab a weapon.

If I’m going to die anyway, I should at least try to take Adriano with me, right? But I don’t think he’s going to give me another chance.

The table is full of food again, and we take our seats just like last time.

“Can I talk to my parents?” I ask.

“Not yet.”

I eye him carefully. Does that mean they’re still at Nico’s? Probably. Why else would Adriano be dragging this out?

“Do you think your project is worth going to prison for?” I catch his gaze.

If I can’t do anything else, maybe I can talk him out of going after my neighborhood.

“You say that as if you think I can actually end up there. Funny.” He smiles.

“Do you really believe that’s impossible? You can sign as many contracts as you want, but everyone will know how you got those signatures. People will talk, and one day, someone will be brave enough to speak out. Or you’ll go too far. My neighbor said you burned a woman’s house down to get what you wanted. One person is enough to start a domino effect. People will put two and two together and realize what you’ve done. They’ll want you to pay, and the whole thing will be so big not even you will be able to stop it.”

“Are you here to eat or talk? Because if you’re not hungry, you can leave.” Adriano makes a shooing motion with his fingers.

“You’re avoiding the conversation. Got it. That means I’m right.” I spread my lips into a smile.

“I’ve already been to prison. Well, juvie, to be exact.” He leans across the table. “What makes you think that would scare me?”

“What did you do?” I read somewhere that people who were imprisoned young had way bigger chances of sticking to a life of crime.

“Does it matter?”

“I’m just curious.”

“My bro—” He pauses. “I stole a car. Really expensive one. Well, I wasn’t alone. It was the other guy’s idea, and I went along with it. He was driving and crashed the car. I told him to run and stayed behind to try to clean it up a bit, get our prints off, but... I wasn’t fast enough. Got caught. Told the cops I did it all on my own. They somehow pinned a few other crimes—thefts—on me that I didn’t do, but no one cared.”

“Your brother? Is that what you were about to say?”

Adriano rolls his eyes. “He’s not my brother. Well, he technically is, because his father adopted me.”

I furrow my brow. “So that’s why that guy said you weren’t a real Gaviani.”

“I still have their last name, so I am. If they wanted it back, they could’ve come and told me so. But they haven’t. I haven’t spoken to them since that night.”

My mouth falls open. “Wait, you’re saying your adoptive family hasn’t spoken to you since you were arrested?”

He nods.

“But...” I don’t even know what to say.

It’s incomprehensible to me.

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