Page 101 of Dark Mafia Bride

I take a shaky breath, trying to steady my nerves. “Tonight,” I say, the finality of the word making my heart race. I know it won’t be easy, but it’s the only way forward.

She nods, her eyes full of understanding. “You’ve got this. I’m proud of you, Mira.”

I force a weak smile and finally step into the car. As Logan starts the engine and pulls away, the nervous energy begins to coil tighter inside me. Every mile that takes me closer to home feels like it’s stretching out the inevitable.

Tonight, everything will change.

And all I can do is hope it changes for the better.

34

ETTORE

The office is drowned in darkness, the blinds pulled shut like a barrier between me and the sunlight I can’t even bear to look at today. My head is pounding, my thoughts a muddled mess as I stare at the cluttered papers on my desk. The voices of my family, my so-called family, loop relentlessly in my mind.

“Mirabella is cheating on you.”

The words feel like a punch to the gut, stealing the air from my lungs. I don’t want to believe it. I can’t. But the evidence is right there in front of me—those damned photos.

My aunts’ cruel words haunt me, each one more biting than the last, as they play over and over in my head. Every sneer, every judgment cutting deeper than I ever thought possible.

“I told you, Ettore,” Zia Camilla spits, pacing in front of me like a caged animal. “I warned you. But you refused to listen. Did you really think someone like her could ever be the wife you needed? Did you think she’d bring any kind of stability to your life?”

“She was raised by a single mother,” Aunt Francesca adds with a sniff, her voice dripping with disdain. “Clearly, she had no idea what a stable marriage should look like.”

“Exactly why she was never good enough for you,” Aunt Marta sneers, her words sharp as a knife. “She should never have been allowed in this family.”

“She’s trash, Ettore...”

“Not just a cheat. She’s a liar, a manipulator, a gold digger...”

“And you? You were so kind to her. So generous with her and her family. She repaid you by betraying you—betraying all of us.”

“She didn’t even have the decency to wait until your marriage had a chance to breathe before showing her true colors.”

A growl escapes from deep in my chest. In one violent sweep, I send everything on my desk crashing to the floor. The sound of paper and glass shattering fills the silence like a thunderclap. My fingers dig into the bridge of my nose, trying to hold it together, but the image of Zia Camilla’s smug face as she threw that damned file at me keeps flashing in my mind. The way she looked at me with satisfaction, the smugness in her tone as she told me she’d been right all alone, and the photos...

I hadn’t been prepared for the photos.

Fuck.

I wish I could forget, wipe my mind clean. But the images are burned into my brain, replaying over and over again. I can feel the glossy paper still in my hand. I can still remember her smile, her laugh, the flower-patterned dress I bought her. I can’t shake the memory of her lips—those lips I once worshipped—pressed against another man’s.

Not just any man, either. The same American she’d sworn meant nothing. The same one I saw her with just weeks ago, the one I had no reason to suspect.

My stomach churns violently, the taste of bile rising in my throat as I remember each photo. The way his hands—filthy hands—touched her. The way he’d wiped away her tears, holding her face in his palms as if she were the most precious thing in the world. It makes me sick.

How could I have been so blind? How could I have trusted her so completely, so easily? Every time I thought I was protecting her, every time I felt guilty for not being good enough for her, I’d been the one being played.

My stomach twists again as my eyes scan the floor. I see the pregnancy test. Zia Camilla had handed it to me with such pleasure. The smirk on her face never faded as she confirmed my worst fear.

“Found it in her trash,” she’d said, with a shake of her head. “Unused, but clearly a sign of her secrets.”

And that’s when I told them all to get out. I couldn’t bear to see their satisfaction, the victory in their eyes as they watched me fall apart. But there was no denying it anymore.

Mirabella ispregnant...with another man’s child.

Questions swarm in my head, each one more suffocating than the last, dragging me deeper into a hole I can’t climb out of.

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