Page 18 of Mafia Shade's Reluctant Bride
Silence. A long, heavy pause before Luca finally spoke.
“If you come back, Maria, you’d marry Lorenzo.”
My heart stopped.
The words didn’t make sense at first. My brain refused to process them. Marry Lorenzo. Marry Lorenzo.
Lorenzo.
I sank back down onto the chair, gripping the edge of the table like it was the only thing keeping me upright. “You’re joking. Why would you bring this up again?”
“I wish I was. He is willing.”
A hysterical laugh bubbled in my throat. “You’re actually insane. Luca, I left him at the altar. I ran. I disappeared for five years. What do you mean by he is willing? He can get married to any other—”
“He never got married.”
My mouth snapped shut. I had tried to resist the urge to search about Lorenzo for years. Part of me knew it would break me if I ever saw him with another woman or family—happy. It was selfish, but part of me didn’t want to see him with another.
The room suddenly felt too small. Now that I knew he wasn’t married, “What?”
Luca exhaled. “Lorenzo. He never married. Never got engaged. No arranged deals, no business transactions. Nothing. But he is willing to try again with you.”
That didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t. “That’s not my problem.”
“It could be.”
I pressed my fingers against my temple, trying to will away the headache forming. “Luca, I can’t just—”
“If you don’t come back, we lose everything.” He said it so simply and matter-of-factly as if it wasn’t ripping my heart in two.
I thought of Matteo, sleeping soundly in the next room. I thought of the life I had built and the freedom I had clawed for with bloodied hands. Thought of what it would mean to step back into a world I had barely survived the first time.
But I also thought of my father and his legacy—everything he had built, everything he had left for us. I thought of Luca, carrying the weight of it all on his shoulders, alone.
My throat tightened. “Lorenzo agreed to this?”
A small chuckle. “Yes, he did.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine. “Why?”
Luca’s voice softened. “Because despite everything, Maria, he never stopped caring for you, and this is for both of your interests.”
My eyes burned.
I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream. I wanted to pretend those words didn’t send something painful crackling through my chest.
Instead, I closed my eyes and whispered the only question that mattered.
“When?”
Luca’s voice was gentle. “As soon as you can.”
I exhaled slowly, staring out the window at the life I had built. The life I might have to leave behind.
Five years ago, I ran.
And now, I might have no choice but to go back—to him.
