Page 11 of The Mafia Man's Baby Deal
Chapter Five
Mateo’s house was everythingElla had ever dreamed of and more.It was a huge house with ten bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, game rooms, and living room, library, pool.
Ella had only ever wanted a modest home, three or four bedrooms.This place was a status symbol, and it made her realize exactly who she had married.That alone was scary.Mateo was head of the mafia.She didn’t know the name of the mafia, or exactly what that entailed.She did know he had guards on the door and at the gates.He had plenty of phone calls throughout the day, and there were times he got angry.Never did he direct that anger at her.
She didn’t know if she should search his name online.It was something she had never done.Even though he had given her a job, and she heard some of the whispers from other employees, she didn’t allow herself to be pulled in by gossip.All she did was listen to the man himself.
Mateo didn’t scare her.She was intrigued by him.Part of her wondered if she should ask him about his life, to figure out what she needed to do if any of his mafia relations came forward.
She glanced over at him, and he cut into his steak.Lewis was an amazing cook.He wouldn’t allow her in the kitchen, and she was not going to lie, that kind of sucked on the dream of feeding her husband and kids.It had been a week, and although she was tempted to get a pregnancy test, she hadn’t asked for one.She didn’t want to know yet if she was pregnant.
“I’ve been in foster care since I was a kid,” Ella said.She cut through her steak and it was like butter.She didn’t eat it, just held it on her fork.“From what I know, my mom was some kind of drug addict, and she had left me alone in our apartment.She had died of a drug overdose, and the landlord found me.Sent me to foster care, and that was me in the system.I think I was about three or four.”She put the steak into her mouth, chewed it, and then swallowed it, picking up the glass of water and taking a sip.“It wasn’t always bad.I mean, there were bad things that happened.Some of the foster parents were horrible.They liked to use their belt or sticks to beat us into complying.”
“Shit, Ella.”
“I think the worst punishment I ever got was being thrown into a cold, dark closet.No light, no way of knowing what time it was.I lost count of the numbers I would count.That was scary.I ran away a few times.I don’t know if you know any of this.It was a rough time.Some of us had it better than others.When I was sixteen, I got lucky.An elderly woman named Ruth opened up her home to me.Changed everything.She passed away when I was twenty-one.”
She licked her lips.
“Uh, I know you have connections to the mafia.Some people at work would speculate and I want to tell you I know the world is not all sunshine and rainbows, even though people want to say it is.Life is hard.There are a lot of bad people, and I don’t want you to think I can’t handle it,” she said.
Mateo sat back.
“What we are doing is not conventional, our agreement.”She frowned.“Well, I guess, in a strange way, it kind of is.I mean, people make deals and get married all the time.There is usually a lot more at stake.”She took a deep breath.“I don’t want you to keep me in the dark.”
He continued to look at her.Ella didn’t know if she had crossed some imaginary line, but she didn’t want any lies between them.
“Fifteen years ago, the mafia was known as the Alfonso Mafia.It was one of the most feared and respected in the whole state, even going back to Italy.My father was Romeo Alfonso,” Mateo said.“My mother was Pamela Cole.She was not part of an Italian family.Not even linked to the mafia name.She met my father, fell in love, and became one of his many mistresses.She didn’t know this, of course.She thought she was the love of his life.”
She looked at Mateo as he glanced down at his plate before returning her gaze.
“My father had two other sons before he had me.They were the ones in line for his throne.I was known as the bastard son, only I took to killing and being a soldier in the mafia better than anyone.To make my mother proud and my father recognize me, I worked my ass off.I did everything they said I wasn’t capable of doing.I handed them the fucking Bratva on the plate.Our enemies ceased to be a problem, because I took care of it.I commanded respect, and there was even talk among some of the capos that I was the true heir.”He didn’t look away from her.
She stared at him.
“And my father murdered my mother for even daring to have me in the first place,” Mateo said.
This made her gasp.
“He didn’t just give her an easy death, he tortured her, made her scream for mercy.I saw the video.What he got his men to do to her, including my brothers,” Mateo said.“I was banished.He attempted to break me.Sent men after me, thought I was finally not his problem anymore.I killed every person he sent.No one returned, and he kept lying.Then, one by one, I killed the men that hurt my mother.I hunted the capos who voted for me to be outcast, to be killed.Until I got to my brothers, his wife, and finally, him.I took everything from him, broke the Alfonso name, and destroyed everything.As for the mafia’s possessions, I took them.I inherited all the businesses, and those that wanted me to be their boss stayed as capos.The Alfonso Mafia is gone, and now it is simply known as the mafia.”
“You’re not going to change it to the Cole Mafia?”she asked.
He smiled.“That would be poetic, wouldn’t it?Taking the mafia from my dad and renaming it in honor of the woman he killed.”
“It’s your mafia now,” she said.
“Does my story not scare you?”he asked.
“No, it doesn’t.”
****
Mateo was not usedto caring about anyone.For the longest time it had been about survival.Men and women alike had come to claim his title, to take the mafia from him, but he wouldn’t let that happen.Not on his watch.The mafia belonged to him.However, he had never truly staked his claim.
