Page 45 of Bought By the Mafia

“And then?” He asked.

“And then Terry found out about you. He saw me coming out of your yacht and told Mom. They both thought you were my mark. You should have seen them. Mom was so proud that I had caught someone on my own. She even offered to let me keep more than the ten percent I usually got. I didn’t want to do it. You have to know that.”

Gio’s jaw clenched. His face was blank. I could hardly tell if he believed me or not.

“I told them you weren’t that rich at all and that you were just taking care of the boat. They didn’t believe it. Terry looked you up and found out what you did. He didn’t know the Mafia stuff, but he knew you were some hot shot Wall Street guy. After that, it was hard to brush them off. My mother’s cocaine habit had gotten worse at that point and money was running out faster than before.” I took a deep breath as the memories of what those days were like came to mind. The chaotic and fast-paced nature of our time together was as rough as a roller coaster ride. Mom was either drunk or high. Terry was getting more abusive towards her and whenever he was angry, he would taunt her by saying he would leave her for me. It wasn’t something that would happen, but it only made her spiral further.

“I didn’t want to do it. You have to understand that. I didn’t want to until…”

“Until what?”

“The call.” It took time for him to realize what I was talking about, but when it finally dawned on him, his features hardened. “I heard you talking to someone on the phone,” I said. “You were talking about me. Apparently, the person had seen me in the background of your last video call, or something I can’t remember.”

“Dante,” he said. “I was talking to Dante, and he was taunting me. He wanted to know if I was with someone.”

I want to laugh, but it came out as a scoff. “I would never forget what you told him.”She’s just another slut.

“Simona…”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve been called worse before. But when you, of all people, called me that, it reminded me of who I was. I may not think of myself as a slut and I may have not slept with all those men, but what I did was worse. I stole. It reminded me that whatever I thought we had, it would never work. It was a holiday fling. I meant nothing to you. So I did what I do best, I stole.”

20

Simona went into all the details of how she got my pass codes and how she wiped out my account while I was asleep. It sounded simple in hindsight and I had been reckless with the information I gave her, but all of that didn’t matter. I couldn’t get over one simple fact; she loved me. I don’t know about now, but she definitely loved me then. And in a masterful boneheaded move, I ruined all of that with four simple words. She’s just another slut. I told Dante that because I wasn’t sure yet what my relationship with Simona was going to be. We had been together for a week and spent most of that time making love. It was a flame I was sure would burn out eventually. It didn’t. Still hadn’t. All I knew was I wanted something more with her. I wanted to come back to New York with her, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to Dante, much less to myself. It was an ephemeral idea that quickly evaporated when I found out she stole from me.

“I didn’t take my cut,” Simona said. “I gave Mom my share. She wasn’t even embarrassed to take it.” Simona shrugged. “I don’t care if you believe me or not, but that’s the truth.”

“I believe you,” I blurted out.

Her eyes widened. “You do?”

I nodded.

“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to hear that from you. You’re my biggest regret. The entire thing felt so dirty I got out of the business after that. Terry wasn’t happy, but with my mom spiraling, keeping us as a team was becoming harder anyway, so he left. My mother went back to beg my father for money. He funded her for a while, but even he gave up as well. After that, she vanished, and I only reconnected with her recently. She seemed contrite and ready to get clean. She wanted to go into rehab, and I wanted to make sure she got the best help money could buy. This time it was my turn to go to my father with a begging bowl in hand and guess what he placed in it?”

“A marriage contract?”

“I signed without a second thought. I was selling myself, but at least this time around it was for a good cause, right?” She smiled, and it quickly faltered. Her confession was the last thing I expected to hear. My life felt so privileged and cozy compared to what she had gone through. Then along came me with my desire to exact revenge on her.

“You must think I’m a monster,” I said. “I continued the horrible experience life dealt you.”

She shrugged. It came off more like a sad shrug than the aloofness she tried to portray. “You’re not the worst person I’ve been with. I’m just glad you believe me. I thought you would throw me out of your room immediately after hearing what I had to say.”

“It lines up, if I had to be honest. I had my man look into something else and he stumbled onto that Terry guy and your association with him.”

She smirked. “I wonder what he told you.”

“Not much. Only that you two knew each other, but have since gone your own separate ways.” I had assumed Terry was one of her boyfriends, so I never looked any deeper into that relationship. I was afraid of the wrong thing. The thought made me uncomfortable. “I just wanna know,” I asked. “Would you have told me anything? If I never confronted you?”

“If you were in my shoes, would you?”

Not with the way I treated her. Would I have believed her if she said all this the day after we got married? No. I would have laughed in her face. Looking back, it should have been obvious that something was not straight. She wasn’t a good liar. She was the same Simona I met all those five years ago and yet I was determined to see someone else, something else, because of one thing she did. But had she said something in Santorini… “Why didn’t you come clean all those years ago? I would have protected you.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You hardly knew me. Why would you trust anything I say? If I said anything, you would have thought that to be a scam.”

“I knew enough to hear you out.”

“Maybe. But not after that call.”

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