Page 43 of Secret Mafia Daddy

And so what if I hook up with Angelo a little bit on the side? We are married, after all, doesn’t it have to be consummated? I’m going for a divorce, not an annulment.

It’s just a little fun, that’s all. That’s all Angelo has ever been to me. Just fun.

I push the thoughts away about how I’d missed him when I hadn’t gotten his number, how I’d longed to see him when I found out I was pregnant. He’d been drunk that night, sure, but he’d also been so sweet, talking to me about life and our friends and all our favorite things.

It was like we’d gotten to know each other on a level that usually only happens after dating someone for weeks. We’d just sped it up in that one night.

But he’s different now. I’m different. I’m a mother and he’s a killer and I can’t live the lifestyle he lives. I can’t fall in love with someone who threatened to kill me.

It’s true that I don’t think he would have done it, even then. I think he talks a big game, but killing someone in cold blood like that? I’m not sure he would have done it.

My stepfather is a wiseguy but he’s never killed anyone who didn’t try to kill him or his friends, first, and I assume that’s what Angelo is like.

But how would I know? I only spent one night with him and now what, a week? It isn’t like I know him. He could snap and kill me anytime he wanted to, but instead, he’s inviting me into his bed.

I’m sleeping with the devil, and I know it, but it feels so right.

It’s just because I’ve been pretty much celibate since the night that Angelo and I met. I had been so afraid of another pregnancy that I hadn’t hooked up with anyone, and I’d been focused on starting my new life.

I still am.

In fact, I take the money that Chelsea calls her pirate’s booty, knowing she’ll forget about it in a manner of days, and put it in a suitcase which I hide high up on a high shelf in the walk-in closet. There’s already a surprising amount of women’s clothes in there, and I stare at it, shocked.

It’s expensive, too, all the designer brands, and most of it even has tags on it.

I huff and bypass all the women’s clothes, having no idea why Angelo has so much of it and making a note to ask him later, but not in a jealous way.

I’m not jealous. If he has a girlfriend or whatever, someone who keeps her clothes at his house, he’ll just have to keep her away from Chelsea. It’s none of my business otherwise.

I dress in a pair of yoga shorts and a tank-top, walking downstairs, and maybe my cheeks are a little flushed with anger. I can’t help it. He’s proposed to me, made me marry him, and he’s got some girl leaving clothes in his closet?

Chelsea is sitting in her highchair, a new one that Angelo must have bought for her, even though I don’t know when he’s had time to do it, eating bacon by the fistful.

“You should at least make her eat some toast with it,” I say tiredly, noting to myself that Angelo is going to be difficult to co-parent with.

“I’m making toast,” he says, winking at her, and when the toast pops up, he butters it and hands it to her.

She promptly shreds it into pieces and goes back to eating her bacon.

I groan. “Just two bites, Chels, please.”

Chelsea looks up at me, and she must sense that I’m on the edge, because she dutifully eats two bites of the ruined toast.

“Thank you,” I say, plopping down in a chair. Angelo slides over a plate of bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast with chunky peanut butter spread across it.

I look up at him.

“I didn’t know how you liked your eggs,” he says, sounding a little sheepish, and I pick up the toast first, looking at it.

“Chunky,” Chelsea says with a look of complete disgust on her face. “Papa likes it too.”

“Peanuts are good for you, Chelsea,” Angelo says, and Chelsea sticks out her tongue, dropping more bacon on the high chair.

I sigh and take a bite of my toast, which is actually my favorite. Angelo smiles briefly before cleaning Chelsea up.

I stare at them, surprised. I never imagined that Angelo would do any of the real work when it comes to Chelsea. I never thought, even after we reconnected, that he’d cook for her, clean up after her, give her a bath, things like that.

I thought he’d just want to be the fun dad, getting her presents and playing with her.

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