Page 47 of Secret Mafia Daddy

I look at it, thinking it probably cost me a couple of grand and I’m going to give it to a three-year-old. I don’t mind even a little.

I’ve never loved anything the way that I love Chelsea, and it was almost instant. I knew she was mine the moment I saw her, and thinking back, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that was expressly mine.

My father hated pets, so I never had a dog or a cat, and I didn’t have siblings. I’ve never fallen in love with a woman before. So Chelsea is it. She’s the one thing that’s mine, and she’s wonderful. Everything she does makes me smile.

Chelsea takes my hand, leading me downstairs where her mother is looking at her phone and frowning.

“Is a cake tasting usually over five-hundred-dollars or are they trying to scam me?” Catarina asks as we walk past her.

“Depends on the cake,” I answer easily, and then scoop Chelsea up to put her on my shoulders.

I’m in a pretty great mood, with my (in name only) wife and my sweet little daughter. Maybe Nico and Dante had it right all along.

Marriage doesn’t have to involve falling in love the way they did, though, clearly. I’m having the time of my life and I don’t have to worry about any of the messy love stuff.

Sure, I feel things for Catarina. She’s hot and smart and funny and the mother of my child. Who wouldn’t? But it isn’t love. At least I don’t think it is.

“So, when is the cake tasting?” I ask, licking my lips.

Catarina scoffs. “I guess whenever we go up there with five hundred bucks.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So, today?”

She stares at me. “You want to go to a cake tasting? With Chelsea?”

“I love cake, Mama,” Chelsea points out, and I grin at her.

I glance up at her. “I’ll bring you back anything I can fit in my pockets, but it’s an adult cake tasting, sweetheart.”

She pouts. “But I love cake.”

“Do you love Alessia more than cake?”

Her eyes light up. “I get to see my friend?”

“Exactly,” I say with a chuckle.

Catarina makes a displeased sound in the back of her throat. ”We can’t just keep asking Dante and Mia to babysit,” she starts, but I put a hand up to stop her.

“They have nannies, for god’s sake,” I tell her. “Maybe they’ll let us take one.”

She blanches. “I don’t want a nanny that I don’t know for Chelsea.”

I huff out a breath, getting frustrated. “We’ll talk about this later, but for now, cake tasting. We’ve got to make this wedding something to remember.”

“Papa wants to pay for everything. He told me to get receipts,” she comments.

I grin. “That’s even better. Have you picked out a dress?”

She bites her lip. “No, not yet.”

“Then we’ll go shopping for that, too,” I suggest, putting Chelsea down on the ground where she sprints off toward her toys.

“Absolutely not,” Catarina says firmly.

“What? Why not?”

“I know this isn’t important to you, Angelo, but I want this to be by the book. And the groom isn’t supposed to see the dress until the wedding.”

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