Page 71 of Secret Mafia Daddy

He can’t mean that, can he? It's just because of the wedding, because he has some idea that marriage means something. It’s because he almost lost us.

It can’t be because he really loves me. Catarina.

Can it?

I go back and forth about leaving from his father’s place, but decide to bide my time. The money Angelo puts in my account each week is plenty to get me and Chelsea out of town.

I’m not worried about money, but I am worried about Andrea Bianchi’s security. He’s caputo, and he's very well protected.

I wait until we’re back at the penthouse, right after the flight home, and I wake up Chelsea in the middle of the night but luckily, she’s back asleep before we get to the car.

29

ANGELO

The morning my whole life falls apart starts like any other morning. Catarina and Chelsea aren’t in their beds when I wake up, but that’s not unusual. They usually get up earlier than me because I’m in no way an early bird.

I sigh, scratching my belly and going to the kitchen to make coffee. That’s when I see the note, stuck in the coffee carafe.

Angelo,

I’m sorry. It’s just not safe here.

-C

I throw the coffee pot against the room and it shatters against the back wall. I throw the kitchen table upside down, but nothing helps.

My girls are gone again, and this time it’s not because of some outside enemy. It’s because Catarina doesn’t love me. She doesn’t trust me to protect them.

I’m considering whether to run to the liquor store and buy about a case of tequila when Dante calls me.

“Do you have a job?” I ask in a bark.

“No,” he says, sounding taken aback. "I wanted to check on the girls."

“They're fine," I say through gritted teeth. "They're fine, Catarina just left me. She fucking left me, Dante.” My voice breaks at the end and I take in a sharp breath, trying to keep it together.

“You let her leave?” he says in a low voice.

“Wh-what?”

“If Mia left me, I’d burn the world down to find her. Why are you being a pussy and just sitting at the house?”

I slowly straighten up. Dante is right. How am I going to let my girls just up and leave? That’s not how this works.

We’re famiglia, and we stay together. No matter what.

“Thanks,” I say, and hang up, putting on a T-shirt over my sweatpants. I check the credit card statements and see that she’s pulled money out of an ATM nearby.

I go to every hotel in the area until I find her, under the name Catherine Smith, at a nearby Motel 6. She could have afforded a much better place, but I know Catarina and I know that she’s frugal.

It only takes a hundred-dollar bill to bribe the attendant and I have the room number. I go up the elevator, bouncing on my heels with nervous energy.

I bang on the door.

“Let me in, Catarina,” I say firmly, but it comes out as more of a plea.

“No,” she shoots back, right at the door.

---