My Mafia Husband Called Me Unfaithful Then I Married His Enemy

Beside me, a man I've never seen before is still asleep. This is the third time my husband has found me like this. "Sign it. You leave with nothing. Leo stays with me." Dante Bellini throws the papers onto the hotel bed. The first time, I begged him to believe me. The second time, I went to the police. This time, I hold out my hand for the pen. Dante doesn't move. His lawyer does. Serena Costa steps forward and opens the folder she brought with her. "You understand what you're signing?" I look at her. She arranged the visits with my son. She decided which gifts he could keep. She once made me wait outside her house for forty minutes because he hadn't finished his lunch. Now she wants to make sure I understand. "Give me the pen." Dante catches her wrist before she can hand it over. "The first time, you said you didn't know the man." "I didn't." "You expect me to believe you just happened to end up in a room with Lorenzo Vitale?" The name fills the silence. Even here, people know it. Don of the Vitale family. The Bellinis' enemy. The man who had been standing by the door when I woke up, telling someone on the phone that the hotel had given him the wrong room. He was gone before Dante arrived. That hadn't mattered. Nothing I said had mattered. "The second time," Dante continues, "you claimed you didn't even know how you got there." I remember the emergency room. The questions. The nurse asking whether there was someone safe she could call. I gave her my husband's number. Dante looks at the sleeping man. "And now this." My head aches. There's a bitter taste in my mouth. I remember a drink downstairs, then almost nothing until I woke up beside a stranger. Serena pulls her wrist free. "Let her sign, Dante." He looks at her. Then he drops the pen onto the bed. I turn to the pages she has marked. Lucia Moretti. I write my name carefully. Serena takes the papers as soon as I finish. "She's signed." Dante keeps watching me. He was ready for tears. For me to get out of bed and follow him down the hall, trying to explain while his men pretended not to listen. I've done that before. Please. You know me. Think about Leo. Just give me a chance to show you. This time, I put the cap back on the pen. "I'll collect my things tomorrow." "Serena will have them packed." "As for Leo—" "You're not taking him." His voice sharpens. "After this, you should be grateful I'm letting you walk out." I look at the two men standing outside the open door. Neither looks back. Dante steps closer. "You went near a Vitale. Then you did this twice more. You think I'm trusting you with my son?" I feel the words where I always do. Behind my ribs. But I don't start arguing. "I wasn't going to ask Serena for another visit." His expression changes. Just enough for me to notice. For four years, he has known exactly what to threaten. Take Leo away, and I'll apologize. Cancel a visit, and I'll stop asking questions. Tell me my mother's care depends on keeping the peace, and I'll keep it. Now he looks at me as though I've broken a rule. "You're giving him up?" "I'm done asking her permission to be his mother." Serena closes the folder. "Those aren't separate things anymore, Lucia." I turn toward her. Her eyes narrow with satisfaction. The first time, Dante called the restrictions temporary. Until we know what you told Vitale. Then Serena moved Leo into the guest rooms at her house. It was safer there, she said. I saw him once a month. She stayed for every minute. After the second hotel, I wasn't allowed at his preschool. Dante said the families talked. He didn't want my behavior embarrassing his son. The last time I visited, Leo refused to kiss me goodbye. Serena told me not to force him. Now Dante is waiting for me to fight for another hour under her supervision. I look at the papers. "You have what you came for." He stares at me. For the first time tonight, neither of them knows what to say.

Serena reaches the door first. Then she turns. "Most mothers would at least ask what happens next." I pull the sheet tighter around myself. "What happens next, Serena?" Her eyes flick toward Dante. "We'll make sure Leo is taken care of." "You've been doing that for over a year." "Someone had to." Dante picks up his phone. "You'd better mean this, Lucia." "I do." "Don't come back in a week saying you made a mistake." I look at him. When we were in college, he waited outside my lectures. Coffee in one hand. My favorite pastry in the other. He used to joke that his last name could get him into any building except mine. My mother didn't laugh. She knew his family. My father had treated Bellini men when they couldn't go to a hospital. After he died, she wanted me as far from their world as possible. I told Dante that. He said marrying him would mean I never had to be afraid. Now two of his men are waiting to escort him out while I sit beside a stranger. "I won't come back," I say. Serena glances at the bed. "Then we'll leave you to it." The door shuts. I wait until I can no longer hear them. I woke up almost half an hour before they arrived. Long enough to find my clothes. Long enough to see a message appear on the man's phone. Her husband's coming. Stay put. I could have left. But there would still have been photographs. Another report from Serena. Another man whose word mattered more than mine. I was tired of running ahead of a story they'd already decided to tell. The stranger moves in his sleep. I get dressed. Then I leave without looking at him again. The next evening, the guard at the Bellini gates won't let me in. He knows me. He was at our wedding. "I need to collect my things." He looks toward the booth. "Your access was canceled this morning." "Call the house." He does. I stand outside while he waits for an answer. A car comes through the exit. The driver looks at me, then quickly looks away. After several minutes, the guard opens the pedestrian gate. "Rosa will meet you at the door." I walk up the drive. I used to carry Leo along this path when he wouldn't sleep. He liked the lights near the fountain. I knew every loose stone beneath my feet. Rosa opens the front door before I knock. Her face changes when she sees me. "Miss Lucia." "Where are my things?" She presses her lips together. "Come with me." She takes me through the back hallway to a storage room beside the garage. I stop in the doorway. My clothes are packed into trash bags. A box of shoes sits on top of a framed photograph. "Serena said the bedroom needed to be ready," Rosa says. "For what?" She doesn't answer. I look at her. "It's all right." "No, it isn't." Her voice is so quiet I almost miss it. Then she steps back to let me in. I don't need the clothes. Not right now. I need the small porcelain pendant my mother gave me on my wedding day. Blue flowers. A thin silver frame. It belonged to my grandmother before her. The clasp had broken, so I wrapped it in red cloth and put it in my drawer until I could have it repaired. I search through two boxes. Then a bag. Someone has packed my underwear with a pair of muddy boots. At the bottom of the next box, I find the red cloth. I close my hand around it. For the first time since reaching the gate, I breathe properly. "What are you doing?" Leo stands in the doorway. His hair is longer than it was at our last visit. There's a small scrape on his chin. I wonder who cleaned it. "Getting my things." Usually, I'd already be reaching for him. Asking about school. Trying to make the first few minutes good enough that he wouldn't ask for Serena. Today, I stay where I am. He walks into the room and puts one shoe on my coat. "Aunt Serena said you can't take anything." "This is mine." He shakes his head. "Nothing in this house is yours."

I reach for the coat beneath Leo's shoe. "Please don't stand on that." "Daddy paid for it." "Move your foot." He does, but only after looking toward the door. I know that look. He's checking whether someone is coming to stop me. "I'm taking this," I say, holding the red bundle. "The rest can wait." "No." He moves in front of me. "You're not allowed." "Leo." "Aunt Serena said you don't listen." I look at him. He's four. He still puts his shoes on the wrong feet. There was a time when he couldn't say my name without smiling. Now he folds his arms and waits for me to obey him. "This belonged to Grandma." "She gave it to you?" "Yes." "Then why is it here?" "Because I lived here." "You don't now." I lower my eyes. For a moment, I can't find anything to say. Then I put the bundle into my bag. He lunges for it. "Give it." "No." His fingers catch the cloth. I pull back. The fabric opens between us. The pendant hits the concrete floor. The sound is small. A sharp crack. Then one piece slides beneath the shelf. I stare at it. Leo stares, too. I crouch and reach for the broken pieces. The silver frame is bent. A blue flower has split down the middle. "Step back." He moves his shoe. I collect the pieces beneath it. My mother wore the pendant when she came to my graduation. She wore it to Sunday lunch. When I was little, I used to hold it while she carried me. On my wedding morning, she fastened it around my neck with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. "Are you sure?" she asked. I thought she meant the necklace. I said yes. Now I wonder whether she meant any of it. Leo shifts beside me. "You shouldn't have pulled." I close my fingers around the largest piece. "I told you it belonged to Grandma." "You were taking it." "It was mine." His mouth starts to tremble. I know what will happen next. He'll cry. Someone will come. I'll be told that whatever happened, I'm the adult. I know I'm the adult. That doesn't stop my hands from shaking. "Do you remember Grandma?" He looks away. "The blanket on your bed? She made that." "Aunt Serena got me a new one." "She used to call on your birthday." He kicks at a strip of cardboard. I think of my mother holding the phone while a nurse helped her sit up. She always asked whether Leo had grown. Whether he liked the little picture books she sent. Most of them never reached him. I didn't tell her that. "Do you know why she's at the rehabilitation center?" "No." "She got hurt saving you and Daddy." He shrugs. I stare at him. Three years ago, my mother saw a car slow beside them outside a restaurant. She saw the gun before Dante did. She pushed him toward the parked cars with Leo in his arms. One of the shots hit her. She has needed help walking ever since. Dante's father stood beside her hospital bed and promised she would never have to worry about anything again. Leo wasn't old enough to remember. But someone should have told him. Someone should have taught him what she did. "Grandma kept you safe," I say. He looks up. "Aunt Serena says you always say that." "Because it's true." "She says Grandma gets everything paid for." I put the porcelain onto the red cloth. "Leo, stop." He lifts his chin. "Daddy doesn't owe that old woman anything."

"What did you say?" Leo takes a step back. Then he looks toward the hallway. "Aunt Serena said Daddy paid enough." I stand. "She said Grandma's never getting better anyway." "Don't." "She said you use her to make Daddy feel bad." The room is too small. Too full of things someone decided I no longer owned. "Your grandmother was shot protecting you." Leo frowns. He doesn't like my voice. I don't like it, either. "She's just an old woman," he says. Then he reaches for the cloth again. I shove him away. He trips over a bag and falls onto his bottom. For a second, neither of us moves. Then he starts screaming. "Daddy!" My hand is still out. I lower it. I shouldn't have done that. I know it immediately. But I can't stop hearing his words. My mother spent weeks learning to get out of bed without help. She cried when she thought I wasn't looking. Not because of the pain. Because she couldn't hold Leo. She was afraid he would forget her. "Daddy!" Dante comes through the doorway. He picks Leo up. "What happened?" "She pushed me!" Leo presses his face into Dante's neck. "Make her go away." Dante looks at me. "What the hell is wrong with you?" "He grabbed—" "He's a child." "I know." "Then why are you putting your hands on him?" I look down. A piece of porcelain has cut my palm. Blood marks the cloth. "He broke my mother's pendant." Dante glances at it. "Buy another one." "It was my grandmother's." "And he's four." "He was repeating what Serena told him about my mother." "What did she tell him?" I look at Leo. He hides his face. "Ask him." Dante rubs his back. "Leo." "She got mad." "What did you say?" A long pause. "That Grandma costs too much." I wait for Dante's expression to change. It doesn't. "Serena deals with the bills," he says. "He probably overheard something." "She saved your life." His jaw tightens. "I know what happened." "Then why doesn't your son?" "He was a baby." "He's old enough to repeat that she's a waste of money." "Enough." The word makes Leo relax against him. He knows what it means. I'm the one being told to stop. Dante looks at the cloth again. For a moment, his voice softens. "We've covered every expense for three years, Lucia. Every specialist. Every treatment." "I didn't ask you for a list." "What else do you want?" I stare at him. I want my mother to walk without pain. I want her to stop apologizing when she needs help. I want my son to know her name without someone rolling their eyes. "Your father promised we would be safe." "You are safe." I look around the storage room. Dante follows my gaze. Then he looks away. "Don't confuse what happened between us with what the family has done for you." "What happened between us?" His face hardens again. "You signed the papers." "Yes." "Then don't come into my house and start trouble." My house. Not ours. Maybe it never was. Leo lifts his head. "I want Aunt Serena." Dante kisses his hair. "She's inside." I wrap the broken pendant carefully. My hands are steadier now. "I shouldn't have pushed him," I say. Dante nods once. As though I've finally arrived at the only fact that matters. Then he adds, "You wouldn't be standing here after what happened if you weren't his mother."

For a moment, I just look at him. After what happened. He says it as though we both know I'm guilty. As though the only question is how much mercy I deserve. "I came for my things." "And I let you in." I fold the cloth again. The porcelain makes a faint clicking sound. Dante watches me put it in my bag. "Rosa can send the rest." "All right." He seems irritated by the answer. "I brought Leo over so you could see him." I look at our son. He's playing with the edge of Dante's collar. "Did you tell him that?" "He was happy to come." "That isn't what I asked." "Lucia." I stop. I know that tone. The warning before he tells me I'm making things difficult. Leo squirms. Dante puts him down, and he runs into the house. For a moment, we're alone. Dante lowers his voice. "He doesn't know about the papers. Keep it that way until I decide how to explain." "You mean until Serena decides." "Don't start with her again." I pick up my bag. He steps into the doorway. "You really have nothing else to say?" I think of all the things I've said in this house. I didn't know him. I didn't invite him. Look at the hotel records. Call the hospital. Please let me see my son. "No." His eyes narrow. At college, that used to make him smile. No meant he would bring coffee the next day. No meant he would wait outside the library and offer to walk me home. I told him I didn't want a life where people lowered their voices when someone mentioned my husband. He said I already knew his family. I told him that was why I was afraid. He promised I would have my own work. My own friends. A front door I could walk through whenever I wanted. By graduation, I wanted to believe him. Then came the party. Someone telling me he wasn't feeling well. A room upstairs. A night I remembered only in pieces. When I found out I was pregnant, he looked at me as though he had finally solved something. His father wanted a wedding. Dante wanted someone to blame. I spent four years trying to prove I hadn't trapped him. I gave up my work for a while because Leo needed me. When I wanted to return, Serena found reasons my access to the family accounts should be limited. When I took a job elsewhere, the second hotel happened during a work trip. There was always another door closing. Another person explaining why it was my fault. Dante moves aside. I walk past him. In the living room, Serena is crouched in front of Leo. She wipes his face with a tissue. "There. Better?" He nods. Then he sees me. I keep walking. "Mommy." The word nearly stops me. Nearly. Serena looks up. "Lucia, he's trying to talk to you." I turn. Leo points at the tissue in her hand. "You made me cry." "I know." "You're supposed to say sorry." I draw a breath. Before I can answer, Serena touches his shoulder. "He's very upset." I look at her hand. She can touch him whenever she wants. She doesn't have to ask a week ahead. She doesn't have to make every minute count. "I heard him." I turn toward the door. I need a moment outside. Air. Enough space to stop shaking before I speak to him again. Dante follows me into the hall. "Where are you going?" "Outside." "We're not finished." I put my hand on the door. My mother is expecting a visit. She asked me to bring the cardigan she left here. I didn't find it in the boxes. I can buy her another one. I can stop for soup. For one evening, I can sit beside someone who is glad I came. "Lucia." I stop. "Come back." I turn. Leo stands beside Serena. Dante points toward him. "You pushed him. You'll apologize." "I will. I need a minute." "You don't need a minute." His voice is low. The guard near the entrance looks straight ahead. I remember kneeling on this floor after the first hotel. Holding Dante's hand while he tried to pull it away. Begging him not to take Leo. Serena watched from the stairs. He looks at the floor in front of our son. "On your knees. Look him in the eye." I let go of the door. "I'll apologize to Leo." Dante waits. "But I'm not kneeling for you."

I walk back to Leo. I crouch so he doesn't have to look up at me. "I'm sorry I pushed you. That was wrong." He looks at Serena. Then he spits in my face. For a moment, nobody moves. "You're dirty," he says. I feel it slide down my cheek. Serena puts a hand over her mouth. Dante watches me. "He's been through enough because of you." I stand slowly. There's a box of tissues on the table beside Serena. I take one. "Because of me?" "Don't." I wipe my face. "He didn't come up with that on his own." "He knows you hurt his father," Serena says. I look at her. "What else does he know?" "Lucia—" "That my mother costs too much? That everything in this house belongs to Dante? That he can spit on me and you'll let him?" Dante steps closer. "Watch how you speak to her." I laugh once. There's nothing funny about it. "Of course." "She's the one who's been here." "You put my son in her house." "Because I couldn't trust you." "Because she told you not to." Serena's eyes fill. "I didn't make you go to those hotels." "No. You just happened to know which room I was in. Every time." Her face goes still. Dante notices. For a second, I think he might ask. Then he looks back at me. "You signed the papers." "Yes." "Then stop trying to make this her fault." I put the tissue down. "Keep telling yourself she's only your lawyer." The room goes quiet. Serena touches his arm. "I don't deserve this." Dante looks at her. Then at me. "You think there's something going on?" I don't answer. "You want to see what that actually looks like?" A chill moves through me. He turns toward the nanny. "Take Leo upstairs." Leo starts to object. "Now." The nanny takes his hand. I wait until they're gone before picking up my bag. Dante catches my wrist. "Where are you going?" "Let go." "You've spent years accusing me." "I'm leaving." He pulls me toward the stairs. I grab the railing. One of his men takes a step forward. Dante looks at him. "Stay out of it." The man stops. I look at his face. He won't meet my eyes. Dante pulls again. My hand slips. By the time we reach the bedroom, I'm struggling to stay on my feet. He pushes me inside. Serena follows. I turn toward her. "Tell him to stop." She looks at Dante. He shuts the door. I try to get past him. He catches my hands and pulls off his tie. For a moment, I can't understand what he's doing. Then the fabric tightens around my wrists. "No." "Stop fighting." "Then let me go." He forces me down beside the bed. Pain shoots through my shoulder. I look at Serena again. She's standing near the dresser. Watching. Dante reaches for her. "Come here." She does. "You've put up with enough from her." Her hand settles against his chest. I pull at the tie. The knot only gets tighter. "Open the door." Serena looks down at me. Then she turns back to him.