Page 31 of Broken Mafia Bride (His to Break #2)

RAFFAELE

I can’t believe the bastard tried to kiss her. It seems I can’t look away from her for two seconds without him crawling back like a cockroach and trying to make a move.

I expect Giulia to argue with me; she’s never gone along with being ordered around, but to my surprise, no argument is forthcoming.

“Goodnight, Marco.” There’s something in her voice that makes panic come to life inside me. A certain intimacy in the words, born of a level of connection.

I tense, glancing between them with mounting suspicion. Is it possible she’s not telling me everything? I expect that sad puppy look in the fisherman’s eyes, but not in hers. A dull ache settles in my chest, and I swallow hard, forcing back the lump rising in my throat.

The fisherman flicks his gaze over to me. The glance barely lasts a second, but it’s enough to have me gritting my teeth in annoyance.

“Night, Ariel.”

That stupid nickname again. What the hell is it even supposed to mean? My jaw clenches even tighter until I can feel a headache pulsing at the side of my head. If I clench any harder, I’m going to chip a tooth.

Finally, Marco buries his hands into his pockets and trudges back into his house. I spot the outline of a woman standing by the front door, arms wrapped around herself, and curiosity sparks for a moment. I start to ask Giulia if the fisherman has already replaced her, but I think better of it.

Things are far too tense between us for me to bring up something like that.

“Let’s go,” I say brusquely.

Hazel eyes flash at me, and I brace myself for her anger—but I’m left disappointed when she just lets out an exhausted sigh and walks off in the direction of my car.

The Giulia I know would’ve cut me down to size and raised hell if I ever tried to boss her around like that, but the one now stiffly buckling her seatbelt beside me looks like she just wants to be far away from me.

A hundred different words rise in my throat—an apology, an explanation, reassurance. But they all feel weightless, inadequate.

There’s a solid, reinforced steel wall between us now, and I don’t know how to break through it.

I know how to handle the temperamental Giulia—the one who would’ve screamed in my face about how stupid I was, who would’ve fought for her future tooth and nail.

But now, I’m floundering, unsure of what to say to reach her.

Ditching Isa isn’t an option now, but I don’t have many to choose from.

The rest of the car ride is filled with the heavy, pressing weight of silence. The silence isn’t empty—it’s crowded with everything we’ve left unsaid.

She looks so tired, and I want to fix this for her. Get our daughter back, rewind time so I never touched a bottle, never went anywhere near Isa. My palms are clammy around the steering wheel, and sweat drips down my back even though the air conditioning is on full blast.

Finally, I pull the car into the massive garage of Casa Bianca and turn it off.

“Giulia, I?—”

She hurriedly pushes her car door open and marches into the house. I take a deep breath before trailing after her. Giulia walks straight to the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge.

I lean against the kitchen island, watching her as she gulps down the water, throat bobbing. I can almost hear the thoughts racing through her mind with her gaze fixed somewhere across the kitchen.

Why? How did it happen? Was she the only woman you could possibly be with? How many times did it happen? So when you said you’d end it all, was it because you were feeling guilty? Did you enjoy it? Was she better than me?

And that’s something I’ve also been asking myself since this whole debacle: What happens now?

Finally, she drops the bottle on the counter and leans against the fridge. “Say what you want to say, and then we’ll close this entire discussion forever.”

I scoff. “I doubt you’ll hear a word I’m going to say with that attitude.”

Her mouth presses into a thin line. “I shouldn’t even be allowing you to fill my head with more lies.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Giulia, I never lied to you. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

She swipes her tongue over her lower lip. “It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think?”

“I never meant for any of this to happen,” I tell her. “It was a drunken mistake. I was lonely, miserable, drunk, feeling hopeless from running into dead ends upon dead ends searching for you. You don’t know what it was like for me these past few years.”

Giulia slants me a look. “So this is my fault?”

“I never said that.”

“Then what are you saying?” she cries, turning away to rake a hand through her hair. “Because I don’t get this. How could you boldly march into this place and make promises when you knew there was something between you two?”

Tears cling to her lashes, and she quickly blinks them away. “Face it, Raffaele, you lied to me.”

“And so did you!” I roar, my temper snapping. I advance to her, fingers curled so tight into fists at my sides that my nails bite into my flesh. The pain there is nothing compared to the way the rest of me feels, like it’s slowly being passed through the grinder.

“I never lied to you.”

“You hid my child from me for years,” I point out. “When were you going to tell me about her?”

And then another sickening thought flashes through my mind.

“Were you ever going to tell me about her?”

“This isn’t about me right now. You slept with my cousin.

Out of the millions of women in Chicago, why did it have to be her?

And how can you stand there and say it meant nothing?

You’re marrying her, and she’s carrying your child,” she continues.

“Where does that leave me? What’s the plan here, Raffaele?

Are we all just going to live happily ever after in some twisted domestic fantasy and pretend this isn’t insane? ”

“Can you just stop!” I grab her by the shoulders. “We can work through this, baby. This isn’t the worst thing that’s been thrown in our way.”

“Maybe,” she replies, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “But maybe everything that’s been thrown our way is a sign that this was never meant to be, and it’s high time we read the writing on the wall.”

My blood turns to ice in my veins. “You can’t say that.” I bury my head in the crook of her shoulders. “How can you say that? Fate wouldn’t be so cruel. Giulia, I love you. I love you so much, baby, and I can’t lose you.”

“Raffaele—”

“I can’t,” I tell her fervently, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to her soft skin.

“This isn’t a good time for me—for us.” Her voice breaks a little. “I don’t know what’s left for us, but I think we should both focus on Noemi right now. She needs us. I need to put one hundred percent into finding her—for now.”

I understand that—fully. Or at least a part of me does—the logical part that knows she’s in a difficult place. But then there’s the desperate side of me that sees this as goodbye, as her giving up on us.

“And then? After you find her, what’s next?”

“Please, don’t ask me that.”

Her pulse is fluttering wildly in her neck, and I drag my mouth to it, my lips brushing softly over that pulsing spot.

“Say there’s a chance for us. Tell me this isn’t it.”

Giulia makes a slight choking sound and pulls away from me, eyes wide. Even though I can see the tremble in her hands, her voice is surprisingly steady when she says. “As I said, finding Noemi is what’s important. Let’s focus on that.”

She starts to step away, but I shift to the side, the move causing our bodies to be pressed close together, mouths barely an inch apart.

I can feel her ragged breath against my mouth, and I want to close the distance between us, take her mouth into mine, and taste her fear, let her taste my desperation in turn.

“Giulia.” I reach for her, fingers brushing the inside of her wrists. She shivers, a soft, barely audible gasp slipping out of her mouth. Electricity crackles and pops between us, the room seeming to come alive.

Just for a moment, though?—

Her eyes flutter shut for a long second, and when she opens them again, there’s determination shining in her hazel gaze.

“Don’t make this harder than it already is. Let me go, Raffaele. Let this—us—go.”

This time, when she pulls away, I’m powerless to stop her. I can only watch as the distance between us grows wider and wider—until it feels like she’s a whole world away, somewhere I have no hope of ever reaching her.

When she leaves, the kitchen gets dimmer, colder. She’s taken all the light away with her, and with it, the last bloom of hope that had begun to come alive inside of me. I can feel it wither now, leaves falling and scattering.

“How touching,” Isa’s voice cuts in from behind me.

I try to ignore her, but she steps around to face me, a strained smile fixed on her lips.

“Almost brought a tear to my eye,” she says, voice calm and measured. “It’s the kind of moment that belongs on screen. Well played.”

I spare her the briefest of glances. “Go to hell.”

She grabs my arm before I can walk away. “You heard Giulia, right? She doesn’t want you.”

I shrug out from her hold and continue on my way. I’m barely in control of my legs as I stagger through the dimly lit hallways. Once or twice, I almost turn around to go in search of Giulia again, but Isa is right about one thing.

She doesn’t want me.

I tear my bedroom door open and stumble into it, ripping off my clothes right from the doorstep. My head is spinning, and the itch for alcohol is almost overwhelming, but I haven’t touched it since that unfortunate night with Isa.

That night was all the lesson I needed about the effects of alcohol. After all, it’s cost me the one thing I care about on this fucking planet.

I turn on the shower and step under the punishing cold spray. The water hits me like icy bullets, causing goosebumps to rise on my skin. I stand there for what feels like ages, a husk of a man. A man who lost everything, finally found it, and lost it all over again—and maybe for good this time.

There’s no solution to this.

Giulia has made her decision, and I’ll respect that. I have no choice but to. I don’t even blame her for not wanting to get tangled up in this complicated situation with me.

The pain I feel is a thousand times worse than all the bullets, knives, and punches I’ve taken in my life. This one isn’t fleeting, and popping painkillers isn’t going to stop it.

A bitter laugh slips out of my mouth when it suddenly hits me—I spent years of my life trying not to be my father, trying to be a different man.

I made different decisions, allowed myself to fall in love…

but somehow, I’ve ended up exactly like him: a bitter man with a family and a marriage he wants no part of.

Maybe fate is truly as cruel as Giulia says. Maybe it would have always come to this no matter the path I took.

I tilt my head back and allow the water to run down my face. Here, at least, I can lie to myself—that the shower is the reason my face is wet, and not because, for the first time since I was a scarred, helpless little boy, my heart is in pieces, and I can’t hold back the tears.