Page 90 of Mafia Daddy's Christmas Bride

It's better than the other fire, the one that wanted to consume us both.

The leather couch in my office has seen me through many long nights of work. Tonight, it'll be my bed.

I can't trust myself to sleep beside her, not with anger and desire still warring inside me.

Like her, I’ve made my choice. Loyalty to family over whatever this is with Isabella. Family always comes first.

Always.

16

ISABELLA

I wake to an empty bed, not surprised that Roman didn't return after our fight.

The morning light filters through the curtains, but it might as well be dreary and gray, the true state of my world.

I move through the morning routine like a zombie. Shower, dress, brush my hair.

My reflection stares back at me, empty.

Who is this woman trapped in a marriage with a man who thinks she's manipulating him?

A woman who can't even control her own destiny?

Mrs. Rossi nods politely when I enter the kitchen. Angelica must be in her room as she doesn’t have school today. Roman is nowhere to be seen.

"Coffee, Mrs. Ginetti?" she asks.

The name feels like a chokehold. "Yes, thank you."

I take the mug to the terrace, watching the city bustle below. It’s sunny but bitter cold. Too cold, but I don’t move. It’s the one thing I can feel.

Later, I put my cup in the dishwasher and then return to the bedroom. My design supplies sit in the corner of the bedroom.

I should work on Angelica's dress, but what's the point?

I'm just playing house in a life that isn't mine.

I had one lifeline, that phone, and I surrendered it. Not because I trust Roman but because I have no other option. Not if I want to increase my chance of surviving this.

What is the endgame for me?I wonder. Even if Roman finds who killed my mother, what then? Is there ever a time when all this is over and I can be free? Or will I forever be tied to Roman, a man I might have come to love, but now that possibility is dead?

"I'm already dead," I whispered to him last night. The truth of those words settles deeper into my bones today. My body moves, breathes, but the essential part of me, my soul, that part is fading away.

Why am I fighting to survive a lifelong imprisonment with the man who is my jailor and perhaps someday, my executioner?

Mother would be heartbroken to see me like this. She wanted to save me from exactly this fate.

Married off to secure family alliances, my dreams discarded like they’re nothing.

Like I’m nothing.

“Isabella!”

Turning, I find Angelica standing in the doorway of the bedroom, her face lit up with excitement.

"Can we sew today?”