Page 2

TWO

Cillian

One Month Later

As much as everyone expected me to be sad over Meredith’s death like the typical widower. I wasn’t. Being married to Meredith wasn’t easy, and I never loved her. Hell I could barely tolerate her.

I no longer had to check in with her security every hour, no spending hours on the phone with doctors and psychiatrists about medicine and trying this or trying that to help her.

I would never tell Neal how much stress it put on me when I married Meredith. Would I do it again? Fuck no. Especially knowing she killed my son. But for Neal, I would have tried to find another solution. It kills me to see my friend so low and torn up over her death. I’d probably be the same way if my last blood relative was dead. Family has always meant everything to him. I hope one day he will be able to move on.

Probably why Mam(Mom) opened her heart and home to him.

I took a few days away from the office to play the part of the grieving husband but then went back to work. My restaurants and real estate offices can’t run themselves.

Today is a day for Mafia business. Father, his high-ranking officers, and I are headed to the Ireland Counsil. Wish we could get rid of the old fuckers, but they are supposed to keep us from gaining too much power. Like they could actually stop us if we wanted to take control all of Ireland.

We own the top half of Ireland, and my father’s cousin Seamus owns the lower half. All of Ireland was supposed to go to my father but Seamus decided to attack my family and held my grandmother at gun point until my grandfather signed over the lower half of Ireland to him before he killed both of them.

For years we have been at a silent war with them, but when my younger sister, Kayleigh was a baby, my uncle kidnapped her.

After we got her back my father set up a council that was to be the buffer between us. A security blanket of sorts. That way, neither one of us could overpower the other. Along with them trying to maintain the peace came a bunch of bullshit rules. One of those rules being that if I want to take my father’s place as the Boss of the Irish Mafia, I have to be married.

I’m less than a year away from my Mafia coronation ball. Now that is being threatened because of fucking Meredith.

“Don’t let them get to you,” Father tells me as we step inside.

“I know. Can’t believe Seamus already called this meeting, but, then again, I can since he is so greedy for power. I can’t wait for the day it will bite him in the ass.”

“Yeah, he’s a fucking asshole. Sorry, I wish you had more time before you had to find another wife.”

I nod silently as we all take our seats. I look around and see Seamus, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed his chest with a smirk on his face like he has everything all figured out.

“Cillian, I’m sorry to hear about Meredith’s death. Wonder why she killed herself? Couldn’t handle being with an abusive asshole like you?”

I raise my eyebrow at him but remain silent.

“Keeping quiet won’t keep me silent with the proof I have.”

“Seamus, you know the rules you may not speak until after the meeting has started,” Darragh Murphy, one of the council says from the head of the table.

There are six members of the council, three from the north and three from the south.

“Of course. I’m so sorry, Darragh.”

“Keep your damn trap shut,” he says.

I sit back and watch for the next ten minutes as Seamus’s high-ranking members take a seat on his side of the table, along with the rest of the council members.

“Okay, now that we are all here, let’s get this meeting started,” Darragh says.

“We are here to discuss the title of future Irish Boss of the north. We all know Meredith O’Sullivan, Cillian’s wife, died a month ago, and he has less than a year to the coronation ball. He must be married to claim the title. We need to discuss our options.”

“I say we hand it over to me. I’m more mature than Cillian. I’ve been married for years; my wife knows what is expected of her as the wife of the Irish Mafia boss. Plus, Cillian needs time to grieve his dead wife.”

“Absolutely not. Handing over my Mafia to you after what you kidnapped my daughter and what did to my parents will be the last motherfucking thing that I will ever do,” Father seethes as he slams his hands on the table. You can feel the anger come off him in waves. It’s almost suffocating. Not sure what pisses Father off more Seamus kidnapping Kayleigh as an infant or killing his parents.

“Easy, Peter. No one said that is what we will do,” Niall O’Connor, another member of the council, says.

“Niall is right,” Ciaran Kennedy replies. “Is it an option, yes, but we also have other options to consider.”

“What options?” I ask.

“As we see it, you have two options. Hand the North Irish Mafia over to Seamus, or you must get remarried within three months. That way, your wife has time to be properly trained to be a good Mafia wife,” Desmond O’Reilly says with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

He is another one of many greedy assholes sitting here at the table. His oldest daughter, Ide, has been after me for years and as soon as she turned eighteen, she was trying every way possible to be with me. Flirting, showing up to the bars I usually go to, tagging along to any meeting her father had with me.

I’m actually glad she isn’t here today. I have no patience to deal with her.

Father looks at me; he knows this decision lays in my hands.

“I will remarry in three months, but to the bride of my choosing.”

Desmond smiles. “Of course, we already gathered some possibilities for you to consider,” he says before sliding me a stack of files.

“Thank you.”

“We need your answer by the end of the month.”

I nod and silently agree.

Thankfully the meeting wraps up after that, we quickly leave. I do not want to get cornered by any of the council members for them to tell me why their precious daughter would make the perfect Mafia wife for me.

The next day, I meet with my father in his office. He had my Uncle James gather all the possible Mafia princesses for me to sort through,

“Alright, let’s sort through this,” I say opening the first file.

“Alessia De Luca. Fuck no, I like my balls attached to my body.” Emillia and Mateo would kill me in the most brutal way if I even considered bring that up with them. Plus, I’m not marrying a young teenager.

Father chuckled, “Yeah, I don’t see any of the De Lucas taking the idea of you marrying Alessia well. Okay who’s next?”

“Jade Garcia, but she is already engaged to Cruz Gonzalez. He is an associate of the Spanish Mafia. Let’s see, next, who is next… Bia Vasileious.” I scan through her file. “She is Leonidas’s younger sister; he will take over for his Grandfather when he steps down. She is turning eighteen next month. She has been homeschooled her whole life, she is a virgin.”

I don’t care about that whole virgin bride thing. She has been raised to be a Mafia wife by the women in her family.

“Seems promising.”

“Put her file aside as an option.” I do and pick up the next file.

“Canadian Mafia has two daughters: Hannah and Chloe, seventeen and eighteen years old. Went to private school, very protected and have been trained for their future roles as rich wives.” I read the file.

“No to Chloe; she just turned eighteen, and from my personal experiences with her, she’s an entitled bitch, which I won’t have for a wife, and no for Hannah as well. I have no interest in marrying someone under the age of eighteen.”

I keep going through this with each Mafia group and come up with a list of twelve names from Greek, Canadian, Ukraine, Serbian, Moroccan, Bulgarian, Japanese and Chinese Mafia families. Each of them have daughters above the age of eighteen who are not in a committed relationship. I didn’t even bother opening any of the files from the council because all that would do is tip the power balance between us and Seamus. The last thing I want to deal with is him having a temper tantrum because we have more power due to a marriage alliance. After that, we looked at the businesses each family has.

I will not be tied to a family who has any part in sex trafficking. That cancels out the Canadians, Ukrainians, Moroccans, Japanese, and Chinese.

We had Sionn, Father’s IT guy, look into the Serbians and found out his daughter is currently missing. Ana Todorka, who is the Bulgarian Mafia’s oldest daughter, has been a victim of kidnapping and was tortured for months. She is so petrified of men that she passes out when in their presence. I won’t make her suffer more by moving away from her family while she is healing. I may be an asshole, but I’m not that big of an asshole.

“Bia Vasileious. I know we have been at war with her family for years because of something between Grandfather and Xander Vasileious. Maybe we can come to a truce through a marriage contract?” I mention to Father.

“I can try, not sure if he will agree to it. He is a nasty, bitter old man.”

“Okay, let’s make a contract with him, maybe spin it with trying to ally together against the Ukraine Mafia. We know they have been relentlessly at war with them. If not, I will go with the second oldest daughter from the Bulgarian Mafia, Varvara Todorka.”

“Sounds good. I will work on a contract.”

“Alright, night Father.” I say as I stretch as I stand up, I’m mentally exhausted after spending hours going through files to find my future bride.

“Night, Cillian.” I leave his office and I called Aine to meet me at my penthouse. I need to work out a lot of frustration and fucking her seems like the perfect way to end the night.