Page 42 of Righteous Enforcer
I close my eyes, indulging in the fantasy.
What if I had found another way?
What if I had trusted him enough to tell him everything, to believe he could protect us both from his father's wrath and the Bratva's vengeance?
I imagine waking up every morning beside him. Mirabella running into our bedroom on Sunday mornings, diving between us.
Family dinners…
Teaching her to ride a bike…
Movie nights.
Birthdays.
Holidays.
Ordinary Tuesdays made extraordinary simply because we were together.
I imagine Adriano teaching her to be brave.
Showing her what it means to be loved fiercely, completely.
Our home would overflow with laughter and light.
Maybe we'd have had more children.
A little boy with Adriano's gray eyes and defiant chin.
A family, whole and unbroken.
This is the life we should have had.
Could have had.
But that life was never possible for us.
Not with my secrets. Not with his family.
Tears slip down my cheeks at the thought of what I’ve lost, what we've all lost.
Sleep beckons, but my mind refuses to quiet. Adriano and I are trapped together now, forced together for Mirabella's safety, for our survival against the Bratva.
I close my eyes and see him again.
The hardness in his expression when he pulled away from our kiss.
The walls I could see rising to keep me out.
And how can I blame him?
I made him mourn me.
I kept his daughter from him.
I shattered the trust he placed in me, even if I believed I was doing the right thing.
He has every right not to trust me again, every right to look at me with suspicion, every right to wonder what else I might be hiding.
