Page 123 of The Mafia King's Secret Baby
We smile at each other. Then the smiles fade into something quieter, and we both feel it at the same time, the goodbye neither of us quite knows how to say. Too much has passed between us for things to ever go back to what they were. And we both know it. I can see that he genuinely cares for me, more than my so-called father ever did, and that means something. But caring about someone doesn't always mean a place in their future.
"Goodbye, Carlos."
"Goodbye, Sport." He pauses. "Oh, and Lily?"
I stop at the door.
"Thank you."
I nod once. And leave.
Rafaelle is waiting outside, leaning against the car with his arms crossed and his eyes on me the second I step through the doors.
"I thought you killed him," I say.
"I didn't." He pushes off the car. "I didn't want you carrying any regrets. You were in a bad place when everything happened. He seemed like..." He pauses, searching and failing to find the right words. "A decent piece of shit."
I press my lips together to keep from smiling. "A decent piece of shit?"
"Best I can do."
"Well." I reach up and straighten his collar, mostly just to have something to do with my hands. "Thank you. And thank you for letting me give him that money."
"It's your money." He catches my hand against his chest, holding it there. "You do what you want with it. Now that you're my wife, everything I have is yours anyway."
"Speaking of which." I tip my head back to look at him. "When are we converting the sex dungeon into a gym?"
His gaze flicks away from mine, but I catch the shift in his expression before he can hide it. He is definitely up to something. “I’ve actually been reconsidering. There are several things in there I think you'd find interesting if we—"
"Rafaelle."
"I'm serious, I've been researching."
"Rafaelle." I give him a look. "I am pregnant with your second child. I am not going anywhere near that room."
He stares at me.
Then his gaze drops to my stomach, and he smiles.
"The gym," he says finally.
"The gym," I confirm.
"Fine." He tugs me forward by the hand I'm still holding, steering me toward the passenger door. "But I'm keeping the restraints."
"Rafaelle!"
"Non-negotiable, Liliana."
I climb into the car, shaking my head, biting back the laugh that wants to escape. He rounds the hood and slides into the driver's seat, and for a moment we just sit there, engine not yet running, the city carrying on around us, ordinary and loud and completely indifferent to how full my heart is.
I spent months convincing myself that keeping Mila a secret was the only way for her to survive. I told myself I was protecting her. Protecting myself. I truly believed I was doing the right thing.
But it turns out, my life finally has meaning because of the one secret I was most afraid to reveal…
The Mafia King’s secret baby.
The end.
