Romanced by the Mafia: The Don's Wife

Chapter 4

I balk at that. He was supposed to be asleep when I told him that!

Months ago. When he came in half sick, fever higher than it should have been, and me trying to play nurse. I had gotten medicine down him, spent the night making sure he would survive and changing out the cold towels on his forehead until the fever broke. Somewhere in the middle, I had fearfully asked him not to leave me, had told him I loved him, and meant it.

“What good does loving you do either of us, if Selene is who you want?” I counter, my heart aching. I keep my voice steady by force of will, my eyes on my glass instead of on him.

“I saw you there.” It comes out as a near whisper, and I clear my throat. He stops pacing, staring at the mantle instead of me. “I saw how she clings to you. How you look at her. I can't compete with that.”

A picture frame shatters against the opposite wall. “Where the f**k are our pictures, Inara?” I look up, surprised. Not by the frame shattering, but by him noticing. “What did you do with them?” His gray eyes flash, and I see something besides anger, but I close that thought down.

“I put them away.” I say simply, shrugging.

He narrows his eyes, walking up the stairs with deliberate slowness. I hear the door to the master bedroom open, and then close slowly. The atmosphere shifts. He had never been farther than the doorway of that room.

“Where is it?” He asks, coming back down the stairs.

“Where is what?”

“Where is the wedding photo? The canvas that you insisted be hung in that bedroom?”

Another sip of wine, then: “I took it down. I didn't think you'd care.”

He stands in front of me again, his eyes flashing. “And that's the problem, right there, Inara. You didn't f*****g think.” He strides back for the front door, then stops, calling over his shoulder. “I won't be back tonight.”

The slamming of the door makes me sigh. I turn the music back on as I hear him pull out of the driveway, and continue erasing my existence in this house. His words trouble me, but I push it down. He didn't care. Not for me, anyway.

****

The next morning, I am at the family mansion bright and early. I help Nana make breakfast, clean a few things she says no one else can get to. When I slip off my ring, and try to hand it to her, she pushes it back to me. “Not yet, dear girl. Wait a little.” I just nod.

Kieran shows up around noon, looking like thunder and a hangover. I keep my head down, and my thoughts to myself. “Nothing to say this afternoon, wife?” He makes the word sound like an insult. I just shake my head, and follow him and Nana into her study.

She fixes him with eyes that have seen more than he ever dreamed of, and sighs softly. “I heard Selene is back, boy. Have you taken to keeping her close again?”

He looks at me like I am the snitch in Sunday school.

“Dunnae look at her like she did something wrong. You're the one making it look like you forgot your vows and your sense over a pair of t**s and brown eyes.”

I stifle a laugh. I can't help it. I've never heard her be lewd before. Both of them shoot me a look, and I shrug. “Sorry! Nana said tits.” She smiles at that, and I can see a corner of his mouth twitching.

“Anyway,” Nana continues, her voice still cold as ice. “Are you wanting a divorce so you can marry that tart, then, Kieran?”

A beat of silence. He looks at me, and I can see anger there. When he speaks, his answer shocks me.

“No. I don't want a divorce at all.”