The Clumsy Baker and Her Secret Mafia Husband

They say that money cannot buy true happiness. People who are very, very rich always say this inside their giant, luxury houses while drinking expensive juice. But right now? For a poor, cute girl like me? Money could save my life! It was the only thing that could keep my beautiful cupcake dream from turning into cold, gray ashes! I took a very deep, slow breath. I closed my big eyes and let the sweet, beautiful aroma of fresh strawberry cupcakes fill my lungs completely. Oh, wow! I loved this smell so much! It was the best smell in the whole wide universe! To me, it did not just smell like sweet sugar and ripe strawberries. It smelled like pure love! It smelled like a warm, safe, pink home! I opened my eyes slowly and looked around my tiny, precious bakery. I felt so proud! The pretty sign on the glass front door read Bella’s Sweet Heaven in sparkling, glittering gold letters. I looked at the walls. I painted them all by myself using a very soft, pastel pink color because pink is the absolute best color for happiness! The wooden tables were small, round, and perfectly clean. My big glass display case sat near the front counter. It was filled with pretty cakes with white frosting, sweet chocolate cookies, and delicious, golden pastries. Yay! Everything looked so beautiful! This bakery was not just a simple shop to me. No, no! It was my entire world! It was my biggest, most beautiful dream since I was a little girl baking sweet treats on a small wooden stool next to my kind grandmother. She always told me, "Bella, if you put love into your food, the world will taste your sweet soul." I remembered her soft voice every single morning when I turned on the big baking ovens. I wanted to make her proud of her little bird! "Oh, I am so very, very tired!" I whispered softly to the empty room, puffing out my cheeks. The bakery was completely quiet. I wiped a line of warm, salty sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. I was working so hard and so fast today that I did not even know a very funny, silly thing—I left a big, messy smudge of white baking flour right on my soft pink cheek! Haha! I looked like a clumsy little ghost in a cartoon! I reached up with my flour-stained fingers and pushed my large, round glasses back up the bridge of my nose. My glasses always slipped down when I was hot and stressed. It was so annoying, but I just giggled! "Only twenty cupcakes sold today," I muttered to myself, wrinkling my nose. I looked down at the small, cheap paper notebook on the counter where I wrote down all my math and numbers. I sighed heavily, a terrible, heavyweight pressing down on my poor chest. My heart sank deep into my stomach. "Only twenty! Oh no, oh no! That is not enough to pay for the ingredients. It is not enough to pay for the pretty pink lights. It is not enough, Bella! Not even close!" My small hands started to shake slightly. I gripped the edge of the wooden counter to stop the trembling. The sad, painful truth was that my beautiful cupcake dream was slowly dying right in front of my eyes! Every single day, the mean, angry men from the big banks called my phone. Ring, ring! They did not care about my delicious cupcakes. They just shouted at me with loud, scary voices! They wanted me to pay back the huge, massive loans I took out to open this shop. And every single month, my greedy homeowner made the rent higher and higher. He did not care that I was a poor orphan girl. He just wanted his green money! To keep this shop open, I worked fifteen long hours every single day. My feet always ached like crazy, and my fingers had small burns from the hot pans. Ouch! I slept only three hours a night on a tiny mattress in the back room. I worked until my bones felt completely empty just to buy basic ingredients like white flour, sweet sugar, and yellow butter. Right now, I was completely broke. I had zero dollars in my bank account. My stomach hurt every single hour from the terrible, heavy stress. I was so afraid that one day, I would wake up and see a big metal lock on my pretty pink door. That would be a total nightmare! "Please, God," I whispered into the darkness of the kitchen, feeling a little bit dramatic. I closed my big, innocent brown eyes very tightly. I clasped my dirty, flour-stained hands together like a good, faithful girl. I squeezed my eyes so hard that a tiny tear slipped down my cheek, leaving a wet line through the white flour on my skin. "Just give me a miracle! I don't need a lot of things. I just want a miracle to save my shop! Let tomorrow be a better day. Let a lot of handsome, kind, and very rich customers come inside my bakery with big smiles! I cannot lose this place, God. If I lose Bella’s Sweet Heaven, I have nowhere else to go in this big, scary city. I will be a homeless girl sleeping on the cold street! Please help me!" I stayed perfectly still for one minute, praying with all my heart and wishing for a star. Then, I opened my eyes. I took another deep breath and forced a big, bright, cheerful smile onto my face. I refused to give up! I was a strong girl! I had a pure heart, a good soul, and I truly believed in magic and happy endings! My grandmother always told me that the universe protects good people. I believed with all my heart that if you were a very good, kind person to everyone, good things would eventually happen to you! "Time to bake, Bella! No more crying! You can do it!" I scolded myself cutely, clapping my cheeks. I grabbed a giant, heavy plastic bowl from the lower shelf. I carried it to the metal table and dumped a fresh, heavy bag of white flour inside. Poof! A large cloud of white powder flew up into the air like a mini explosion! It was so funny! The flour went straight into my nose, making my eyes water. "Achoo!" I sneezed cutely, my whole body shaking like a little puppy. I giggled out loud at myself, rubbing my little nose with my sleeve. I picked up my big metal mixing spoon. I needed to start making the sweet vanilla cakes for tomorrow morning. If a miracle customer came tomorrow, I need to have the best cakes ready for them! I started to stir the flour, hum-humming a sweet, romantic song that I heard on the radio. I even did a little dance in my pink apron! Outside the big glass windows, the street was becoming very dark and very quiet. The warm, golden sun was completely gone now, hiding behind the tall buildings of the city. The sky above was turning a dark, scary, stormy gray color. The wind started to blow hard, whoosh!, making the green leaves on the trees dance wildly. It looked like a terrible rainstorm was going to hit the city heavily tonight. BOOM! BOOM! Suddenly, a massive, sharp, roaring noise cut right through the quiet evening air. It was incredibly loud! It sounded like a giant thunderclap, but it was much sharper and closer. The thick glass windows of my pretty pink bakery shook and vibrated against the metal frames. I gasped, dropping my metal spoon into the bowl. Oh my gosh! I blinked my big, innocent brown eyes in confusion. I stopped stirring my cake mix completely. I tilted my head to the side like a confused, cute little puppy, listening very closely to the outside world. “Oh! Are there beautiful fireworks today?” I thought to myself happily, my heart fluttering with excitement. A very bright, joyful smile instantly replaced my sad, worried look. My imagination started to run wild like a fairy tale! “Is there a romantic festival happening in the town square tonight? Wow, that is so wonderful! Maybe the people from the festival will get cold outside in the storm. Maybe they will get very, very hungry for something sweet. They will walk down this street, see my pretty pink lights glowing in the dark, and they will come inside! They will buy all my strawberry cupcakes and vanilla cakes, and I can pay the bank! This is the best day ever!” I giggled out loud at the happy thought, clapping my hands together superfast. I was so young, so innocent, and so completely separated from the dark, dangerous, and bloody reality of this big city. I had absolutely no idea about the real world! I thought everyone was good and kind, just like me! I did not know that the loud, terrifying booms were not beautiful festival fireworks at all. No, no, no! They were gunshots. Real, deadly, terrifying gunshots coming from big, heavy black guns. And the man who was firing those deadly shots? He was currently running as fast as a black panther down my dark, wet street. He was holding a smoking gun in his right hand, and his left arm was bleeding heavily from a deep, dangerous bullet wound. His heart was full of cold darkness, his eyes were full of pure murder, and his heavy boots slammed against the wet pavement as he looked for a secret, hidden place to escape his enemies. He was the king of the underworld, a man who destroyed empires with a single word. He was not a prince; he was a monster! My miracle was finally coming to save me. But it was not going to arrive in a peaceful, quiet way. The most dangerous, terrifying monster in the world was about to crash right through my front door, and my life would change forever!