Page 95 of Mafia King's Secret Baby

Luna complies with a suspiciously small amount of complaints. I think that she’s probably looking forward to breakfast, which makes me really, really hope that Francesca is in the mood to make French toast.

Then again, she seems to be in the mood for pretty much anything Luna wants.

Luna slips her hand into mine as we walk down the hall to the kitchen. I squeeze it, and she squeezes back.

“I love you, Mommy,” she blurts.

I smile. “I love you too, baby.”

“Do you think your friend has any other houses?”

Yes, of course he does. “I don’t know baby. Why?”

“Maybe he would like a house near our house,” she muses.

No.

This is what I didn’t want to happen. I didn’t want Luna getting attached to Elio. He’s not going to be a permanent feature in our lives.

She’s going to be heartbroken when we escape from here.

I stop in the hall and get down on my knees. Luna blinks, clearly surprised. “Mommy?”

“Luna. Mommy’s… friend is a special treat. He lives here in Italy, and we’re only here for a little while.”

“When are we going to go?” her eyes are getting a little teary, and I can sense the wobble in her voice.

I smile, hopefully to reassure her. “We aren’t going anywhere soon, baby. I’ll tell you when it’s time to go.”

“Will he come visit us?”

Oh, God. I’m about to be the worst parent of all time. I make a note to start saving for Luna to go to lots of therapy when she’s a little older.

“Maybe, Luna. I’ll ask him.”

She brightens. “Okay. I’m hungry.”

I stand and take her hand again, trying to walk through the guilt that’s threatening to consume me.

I just lied to my child.

There are lots of circumstances in which I alter the truth for Luna. Young children don’t process things like time the same way, and when she was a baby I used ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as my primary disciplinary model.

But I have never lied to her outright.

And I swore I never would.

I can’t risk it though. There’s no way that I’m going to ask Elio if he would like to come visit us in the States. It’s simply not going to happen.

If all goes according to plan, we’re never going to see him again.

I’m still trying to walk through the cloying feelings of guilt and anger at myself when we walk into the kitchen.

Luna gasps like she’s walking into Christmas morning. She turns to me. “Mommy, look!”

“I see,” I say with complete and total shock.

I can’t believe my eyes.