Page 63 of Forced Mafia Bride
My voice echoed around the house, met with a cold, silent response. I’d never panicked before, not even when the worst things happened. So, this sinking feeling, like icicles creeping around the corners of my chest, and the sudden sweep of worry that enveloped me couldn’t be signs of panic.
“Rosa? Where the hell are you?”
I plucked my phone out to place a call. Avian had been on ground patrol duty. He said no one saw her leave the house. The cars were untouched under the shade. He wasn’t lying. I’d have been alerted the second she left the house, but I received nothing. Bare-chested, I marched out of the room, searching from every room in the house to the kitchen, to the foyer, and then outside.
I went round the house and….
My heart stopped thrashing crazily against my chest.
Under one of the trees in the backyard, with lit lamp posts lined across the pathway, she sat on the iron bench, her head thrown back, gazing at the stars. A gentle breeze ruffled the tips of her hair, and the hem of her white sundress flapped alongside it. I walked up to her, treading lightly to suppress my annoyance.
“I called out your name a dozen times.”
Like a little kid still reeling from the euphoria of virtual reality, slowly, her head lowered, and her focus came back to me, her lips holding a wistful smile.
“Three times, Niko. You called me three times.”
Her voice didn’t hold the usual anger I’d gotten used to. Instead, it was sullen and grave, like an echo of despair and immense pain. I searched her face: no tears, but there was a deep, unveiled longing. Despite the faraway look in her eyes,fuck, she was breathtaking. The pregnancy had done a numberon her cheeks and the rest of her body. She’d gained a bit more weight, making her look more adorable.
“Then, why didn’t you answer?”
She scoffed, the smile fading away. “You won’t believe me, but it sounded like your voice came from a million miles away. I guess I was somewhere else, in my own world.”
Exhaling deeply, I sat beside her, observing the subtle way her eyelashes fluttered when she nibbled her lips.
“Rosa?”
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up at me, eyes turning glassy under the golden light. Then, her gaze, as sad as it was, swept over my bare chest, and her frown deepened. “Where’s your shirt?”
“The shirt is not important.”
“It is. It’s freezing cold out here,” she mumbled under her breath while taking the purple shawl off her shoulders to wrap around mine. “Do you want to get sick?”
Narrowing my eyes, I caught her jaw in my grip and forced her head up toreallylook at me. While watching her fuss over my health was cute, she was not okay, and it was driving me nuts trying to figure out who I was going to put a bullet in.
“I’m not going to get fucking sick, Rosa. That is not important. Tell me why you’re sitting out here alone and why you were lost in your own world. What the fuck happened?”
And just like that, she crumpled in my arms, sniffling as she wrapped her arms around my torso and buried her face between my neck. Still, no tears but an excruciating pain I suddenly wished I could bear for her.
“Today makes it another year since Father died, and it made me remember everything else: what life was like with him around before the accident. He was the only one who cared. My mother dumped me with him, and he accepted me with openarms. No one loved me like Father did. No one.” She choked on a sob, hugging me tighter. “I mean, one would have thought that a man as busy as Cedric Gallagher wouldn’t have the time to raise a daughter among two sons. But he proved those thoughts wrong. He watched over me like a hawk and did the best he could to always show up for me. That was what took his life—caring for me.”
I lifted her face from my shoulders. “Don’t say shit like that.”
“But it’s partly true.” With a dry chuckle, she shrugged a shoulder. “Sure, Ronan confessed that he and Sean played a huge role in the accident. They wanted him out of the way because of their greed for power. But if you think about it, Father would have never died if he hadn’t come back home that day to take me to that darn party. Twisted, but I had a hand in it.”
Tightly, she clutched her chest as if she couldn’t breathe. Her cheeks puffed, and her face reddened. “It kills me, Niko.” The tears were pouring now, first as a silent roll down her cheek, then like a broken dam letting all the way out. “It kills me to know there’s nothing I can do to bring him back.”
Quietly, I held her because that was the only thing I could do while she cried her eyes out. I patted her back, one slow tap after the other.
“When I was younger, in my early twenties, I attended a charity event with Egor. That was the first time I met your father.” She stopped sniffling and looked at me, anticipating what I had to say. “You might not have understood a lot of things then, but Cedric Gallagher had a big reputation: powerful, ruthless,honorable.We never liked the Irish. There’s always been some invisible feud between us, but unlike your brothers, Cedric had our respect.”
A smile touched her eyes, and the next laugh that came out of her mouth was genuine, like a mix of relief and a breath offresh air. She put her head on my shoulder and cupped my knee with a hand. “Thank you.”
Warmth curled around my chest, spreading to my toes. I’d been with more women than I could count, but there hadn’t been a moment with any of them that measured up to what I felt now, sitting on this bench with Rosa holding me like I was her everything.Fuck,it was so intimate, it felt like home.