Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
During the last few months, she had made multiple garments and a couple of quilts, much to his surprise. He hadn’t expected the hot pink quilt that now decorated their sofa. Adele had run her hand along the back and said during the winter, she expected him to sit with her, all snuggled up underneath the blanket. He wanted to complain, but he didn’t.
Enzo realized that when it came to his woman, he’d do a great deal to make her happy. Even if it meant upsetting a fellow capo. Hank wanted to get to know his daughter. To see her. Enzo refused. Adele didn’t want to see or be part of Hank’s life. She certainly didn’t want anything to do with Isabella Bianchi.
“Take a seat,” Enzo said, pulling out his cell phone.
“My husband doesn’t know I’m here,” Isabella said.
“All the more reason to call him.”
“Please, listen to me.” She held her hand out as if to stop him from calling her husband, and Enzo looked at her, raising a brow as he waited. She looked very pale and he saw her hand shook. Isabella was afraid of him.
He put his cell phone down on the desk and looked at her.
“I know your wife is … she is my husband’s daughter.”
Enzo tensed up. If one word, one insult, left her lips, he was going to kill her.
“Any questions you have, you should take them up with him,” Enzo said.
“I know she’s pregnant.” Isabella offered him a smile. “I wanted to say congratulations to you.”
He pressed his fingers together, watching the woman before him, wondering what her game was.
“Hank would like to have a relationship with her.”
“Adele doesn’t want to have anything to do with him,” he said. He looked toward Isabella. “If anything happens to my wife, I will come looking for you, and regardless of the respect I have for your husband, it won’t stop me.”
Isabella went pale, so incredibly pale. “Twenty-three years ago, I made a big mistake.” She pressed her lips together and when she looked up at him, Enzo saw the tears in her eyes. “Do you know what they used to call me?”
Enzo shook his head, not at all interested in this woman.
“I was a stunning beauty.” She gave a little chuckle. “Any man who had me would consider me a prize. My beauty was the talk of the city. My father was so proud that I caused many a head to turn, and he got many offers. My hand in marriage, and being a virgin, was a heady combination, and I got Hank Bianchi—the scariest, sexiest man in the mafia. He was coveted by a lot of women, and I knew several had been offered, but it was me he chose. I became his wife, and I thought it was going to be the perfect match, not something arranged. He and I would be the power couple.”
He watched as Isabella stopped and pursed her lips.
“I fell madly in love with him. For Hank, it was business. We had a son, and then another son. He did his duty, providing heirs, and we had a daughter, and then something changed. The Hank I knew never smiled. He never looked happy. It wasn’t the perfect married life I dreamed about, and then I heard the truth. The rumors that Hank had taken a mistress. Carla Shanks.” Isabella smiled and he watched as the tears fell. “I was devastated. I was a laughing stock. With my beauty and the perfect life, my husband didn’t want me. He wanted a woman who wasn’t even in our circle. She had nothing. She was a no one.”
“And you nearly got her killed.”
“I had never known anyone to … Hank loved Carla. I wanted her dead, and I paid someone to make it happen.” Isabella tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “That was the first time he ever laid a hand on me. When he knew what I had done, he slapped me so hard. Hank had never hurt me, never raised a hand to me, but he told me in that moment that I was dead to him, and if I ever hurt Carla again, he would make me suffer greatly.” Isabella laughed. “He doesn’t even realize that for the last twenty-three years, he has kept true to his promise. Do you know what it’s like to be in a home with someone you know will never love you? Who will never look at you the same way you saw him look at another woman? A woman that doesn’t even rival you in looks?”
“I wanted Hank’s love. I wanted him to want me the same way he wanted Carla, but I knew that was never going to happen. Before Carla passed, she came to us, at our house. She was so weak and so sick. I watched as Hank held her. For twenty-three years, they had stayed apart. I knew Carla wouldn’t be with him, but she needed him to take care of their daughter.” Isabella reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. “This is for Adele. I don’t expect her to forgive me. I know I messed up, and trust me, I am paying the price for that, but Hank deserves to be part of her life. It was my fault that he constantly got pulled away from Adele and Carla.”