Becoming Mrs DeLuca novel Chapter 104

Chapter 104

ADRIAN

I closed the door on Valentina’s terrified face before facing Rico, who was still holding his gun. Despite the almost irresistible urge to pull my own, I didn’t. I still had to show respect to Rico and he appreciated me more than most of his other Underbosses. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill me. There wasn’t a man or woman that Rico wasn’t capable of killing, except for his wife and daughters- maybe.

“Did you kill Serena?” He suddenly asked.

“No. I didn’t even consider it,” I said. “She killed herself, like I told you. She missed him too much.”

The pain of the past didn’t come this time. Serena was the past. Valentina was my present and future. She’d shown me what it meant to love a woman as fiercely as I loved my children.

Rico sheathed his gun. “I expect the truth from my men.”

I swallowed, knowing that we were starting to breach dangerous territory. “I didn’t want anyone to find out that Serena had cheated. Some people did, of course, and their reaction was bad enough.”

Talking about my dead wife’s cheating with one of the men that she did it with wasn’t what I wanted to be doing right now, especially with him acting all high and mighty. I might’ve gotten over Serena but I definitely wasn’t over the anger I felt every time I saw Rico, I wanted nothing more than to put a bullet to his head. But, I swore to Valentina that I’d return to her, and I had every intention of keeping that promise.

“I understand,” Rico said simply. “I’m going to make sure Paul keeps his fucking mouth shut unless you want the truth out.”

The truth about Stefan and Sofia, about their blood, and why they didn’t look like me. “Stefan and Sofia are my children in every regard that matters.” I said these words while staring him down, like I was daring him to disagree with me. Of course, Rico had no idea that Stefan could be his, but I knew. “They can’t ever find out the truth.”

“They won’t.” Rico picked up his phone.

How could he do this? How could he pretend so easily? How could he talk about Serena’s affair like he wasn’t part of it? Like he didn’t betray and disrespect me?

“I should handle it.”

Rico smiled wryly. “Your wife might not be happy if you kill her father, and Paul knows that. However, he knows I wouldn’t hesitate to end his sorry life.”

I inclined my head. Rico had killed family members before, so Paul definitely couldn’t hope for mercy.

Rico pressed the phone to his ear. “Ahh, Paul, I hear you acquired some interesting tidbit of information. Have you told anyone yet?” Rico waited. “And it’ll stay that way. Understood? I think it would be best to discuss the matter in person, just so I can really get the message across you.” Pause. “No, you will meet me tomorrow at four p.m. Don’t make me wait.” He hung up.

to

I nodded my thanks because the actual words

“You lied about why you killed Lorenzo.”

“I wasn’t trying to. I-”

would never pass my lips.

Rico came closer. The gun was still hanging down in a relaxed way. The sight might have fooled someone who didn’t know Rico as I did. Rico was a born killer. Few men were as dangerous as him with and without a gun. “If that were true, you would have told me everything when I asked.”

I nodded. “Lorenzo was my soldier. When I killed him, it was under Chicago’s ruling.”

“Chicago is mine, Adrian. Everything is mine. You and all my other Underbosses rule over my cities in my name. Don’t ever forget that.”

“I don’t. But you trust me to rule in Chicago as I see fit, and you know I do it well. You don’t expect me to tell you about every incident in the city. You trust me to deal with them myself.”

“I expect you to tell me when there’s a traitor in the Brotherhood.”

I almost scoffed at the irony,

“Lorenzo was a rat.”

“Was he? Or was he just the man who fucked your wife?”

There it was… that cockiness that Rico always embodied. I’d spent years ignoring it, but not today. Today, I lost it. All sense of reasoning flew out of the window.

I scoffed. “That’s such a patronizing thing to say, don’t you think? Especially since you were fucking her too!”

Rico looked stunned for a moment, and I didn’t stop.

“What is it, Rico? Have you suddenly lost your voice? Tell me, how does it feel? How does it feel to stand in front of me every fucking time while we pretend like you weren’t in my wife’s bed that day!?”

“Watch your mouth, Adrian.”

I inched closer to him, staring him head on. “Or what? You’ll blow my brains out? Look at you! You’re a disgrace to the Brotherhood! You’re calling Paul and threatening him while acting like you’re doing me a favor but you’re a fucking traitor!”

“Adrian!”

“How does it feel acting all high and mighty every fucking day when you fucked my wife!? Does your wife know? You’re a fucking piece of shit! A fucking adulterer!”

Rico smiled then, and it took everything in me not to pull the trigger right there in his mouth. “You want to know how it feels Adrian? It’s feel fucking good. You know, I still hear her screaming my name in absolute pleasure. I close my eyes at night and pretend that it’s her under me, and not my wife. She felt fucking good!”

“Arrghhhh!” I growled, letting my fist work before my brain could catch up. My fist connected with Rico’s nose and I heard a sickening crunch. When I pulled back, there was blood on my knuckles and his nose was dripping.

“Say that again, I fucking dare you!”

His men had heard the commotion, and they came barging in with guns raised.

But Rico was laughing. He was a maniac. A fucking mad man.

He raised a finger and his men dropped their guns.

Then he started clapping. “Look at you, Adrian. All fucking grown up.”

My chest was rising and falling as I breathed in through the rage I was feeling. All the pain and anger I’d pushed down all these years was now bubbling to the surface and I felt like I would explode.

Rico continued. “This… this is why you’re my favorite man. This raw anger. This audacity. No one else has guts then his face became stoic all of a sudden. “But I guess it’s time we stopped playing games.”

like

you…”

I thought he was going to shoot me right there and then, but instead, he made his way back to his seat and crossed his legs,

“I was going to lay this all out when your wife was here because it would’ve been more fun, but I decided against it. She’s my niece after all, I have to care about her to some degree. Plus, she’s pregnant with your first real child, so it would be cruel of me to share this distressing news in front of her.”

I scrunched my eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

Rico relaxed in his chair and adjusted his tie smugly, taking his sweet time. “I know about the kid, Adrian.”

Panic filled my chest. “What?”

He scoffed. “You really want to play this game?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Rico?”

“Stefan. I know he’s my son.”

I shook my head, feeling my heart drop to the pit of my stomach. I could handle Rico’s smugness about sleeping with my ex wife, but not this. This was the one thing I never wanted him finding out. Rico didn’t have a son of his own. He and his wife had three daughters. And I knew how important having a son was to the men in our society, especially a man like Rico. He was our Don, so people never said anything to his face, but people talked regardless. Some didn’t think he deserved his position. He didn’t have a son to cement his status. But what he did have was power, so nobody ever dared to say anything to him.

If Rico really knew about Stefan, then none of us were safe. Stefan would be his chance to get the one thing he wanted the most. A son.

“No, he’s not.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “Oh please, save yourself the trouble. Did you really think you could hide it from me forever? Did you really think I was that stupid?”

I stumbled backwards. “H–how…”

He picked up his whiskey and chugged it, throwing his head backwards. Then he wiped his bleeding nose with the back of his sleeve, staining the pristine white material with blood. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Adrian. I’m not stupid. I knew there was bad blood between us. No matter how well you pretend, you’re still a man. Your ego was hurt, and I had to watch you like a hawk. I had to be ready at all times. I started suspecting when Serena suddenly died after Lorenzo. I knew something was fishy, but you tried to hide it so well.”

I shook my head again. I was starting to feel dizzy.

“My intuition has never failed me. So ordinarily, I would’ve let it die, but I just knew I had to keep watching. Then a month ago, Lorenzo’s grandparents suddenly put the family home on the market. They were going into assisted living and couldn’t be bothered to even clear the house. They just wanted it gone.”

“You bought it…” I said..

Rico clapped happily. “See? Now you’re keeping up. I bought the house and ransacked the whole place. You never know just how many secrets a house holds…”

I blinked at his words, and the way he looked at me when he said it. My mind immediately went to Serena and Valentina. He couldn’t know about that. There was no way.

“I found a journal,” he chuckled. “Lorenzo kept a journal. I always knew he was a pussy, but that confirmed it for me. But to be fair, it gave me exactly what I was looking for, so who am I to judge? Lorenzo had written everything down with evidence. His journal held timestamps and everything. I found out Stefan was my son through the journal, and that the girl is Lorenzo’s.”

“No…”

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