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My Deadbeat Husband Was a Cheating Mafia Don
Novelix
Completed
"For six years, I worked three jobs. I paid the bills. I begged strangers on my knees to keep my husband out of jail. I carried my sick daughter fifteen blocks to the ER because he said his PTSD was too bad to drive. Then his precious ""sister"" got kidnapped — and he crashed a bulletproof SUV through a warehouse wall with five million in cash and a team of armed men. My deadbeat husband is a former Mafia Don. He owns a security empire. He's been wiring hundreds of thousands to my stepsister behind my back. And when a gunman forced him to choose between our daughter and her son — he didn't choose ours. I'm done playing the fool. This time, I'm the one who burns it all down."
Chapters (2)
第1章
My sister gets kidnapped, and the husband I've fed for six years turns out to be a Mafia don.
It starts with a phone call. Vanessa's voice, screaming, then the line goes dead.
Ryan goes white. Then he grabs his keys and asks me to stay home.
I figure he's calling the cops. I turn on the news to check for updates.
That's when I see it.
A black armored SUV crashes straight through the gate of an abandoned factory. Armed men pour out behind it. And the driver, the man who jumps out and charges in like he owns the building and everyone in it, is my husband.
My husband, the one who can't drive two blocks without gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles go white. The one who told me he volunteered in a disaster zone overseas and came back with PTSD so bad he couldn't handle a grocery store, a crowded sidewalk, or a dark room.
The news banner reads: FORMER MOB BOSS TURNED SECURITY CEO RESCUES KIDNAP VICTIM.
I read it three times. Then I laugh.
They bring Vanessa out on a stretcher. She's shaken but fine. The cameras love it, the dramatic rescue, the brave man, the beautiful victim.
At the hospital, I find them. Vanessa's tucked into a clean white bed, and Ryan's sitting beside her like a guard dog. My parents, well, my aunt and uncle who raised me, though I've called them Mom and Dad my whole life, are fluttering around her, smoothing her blanket, whispering for her to rest.
Nobody looks at me.
I stare at Ryan. "You can't drive, huh?"
He doesn't answer.
"Lily had a hundred-and-four fever in the middle of the night. I begged you to drive us to the ER. You sat behind that wheel shaking like a leaf, telling me your trauma was too bad. Remember that?"
He still doesn't answer.
"She almost died, Ryan. She ended up in the ICU because we got there too late. Because I had to carry her fifteen blocks in the dark. And tonight you crash a bulletproof truck through a wall with five million in cash to save someone else's sister?"
Vanessa shifts in the bed. She leans into Ryan's arm, her voice soft and shaky. "Don't blame him. Years ago, he got into an accident while driving me. After that, he promised he'd never drive anyone else. Only me."
She looks at me with those wide, innocent eyes. "Don't misunderstand, Emma."
Ryan finally speaks. He pulls me toward the door. "Let's talk outside."
"No. Right here."
He sighs. The way he always sighs, like I'm the unreasonable one.
"I didn't want you to know what I used to be. I didn't want you and Lily depending on that version of me. If you'd just asked—"
"Asked what? 'Hey honey, are you secretly a mob boss?' Is that what I should've asked?"
"You're making this bigger than it is."
Uncle Mark cuts in. Quietly, because Vanessa just fell asleep. "Ryan's right. He never hid anything. You just didn't ask. That's on you, Emma. You didn't care enough about your own husband."
I stare at him. At all of them.
Six years. I worked three jobs for six years. Waitress in the morning, clerk in the afternoon, cleaning offices at night. I paid for his therapy. I paid our rent. I put food on the table. When Ryan got into a fight and ended up in county jail, I was seven months pregnant, on my knees in front of the other guy's family, begging them to drop the charges. When someone called him a kept man and I saw the look on his face, I handed him every dollar I'd saved so he could open a business. He lost it all. I didn't say a word.
And now they're telling me I didn't care enough.
"I want a divorce."
Uncle Mark's face twists. "You'd really do this? After everything he just did for your sister?"
"Divorce," I say again. "I'm done."
第2章
Ryan doesn't pretend anymore.
He pulls up to my building in a black SUV I've never seen, the kind with tinted windows and reinforced panels. There's a man in a dark suit standing by the passenger door. Another one across the street, watching.
Ryan rolls the window down. One hand on the wheel, relaxed. He flicks a cigarette out and crushes it between two fingers.
This is not the man who trembled at red lights.
He hands me a folder through the window. "Vanessa's worried you'll go through with the divorce over a misunderstanding. She asked me to explain everything properly."
I open the folder. It's a postnuptial agreement. Pages and pages of assets I never knew existed. Properties. Overseas accounts. A company called Blake Security Group, international contracts, private military clients, eight-figure revenue.
My husband, the one I fed and carried for six years, owns a security empire.
"Behave yourself, Emma. Lily has a trust fund. When she turns eighteen, she'll have enough to live on for the rest of her life." He smirks. "As long as she doesn't run off with some guy at eighteen like her mother did."
My fingers go white around the folder.
"Run off with some guy? Ryan, I was eighteen and the guy was you. You're calling that running off?"
He blinks. His eyes dart away. "That's not what I meant. Don't twist my words."
"I'm not signing this. I'm filing for divorce. You'll get the court papers."
He slams the steering wheel. "Why are you being like this? Fine, I kept things from you. But who told you not to ask? Lily has cerebral palsy, she can't run a company. So I'm leaving it to someone in your family. Vanessa's boy, Noah. Your nephew. He'll take over, and when he does, he'll take care of you and Lily. You should be thanking me."
He tells me to learn to be grateful. He says the fact that he didn't go find some other woman to give him a healthy heir already proves how much he respects our marriage.
I close the folder and toss it back through the window.
"Court papers. Watch your mailbox."
I go to pick up Lily. She's at my parents' place, Uncle Mark and Aunt Linda's.
Vanessa's there. So is Noah.
Vanessa's six years older than me, but strangers always think I'm the older one. She's wearing a silk scarf around her wrist, the exact shade of green I'd been eyeing for months but couldn't afford. It's holding a designer bag I could never dream of buying.
I notice a keychain on Noah's backpack. It's a character from Lily's favorite cartoon. Lily reaches for it.
Noah yanks it away and stomps on it. "I'll break it before I let you have it. I'll just tell Uncle Ryan to buy me another one."
Vanessa gives me an apologetic smile, but her eyes say something else entirely.
"Ryan bought that for Noah on a trip abroad. A birthday present." Then she tilts her head. "You know, Ryan rescued me because I'm the director of operations at Blake Security. I handle major accounts. If something happened to me, the company would suffer. I'm not like you, Emma, I'm not just a housewife. I actually help Ryan with his career."
"He never hid anything from you. Mom, Dad, and I all knew what Ryan does. You're the only one who didn't. Maybe you should've paid more attention to your husband." She pauses. "He's a hero. He just didn't want you and Lily being too dependent on him."
I'm about to tell her to get out when I hear it.
Lily's coughing. Hard.
I spin around. Noah has Lily's dinner bowl on the floor. There's a jump rope looped around her neck, and he's pulling it, forcing her head down toward the bowl.
"Come on, puppy! Eat your food!"
There are two red welts across my daughter's throat.
I shove Noah away. Hard. He stumbles and starts wailing.
Aunt Linda scoops him up instantly, rocking him, shushing him. Uncle Mark points at me. "What the hell is wrong with you? He's a child! You're always picking on him, picking on your sister, you've gone crazy!"
Ryan appears in the doorway. I don't know how long he's been standing there.
Lily sees her father. She reaches out her little hands.
Vanessa's faster. Her eyes are already red, her voice already trembling. "It's my fault. I haven't taught Noah well enough. He doesn't have a father to guide him." She nudges Noah. "Say sorry to Uncle Ryan. Quick."
Ryan looks at Noah's tearful face. Then at me. "Let it go, Emma. He's just a kid. Don't make this into something it's not."
He doesn't look at Lily's neck.
My daughter's arms are still reaching for him.
He doesn't see.