Her voice is tight with stress.
“We got mugged…uh…while we were trying to…”
But even as the lie forms around my thoughts, I can’t get myself to go along with it. The relationship I am building with Kayla this time around is different from what it was before. We have children. I cannot lie to her, even if I think it’s for the best. And it isn’t for the best. She is the mother of my daughters,and she is my wife.Lying will make her angry. It will destroy any trust I’ve managed to build so far.
I gesture for her to come into the bathroom and close the door behind us, just in case one of the twins decides to come wandering past.
Sighing, I start peeling my shirt off and wrapping it around my thigh to completely stop the bleeding.
“Please, Josiah, you can’t…”
“I’m a Brava king. I own Chicago. The entire city is mine. Tonight, one of my operations was attacked, and when we went to check on it, we were shot at.”
I speak calmly and get right to the point. Kayla is a brilliant woman. She is smart. In business, she takes a no-nonsense approach, so that is what I am respecting her with now.
“Bullshit,” she scoffs, shaking her head. But her eyes are wide with shock. “It can’t be true,” she insists.
“Think about it, Kayla.Reallythink about everything you saw back then when we first met. And everything you’ve seen now,” I tell her.
She falls quiet, watching me closely.
“The security?” she mutters.
“Personal bodyguards at home and the office. Full security teams around the estate.”
“The random bruises…” she whispers, looking away from me.
“Yeah, I told you I started kickboxing, but even back then you knew I was lying.”
She nods. Her face has gone slack, but I can see her mind racing.
“Kayla, I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t risk it,” I sigh. I wish I could explain how all I wanted to do was protect her, and I know how much it must have hurt her.
“So that’s why you broke up with me? Because you're some kind of mafia king?” she asks, looking up at me with wide, emotional eyes that are flooded with realization.
“Yes,” I say quietly.
“My twins,” she whispers, taking a step away from me.
“The girls are fine. I will never let anyone harm them,” I say immediately.
She nods again, but I can sense something inside her has switched off. Something has become more rigid, more closed off to me.
“Will you take us home now?” she asks quietly.
“Yes, I’m going to get changed, I’ll be five minutes.”
I watch her leave the bathroom. My heart is weighted with the truth I’ve just told her.
Ihadto tell her the truth. Lying to her would have hurt her. But I hate that look in her eyes. I hate the way I feel like she might see me as a monster now. Will she? Is that how she’ll see me?
The twins are fast asleep in their boosters in the back seat of the car. Kayla is silent. She hardly spoke a word while we were leaving, and she hasn’t said a single word since we got into the car.
I’ll need to give her time to process everything.
And I’ll need to have patience.
I’ve thrown her into a world she doesn’t understand, and now I need to find a way to guide her through it without losing her and my daughters. Not that I would ever let her leave.
