Chapter One
Childish.Immature.Grow up.Stupid.Idiot.Useless.Waste of space.
The insults kept whirling in Mia Fabbri’s mind.She couldn’t get them out of her head.It was like they were cemented there with no way of escape.She was used to insults.Being the only daughter and the youngest child of six had been hard.
She’d been surrounded by brothers who could stand on their own two feet.Brothers she didn’t speak to, nor the rest of her family.She tried to avoid going to any functions they attended, and she also never extended an invitation for them to visit her with Giovanni, her husband who also happened to think of her as a child.That complaint had been heartbreaking.
All three of her friends had heard their husbands complain about them.She knew hers weren’t the worst complaint, but to her, it had cut to the core.
She didn’t know if she would have been happier to be in Tatiana’s position, where her husband found comfort elsewhere.Or Clarissa, who was boring, according to her husband.Then there was Liana, whose husband had called her a doormat.
Mia could handle all of them.If Giovanni had needed a mistress, fine, she would have made him pay for it, but she could handle it.If Giovanni had thought she was boring in bed, then it was simple—spice things up.She had watched porn and had read some erotic fiction.She could do all of that.She could even handle being called a doormat.
But to be called childish and have everything she loved thrown in her face just crushed her.
Life fucking sucked.
Back home, she had constantly been told what a failure she was, how she didn’t measure up to other women in the Colombo Mafia.
Her father had been so happy at the prospect of marrying her off.At eighteen, this marriage had been arranged, but for a good three years, something had happened to always get in the way.She did believe for a short time that Giovanni was trying to end the union, and now she was starting to think it was because he didn’t want to be married to her.
She kept trying.Mia knew Giovanni was trying to make this work.He’d organized an amazing Halloween party, or as amazing as an amateur could.Not that she could call herself a professional, she had just been better at organizing parties.
Her parents never knew she helped organize the best parties for them, and that Casey Owens, the woman who organized parties for her family, often reached out to for her advice.Casey had even hinted that if Mia ever wanted to not be a mafia wife, she would make a kick-ass event planner.It was something Mia kept to herself, because if anyone found out Casey had even suggested it, it would mean certain death.Mia appreciated that there was a chance for her to have a life away from all of this, only that was the illusion.If she attempted to divorce Giovanni, she had no doubt her parents would kill her.If not her parents, then her brothers.
Image meant everything to him, and she already failed since she was overweight and not the prettiest girl in the Colombo Mafia.
Her parents also didn’t like that she had become friends with what they called “misfits.”Her best friends didn’t quite fit in.They were all different, and it just so happened they had all been married off to husbands who were also friends, and some of the scariest men within the Colombo Mafia.
She took a deep breath and thought about all she had gotten through—Thanksgiving, the attack that had cost them a few members of staff, and then Christmas.
Mia looked around at her women’s shed.At first, it hadn’t seemed like much when Giovanni presented it to her a few weeks after their wedding.Now, she spent a great deal of time here.It was the only place she knew she could come where Giovanni couldn’t see her.He’d told her about all the security cameras in the house, so this was the only place she could call her own.
She sat on her comfortable chair, pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and just held on.
There was no possibility of a divorce, and what hurt more was, she had fallen madly in love with her husband, especially on their wedding night.She had been terrified about losing her virginity, thinking about the whole bloody sheets ritual, and everyone looking at them.Giovanni had insisted on just getting showered and lying next to each other.He had cut a small part of his arm to provide the blood in the morning.
They did have sex, but it had been away from prying eyes.Giovanni had even taken care of the sheets, so none of the staff knew what had happened.She didn’t ask how he did it, and he had seemed like the perfect gentleman.
Only, that hadn’t been true.It was all a façade.
He probably didn’t want to have sex with her on their wedding night, because she was too childish, or a complete and total failure.Her brothers had been taking bets on how long it would take for her to mess up.Just the memory of stumbling into that conversation broke her heart.Her own brothers expected her to fuck up.She was nothing more than a disappointment to them all.She couldn’t help but wonder if Giovanni was looking for a replacement.
Mia knew she was bound by rules that meant there was no other place for her to go, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find comfort and companionship elsewhere.
Looking around, she couldn’t help but judge her space with fresh eyes.She’d painted the inside of it pink, and there were fluffy cushions, and idea boards, and ...it was all so girly and immature.She decided to start tearing it down.It was time for the childish, hopeful Mia to disappear and fade away.She was not important.Growing up was.
Her hands stuffed with cushions and torn-up idea collages, she left her space, found one of the guards, and immediately asked him how she should handle the trash.Within a few hours, her space was bare, apart from a few pieces of furniture, but even that seemed immature to her.It was time to grow up and not look for the joy in the little things in life.She was not going to be a failure.
She had one job as a wife, and that was to present a perfectly respectable front for her husband, and to provide him children.They were still having sex, but it was a duty—her duty—and that was exactly what she would do.
****
Giovanni watched ashis wife completely tore apart her space.He had never told her he had also put security cameras in her women’s shed, so he could keep an eye on her at all times.
Mia didn’t have a clue as to why he installed the cameras in the first place.It wasn’t for their enemies, although the Colombo Mafia had quite a few, which he had to help take care of just a few weeks ago.
He tightened his grip around the stress ball he had been using for quite some time over the last few weeks.He had known married life was not going to be all smooth sailing, but he had thought they would have a longer honeymoon period.Of course, he knew this was all his fault.
