Page 79 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

I had to make a split-second decision. Hide my tears. Or hide the ultrasound photos.

The choice was a no-brainer. I shoved the images beneath the rumpled comforter on my bed and tried to smile at the older woman.

She froze at the sight of me. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even knock. I thought you were out, since there was no brooding bodyguard standing at your door.”

I forced a smile. “Lynx has the day off. Not sure where the other guy is. Maybe Mr. Guerra decided I didn’t need a babysitter today.”

She put a load of fresh laundry in a basket on the bed beside me. “He’s only protective of you because of what happened to his last wife.”

I peered up at her. “What did happen to her exactly?”

She made the sign of the cross over her forehead and heart. “I shouldn’t say, as I don’t have all the facts. It would be merely gossip.”

I grinned at her through my tears and patted the bed beside me. “I love gossip. Please. Sit. Tell me.’

She looked uncertain, but she leaned in, lowering her voice like someone might hear, even though there was no one in the room but the two of us. “I heard she was running around with another man behind Mr. Guerra’s back, the two of them plotting to kill him and take over his empire themselves.”

My mouth dropped open. “No! That’s…”

“Awful!” Virginia said, wringing her fingers.

“Yes, awful,” I agreed quickly, though that definitely hadn’t been my first impulse.

My first impulse had been to say, “Impressive.”

“Apparently, she wanted to have a Guerra heir but hadn’t been able to get pregnant. She blamed it on Carlos and started sleeping around behind his back, trying to get pregnant so she could claim the baby was his. This was back when Luca and Isabella were missing, and so if Mr. Guerra had died or been murdered, everything would have gone to the new baby. Or at least that’s what she thought.”

A sinking feeling settled low in my stomach. “And Carlos’s wife and her lover could have taken ownership for the next eighteen or so years. However long it took for that baby to grow up and take control of everything Carlos has built.”

Virginia nodded. “Yes. Exactly that.”

I hadn’t even considered that passing this baby off as a Guerra would mean it would be entitled to the Guerra fortune. That he or she would become a Mafia prince or princess, in line for the throne that Carlos currently sat on.

I hadn’t thought anything past keeping my baby with me and not having them sold off or stolen from my arms.

But I was suddenly realizing I had not thought any of this through.

I stared at Virginia, horror washing over me. “What happened to her? To Carlos’s wife and her lover?”

Virginia’s mouth formed a straight line. “It was very sad. She was found dead in a hotel room, her body riddled with bullets, blood everywhere.”

I widened my eyes. “Carlos…he killed her?”

Virginia lifted a shoulder. “We have no proof, of course, but we believe so.”

I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh my God.”

She nodded. “And the boyfriend…well, I do know about him for sure. He was kept down in the dungeon—”

My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me, what? The dungeon?”

She smiled a little. “They don’t call it that. But I don’t know what other name to give it. There are cages down there. Ones barely big enough for animals, but they keep people down there. Men. Women.”

My stomach churned. I was sure I was going to be sick. “They kept her lover down there?”

She nodded. “I took him food sometimes. Vile man. I could see the evil in his eyes. I didn’t linger. But then one day, when I went to deliver his meal, he was just gone. Mr. Guerra said I no longer needed to worry about him.”

That man was dead. I was as sure of it as the look in Virginia’s eyes that confirmed she believed it as well.