Page 1 of The Mobster’s Present

CHAPTER 1

ASHLEIGH

It’s a struggle to keep my gaze on my daughter’s pale face instead of on everything around us. This hospital room has become our home over the last week and a half. It’s not easy to find something to be grateful about, but right now I’m just glad that they found out what was going on, and that her leukemia is treatable with a high survival rate.

That doesn’t mean the road is going to be easy. I know it won’t be, but we’ve already started down it; every day Oriana gives me a new reason to be proud to be her mom.

She’s the bravest person I know. If she’s like this at three, I almost shudder to think about what she’ll be capable of later.

Later.

My heart sinks as I close Oriana’s favorite book. She’s been trying so hard lately to be happy, but I know she’s frustrated with being stuck in the hospital. I think she’s pretty much sick of me at this point, but I can’t leave her.

Her diagnosis has cost me everything I’ve been slowly building since I left Seattle with a positive pregnancy test in my hand, and the knowledge that if I stayed, I would die right along with my baby.

“I used to like sleeping,” Oriana’s sweet voice pulls me out of my thoughts, even while my heart breaks for her. She blinks up at me, her hazel eyes big, round, and almost too big for her face. “When can I get out of bed?”

“Soon,” I tell her again.

I don’t know how many times I’ve made that same promise. Soon to a three-year-old means nothing. Which makes it perfect.

And it also makes me feel like a liar.

“Are you in any pain?” I whisper the question, the quiet of her hospital room almost swallowing it whole.

But she’s looking at me and she hears me just fine. She’s always watching me recently.

I know she needs reassurance. She wants to make sure I’m still here but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. She needs to know someone is standing in front of her because everything is big and scary right now.

“I’m okay, Mommy.” Her voice is tired. It’s not a lack of sleep.

She’s exhausted, deeply, and I hate that it’s something that she’s experiencing. If I could trade places with her, I would without even needing to think about it.

“You’re halfway through the really, really tough part,” I try to encourage her while hoping everything goes according to plan and she won’t have to stay in the hospital longer than expected. “Can we watch two princess movies tomorrow?”

I lean over and kiss her forehead with a fragile smile on my face. “Of course. You choose.”

Oriana smiles softly and her blinks get longer as she starts to drift off to sleep. While I watch her, my mind drifts.

Everything has been uprooted in my life since Oriana was diagnosed, and when we started living in the hospital. The first thing that went was my job. Getting three weeks off with no notice, since I was technically a contract worker, while still having a sick child who will need care beyond that time, wasn’t going to happen.

I’ve been picking up some virtual jobs, but it’s not enough and it’s not something permanent, yet. Rent is coming due. The hospital stay is only the beginning. Everything costs too fucking much.

Last night when I couldn’t sleep, which is a huge problem right now, I looked up how much this is going to cost me. I can’t even think about it. I’ll throw up.

The cost is going to bury me. It’s not like our apartment is that great anyway considering the cost. In the quiet, the only thing I can think about is the cost.

It already took everything I could get together to leave Seattle. It wasn’t much; not nearly enough. But I ran because Romeo Amato liked to call me his.

His possession had nothing to do with love and everything to do with power and control. He thought he could use those around him while managing the family’s brothel. The wake of destruction he left behind him on any given day was something I could no longer be a part of.

Not when I found out about Oriana. I had no idea I would fall in love with her the moment I held her, or how deep the need to protect her is. When I was looking down at a positive pregnancy test while working at a brothel and crowned the current obsession of a sociopath, I knew I needed to leave.

It had to happen before he found out and before he did something completely off the rails, which really could have happened at any moment with him.

Romeo was violent, and he reveled in the pain of others. So, all in all, not a great father to have for one’s child.

Getting my life back together was a slow process. I had to be careful because I had no idea if Romeo would ever look for me. If he did, his reach was going to be more than I could account for. It’s not like I’m a master spy or anything.