Beauty and the beast: A Modern Day Fairytale Billionaire Mafia Romance

by Georgia Le Carre

  Strange, but as if guided by the primitive instinct to protect what my body considered mine, my eyes found a bridesmaid sneaking glances at him. It took everything I had to push down that green-eyed monster of pure jealousy. Still, I couldn’t blame her. He was a catch. A real catch. Everything a woman dreamed of. Sometimes, during the short time I was with him, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was not in a dream.

  The ceremony began and then it was completed. They were pronounced man and wife. Angelo grabbed his wife and kissed her passionately. The entire audience applauded and hollered. Even I had to smile at such a wonderful display of love.

  Then it was time for the reception. It was being held in the gardens of the Abbey. We melted into the crowd and moved with them towards the great marquee.

  Sienna’s wedding planner had done a wonderful job. In the golden light of the sunset everything was breathtakingly stunning. I took in the spectacular Abbey flanked by sheer cliffs on either side, and its beautiful renaissance gardens connected by pergolas of blooming wisteria. The terraces were alive with colorful gardenias.

  John and I had already begun the task of planning the flower beds at Torrington Hall. Next year, if we worked hard, we could have a truly splendid show of color. I could hardly wait to see our efforts. I caught myself when I realized I had absolutely no idea what next year held. I turned quickly away from the thought as today was about joy and a wonderful occasion.

  There was laughter, champagne was flowing, and a seemingly endless table of all kinds of food, but my eyes searched for only one person. Angelo and Sienna made a reappearance and everyone clapped and cheered. I saw him then. Just behind them. Suddenly, our eyes met. So he was looking for me too! I stopped breathing. All noises came to an end. The world stood still. There was nothing. No one else. Just us. My heart cried out for him. My lungs began to burn and I could feel my mouth opening to take in a breath.

  Then he turned his eyes away.

  I gasped for breath as I watched Matteo whisper something in his ear. I saw him frown and look around. There was a troubled expression in his eyes.

  Someone called. “Time for photos, everybody.”

  I thought I was well hidden, but I saw his father walking toward me. I saw his eyes drop to my belly, then he stood in front of me. “Come and join the family for a picture.”

  I was dumbfounded. He’d given me the impression he didn’t want me to be part of his family when we went to stay at his house in Sicily.

  “This is my father, Pete, and my stepmother, Laura” I said. I turned to my father. “This is,” I realized I didn't even know his name, “Luca’s father.”

  He nodded politely at my father, but it was absolutely clear he had no interest in him at all.

  “Come with me,” he invited again.

  “Be back soon,” I told my father and Laura.

  “Yes, yes, go. We’ll be waiting here,” they both said.

  I went with his father. To my surprise I saw Luca running towards us. His face was contorted with terror. He was shouting something. It was the last thing I saw before his father grabbed my hand and pulled it so hard, I lost my footing and started to fall forward. I heard a shot. A scream of shock tore out of my throat as my hands rushed forward to break my fall and protect my baby.

  The entire place descended into chaos as chairs and tables and ceramic flew in the air and shattered. The shout continued for another second and then there was another shot. It sounded too close to my ears and I screamed again.

  Everything happened so fast, that I couldn’t make up a reasonable sequence for the disaster unfolding around us.

  The bullet had sounded too close for comfort, but I didn’t feel any pain so I knew I hadn’t been shot. Next to me I could see that Luca’s father was unhurt. I turned my head to look for my father and Laura as I heard two more gunshots but I could see that they were on the ground cowering with all the others.

  “Skye!” I heard Luca call sharply.

  Chapter 54

  Luca

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByfFurjQDb0

  -You Are The Reason-

  It felt as if I was losing my mind. I could not believe what I was seeing. It could not be. It just could not be. I dropped to my knees next to her. My hands were shaking. Jesus, God, no. Not her. Not her. Not my miracle.

  She was looking up at me, with a strange expression on her face, as if she was surprised to see me, as if it was me that was hurt, as blood was oozing out of her wound and spreading into her stomach area of her lavender dress. The assassin had been aiming for my father, but he had hit her instead. Despite my father no longer being in the head of a Mafia family this was his fault. His past. You can leave the family but the past can find you anytime. It is the son of an old enemy out for revenge.

  One more shot rang out and I heard the shrill announcement. “It’s clear! We have him!”

  “Hey you,” she said softly. Then she frowned, her hands were still cradling her stomach. “What happened?”

  I shuddered as my hand went to touch her face. I was so terrified I was almost paralyzed. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “Everything is going to be alright?”

  She shook her head in a confused daze. Then her hand left her belly and she raised it up to a place where she could see it. She saw that it was covered in blood. “No no, has my baby been shot?” she asked as reality dawned.

  Immense panic gripped me at her words. In the distance, I heard my name called, but I did not turn away from her shocked, desperate eyes.

  She gripped the front of my shirt, and cried tragically, “My baby... Luca. My baby.”

  “Lorenzo!” I roared, as the first paralyzing shock of seeing her blood flow out of her wore off. He was our family medic and I knew he was present at the venue. “Where is Lorenzo?”

  He was already rushing to my side. I quickly made room for him so that he could examine her. As he moved his hands over her quickly, Skye’s father and stepmother dropped to the ground a few feet from us. They looked stunned. No one said a word. My father shouted for everybody to move back. Angelo and Sienna rushed over and stood looking down helplessly at Skye.

  Lorenzo turned toward me. Lorenzo was so afraid of me he was visibly shaking. Then he began to speak to me, not in English or Italian, but in Sicilian dialect. I understood immediately that he did not want anyone else to understand what he was saying. “It looks like the bullet has not hit any vital organs and the baby is still alive… but if you take her to the hospital, the doctors there might have to make a choice between saving the life of the child or the mother. They will always save the mother and let the child die. I am able to deliver the baby for you, but I cannot promise I can save her.”

  Burning fury flared in my chest. I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. What was the matter with him? Did he really think I was such a monster I would let her die? In a flash I remembered Alessa’s face as she begged me to let her live. How could I blame him? Everyone knew what I had done to her. And even today, I felt no regret. I was a monster.

  “Stem her blood flow. I’m taking her to hospital,” I said through gritted teeth.

  Someone had brought a first aid kit and he quickly and expertly bandaged the wound tightly.

  I immediately went into action. “Can I lift her?”

  “Maybe it’s better if we—”

  “I’m not waiting for a fucking ambulance. We’re in Italy. It could come in an hour.”

  “I was going to say that it would be better if two people carried her.”

  “No! I’ll do it myself.”

  I could tell the shock was now wearing off and Skye was trying hard to bear the pain. “It’ll be alright my angel. Everything will be all right. I’ll make sure of it. We’re taking you to the hospital now.”

  I lifted her carefully into my arms and headed straight out to the waiting SUV.

  “I’ll take you,” I heard Angelo say as he snatched the key from Matteo. “We’ll come with. you.”

  “No
!” I said. “This is your big day. There is nothing you can do for Skye. Everything will be fine. I’ll call you later.”

  My father spoke up then. “Your brother is right. Stay and calm your guests down.”

  “No,” he said stubbornly, “I want to support Luca,” but when he saw the look I gave him, he understood that I didn’t want him to come with me. I didn’t want to spoil his wedding any more than it had already been. He handed the keys back to Matteo and stepped back.

  “She will be fine,” he tried to assure me with a squeeze to my shoulder.

  Lorenzo got into the front seat while I carefully got into the back with Skye lying across my lap. Someone closed the door behind me and the car sped away. I stroked her gold hair. She opened her eyes and looked into mine. “If there is a choice to be made. Save my baby. He is my gift to you,” she whispered.

  My eyes filled with tears for the first time in years. God, how wrong I was. How completely wrong I had been about her. I had let the past cloud my eyes over. She was indeed an angel. All the emotion I had forced myself not to feel bubbled over. My tears fell on her fair cheek. “Don’t cry, Luca. I love you.”

  “Oh, my darling, darling Skye. Please forgive me for abandoning you all these months.”

  “There is nothing to forgive,” she whispered.

  “I love you, my brave angel, with all of my twisted, bitter heart.”

  She smiled through her pain. “You do?”

  “Oh, you will never believe how much.”

  “You can show me later.”

  “Yes, I damn well will. You’re going to be fine. Just fine. Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

  The car went over a bump too fast and jolted us. She cried out in pain.

  “For fucks sake, be careful,” I roared furiously.

  The moment we arrived, she was taken straight to the emergency room. I stood by her side as another doctor examined her. Lorenzo gave him the rundown of his initial examination and verdict.

  She was moaning in pain, her body and face twisted in agony. I held her hand tightly. I had never felt so vulnerable or defenseless in my life.

  “Her contractions are getting too close together …”

  The room began to flood with nurses.

  “Where’s the OB?” the doctor snapped.

  “She’s on her way,” someone else said calmly.

  “What’s going on, Lorenzo!” I asked in a panic.

  “The baby’s heart rate is dropping dangerously low with each contraction and she’s too weak to push, so they’re going to have to do a C-section right now,” he explained anxiously.

  “Get her prepped and into the OR,” the doctor commanded.

  “We have to take her now,” a nurse said.

  I kissed her lips. “You’ll be fine. I swear it. You’ll be fine. It’ll be over soon. I’ll be here waiting for you.”

  Then I let go of her hand.

  It broke my heart when she made a small frightened noise. They began to roll her out of the room. The swing door shut on my face. I could go no further.

  Everything had moved so fast and for the first time in years, I realized what being powerless and out of control felt like. I clenched my fists tightly. No. The outcome this time would be different, and I was going to protect what was mine. My wife and child and nothing was going to take them away from me. Nothing.

  Chapter 55

  Skye

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q

  The round lights in the ceiling as they rolled me into the OR barely registered. The only thing in my mind was the brutality of my contractions. Waves of pain coursed through my body and my fingers dug into my palms to help relieve some of the pressure.

  I had never in my life been in so much pain.

  But then I remembered his promise. Everything will be fine. I believed him, and that more than anything gave me the strength to hope for a time beyond this pain that seemed as though it would never end.

  The Anesthesiologist put a mask over my face. “Count backwards from ten,” she said kindly.

  10, 9, 8, 7… 6… then everything went dark.

  I woke up slowly. My whole body felt heavy. Even moving my fingers was an effort. I knew I was in a hospital. I felt fear. My lips moved.

  “My baby,” I called weakly. “Where’s my baby?”

  It was only then I realized I was not alone. There was an arm and a head on my thighs. The arm lifted and he straightened. I stared at him in shock.

  He looked haggard. More unkempt than I had ever seen him or thought was even possible. His eyes seemed to be full of pain, red and strained.

  I panicked. “Where is my baby?” I cried desperately.

  “It’s okay, It’s okay, he’s alive, but he’s too tiny. They put him in an incubator, Skye,” he said brokenly.

  I sighed with relief. “He’ll grow,” I said with a small smile.

  I raised my hand and rested it against the side of his face and he shut his eyes as if to savor the feel of my hand. I thought of the ride in the car when he said he loved me. Did I dream it?

  “You care about me?” I asked, my voice hesitant.

  His eyes immediately came open. “I love you, Skye. I love you.”

  My fingers slid into his hair as I grew desperate to hold him close.

  He responded to my silent request and moved his head till my lips could touch his cheek. “I waited so long to hear that.”

  I felt him shudder as he turned, and his lips moved across my face till they found mine, and the kiss was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted. He lifted his head. “I have a confession to make.”

  I knew he was no saint and I knew how sexual he was. Sometimes we would have sex five or six times a night. And that all these months without me, I knew he would have been with other women. In fact, I didn’t want to know. I put my finger on his lips.

  “Don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter. It’s the past. I love you and nothing else matters.”

  “You don’t even know what I’m going to say, do you?”

  “You were going to tell me you were with other women, weren’t you?”

  He shook his head in wonder. “You thought I was sleeping with other women in the last few months?’

  My heart started to flutter. “You didn’t?”

  “Of course not. I was in hell.”

  “That’s good, because so was I. I missed you like crazy.”

  “Me too,” he said with a smile. “Don’t you want to hear my confession then?”

  I laughed, which actually hurt my stomach. “Ouch.”

  He looked concerned. “What is it?”

  “It hurts when I laugh,” I said with a happy smile. “So tell me. What’s the big confession all about?”

  “You know when the FBI contacted you and asked you to spy on me?”

  “Yeah?” I said carefully.

  He cleared his throat. “They were not the FBI. They were just some actors I had my PA hire working from a script.”

  “What?”

  He looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, sorry.”

  I stared at him in astonishment. “Why would you do something so horrible?”

  His eyes were remorseful. “Many reasons. Because I knew our time together was coming to an end and I wanted to keep you longer. Because it was a good way to test you and see what kind of loyalty you would show. Past experiences had taught me to trust no one. Also because I had to go away and I was afraid someone else would take you away from me. And because I really wanted to marry you, but I knew I had my inner demons to sort out and I was just buying myself some time.”

  I blinked with astonishment. The idea that anybody, let alone a man like him, would go to such elaborate lengths to keep me in his life and marry me, was overwhelming to say the least.

  ‘’You could have just asked me to stay with you, Luca.’’

  ‘’No. I was not ready to accept what my heart knew. I needed time.’’

  “So the FBI were not really after
you?” I asked, still bewildered.

  “No. They have no reason to want me. I run a clean business. It’s true that when I first took over from my father, the business was a criminal enterprise, and I still have acquaintances, links, and favors owed to me from that world, but Mafia bosses end up in jail eventually or an early violent end. I didn’t want that for myself. It took years but slowly, bit by bit I turned the business around into something totally legitimate and above board.”

  My mind had gone blank. All the things I thought about him were completely untrue.

  “Say something,” he murmured.

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “I forgive you for the deception. While we’re talking about deceptions, I want to tell you how I got pregnant. I was taking the pill, but one day before I met you, I was sick right after taking the pill and Melania said it must be that time that the pill was rendered ineffective.”

  “I know you would never deceive me. You’re not that kind of person. I was just blinded by the past that I couldn’t see it then.”

  “Hey, what does our son look like?”

  He grinned. “I got a photo for you.” He took his phone out and showed it to me.

  My heart hurt as I saw his unbelievably small frame and flushed skin. How I wished I could keep him inside my body a little longer, until he was bigger, stronger. Luca heard my intake of breath and lowered his head leaning against mine to render support.

  “I know. I know. It hurt me too.”

  I choked back my tears but they still filled my eyes and came pouring down my face. I held on tightly to his hands while he cradled me in his arms.

  “Thank you,” I said to him. “For saving me. For giving me him. It is the best gift ever.”

  Epilogue

  Skye