"Um, okay. I never planned this. I never went to that party to sleep with someone. I never meant to sleep with the boss of my enemy. I never meant to cheat on my fiance. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. You are this amazing man that I can't be with. It's like the universe gave me everything I wanted and tore it all away within a matter of a couple of months. I don't know how to feel about us. God, there isn't even an ‘us’. There isn't anything between us. I wish there was or that there could be. I have to be realistic and think of what's best for us. God, I keep saying ‘us’ and it's not ever going to happen! I just wish that we could be this big happy family like I always dreamed of. I didn't dream that our child would be shuffled back and forth between my house and yours. I didn't dream of our child growing up in two different homes. I didn't dream of our child not having both of his or her parents there when they were tucked into bed at night. I just want us to be a family! I can't do this on my own and I know that if we could be together I wouldn't be on my own but I feel absolutely alone. I mean I couldn't even tell you I was pregnant a month ago and I can't even tell you now..." She put her hand to her mouth after she had finished.
We would have had an amazing life with our child if we had been normal people. We would be getting married before the baby was born and we would decorate a nursery. I would lay in bed next to her and talk to her belly and tell the baby how loved and wanted he or she was. I would give anything to be with Maria and give our child a normal life. A normal life where last names were just last names and they wouldn't have to be protected by an army to keep them from harm. I wanted to give my child the world and I couldn't. The child would have her last name. She'd marry Marco and they would raise our child.
I turned around from the hallway where I was watching Anya help set up her party with her Babushka and Ded. Our butler walked up behind me and spoke softly."Sir, Mrs. Kalina is requesting your presence in the ballroom."
"Thank you, Peter. Tell her I'll only be a minute." I smiled and stayed a minute longer to watch Anya dancing around throwing glitter stars onto the tables in the banquet hall and laughing. I hadn't seen her this happy in a long time. I walked away and went into the ballroom to see what mother wanted.
"Niko, I meant to ask you who that girl was that came to see you in your office. I didn't ask until now because I didn't want to bother you about it but Demitry just called and said he couldn't get a hold of you and that it was about Ria? She's the girl who came to see you, isn't she?" My mother was in charge of the ballroom decorations and it did indeed look breathtaking.
The room had pink and purple sparkle silk curtains with silver stars hanging from the ceiling. She had string lights behind the curtains so it looked like they were sparkling and shining from the light of the stars. My mother always was absolutely amazing with interior design and decorating. "She's a close friend, that's all." I turned away to call Demitry.
"Mother said you called her because you couldn't get a hold of me but I never had a call?"
"Niko, how's Russia? Oh, yeah. She called me and I told her that I was getting ready to call you."
"Go figure she worded it to try to get something out of me." I scoffed.
"But seriously, something's up with Maria."
"What's wrong? Is she okay?" I started to panic. Was our baby okay?
"We just got news that she's getting married." The baby's okay!
"Wait, what?"
Chapter Fifteen
Maria
I was eating breakfast when Marco walked in. Paolo and Belle were out with Anna at the park. I told him not to be around me after the stunts he pulled at mama's funeral and with everything going on with my father. I wanted to beat the living daylights out of him. I'm not a violent person but he was driving me to becoming one. "Maria, can we please talk. It's been a month of not even being near you. I miss you. I love you." I hadn't told anyone I was engaged to Paolo. I was going to tell my father first but I hadn't had a chance.
"You don't miss me, you miss the power. You don't love me, you are in love with the power. It's all about power and shit with you. I never meant anything to you no matter how much I tried to make you happy. So, get these ideas of you still getting married to me out of your head. You are not getting married to me. My father and I have made other arrangements." I was hoping he wouldn't see through my lie. I didn't even look at him. I would have to tell father soon that I was getting married to Paolo. I'd make that tomorrow's top priority.
"What the fuck do you mean? You're MINE you little bitch!" He screamed at me, picking up my glass of orange juice and dropping it on the floor. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me into him. I tried to fight it but he was too strong. He pushed me into the island and held my arms at my side.
"My father told me this really juicy piece of information a couple of days ago. So, maybe you can clarify it for me and help me understand what the FUCK my mother did to you for you tell the Russians to kill her!" I got my arm loose and punched him square in the jaw.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Ria. I didn't give anybody anything." Marco rubbed his jaw and tried to stand up. I pushed my heel into his chest and made him stay on the ground.
"I believe you have some major explaining to do today. You're not going anywhere." I dialed Xavier's number and texted him to meet me here at the condo. I did the same with four other enforcers. Today is the day that people would learn not to threaten or hurt my family.
"Don't say a word or I'll make you suffer even more than I already had planned. You're already in for a treat." I smirked at him. I had planned to make him suffer for everything he had done to my family.
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The enforcers and Xavier finally got here after about an hour. They tied him up in a chair in the office after laying down a tarp. "Wouldn't want the beautiful floors that my mama installed in this office to get destroyed by a traitor's blood." I punched him in the face a couple of times.
"Maria, you don't have to do this. Let us handle it. This isn't for a woman to get involved in." Xavier put a hand on my shoulder.
"This is for me to handle. Father chose for this to be my business when he handed this all over to me." I pulled his hand from my shoulder. "This is my job. This is a traitor and he will be made as an example for the rest of our people. People will learn that I am not innocent and I can be just as strong as a man can be. Father trusted him and I trusted him. This is what happens when people we trust turn their backs on us." I grabbed one of the knives that father keeps in his locked cabinet in the office when he used to do interrogations.
"Maria, don't do this. I didn't do anything. I'm not a traitor!" Marco screamed as I sliced his left fingers off, bone and all.
"You fucked up Marco. You really did. You had everything. You had the boss' daughter, you had been handed an important and vital role in the business. You had the trust of your Don. You had people willing to die for you. You had the promise of being the boss one day. You threw it all away for what? What made you turn on us?" I pointed the knife at his chest.
"I didn't! You have to believe me, Maria! You're acting like a crazy person! Who told you that I was the traitor? You sure it wasn't someone else? Paolo? Louis? Someone who was jealous of everything we had?" I cleaned off the blade and he started to breathe heavily.
"You know it's really funny that you say that because neither one of them are jealous of me. They're guys, what could they be jealous of a female for? You're a liar. I've always been good at seeing through lies. You've also never been good at telling them either. You lied to me when you said that you had business to attend to and couldn't be there for mama's funeral. You told Paolo to tell me that. Father said he never sent you on business. So, father tracked your cell and found out you were at some woman's house. She's a Russian. That's why you turned against us? For some Russian piece of ass?" I slashed the knife across his chest just enough to make him bleed. He screamed out again.
"She's not some piece of a
ss! She's amazing! She's more of a woman than you'll ever be!" He spat at me and struggled against the ropes keeping him tied to the chair. I slashed the knife against his chest again just for saying that.
"You underestimated me, love. You've been feeding information to the Russians for weeks." I grabbed my brother's gun from the top of the desk and pointed it at him as I held the knife to his throat.
"Maria, stop." Xavier tried to pull me away.
"Don't tell me what to do. You don't make my choices for me anymore. I make the choices for everyone. Marco made his choice and now he has to deal with the consequences and pay the price for turning on the people that gave him everything. Order a hit on this Russian piece of ass, no one is to harm her. I want her brought here tonight so that she can watch him die and then I can send the Russians a message not to mess with us." I smirked at him and walked up behind the chair.
"Maria, she has nothing to do with this. Hurt her and the Russian boss will kill you."
"Oh? Well then I guess we'll see what he does in retaliation. Maybe I'll kill her instead and make you watch as I cut into her. Maybe then you'll realize that she wasn't worth it." I sat on the corner of the desk and waited for a moment.
"Don't hurt her please. She's not a part of this. She doesn't even know I'm part of the Italian mafia." He started to cry. I had broken him.
"Well, then I guess that's another explanation for you to give tonight. What's her name?" I asked him as I pointed the gun in his direction.
"No."
"Tell me or I'll put a bullet right in your knee."
"No, Maria." I fired the gun without hesitation and he screamed so loudly.
"What the fuck is her name? I'll just look through your phone if you really don't cooperate and I'll just shoot your other knee." I smiled at him. I didn't see why he couldn't just cooperate. I would have gone easier on him if he had just told me the truth. He stayed silent. "Look through his phone. Find her name. Call her and say that he has asked you to call her on his behalf to invite her to some dinner and tell her that he wants her to come to our address here."
"Maria, this isn't you. Where is the innocent and sweet girl that I was engaged to?" Marco spoke quietly as he cried.
"She died the day she found out that you ordered the hit on her mother, and that her father fell ill and named her heir. She was forced to grow up and accept the responsibility that her father laid before her. So yes, this is the new me. This is the strong and fierce Donna Maria Salvatore." He gasped and they all stared at me. "Now, someone will take care of getting the girl here."
Xavier walked out of the room and I sat at the desk. This was my desk now. The entire Italian Mafia was mine now. I had people who depended on me to keep them safe from harm and for me to ensure their survival. This was the new me. I was never going to be that sweet and innocent girl again. People were going to fear doing something wrong and turning on me. I would make sure that everyone was complacent and provided for under my rule.
"It's taken care of, Ria. She's on her way." Xavier spoke softly as he re-entered the room.
"Good, now we wait." I picked up my phone and typed a message to Paolo to take Anna and Belle to the hospital to see my father and to stay there until I let him know that he could bring them home.
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She arrived and the enforcers tied her in the chair next to Marco. I knew who she was. This was the nurse that was talking to Niko. She cried and screamed at seeing Marco bloody and missing fingers. "I know you..." I looked over at Marco, "this is the Russian girl that you threw everything away for? Natalia right?" I pointed the knife at her.
"Don't do this, please." She begged.
"You're collateral damage, sweetheart. You must have been a really hot fuck for my fiance to give up everything my father gave him." I scoffed.
"You know that I could tell them everything I know about you. Let us go and I won't ever say a word." She was trying to blackmail me. I knew that she would blurt out that I was pregnant if I didn't shut her up quick enough. I pointed the gun at her and shot her right in the chest and then again between the eyes.
"Now you never will. Congrats Marco, you got her killed." He screamed and cried.
"You're a monster!" He yelled at me between sobs.
"I'm a monster? Well then let's show you how much of a monster I really can be then shall we?" I laughed at him. He claimed to be so strong but yet he was in front of me broken and weak. I sliced the rest of his fingers off and shot him in the other knee. "Do you have anything you'd like to say before I kill you?"
"You don't have to be like them. You can change the way things work and make it better for everyone. You are going to destroy yourself and not even Anna will look at you the same when she learns of what you've done and who you've become. I didn't kill your mother. I may have told them where to find her but their boss pulled the trigger. Nikolay Romanov killed your mother." He stared at me as I put a bullet in his chest. He began to choke on his own blood. I decided to put him out of his misery and show some mercy so I shot him right between the eyes and watched as the life left his eyes.
"Set her body on the doorstep of the Russian's mansion and burn his body and throw his ashes in the river." I set the knife and the gun on the desk and walked out of the office. They would clean up the mess and get rid of the bodies just like I had instructed. I felt lightheaded so I decided to take a bath and have Xavier tell Paolo to bring Belle and Anna home when they finished cleaning up.
I undressed and threw the bloodied clothes on a towel on the floor. I did what had to be done to protect my family and my child. I ran the bath water and added some bubble bath. I slipped into the water and my whole body relaxed. I felt at peace.
An hour later my phone started to ring. I didn't bother to look at the caller ID. "Hello?"
"Maria, we need to talk. Please." It was Niko.
"I have nothing to say to you. You hurt me more than you can imagine, Nikolay Romanov. But maybe one day you'll feel the same pain and you'll wish you hadn't done what you did." I wasn't going to tell him I knew that he killed my mother. I would save that for another day. I hung up and got out of the bath. I wrapped my towel around my body and noticed that Paolo was sitting on my bed waiting for me.
"What have you done?" He stood up and walked over to me, holding me in his arms. I broke down and cried.
Chapter Sixteen
Nikolay
I had only been back for a couple of hours and had finally just gotten settled in when Demitry came running into my room. "What is it?" His face looked like he had seen a ghost.
"It's Natalia..." he took a quick breath, "she's been killed."
"What happened? When? Who?" I felt red hot anger searing through my veins.
"The Italians. We just found her on our doorstep, Niko. She was shot once in the chest and once between the eyes. They left this note." He handed me a piece of paper with dried blood on it.
Think again before you hurt one of us. This is a new era. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We also killed your informant so you won't get the jump on us anytime soon. We hope you have learned your lesson and won't make anymore stupid and rash mistakes.
D.S.
Why did they choose to kill Natalia? She wasn't even a part of this life. "Find out who pulled the trigger on her and have them brought to me. Now!" I picked up Natalia's body and carried her inside. My mother and father were standing in the foyer, Anya holding onto my mother. Soon others joined as I slowly carried her up the stairs. I felt tears falling slowly from my eyes. She was my dearest friend and Anya's only real connection to her mother. Demitry opened the guest room door and I carried her to the bed, laying her carefully down.
"Mother said she would take care of washing her and dressing her. You should get cleaned up and go to Anya." He placed a caring hand on my shoulder and I just stood there and stared at her.
"You need to find out who did this and why. I have some other things to deal
with so I'll be out for most of the day. You might want to move Elana here for the time being until we know that she's safe. Natalia wasn't even a part of this and she was taken out." I sighed and walked out of the room.
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I called Maria to see if she and I could talk. We weren't on good terms as it was and I had decided to fight for her and for our baby. It went to voicemail. I called her again and she answered, "I'm busy and I don't really have the time to speak to you so make it quick." She sounded angry and like she had been crying.
"I wanted to ask you to dinner. I want to talk to you about the baby."
"Right now isn't a good time." She spoke quickly.
"I understand that but maybe I could come to my condo and we could just have dinner. Please."
"Fine. Tonight at 7pm. You'll have an hour to discuss whatever it is you need to discuss with me and then I'm leaving." She hung up. Something was off with her. Maybe the way I reacted ruined my chances at even being a part of my child's life. I shouldn't have hurt her. I should have reacted differently.
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I got to the condo and cooked our dinner. I figured she wouldn't like Russian food so I decided to make lobster bisque and a cranberry feta salad with candied pecans. I enjoyed cooking but when I became boss it was done for me. I would teach our child to cook if I got the chance too. There was a knock on the door just I was finishing up the food. I looked at my watch and it was 7pm on the dot. It must be Maria. I walked to the door and opened it, sure enough Maria was standing there in a stunning black knee length dress with red stilettos. What had she been doing before this?
Dangerously In Love: Mafia In Love Series, Book One Page 7