The Mafia’s Forbidden Desire

ROSALINDA.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

The shock on everyone’s faces when Sofia announced that she was pregnant was palpable. I was really worried that things might escalate and get really bad after her announcement, which was why I told her to hold on and not just drop the bomb at the dinner when she told me that that was what she planned to do. I told her to wait for us to find a plan on how to announce it, and she pretended to agree, not knowing that she had already made up her mind. She had always been stubborn anyway, so I wasn’t so surprised. Well, at least I was not as surprised as I was when she uttered those five words. ‘I am pregnant for Oliver.’ “You both should have been careful before the wedding.” Papà sighed disappointedly. “I agree. You shouldn’t have been sleeping around before the wedding.” Antonio muttered, his voice calmer than I expected. “Sofia!” Papà growled, registering what Antonio just said as he sprung to his feet. “Who are you pregnant for?” “Papà please.” Sofia whimpered, leaping to her feet as her eyes started welling up with tears. I immediately leapt to my feet and rushed to my sister, wrapping my arms around her. “Please. Just tell me Antonio was joking. Tell me you aren’t sleeping around. Tell me the pregnancy is his!” He barked, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “Tell me!” He growled even louder when he didn’t get a response from her, causing her to jump with a start. “He’s not the father.” She managed to say in between sobs. “Rosalinda!” He barked, switching his attention to me. “Is this what you thought her? Because she definitely learned this act of irresponsibility and disgrace from you. You brought shame on this family, and you had to drag her along.” “Rosa didn’t teach me anything. She also didn’t know about it until today.” Sofia quickly defended me. “She had nothing to do with it. I was just in love. I still am. I couldn’t let go of the love of my life, so I continued seeing him. But I never planned for me to fall pregnant for him. It was a mistake.” “Who is the father?!” Papà questioned him, his eyes filled with murderous intent. “I think I should make everything clear before you start your investigation.” Antonio chimed in after being surprisingly quiet for far too long. “She’s pregnant, so that means that I can’t marry her anymore. That is, the engagement has been called off.” “I know!” Papà snapped, then took a deep breath before darting his gaze at Antonio. “Look, I’m sorry for breaching the contract. It wasn’t my fault, and I’ll punish her accordingly.” “We’ll talk about that later.” Antonio sighed, slipping both hands into his pockets. “We were supposed to have a discussion about the shipments arriving this weekend after dinner, and I’m not going to allow this to get in the way of business. So, just forget this for now and let’s go talk business.” Antonio didn’t look enraged, nor did he look disappointed. He looked so calm for someone who just found out that his fiancée was pregnant with another man’s baby. If anything, he looked relieved, and that was strange. “You are right, let’s go talk business.” Papà sighed, shooting a death glare at Sofia before storming off. Sofia also turned around and started running away from the scene. I glanced briefly at Antonio, wondering why he looked so calm before following Sofia. “Please just go. I want to be alone. Please.” She croaked when she turned to see that I was following her. I didn’t stop listening. I kept inching closer to her with the intense urge to console her because she looked like a hot mess, and my strong sister instinct couldn’t let her be by herself. I knew how hurt and how much pain I felt when I realised I was pregnant. And I knew that my sister must be going through the same feelings right now, and I wanted to be there for her. I didn’t want her to be alone. “Stop. Please. I beg you.” She persisted, causing me to stop in my tracks. “Please.” “Sofia. I-” “I want to be alone!” She yelled as tears started rushing back again. “Rosalinda, please!” “Okay.” I muttered, giving in as I blew out a sharp breath. If that was what she really wanted, I had to respect her decision. So, turning around, I headed to my bedroom. As I pushed the door to my bedroom open, I felt a sudden presence behind me, and before I knew what was happening, the person pushed me inside and swiftly closed the door behind us. “Marco?” I was confused when I finally realised who it was. “What are you doing in my bedroom?” “It was you, right? It was you that asked your sister to get pregnant, so you could take her place.” He groaned, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “What the actual fuck?” I exclaimed as rage began to build up within me. I tolerated my dad’s accusation, but Marco’s? I wouldn’t. “Admit it. You want to be with him so bad. Now, because of you and your stupid sister, we have lost this alliance.” He continued with his accusations, causing my rage to grow even more intense. “Take back your words.” I fumed, feeling my cheeks get even hotter than they already were. “You have no right to make such false accusations at me.” “First of all, you made him fall so in love with you to the point that he doesn’t even think straight whenever it comes to you.” He carried on. “But it’s a good thing that after all your efforts to sabotage the marriage so that you can be with him, you’ll never be able to.” “What?” I asked, confused. “You didn’t know?” He asked, raising his brow. “Know what?” I asked curiously. “That your father made a deal with the Romanos, and you’ll be getting married to Liam.” He told me, and my heart sank to my stomach. Oh, no. So Liam wasn’t joking when he said he came to ask for my hands in marriage. I didn’t want it. I wasn’t ready to get married to someone I had no feelings for-someone I barely knew. There had to be a fucking way to stop the marriage. I had to find a way, even if it meant doing it with Antonio’s help.