Now the real fun begins... 😈

The sound of the clock ticking was the only sound that could be heard in the room. My focus was on the tumbler half-filled with whiskey, I twirled it around and the ice clinked against the glass. A full-bodied cigar burned between my fingers.

"I have been told that there's a girl living in your house for months."

I faced my father, he looked displeased. Anger radiated off his body, he rolled his shoulders to get rid of some of the tension.

"Two and a half months to be precise" I answered smoothly.

"Why?" he asked, I could pick up the annoyance in his voice.

"She's an orphan..."

"You tellin' me that you did that to be charitable?"

I rolled the cigar between my fingers and took a drag. "Precisely"

He chuckled, shaking his head, and muttered something under his breath. "There's that fundraising event coming up, be charitable there, not in your fucking home, son"

A sardonic breath escaped me. "I don't take orders from you anymore, pops"

"Get rid of her" he ordered.

My response held the slightest clench of my teeth. "Can't do"

He slammed a hand over his desk, "You are engaged to Grace, Niko. You don't parade your mistress in front of your wife even if you're the most powerful man in the Cosa Nostra. In my thirty years of marriage, I have never kept a mistress, never touched another woman. Do you think I had a choice? My marriage to your mother was arranged by your grandfather. I fulfilled my duty as his son, as the head of the Costello family."

"Grace Russell is not Anastasia Ivankov Costello..." I told him, no other woman can be as perfect as my mama is.

"Anastasia Ivankov hated me when we first got married, she couldn't stomach to bear my touch, three years, Niko, it took her three years to fall for me, to allow me to be with her as her husband. Do you think I went to other women in those three years because my wife refused to be with me? No, I didn't. I respected your mother too much to humiliate her like that. You are my son, Nikolai, give your wife the same respect and get rid of the other girl"

I raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who said I don't have to stay loyal to her..."

"I know what I said or you would have never agreed to meet Paul Russell." he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "At least give this marriage a chance before going to other women. I fell for Anastasia, maybe, you can fall for Grace too."

"Falling in love with mamma would have been easy, Grace is nothing like her."

He sighed with a hint of aggression. "Three years is not easy, Niko"

"Three years or three decades, I have no desire for Grace Russell."

He slammed a fist on his desk. "At least, stop parading your whore in the streets of New York. Keep her behind closed doors, Niko, or I will get rid of her for you. You are engaged to Grace—"

I reclined back in my seat and looked out of the window. "I'm not engaged yet, anything can happen to Grace too"

"Don't even think about it, Niko. Costellos has never breached a contract."

I flicked a bored gaze back to my father. "Who said anything about breaching the contract?"

He pointed at my face. "This... This is the attitude that got your grandfather fucking murdered before his time."

Domenico Costello, father of Luciano Costello, and my grandfather. A reckless man from what I have heard about him, he didn't care for the rules or the principles. He cared about money, name, and power, it didn't matter to him how he got it. He would go to great lengths to get power, his lust for power got him killed when my father was only fourteen years old.

Luciano Costello had become the head of the family when he was only fourteen, the underworld had sucked his soul, and made him a frail, weak old man at the age of sixty-two. He got sick—lung cancer, slowly chipping his life away with each passing second.

"You think just because you are the head of the family, you are fucking invincible?! A bullet! All it takes is a single fucking bullet to your head to fucking end your life, Niko! Don't be a fucking fool. Paul Russell may not look like a threat to you right now but he is a fucking psychopath when you push his wrong buttons!"

Violent coughing filtered through his chest, he grabbed a white, custom-made handkerchief and coughed into it. His eyes still deflected his anger as he looked at me. He stopped coughing and pulled the blood-stained cloth away from his mouth. My chest tightened with dread, I again glanced back toward the huge window. I loved my father and the thought of losing him and my mother was the only thought that gnawed at my chest.

In one of the rooms upstairs, my mother was lying half-dead with several tubes attached to her mouth and here my father was spurting out blood with every single cough.

He sighed. "I'm not getting any better and neither is your mother, Niko. Get married to Grace, father a son, give your marriage a chance."

"Pop, I have no intention to breach the fucking contract, I just need some time" standing up, I buttoned my jacket and headed to the door.

"You don't have time, Niko. Get rid of her, stop thinking with your cock, and do the right thing by your family!"

I paused with one hand on the doorknob, I glanced back at him before, stepping out of the door. I walked towards the stairwell to check up on mamma. I halted as I saw the nurse running down the stairs, she passed me and ran towards my father's study. She looked frantic almost breathless. Terror spread through my veins, turning my stomach to ice. I looked up the stairs and then followed mamma's nurse to my father's study.

I froze in the doorway as the words slipped from the nurse's mouth. After fighting a long battle with Sepsis, my mother had finally lost.

Anastasia Ivankov Costello was dead.

Her words hit me like a punch to the chest. My throat tightened, and a hollow feeling unfurled in my goddamn heart.

FUCK! This was more painful than getting shot in the fucking chest.

┈┈┈┈․° ☣︎ °․┈┈┈┈

It had started to rain. I looked up at the sky and noticed the dark clouds. The morning sky was grey and dark. The clouds doubled up and covered the rising sun. The smell of the heavy raindrops was electric to my senses. The rain pelted the ground with an ominous sound.

I walked behind the gilded horse-drawn carriage that had my mother's casket. My father was walking beside me watching the carriage with dead eyes. That was the woman he loved. Flower petals were tossed from a helicopter all the way to the cemetery. The band played somber Italian music “Ave Maria”

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death" a choir of hushed prayers fell on my ears. 

I was a man of God when I wanted to be and right now I believed in him to take care of my mamma.

The cemetery had seating all around Mamma's grave. We were seated at the front of her flower-covered casket—red roses were her favorite flowers. My father had paid close attention to every single detail of the funeral for the last two days.

We didn't sleep, we didn't eat, we didn't mourn.

The people came one by one and tossed red roses over her casket, Paul Russell and Grace came forward and placed a red rose over mamma's casket. Grace looked at me and then nodded her head. I nodded back. Each person took a turn paying respect to the dead.

Grief hung in the air like a thick, wool blanket covering the entire congregation. I watched as the coffin was lowered slowly to the ground; that’s when I heard a silent sob falling from my father's mouth, the empty heartache.

This is what love does to a powerful man.

Don Luciano broke down in public at the image of his love being lowered to the ground. This was the weakest I had seen my father. I had no desire to see myself in the same manner as him.

I glanced at Grace in the sea of people and I felt nothing. Nothing for this woman, not care, not love, not even hate. I was indifferent to her and that was my power. That is why this woman was a perfect choice to be my wife.

I hadn't been home since I heard about my mother's death, and neither had Scott. He never saw or knew his mother but my mamma had always been a mother to him. He loved the woman, heck, everyone in this congregation did. The Costellos adored that woman, she was a beautiful woman with a heart of an angel. It was difficult to spend time with her and not fall in love with her.

Anastasia Costello—loved by all.

The congregation ended, she was six feet underground. My father had requested to be left alone at her grave. I left the cemetery and somehow ended up at our club.

I don't drink much, maybe a glass or two when I am tense or needed something to take the edge off. Alcohol makes me lose my coordination, makes me lose my focus, slurs my speech and I tend to get very aggressive when drunk. I don't like to lose control. I like to be very much in control of every aspect of my life. But today even alcohol was not helping me to numb the heavy weight I felt in my chest.

I drank until I could not stand on my own two fucking feet. Alessandro drove me home and I stood before the fucking door. It flung open and I was welcomed by a vision of dark long hair, smooth skin, and bare feet.

"Nikolai..." she breathed out as if she couldn't believe that it was me.

I walked inside, my shoulder collided with hers and she staggered back. Why the fuck was she in my way? I headed towards the minibar to get something to drink.

"You are here..." I heard her say.

"It's my fucking home, isn't it?!" I gritted my teeth.

She looked taken aback by my words and then shook her head. "Of course... It's just I hadn't seen you for the last two days---"

Agitation shot through my chest as I gripped the neck of the fucking whiskey bottle. "What about it?"

She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. My eyes raked down her figure and I noticed the skimpy nightdress she was wearing. Did she wear it for me? Does she want me to fucking give it to her? Fuck her senselessly like the whore she is because that is all she will be after my marriage to Grace.

"Why are you dressed like a slut?" I asked her.

"Nikolai..." she breathed out and the sound of my name slipping through her lips made me raging mad.

"JUST STOP WITH YOUR FUCKING NIKOLAI BULLSHIT! CALL ME DON NIKO LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! FUCKING GIVE ME THE RESPECT A DON IS ENTITLED TO!"

I pushed all the bottles off the bar along with the fucking tumblers. The bottles shattered into fucking million pieces and the alcohol spread all around me. She jumped back and a surprised scream left her lips. She covered her mouth with both of her hands and watched me with pure horror in her eyes. Resentment bit into my chest. I tossed the rest of the thing on the floor as well.

Her eyes shined with tears, she blinked and fat tears rolled down her cheeks. It fucking pissed me off, her crying pissed me off.

"Stop fucking crying! Are you fucking child, Evangeline?!"

I approached her and she immediately stepped back leaving a huge gap between us.

"Come here" I ordered as my jaw ticked.

"No!" she shook her head, taking another step back.

"I said FUCKING COME HERE, EVANGELINE!"

She flinched and immediately headed towards the stairwell to get away from me. The poor little girl didn't fucking realize that it was not that easy to get away from Nikolai Costello. With a few long strides, I grabbed her by the elbow and turned her around to face me. She collided with my chest and I heard the sudden breath getting caught in her throat.

"Let me go, please, let me go" she cried harder than before as she struggled in my arms.

Holding both of her wrists in a single hand, I gripped her face. Squeezing until my fingers were digging into her soft flesh.

"Do you want me to fuck you now, Evangeline?"

"Stop it, please, stop it, Nikolai"

I chuckled. "You weren't saying that three nights ago when begged me to fuck you like the whore you are"

"Nikolai, please... Stop, you are scaring me, please" she sobbed even harder.

I took my hand off her face and fumbled with the buckle of my belt. "Let me give you what you were asking for, Evangeline"

Her eyes showed pure panic as she struggled harder, she tried to knee me but her knee collided with my thigh instead. Fuck, that made me even more fucking furious if that was possible.

I slammed her into the wall behind caging her body with mine so, she couldn't fucking move. "You fucking lowlife stray. Elijah Bolton was the dirt underneath my shoe but I still took you into my home, fed you, clothed you, and fucking paid for everything that you fucking needed and this is how you fucking repay my generosity?" 

"Stop, Nikolai, please stop, please..."

She went limp into my arms like she had lost all the fight in her. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her face to the side as tears rained down faster than her fucking heartbeat.

I stepped back, leaving her arms. Her eyes opened and she didn't even take a second to run upstairs. I heard the slamming of her bedroom door and then noticed the bloody footprints all over the marble stairs. The shattered glass from the liquor bottles had cut into her feet.

I ran a hand through my hair and stormed out of the house before I do something I might fucking regret for the rest of my life.

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A/N

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