EIGHTY-EIGHT

Alessandro's POV

I couldn't stop feeling angry at myself and my decisions. My thirst for revenge had led me to be blindsided by my ambitions and it cost me my family and three years of the live we ought to have had together.

Only if I hadn't allowed myself to be swept up in the silly games, only if I had come clean and ended it immediately I sensed foul play but I didn't and I was paying the price for it.

I had wasted the whole of the new life I had managed to carve out for myself by merging with two new mafias that was going to change the future of the mafia world as we knew it, making everything ready for the arrival of my son and I threw it out the window because I wanted Lydia to pay dearly for what she had done not just to me but to Gianna as well. It backfired and I got hit with the most losses

My wife, Gianna, had called off our marriage as soon as I ended up making a fool of her by not confiding in her and allowing Lydia to fill her ears with lies making her prone and vulnerable to her manipulations.

I should've seen it coming. Maybe I did and maybe I didn't just care about anything other myself.

Yoda's pleas had fallen on deaf ears and I could now understand why he had taken that decision as soon as he knew the truth about Lydia and her presence in my home.

I had decided against going with his plan because I wanted to make her suffer and not be killed easily-I was ruthless and I wanted to make an example out of her to ward off any one who might have had plans to come after me and my pack. I wished I could go back in time to set things right but I couldn't. This was my life now and I had done everything I could in order to restore my life and my marriage to what it once was begore it would be gone forever. I'd done everything except one.

I might have failed woefully the first couple of time I tried to set things but I wasn't done yet, I wasn't to give up too early even though my time here was running out of time.

I would soon have to return back to my mafia. I've been getting reports about Donovan trying to organize a board meeting concerning the future of the pack and my inability to have an heir after several years of trying.

I still had to have my revenge on Donovan and his cohorts when this was all over and this time, I wouldn't hold back because I had nothing to lose anymore.

I was fed up of having my position constantly undermined by my own brother because of my father's inability to set things right before he died.

"Jana would be stunned by your presence when she sees you," One of the mafia Dons began, trying to kickstart a conversation with me but I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.

My son was sleeping soundly in his hospital bed. I didn't want to be one inch away from him anymore. I've been apart for years and I've respected his mother's decision to keep the truth about his birth from me but not anymore, nor while I could help.

I remained silent, I didn't see the need of trying to keep it formal between us when they knew I hated them with every fiber of my being but I couldn't help but think about Jana and how we had been forced to part ways. In many ways, she had tried to be more than a friend to me but I wasn't interested in anything other than friendship and companionship, she was the only person that I spoke to other than Yoda these days and it had hurt her when I told her that I was leaving her behind to go look for Gianna despite her insistence of coming with me to see who Gianna was, but I wouldn't let her.

I was still smarting from what Lydia did to my home, the damage she brought after I opened up my doors to her and I didn't want a repeat of that. It was in both our best interests that we ended whatever we had and called it quits.

It still sounded so surreal why they would want me back with her and I hadn't come around to asking either of them yet. I didn't buy their bullshit story about realizing that I needed a mate. It's been over three years, if they meant their words they would've said it a while ago but why now?

There was something I was missing, something I had to figure out. When I do, it'll help me gain some leverage and with that, I would have some advantage myself, and with that, I can begin my plans. But before any of it would work, I had to talk to Don Ethan and tell him the truth about everything.

"Why?" I began, looking at my son through the protective glass. It felt like I was in a car speeding down the expressway with no brakes and I was going to crash any moment from now but I couldn't let that happen.

There had to be something I could do but first, I had to talk to Gianna.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her walking towards me, her arms wrapped around her shoulders.

Speak of the devil.

The dons excused us as she stood next to me.

"Why, Alessandro?" She began softly.

"What do you mean by why?" I asked her, seemingly confused.

"Why did you come back for me? I was genuinely happy where I was. I had a second chance to restart my life and it was going well, more like a fairytale until you showed up and decided to inflict more misery on me like you did over three years ago."