My mafia love

23~ Kitten

Kelly's POV:

The days that followed blurred together so effortlessly that I occasionally found myself checking the date simply to reassure myself that time was still moving. Ever since the ball, I had done exactly what I promised myself I would do, keeping to my own company, reading more books than I had in years, taking long walks through the gardens whenever the weather allowed it, and speaking mostly with Sasha, Adam or Derrick whenever they happened to cross my path. The mansion had stopped feeling like a prison long ago, yet it had never quite become home either, existing instead in that uncomfortable space somewhere in between where everything felt temporary despite the weeks turning quietly into months.

I saw Cade only in passing.

Sometimes I caught sight of him disappearing down a corridor while surrounded by men discussing business in voices too low for me to understand. Other times I would glimpse him through the library windows crossing the courtyard with the same purposeful stride he always carried, looking as though the entire world moved according to his schedule alone. On the rare occasions our eyes met, neither of us acknowledged the other for more than a second before continuing on our separate ways, and although I told myself that was exactly what I wanted, I couldn't deny the strange emptiness that settled inside me afterwards.

One afternoon, while watching rain collect against the enormous windows outside my bedroom, I realised there wasn't actually anything keeping me here.

My mother was dead.

Nobody was hunting me.

Nobody needed me as leverage anymore.

The only thing anchoring me to this place was my own reluctance to leave, and that realisation irritated me more than anything else because I had spent weeks convincing myself that I wanted my freedom back.

Now that I had it, I couldn't understand why walking away suddenly seemed so difficult.

I hated that feeling.

I hated even more that I knew exactly who was responsible for it.

By the evening, I had convinced myself there was no point delaying the inevitable.

If I wanted my life back, then I had to ask for it.

Finding Cade wasn't particularly difficult because everyone in the mansion always seemed to know where he was, and after one of the guards nodded towards the office at the end of the west corridor, I found myself standing outside the same door that had once terrified me so completely my hands had shaken before knocking.

Funny how people changed.

Or perhaps it was simply my fear that had.

I knocked twice before hearing his voice from the other side.

"Come in."

The office looked exactly as it always had, impossibly organised despite the mountain of paperwork covering his desk. Cade barely looked up when I entered, his attention still focused on the file in front of him, while Adam lounged across one of the leather sofas with his feet resting shamelessly on the table and Derrick stood nearby looking as though he was considering throwing him through the nearest window.

Adam noticed me first.

"Well, if it isn't my favourite kitten."

Derrick sighed loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"You call every woman your favourite."

Adam looked offended.

"That is an outrageous accusation and completely untrue."