Mafia's Desire

10

'I'll be over a few minutes.' I read the text Arsenio had sent me.

Arsenio showing up unexpectedly wasn't uncommon. What I wasn't anticipating though, was what he said when he walked into the house.

"Anna has been lying to you."

His words confused me and for a second and I couldn't comprehend what he had said.

"What?"

"Anna, she's been lying to you, about who she is."

Lying? Anna was lying to me about her identity? My jaw tightened as I considered his words. Funny how women had a way of doing that. My stomach clenched with disappointment as I waited for him to explain.

"I decided to look into her since she has been spending time with you and seems to be interested in Eloise. The name she gave you, Anna Lewis, hadn't been recorded in Dentsborough since 1904."

Dentsborough was the town she said she was from. I didn't say anything. Instead, I felt the unwanted feeling of betrayal seep into my mind. I couldn't blame her though. I was the one foolish enough to engage so closely with her. I had gotten too close, allowed myself to feel this betrayal. I should've known better. After all, I had been thorough with Jessica, I had no one to blame but myself for being so naive.

"But she wasn't lying about the state she lived in. Lewis is her last name, or at least her maiden name. Her married name is Cooper. Ansley Cooper lived about ten miles from where she claimed Anna Lewis lived."

"Ansley Cooper?" She was married? Jealousy, something I hadn't felt in a long time, swarmed me. I decided not to ponder that emotion.

He pulled his phone out and showed me an image. It was a clip from a newspaper. She was standing next to a man a few inches taller than her.

'Michael and Ansley Cooper donated 1000 children's books to local library' read the headline.

A burning sensation filled my stomach as I stared at the phone. His arm was wrapped around her, the way a lover would hold someone. Ansley Cooper.

"She's running from him," I said, the burning in my stomach dissipating some as I made the connection.

"Running from her husband?"

I handed the phone back to him. "Last week, she told me that she had some unresolved trauma caused by her baby's father. If she's married, she must be running from him."

"That could easily be a story that she spins to stay off the radar, Ermanno. If she's lying to you, to us, you need to cut off contact with her and we need to deal with her."

"She's not lying for the purpose of some ulterior motive. I saw it on her face, Arsenio. There was this haunted look as she talked about him. She's scared of him."

"If this is another Jessica situation-"

"It's not," I cut him off. "You said yourself that she was different from Jessica."

He glared at me, we were clearly at odds with the situation, but the implication of him "dealing with her" made my blood boil. He wouldn't speak about her like that, like she was nothing more than a liar and a con.

"You deal with her then. She won't be a threat to our family."

I nodded, but my jaw was tight as we stared at each other. He finally turned around and left the house, leaving me staring at the spot he occupied. Anna, or Ansley, was lying. But she wasn't doing so to be intentionally deceitful or manipulative. She was running from her husband, Michael Cooper, I knew that for a fact.