The Mafiosa's Thorn

Regain

Bianca's eyes are on the verge of tears, but her love and strength carry her forward. The next words spell out what happened ten years ago...

Isabella's small hands carefully stroked her mother's belly bump. Smiling with anticipation of her new sibling.

"I can't wait to meet you," she whispered.

"You will be the best big sister to her," her mom smiled. Her late husband's arms wrapped around her from behind. Kissing the side of her head.

"I will get outnumbered in this house," he joked.

Bianca laughed. "You will get three times the love," before kissing him back....

She gripped the edge of the railings while screaming from the pain of labor. A nurse patted the sweat off her head after grueling hours of trying. She felt herself getting weaker with each attempt.

After being instructed to take a breath..."Why? Why can't she come out?"

The doctor examined her before informing her of the blood hemorrhaging. Her life and the baby were at risk of dying together. She cried out to save her baby, but the risk of her baby making it was close to zero. The doctor said the hysterectomy must take place immediately. He asked her husband after relaying the information. 

Her late husband chose to save his wife...Her emerald irises almost lost their color. Her arms cradled the nonexistent newborn she was expecting. Screams of anger erupted from the cruelty life gave her. 

Isabella's father sobbed with her. "It's not your fault. It's not your fault."

His words couldn't pierce through the numbness. She tried to apologize, but he refused to let her tear herself down for something that wasn't her fault.

After being checked for two days, they left the hospital. Isabella held her mother's hands after her father gently broke the news.

Their home was filled with misery. Bianca refused to get out of bed or even bathe. Plates of food went untouched. Guilt filled her heart despite her husband's attempts to get her help.

In the meantime, Luis and the other men pitched in by helping around the house to take care of their boss' wife and daughter. Isabella managed to break through to her.

Her gentle piano music lured her mother over to listen. A smile cracked across her face. Her daughter's eyes smiled from seeing her mother out of bed. The song concluded with a loving embrace that reduced Bianca to tears. She kissed the amber of her daughter's hair multiple times.

"I still love you, mama."

"I love you too, mi fragolina (my little strawberry)."

Over time, she felt some strength to touch her husband. Her husband smiled with pain she didn't recognize at the time. Scent of a lingering perfume on his shirt with middle in the night calls. She faked going to sleep. The bed reduced to one occupant after a 2am call. After hearing the door close, she sneaked her way downstairs to see her husband leaving...

He returned back the next morning to find his wife at the bottom of the stairs. Baggage under her eyes with a glare that could kill. In her hands, was a pair of silk panties she found in one of their vehicles.

She threw the stranger's panties at him. "Where were you?"

He sighed. He came clean about his affair with the woman he met during Bianca's grieving. And that she was pregnant with his child. Her breath hitched. Her pupils wavered. Heavy tears streamed down her face.

He tried to comfort her, but she smacked his hands away. She walked up to the bedroom with him following after.

"Just listen to me."

She spun around with crossed arms to hold herself together. Her mind was thinking to divorce him, but it would expose their family. Isabella would be the talk of her school for the wrong reasons.

"Do you love her?" she sniffled.

"I...do. And you as well."

Her lips quivered. "Did you think I was an idiota?! To think I would never find out?! I hate you!"

Harsh words flew like arrows to hurt each other. Until her husband "won."

"I did everythin' I could for ya! You kept pushing me away into her arms! You denied me another kid!"

Smack!

The pain stung on his cheek. She went to the door with a hand on the knob.

"Keep taking care of us. I don't want to know her name. I'm glad you got what you wanted," before slamming it shut.

Her steps stormed away with raindrops dripping from her face. They slept in separate bedrooms ever since their fight.

To keep up appearances in front of their daughter, the men, and everyone else, the couple kept talking like nothing ever happened. To Luis, he sensed a heavy blanket of resentment separating the two.

Her husband kept seeing his baby mother and showering her with gifts. He made sure not to neglect Isabella when it came to that...

When his son was born, he made more trips to see him. He changed his will to leave his son and his mistress a new life on the condition that she stays away from Isabella and Bianca. She and his wife agree to the terms.

Years pass with Isabella never finding out the truth....Bianca and him rekindled their marriage after he laid prostrate on the floor to ask for her forgiveness. He pledged to earn her trust back little by little for the hurt he put her through. They solidified it by holding hands once again.

He read her poetry like how he did when they first dated. Small, intimate dinners occupied their nights. Making love to make up for the lost time. That vow broke the day he got killed. That broken vow led to the birth of Signora Orchidea.

Bianca clears her throat to the present. Miguel's jaw drops from the terrible truth of her pain. He goes to embrace her, but her hands on his chest stop him.

"I give you permission to impregnate a young woman who catches your heart. Have the family you would want-"

"I won't do that."

His response floors her. "What?"

He cups her face with both hands. "I will never hurt you like that. We can still have that family. Marrying you would bless me with a daughter. And we can always adopt children so she can be a big sister. We will be the best parents they could ever ask for."

Her heart leaps with joy. For the first time in a while, happy tears crawl down her face.

He wipes them away before locking a tender kiss with her. A tight embrace by her makes him wince from the cracked rib.

"I'm sorry!"

But he keeps the embrace while brushing through her silky hair. She fights the floodgates from breaking. She will not let more tears be shed for the rat to take advantage of.

He lets her catch her breath while tracing circles on her cheeks with his thumbs...

She pushes him down by the chest before standing up. She spins around with a look that makes him smile. Emerald eyes glazed with a mix of love and lust for him.

It's time to reward him. "Strip down, bello."