Mafia Betrayal

Chapter Thirty Five

Charlotte

"So things seem to be going well with you and Luca..." My Mom said as we walked around Central Park. For December, it was a beautiful day, and the park was full of people enjoying the weather.

We found an empty park bench and sat down to enjoy our coffee. Even though my mom's visit caught me off guard, a huge weight was lifted off of my chest the second I saw her. You never grow out of needing your mother, and after all the changes in the last few weeks, I was craving this time together more than I even knew."Yeah, they are." I agreed. "We still have a lot to work on, but we're getting there."

She arched her eyebrow as if she could tell I wasn't telling her the whole story. I never could anything from my mother, she could read me like a book and today was no different. "The last time I saw you, you guys weren't exactly on the best of terms. What happened?"

I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to figure out where to even begin. So much had happened since then. She didn't need to know all the details, but I was dying to talk to her about it. When we'd talked lately, we'd kept the conversation light, and more focused on how she was doing considering she was reeling from her own loss. My troubles with Luca would have only made it worse for her, so I'd kept it to myself.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" She said, as if reading my mind. She didn't know the can of worms she was opening up, though.

The beginning. The day Luca came to my mothers, held a gun to my back and brought me and Layla to New York. It felt like just yesterday and a lifetime ago, all at the same time.

I took a deep breath before launching into the story. "When I found out I was pregnant, I tried to get in touch with Luca. Jenni and I were in Greece and he told me he'd come out so we could figure it out."

My mom frowned. I'd never told her about anything that happened with Antonio, or me trying to get in touch with Luca. All she knew was that I had decided to raise Layla on my own and didn't want Luca to know about that. She and Josh didn't agree with it, but they respected my decision and never mentioned her or I to Luca.

"Except when I went to meet him, it was Antonio, not Luca."

"What? You never told me that."

I pressed my lips together. "He intercepted my emails, and he brought me a check so that I could take care of the problem. He told me that having a child would only hold Luca back, and I was being selfish by telling him. He said it's what Luca would have wanted if he knew."

"Oh, Charlotte.." She reached for my hand.

"I know it was stupid, but I decided he was right, and that was why I decided not to keep trying to tell Luca." I wiped a tear from my cheek, the memory stinging more than I expected. "But when I got so sick and I was in labor, I broke down again, and I asked Grant to call Luca and get him there."

"But he didn't..." My mom already knew where this was going.

"I shook my head. "No, he didn't. Instead, he told me that he did and that Luca said he wanted nothing to do with us and to not contact him again. And I was just emotional and hurt enough to believe it. And I spent all these years keeping her from him, thinking that he hated me. That he was so furious with me for leaving that he let me and our daughter suffered."

"Does Luca know that?" My mom asked, treading carefully.

I let out a sharp laugh. "Oh yeah, he knows."

I left out the part about Luca killing Grant. She didn't need to know that, although she knew enough about how things worked in the Mafia to draw her own conclusions.