My Husband Chose the Wrong Mafia Princess novel · Chapter 3 of 16

Chapter 3: Rosa

Mara gives birth alone, Nate brings a detective and divorce papers while Gianna wears her mother's rosary, and then her father's underboss walks in.

"St. Clare's," I said. "In Bayonne."

"Don't hang up."

"I have to push, Santino."

"Then push," he said. "I'll be there."

The paramedic took the phone out of my hand.

Rosa was born at 5:12 in the morning.

Seven pounds even.

A full head of black hair and a voice like a car alarm.

The nurse laid her on my chest and I stopped shaking for the first time since the smoke.

"Where's Dad?" the nurse asked, smiling.

"He's not coming," I said.

Her smile went a little stiff.

She didn't ask again.

Nobody came that night.

I told myself Santino got held up in traffic on the turnpike.

I told myself I'd imagined his voice.

At seven the sun came through the blinds.

I fed my daughter and counted her fingers twice.

At nine the door opened without a knock.

Nate walked in first.

He'd showered and shaved.

He wore a new gold watch I'd never seen.

Gianna came behind him in a cream coat.

Behind her came a man in a brown suit with a badge on his belt.

"Mrs. Corrigan," the man said. "Detective, Bayonne PD. I need to ask you about the fire."

I pulled the blanket over Rosa's head.

"My husband set it," I said.

Nate shook his head at the detective.

"See? This is what I told you."

"There was a gas can in your garage, ma'am," the detective said. "Your husband says you'd been threatening to burn the place for a week."

"It's his gas can. For the mower. He mows."

"Did you threaten to burn the house?"

"No."

"She's been unstable since the pregnancy," Nate said. "Crying all the time. I've got texts."

"You've got texts where I cried," I said.

Gianna laughed.

She sat down in the visitor's chair and crossed her legs.

Something moved at her throat.

A string of pearls with a silver cross.

My mother's rosary.

I stopped breathing.

"Where did you get that?" I said.

Gianna touched the cross with one red nail.

"This? Nate gave it to me. Isn't it pretty?"

"That was in the nursery closet," I said. "Last night. It was in the closet."

I looked at Nate.

"You went in before you lit it. You took my mother's rosary out first."

Nate's jaw tightened.

"I bought her that at a pawn shop," he said. "Detective, you see what I'm dealing with."

The detective looked at the rosary.

Then at Nate.

He didn't write anything down.

Nate pulled an envelope out of his coat and dropped it on my tray table next to the Jell-O.

"Divorce papers," he said. "Sign them and I'll tell the detective I'm not pressing anything. You walk away clean."

"And the house?"

"There is no house, Mara. There's a lot with ashes on it. We split the insurance. Half of nothing."

Rosa started to cry.

Gianna rolled her eyes.

"God, can you shut that thing up?"

I picked up the pen.

I read the first page and the last page.

It said I wanted nothing from him.

I didn't.

I signed my name on every line.

Mara Doyle Corrigan.

It was the last time I'd ever write it.

Nate snatched the papers back and grinned.

"Weak," he said. "I knew you'd fold. You always fold."

Gianna stood up and smoothed her coat over her belly.

"Come on, baby. We have the cake tasting at noon."

The door opened again.

A tall man stood in it, filling it.

Charcoal overcoat. Dark suit. Gray starting at his temples.

Six years older than the last time I'd seen him.

He had a bouquet of yellow roses in one hand like he'd forgotten he was holding them.

"Mara," Santino said.

His eyes went to Rosa.

Then to the pen in my hand.

Then to Nate.

The detective turned around.

He saw Santino's face and went pale under his mustache.

"Mr. Barone," he said.

"Detective."

"I didn't know this was, uh." The detective cleared his throat. "I didn't know you had an interest here."

"Now you do," Santino said.

The detective picked up his notebook.

He left without another word.

Nate stared after him, then at Santino.

"Who the hell are you?"

Santino didn't answer him.

He walked past Nate.

He set the roses on the bed by my feet.

He looked down at my daughter for a long moment.

"She's beautiful," he said quietly. "She looks like your mother."

"Her name's Rosa."

Nate laughed, but it came out thin.

"Oh, I get it. You found yourself a boyfriend already. That was fast, Mara."

Gianna was staring at Santino.

She'd gone very quiet.

She knew his face.

Every Ferro knew his face.

She just didn't know why he was here.

Santino bent down beside my bed.

He said it low, so only I could hear.

"The car's downstairs," he said. "Your father's dying, Mara. He wants you home."

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