Bound To My Mafia Stepuncles novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178

Aria First Person POV

I stood frozen

My hand was still wrapped around the phone, even though the call had ended. My chest felt too tight, like something invisible was pressing down on me. My eyes were hot and stinging, my cheeks damp, and I knew I must have looked like a complete mess.

But what really made my stomach twist was the sight of them.

Dante. Matteo. Enzo.

All three of them were standing in the hallway. None of them were smiling. They weren’t even moving. Just staring at me like they had been standing there long enough to hear everything.

The silence was loud. Thicker than before. It wrapped around me like a net I could not get out of. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but my voice didn’t work.

Matteo stepped forward first. His arms were crossed, his jaw clenched. His usual playfulness was nowhere to be found.

“You really answered her,” he said slowly. “You actually talked to her. After everything.”

I swallowed hard. “I didn’t plan to. She just kept calling. I didn’t know what to do.”

Enzo moved next. He wasn’t yelling either, but the look in his eyes was sharper than I had ever seen. “So you answered. You let her talk to you like that. You listened to all that guilt, all that emotional blackmail, and you just sat there and took it.”

My chest was heaving now. I felt like I was being cornered, but at the same time, I knew they were right. I just could not help it. My heart had done something before my brain could stop it.

“I didn’t mean to let it go that far,” I whispered.

Dante still hadn’t spoken, but his arms were folded tight, and I could feel the heat of his stare even without looking straight at him.

Matteo ran a hand through his hair. “What exactly were you going to do? Go back? Just pack a bag and run into whatever trap she’s setting?”

“It’s not a trap,” I said softly, even though a part of me wasn’t sure anymore. “It’s my mom.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Matteo snapped, and that made me flinch. His voice was not loud, but it cut straight through me.

Enzo stepped closer. “Aria. She’s the same woman who made you feel like a burden your whole life. The same one who always made everything your fault. Who ignored you unless she needed something. She did not raise you with love. She raised you with guilt.”

“I know,” I said. My voice cracked. “I know all that. But she’s still my mother. And for some reason I still… I still care,‘

That was when Dante finally spoke.

“But why,” he said quietly. “Why do you keep trying to run back to places that never loved you right?”

I looked up at him. He wasn’t angry. Not like Matteo. Not sharp like Enzo. But he looked so sad. So disappointed. And that almost hurt more.

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

1/3

Chapter 178

Enzo crouched down in front of me. He took the phone from my hand gently, like I might drop it, and set it on the table,

“She said Victor is in trouble,” I said quietly. “She asked me to come home. Just for a little while. She cried. She said I abandoned them. Than 1. hate them. And 1 just… I didn’t know what to say.”

Matteo’s voice was lower now. Still serious. “You don’t owe her anything, Aria. Not after what she did. Not after how she made you feel for

years.”

I wiped my eyes. “But what if she’s really in trouble? What if Victor needs me?”

“And what if it’s just another way to drag you back?” Enzo asked. “To break you down again. To pull you into something you spent your whole life trying to survive.”

1 didn’t answer.

Because I did not know.

Because it was all too much.

The guilt. The confusion. The part of me that still loved them, even when I shouldn’t. The part that still wanted to believe someone could change. Even if they never did.

I don’t know why it still gets to me. Why hearing her cry makes my stomach twist and my chest hurt like I’m the one who did something wrong. I know how she’s always been. I know she only calls when she needs something. I know the way she talks circles around me until I start to believe her version of the truth instead of my own. But still, when she cried… I felt like that little girl again. The one who used to wait by the window after school hoping someone remembered to pick her up. The one who tried so hard to be enough. To not cause problems. To fix everything even when it wasn’t her fault. And now, all these years later, all this distance between us, and just the sound of her voice pulls me right back to that place. It’s like I forgot how to breathe without permission. Like I owe her something just because she called me her daughter. And that’s what scares me the most. That maybe no matter how far I go, I’ll always feel like I have to go back.

Dante sat beside me on the couch. His voice was quiet but steady. “We’re not mad because you answered. We’re mad because you still think you have to keep proving yourself to people who never earned you.”

That made me cry harder. The tears came too fast this time. I dropped my face into my hands and let them fall.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify