THE MAFIA KING BROKEN ROSE novel Chapter 92

< Chapter 92

eyes com as stone.

Outside, the rain had begun to drizzle–a soft downpour that matched exactly how i felt

I always wondered why it rained when someone is about to be buried. Mum had said it’s because the heavens are wezsing for a soul who died unfairly.

Maybe that’s what it is with my family.

I sighed to myself as I clasped my hands on my laps watching As the houses go by.

As the car stopped, Dominic opened the door and held out his hand, I ignored it and stepped out on my own, feeling the mud squelch softly beneath my black heels.

Dominic’s men were everywhere. Silent, watchful, their presence hard to ignore.

“Stay close,” Dominic murmured, touching the small of my back. It wasn’t gentle, it was possessive.

Always possessive when it comes to him.

“I’m at a cemetery, Dominic,” I replied quietly. “Where exactly do you think I’ll run? In with the coffin? Oh..that actually sounds like a great idea right now. I said with a wide grin on my face.”

His jaw ticked slightly, but he said nothing,

We moved slowly toward the freshly dug graves, two black coffins waiting silently. My breath caught, tears already burning in my eyes. The world blurred, turning soft around the edges.

“Aria,” Dominic said, voice oddly gentle, “if you need-”

“What I need is for you not to talk,” I cut him off, voice trembling. “Just…let me bury them.”

He fell silent again, but stayed close.

I could feel his suit close to my hands. He was like a shadow that I couldn’t shake no matter what I do.

I stopped near the coffins, the drizzle now soaking through my dress, making me shiver. It was cold, but I barely felt it. Not compared to the coldness inside me.

A priest stood quietly, reciting empty prayers for parents who were anything but saints. Yet, they were mine.

My throat tightened, and a broken sob escaped.

Dominic reached out, but this time I didn’t pull away. I didn’t have the energy.

“Let me hold you,” he said softly, voice a whisper. I didn’t answer, so he just stood beside me, hand carefully resting on my waist.

At that moment was when I saw it.

I noticed something–someone–in the distance. A figure, partially hidden behind a tall oak, his face obscured. He wasn’t one of Dominic’s men. He was watching me directly.

“Dominic, who is that?” I whispered, glancing quickly toward the stranger.

His eyes hardened as he followed my gaze. “No one important.”

“It doesn’t look like no one-”

“Leave it, Aria,” he snapped, his voice a harsh command.

I stared at him for a long moment, suspicion blooming like poison. I turned away, jaw clenched, but just as I folded my arms, something sharp poked at my wrist. A small folded note had slipped from my sleeve.

My heart jumped.

Emilia.

Carefully, quietly, in a way that Dominic wouldn’t see, the priest eyes were close as he prayed, I unfolded it beneath the cover of my sleeve, reading the tiny scrawled words:

“They died for more than debt. He knows. Don’t trust him completely.- Emilia.”

My pulse spiked, the note burning a hole in my palm. Emilia risked everything to give this to me. To warn me. What of if I

wasn’t the one who saw it?

My head spun. What else didn’t I know?

H

Chapter 92

His eyes narrowed slightly, but I refused to meet his gaze. Instead, I stared blankly at the coffins, the pain fresh all over again.

“They weren’t perfect,” I whispered bitterly, “but they didn’t deserve this,”

“No,” he agreed quietly, startling me. “They didn’t.”

His sincerity threw me off balance. It twisted me up. How could he sound gentle now, after everything he’d done? How could I trust a man whose very touch was possessive, controlling, dangerous?

“You knew they were targets,” I whispered harshly, my voice shaking. “You knew they were at risk, and you didn’t protect them.”

His hand tightened slightly around my waist. “I underestimated Mikael’s reach. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Comforting,” I snapped bitterly, looking away.

He drew me closer suddenly, bending his head so that his lips nearly touched my ear. “I’m many things, Aria, but careless with you isn’t one of them.”

“Then tell me who that man is,” I insisted, eyes darting back to the stranger. “If you truly care, give me something–some truth.”

Dominic hesitated, but then shook his head slowly. “Now is not the time.”

I laughed bitterly. “It never is, is it?”

“Later,” he promised quietly, firmly. “I’ll tell you everything when you’re safer. When you’re ready.”

“I’ll never be ready for you,” I replied softly, and felt his body tense beside me.

He didn’t reply, the silence falling between us again, tense and heavy. It stretched on until the priest closed his prayer book and moved away.

“Time to say goodbye,” Dominic murmured softly, stepping aside slightly to let me move forward.

I knelt down in front of the coffins, my knees sinking into the muddy earth. Tears filled my eyes, spilling over, mixing with the soft rain against my skin.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, voice breaking, hands trembling. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

The world went quiet, my grief raw and open, while Dominic watched closely, like he expected me to break apart right there on the damp ground.

After a long moment, I felt his presence at my side again. He knelt slowly, taking a single white rose from his jacket. Carefully, almost gently, he laid it across the dark coffin lid.

Then he spoke quietly, his words for my ears alone.

“You’ll never have to bury anyone else,” he whispered, his voice possessive, dark, yet strangely tender. “Not if you stay mine.”

I shivered–not from the cold, but from the certainty of his words. The finality in his voice.

Slowly, Dominic rose and extended his hand. This time, I let him help me up, feeling strangely numb.

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