Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father novel Chapter 15

“Daniel,” I say, my heart going out to him. “Why is it such a big deal? It’s the twenty-first century – it’s so backwards to think that way about sexual orientation –“

“You don’t understand,” he says, shaking his head and looking down at the floor. “It’s a different world here, Fay – that’s why I spend so much time outside of it, at school, in the bookshops and coffee shops.”

“This world, this family,” he says, “all their values are 100 years old, maybe more. And tradition is everything, family is everything. If I don’t get married, don’t have kids to carry on the family line…not only will they consider me a failure, but it will cause massive chaos in the city as the other bosses try to grab what my dad has built. What I will inherit, whether I want to or not.”

I study Daniel’s perfect face, feeling for him. He’s trapped and he knows it.

God, was I trapped now too?

“Do you know what they do to people like me, Fay?” Daniel asks, turning to look at me, agonized.

I shake my head no, not even wanting to imagine it.

“They beat the crap out of them,” he says, “make them denounce their sexuality, who they are, and if they do it again, they…they mutilate them…”

He says quickly, shaking his head. “One of the other boss’s sons. He shamed the family and…” Daniel shakes his head, unable to finish.

“Why don’t you just leave, Daniel,” I say, horrified for him. “Why not just run?”

He laughs, a harsh thing. “You think I haven’t thought about it?” He shrugs. “They’ll just find me, Fay. There’s no getting out of it. I’m the sole heir to my father’s game. If run, they’ll find me. If I defy expectations about the kind of life I’m supposed to life – wife, family, taking a role in the organization, they’ll…well, they’ll straighten me out.”

His lips quirk at his little play on words. Mine do too.