Fall For My Ex's Mafia Father novel Chapter 341

But somehow, I manage to simply laugh at Natalia’s suspicion that Daniel might like men – as if it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heared?

“Really, Natalia?” I ask, scoffing pleasantly. “I mean, I know we’re not a very handsy couple or anything, but I didn’t think we’d pushed you that far along into the realm of the ridiculous.”

“Ah well,” she says, wrinkling her nose at me a little bit. “I suppose that it is just that you are Americans. In Italy, when the young are in love, they cannot keep their hands off of each other. You know?”

I laugh and nod along with her, giving a little shrug as if I can believe it.

“Well of course you do,” she says, chuckling a little as she fingers her martini glass, “you saw it with Kent and I, at the house.”

Again, I tuck my true emotions deep, deep inside myself. “Yes,” I say, smiling at her. “I could tell that you two…really had something.”

She nods, looking out at the ocean wistfully. “Perhaps, in another life…” she sighs.

I murmur something in assent, wanting nothing more than to grab her damn drink and splash it all over her face.

“But family and children are so important to us,” she says, blinking out of her thoughts and turning back to me. She gives me a warm smile, apparently dismissing the thought of Kent and reaching out a hand to stroke a tendril of my hair.

I force myself not to tense up under Natalia’s hand, to not clench my jaw or swat her away, instead smiling pleasantly. “Anyway,” she continues, “you will forgive me for trying to get Daniel to meet some other girls, yes? I had to try to find him a girl he might like, so that he could start a family. But!” she laughs now, drawing her hand away. “I was wrong – he found the girl he wanted, without my help! As so many do.”

“Yes,” I say, glancing over at Daniel with what I hope looks like hero-worship in my eyes. “I understand that others don’t always see what we have. But Daniel and I love each other very much.”

“I can see it now,” Natalia sighs, pleased. “And soon the world will have evidence of it, when your little baby is born.”

I turn back to her and grin, pretending a motherly pleasure that’s absolutely fake. Because Natalia wants me to be a very specific type of mom, and I have a strong suspicion that I want to be precisely the opposite type.