Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 140

Chapter 140

When we left for Zanzibar, it was just for five days. This time, I had prepared myself.

I told Maria I’d call every day. I promised to video call Leon, to check in. And Asher, he promised everything would be fine. That security would be tight. That nothing would go wrong. Just five days, he said. Just us.

I was a little nervous, I had never been away from Leon for so long, but when we arrived… God, it was perfect.

The island was alive with beauty, turquoise waters that seemed to hum, golden sunlight warming our skin. It felt like stepping out of our world into one that had waited just for us.

Asher didn’t hold back. Not once.

He held my hand openly as we strolled through the tourist streets, fingers laced like we were normal people with nothing to hide. His hand was always at the small of my back, gently guiding, never possessive. We laughed like we hadn’t in years. We dined at beachside hotels, took pictures with strangers, swam in the sea, and dove beneath it.

We even visited that hotel under the water, the one with glass walls and fish swimming past like a dream.

It was everything I didn’t know I needed. And for a moment, I let myself believe this could be it. That maybe, just maybe, we could keep this little bubble alive.

But then came the second night there, he got a call. I saw it in his eyes before he said a word, the tension, the silence that spread like smoke between us.

“We have to get back to the room,” he said, his voice clipped.

“What’s going on?” I asked, worried.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” he said. Cryptic, as always. Distant in a way that felt familiar and sharp.

Us hi that

I didn’t ask again. What did I know about his world? About his business, his enemies? All I knew was that it was over. That we were leaving.

I wished… God, I wished that the three of us could have come here together. Just once. Me, Asher, and Leon, A family, Free.

But even if it was only a few days, I was grateful. So I didn’t complain, I swallowed it like everything else and held the memory tight.

When we landed, he helped me into the car but didn’t get in.

“I can’t go with you,” he said. No explanation.

He kissed my lips, soft, lingering and then he was gone. Just like that.

The driver took me back to the apartment. And when I stepped inside, I only had one thing on my mind: my son.

I ran down the hallway, and there he was, Leon, waiting. His little arms flew open the moment he saw me.

“Mommy!” he cried.

I dropped to my knees, held him to my chest, and breathed him in like oxygen. I was home. Not in this building. Not in this gilded cage.

In him. He was my home.

After I was done giving them the gifts… yes, I had brought plenty. Handcrafted artefacts, woven bags, little pieces of Zanzibar that I knew they’d love, I finally went to shower. I changed into something comfortable and relaxed for the first time since we returned.

When I came back, it was around dinnertime. Maria wasn’t really barking orders like before. Not as much. I helped a little in the kitchen, nothing major and then the three of us sat down together at the dining table.

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