Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 192

His hand brushed the counter beside my shoulder. And then his voice—his voice came again, low and quiet.

“I didn’t know how I’d feel seeing you again.”

I opened my eyes and there he was.

Asher.

Don of the Romano family. The most dangerously handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on. A man dressed like a Roman emperor thrown into modern-day war—classic, composed, powerful. Every inch of him screamed control. Power. Lethality. But also... something else.

He was the man who did witchcraft to my body without even trying. And he was standing in my kitchen.

After nearly a year, after silence, distance, fear, after burying myself in motherhood and caution and regret, he was here. I had worked so hard to forget him. To forget how he made me feel like I was the centre of the storm, the reason the sky broke open.

But now here he stood. And I think... I should have been happy.

I should’ve been smiling, maybe even jumping into his arms, gasping in disbelief. But instead, I reached for him.

I pulled him close. My hands gripped the back of his neck, my fingers tangling in his hair, catching him off guard. He didn’t move. He didn’t pull back.

And I cried.

I felt Asher tense beneath my body and my hands. He didn’t speak. He didn’t flinch. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure he was breathing. It was like the world paused like nothing else existed but the two of us, locked in this fragile, aching stillness. My fingers tangled in his hair, his body warm and solid beneath me, grounding me.

I tried to hold back the tears, to stay composed, but they fell anyway, heavy and relentless.

Then slowly, like he was waking up from the same long nightmare, his arms came around me.

One hand curled at the back of my head, his fingers threading gently through my hair. The other pressed flat against the small of my back, anchoring me, holding me together like he somehow knew I might collapse without him.

And maybe I would.

“You’re alive,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I cried harder.

He kissed my forehead. His lips were warm, reverent.

“I missed you,” he said softly.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify