Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 206

ARIELLA

Asher looked me straight in the eye… and then he said it.

“I love you.”

I blinked. Once. Twice. And froze.

He didn’t flinch, didn’t stammer, didn’t try to soften the blow with explanations or apologies. He just said it. Calm. Clear. Certain.

“I love you, Ariella,” he said again. “I have always loved you.”

The world tilted beneath me. My lips parted, but no words came out.

“That has never changed,” he continued, his voice low and steady. “That has never been in question. I love you. That’s the reason I’m here. That’s the reason I came back. That’s the reason I want you close. That’s the reason…”

He paused, jaw tightening.

“…even though I wanted to hurt you, I didn’t.”

I shook my head, small and desperate. “No…” I whispered, barely able to breathe. “You don’t get to say that… not after everything…”

But he nodded, like my resistance didn’t matter. Like the truth lived outside of my permission.

“Yes, Ariella,” he said again. “I love you.”

And just like that, just hearing those words from his mouth, I shattered. I broke. The sob that tore through me wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t soft. It was raw and guttural and so loud I barely recognised myself.

He moved. Stepped forward. Pulled me to my feet. And then pulled me into him. His arms wrapped around me tightly, like he was holding onto something slipping fast through his fingers.

But it didn’t stop the tears. It didn’t stop the memories. The scars. The nights I cried myself to sleep. The bruises no one ever saw. The loneliness. The betrayal. It didn’t stop the thoughts racing through my mind or the pain in my chest.

It only made the sobs come harder. Made the pain feel deeper. Because this, this love—was not soft.

It was not gentle.

It was not safe.

“Why are you crying? Please stop crying,” Asher said softly, desperately. But I couldn’t stop.

Not now. Not after everything I had to go through. Not after what he just said. Why did he say that? Why now?

After everything, after thinking he hated me, after believing I had lost him forever. After building my life around that belief. And now, all of a sudden, to hear that our love… our love was real all along?

It felt like something inside me cracked open. It felt like all the pain, all the choices I made, even the ones that broke me, had led me here. Maybe it had all been worth it. The running. The loneliness. Raising Leon on my own. The way I had to piece myself together again and again after what he did to me.

It felt like maybe it had all meant something. But then again… had it?

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