Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 244

ASHER

“That’s not gonna work for me, I’m afraid,” I told her flatly.

Her sobs grew louder, desperate, maybe for effect, maybe for real, but I didn’t care to measure the difference anymore.

“I’m tired,” I added, dragging my words like I was done with every piece of her. “I want to go inside, take a shower, and sleep. So why don’t you go to Dominic? I’m sure he’ll have something to make you stop crying.”

I didn’t wait for her answer. I turned my back, leaving her standing there with her tears, and walked toward my bedroom. The click of the door closing behind me sounded like a final judgment.

Inside, I leaned against the door and let out a long breath.

Dinara...

Sometimes I think I shouldn’t blame her, not entirely. But how can I not? Our whole marriage was built on lies. Promises wrapped in silk, but rot underneath. They promised me a virgin. They promised me a devoted wife. What I got was a woman sharp as glass, manipulative, disruptive, disloyal.

...And a whore.

Because who sleeps with their own brother-in-law?

I pressed my fists into the dresser, breathing hard, a bitter laugh caught in my throat. My thoughts drifted back three years ago, back when I had started to believe maybe I was losing my mind. Maybe Ariella really was dead. Maybe I was holding onto a ghost, clinging to something that didn’t exist.

I was already married. Even if by some miracle Ariella were alive, what then? What was supposed to happen? I was already bound to Dinara. And she… she would have been married to someone else by now, living her own life, if she had survived at all.

The evidence said she hadn’t. The grave was supposed to be final. And yet, the doubt still ate at me.

But Dinara was there. Always there. She waited for me every night like clockwork, never missing a beat. Dinner set, her face brightening at the sound of me stepping through the door. I never sat with her. Not once. I refused her efforts for so long that it had become normal.

Until that one night....

My father had just died. The house was heavy with whispers, everyone asking what would happen now, would there be a power grab, who would fall. I came home late, drowning in it all. And Dinara...she was waiting.

The table was set, candles lit. She wasn’t in her usual dresses, but in something softer, lingerie that clung to her like she had planned this moment a hundred times. Her eyes didn’t look calculating then. They looked… hopeful.

Then came the day I made my decision. I told myself, Today is the day I make her mine.

I was in the middle of a meeting, but I couldn’t shake the thought. I had never gone home in the middle of the day before, but that day I decided to. I wanted to surprise her. To do something different. To break the routine of quiet dinners and long silences.

I imagined it all: we would go somewhere together, spend time outside the confines of the house. Have fun, laugh, breathe. And then, when we returned, I would finally give her what she had been waiting for. I would claim her as my wife.

But when I opened the door to my home, the scene I walked into was not the one I had planned....It was not the one I had ever expected.

It was the day everything changed.

That day I left the meeting early. My men were surprised when I dismissed them, but I waved it off. I wanted this moment to be mine alone. I imagined her face lighting up when I walked in unexpectedly. I imagined her laughter when I told her to get dressed, that we were going out, no excuses. I imagined, for once, giving her what she wanted, a husband who was present, who didn’t keep her at arm’s length.

I thought maybe, just maybe, this would be the day I could begin to build something real with her.

But when I stepped into that house, it wasn’t laughter or surprise that met me. It was silent first. Then whispers. Then the sound I knew all too well.....a woman’s breathless gasp.