Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 263

ASHER

My voice was almost a whisper now, pleading.

“Maybe I would have argued, but I would have wanted to know. Curious enough to try. Curious enough to get a DNA test, to fight for him. Why didn’t you?”

Her shoulders slumped as she let out a shaky breath.

“I just…” she said, her voice breaking, “I don’t want to blame you, Asher. But sometimes I wonder why, too. There are a lot of things that happened.... and not all of them are my story. Some of them involve other people.”

“Other people?” I asked, frowning, my pulse kicking up. “What do you mean?”

She looked at me then, really looked at me, her eyes full of something I couldn’t name.

“Just let me start from the beginning,” she said finally, her voice steady, resolved. “Let me tell you what happened five years ago. All right?”

I nodded, every muscle in my body tense, bracing. “I’m listening.”

"It all started with the Don visit, I should say."

"My father, you mean?" I asked.

"Yes." She nodded. "He came with the consigliere to our house. You knew they were coming to talk about our marriage....everyone knew. I was with my mom in the other room, and we were both so excited. I was going to get married to the man I loved, the next Don. My mother was over the moon. But then, when the Don left, something changed."

Her tone softened, her gaze going distant, as if she was half in the room, half back in that moment.

"My dad… he wasn’t really a fan of you at first," she said with a faint, sad smile. "You know how he was....protective, stubborn. He told me, ‘This is the Don's son. He acts like he respects me, but he knows I’m just a low soldier. He might not treat you right just because he knows I can’t do anything to him.’ He was skeptical. But he was coming around.

"When we heard that your dad was coming to actually put everything into writing, that we were officially going to get married, my father finally started to relax. But after that visit, he changed."

She shook her head slowly.

"And it wasn’t gradual. It happened overnight. He just… put distance between us. Sometimes, when we were having dinner, I would catch him looking at me with this sadness, like something heavy was eating at him. Soon after, my mom changed too."

Her laugh was soft and bitter.

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