Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 267

ASHER

In the morning, when I woke up, I found Dinara in surprisingly high spirits. She wasn’t giving me hate looks anymore, but she had prepared breakfast....and she actually tried to coax me into eating, as if I were about to drop dead from food poisoning.

I’m never going to eat anything in this house ever again.

“I’m in a hurry,” I told her, already heading toward the front door.

But she ran after me.

“I’m sorry, Dominic,” she said, her voice soft but urgent. “I’m sorry, okay? I just hope there’s a way we can get back to being us. What about this Sunday? What do you say?” She tried to sound casual, but there was an edge of desperation.

“We can… we’ve been adjusting, moving toward finding ourselves. We can talk about our marriage, talk about our problems, all the things that have been roadblocks. And maybe… maybe our marriage can actually try to get back to that place we were building before.”

I stopped, looking at her. “You mean… back to where you fucked me and my young brother? Is that what you mean?”

She flinched, just slightly, but to her credit, she was a remarkable actor. She even let a tear slip free, just enough to sell the performance. That’s how good Dinara was.

“I made a mistake, Asher, okay? It was a mistake, and I’ve been apologizing for it for years now, and it’s not fair.”

“Well, you apologized, but you kept fucking Dominic,” I said, my voice low, sharp. “I’m kind of confused. What kind of apology are you talking about?”

She swallowed hard, wiping those crocodile tears from her cheeks. “We both know you never would have forgotten… forgiven me, even if I had stopped. We both know that’s the truth. And this has nothing to do with Dominic. But you know I’ve always wanted to be your wife. I’ve always wanted this to work.”

I didn't reply, merely just stared at her.

“You know what?” she said suddenly, straightening her spine, the determination in her eyes firm and unwavering. “This doesn’t have to be a normal marriage. This doesn’t have to be the same marriage everyone else has. Ours can be different. You and I… let’s just find middle ground. I mean, we’re expected to create heirs. And… let’s be real—you and I are married. Marriage in our lives is for life. So I don’t know what you’re really hoping to achieve. But in the end, you’re going to have to produce heirs. In the end, you and I are stuck together for life. There is no way out of it.”

I looked straight into her eyes and said, “It’s not for life. Because… there’s still death, right?”

Something inside her flickered, suspicion, a little fear. Even though she masked it quickly, concealed it, I saw it.

“Asher,” he said, “I just wanted you to know that I didn’t tell you what I did or show you those papers because I wanted you to abandon your son… or abandon Ariella. I was doing that as your friend.”

I listened as he took a deep breath, struggling to keep his composure.

“Do you know how long I stayed with those papers? I knew even before you found Ariella. I knew even before you brought her here. But I thought it could go on forever… I don’t know. And I just thought you wouldn’t find out, and you would get to be happy… You would get to live your life..... And when you saw him and decided he was yours, I was just trying to protect you. I thought Ariella was trying to take advantage of you, and what I was doing was protecting you, making sure you wouldn’t be a fool for her.”

I raised a hand to stop him, but he shook his head and continued, his voice firm yet trembling with honesty.

“I realize now that my mistake was, I didn’t understand the full story. Maybe I should have given her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I should have let her explain. But it came from a place of love. Because, Asher, you’re my brother, and I love you. And I know what I did was wrong, and I just want to apologize. I want to apologize..... I’ll go to Ariella too. I’ll apologize to her, too. I’ll just apologize to her."

" She doesn’t know anything" I say, " It's better to leave things as they are."

"She does...." He said it almost like a confession.

I narrowed my eyes with suspicion.