Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 423

ASHER

I stayed patient... or at least I tried. Finding out about the alcohol was the moment that really terrified me. Because Ariella wasn’t like that, she wasn’t reckless and she barely drank unless it was socially, and even then she never lost control of herself.

But grief changes people. Loss changes people. And she had never suffered a loss like this before. That night, when I took the bottle from her hands, I remember feeling something ugly rise inside me.

Not at her.

Never at her.

In the situation. At the helplessness. At the fact that I didn’t know how to fix this for her. I ran her a bath because I didn’t know what else to do. Then I put her to bed like she was something fragile that might fall apart if I let go for even a second.

After she fell asleep, I lost it. I went through the house and smashed every bottle with a tiny bit of alcohol I could find. Every single one. I shattered glass until my hands hurt and the entire place smelled like liquor.

I knew it wouldn’t solve anything. I knew grief didn’t disappear just because the alcohol did..... But I was angry. So fucking angry, I needed an outlet before I exploded.

Afterwards, all I could think about was being patient. Patient with her grief and Patient with her silence. Patient while she figured out how to survive losing her father. But deep down there was one thought I couldn’t stop thinking about. One fear kept clawing at me no matter how much I tried to ignore it.

Because Ariella didn’t know the truth. She still didn’t know how her father had really died, and sometimes I caught myself wondering what would happen to her when she finally found out. What that kind of truth would do to her? Whether it would completely destroy whatever pieces of her were still holding together.

*

When the sun rose the next day, I hadn’t slept a wink.

Leon went looking for me in the bedroom where He must not have found me. He came already for our morning workout, but I was a mess. I didn't feel like it today, not this morning. Leon came into the office, and of course, that’s where I was lazing. I had slept there on the table. Not really slept, but yeah, you get it. I was a mess.

“Dad, what happened to you?” he asked, frowning at me the moment he found me.

“Nothing, I just had a rough night,” I responded, trying to get myself together.

“What do you mean you had a rough night?” he asked, moving closer. “You’re late. We have to go running. Are you sad now is it your turn to be sad after mommy is better?” he asked.

“No, like I said, I just had a rough night. Just wait for me to go take a bath and then we can go.”

Because I guess that was what a dad should have done. That was what a dad should be, always give your kids a hundred per cent. You are running on a hundred things, but your family and your kids come first.

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