Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 439

ASHER

We went to the warehouse together. I wasn't really in a good mood, but at least we didn't end up arguing this time, and everything went smoothly with the meeting and the transaction. We didn't get shot at or ambushed. So, it was nearly perfect.

Afterwards, instead of going home, I decided to stop by one of our clubs and have a drink, just by myself, just for a little while.

Did I want to see my wife? God, yes.

I wanted to see her so badly. It had been a while since we'd been intimate, and... well... after today, if everything had gone well, maybe we could've had a lovely night together. But with everything that had happened...

The person I never expected to be angry today was me. And it wasn't even like I was angry at Ariella. It wasn't like I was angry at her mother either. I wasn't angry at the situation. In fact, as I sat there drinking, I realised the only person I was angry with... was myself.

I was angry because, for the first time in my life, I wanted to feel powerful... Indestructible... Like I had finally won... I felt anything but.

I already had the family. I already had the beautiful life, A loving, supportive wife and A son who was bright, smart, everything I could have ever wanted, and so much more than I had ever expected.

I didn't want to be vulnerable. I didn't want my family living cautiously, wondering if today would be the day someone attacked us. I didn't want them living with the fear that someone could come for them at any moment.

I wanted them to go outside. I wanted to walk down the street holding my wife's hand while Leon ran ahead of us. I wanted people to see how lucky I was. Not an entourage of armed soldiers surrounding us, making it impossible for us to just... be a family.

I didn't want my home to feel like a prison with guards and a dozen Security checkpoints, Armored cars, cameras and Protocols.

I wanted my son to go to school, to make friends and build the kind of friendships I had built with Luca. To fight with his friends and make up. Get into trouble and have his first crush. Live.

Instead... I had my son and wife locked tightly inside the house. All of us are living like prisoners. I felt like I was failing them.

When Ariella told me she wanted to take Leon to visit his grandmother... God... I wanted that too. I wished I didn't have to think about the threat hanging over our heads.

I wished I could simply tell her,

"Go."

"Take Leon."

"Have fun."

"Stay as long as you want."

Maybe send one or two bodyguards just to make her feel safe, Nothing more. I wanted her to be able to take my son to visit his grandmother. To take him to the bookstore, to the park, to buy him ice cream and to do every normal thing every normal family gets to do.

Instead... Every decision had to go through me. Every outing became a security operation, and every smile came with a risk assessment.

I felt like a failure. That was what this whole thing was about. I was angry at myself, and I knew Ariella was probably waiting for me at home, expecting us to talk.

I didn't want that conversation. I didn't want her to look at me and see what I already saw in myself.... A man who couldn't even guarantee his own family's safety.

Maybe... Maybe she had been right all those years ago. Maybe running away had been the smartest thing she'd ever done. Because if I couldn't protect her now... Now that I was Don... How the hell would I have protected her back then if she'd stayed?

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