Undressed By The Mafia God novel Chapter 442

Chapter 442: He Didn’t Leave You

Yesterday, this house had been loud. Today, it was quiet. Val was already waiting. She sat on the sofa, still in a soft robe, one hand resting over her stomach.

They all knew. Val was going to need all the support she could get. Vee walked forward slowly.

"Hey, sis..."

"It’s Ricardo, isn’t it?"

Vee raised a brow, her throat tightening. "How did..."

"It doesn’t take a genius to put it all together."

No one said anything. Val stared down at her stomach, her fingers moving slowly over the curve.

"He’s been dead all these while?" she asked.

Vee swallowed.

Val looked up at her, eyes shining but not yet spilling. "He didn’t leave me?"

For months, Ricardo’s absence had been explained away as cowardice. Cold feet. Shame. Fear. A selfishness everyone had been angry enough to accept.

"No," Vee said softly. "He didn’t leave you."

Val breathed in slowly. "Why?"

"We don’t know."

Val nodded once. Then she turned to look at Marco. He had been standing near the armchair, his hands hanging uselessly at his sides. He was unsure where to place himself.

He decided maybe now was the time to give her space to process it. Maybe she wouldn’t need him.

Maybe she wouldn’t even want to see him in that moment but Val reached out her hand to him.

Her fingers searched the air, and Marco crossed the room immediately as he took her hand. She tangled their fingers together and held on.

Luca stood beside Vee. His face had gone carefully blank, though his eyes kept moving over Val, measuring every breath, every tremble, every crack she was trying to hide. "You okay?" Luca asked.

Val looked up at him. For one brief moment, Luca saw accusation in her eyes. It was there and gone quickly, but he saw it.

Maybe because every road somehow led back to him.

"I’ll be fine," Val said.

Her voice was steady enough to hurt. Marco’s thumb moved over her knuckles.

Val looked between them, then back at Vee. "Tony said there were bodies? More than one?"

"Yes," Vee said carefully. "Cassidy was with him."

Val’s brow rose, confused, as if her mind had accepted one impossible thing and refused to make room for another.

"Cassidy?" she repeated. "What... Cassidy is dead too?"

Vee nodded. "Yes."

Val’s eyes moved to some empty point on the wall. Ricardo dead. Cassidy dead.

Vee swallowed and forced herself to keep going. "Detective Voss might invite you in to ask questions. Do not speak with him unless your lawyer is present."

Marco stiffened beside her. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Valentina," Marco said, low and pained.

Luca lifted one hand slightly, stopping him. "No, I didn’t kill Ricardo, I didn’t kill Cassidy either."

Vee moved closer, desperate now. "Val..." She reached for her sister, but Val curled further into Marco.

The gesture broke Vee wide open. She stopped like she had been burned, her hand suspended uselessly in the air for one awful second before she pulled it back. Her chest tightened so sharply she almost couldn’t breathe.

Val had always reached for her. Always. When they were children. When their father drank too much. When bills piled up. When pregnancy scared her. When life became too heavy. Val reached for Vee.

And now she had turned away. Whatever Vee wanted to say died in her throat. She swallowed it.

All of it. The explanation. The apology. The plea. The reminder that she was only trying to protect her.

None of it mattered right then.

So she only said, "I’m sorry."

Val’s tears slipped quietly down her face. She drew back from Marco to look at him. "I’m gonna go lie down," she said. "Still a bit tired. You guys finish whatever this is."

Then she walked away. The room stayed silent until her footsteps disappeared upstairs. Vee watched her sister go, the joy, the excitement, the life Val was known for completely drained out of her.

Vee’s eyes filled. She looked up at Luca with glassy eyes. "She hates me."

Luca pulled her into his chest before the thought could swallow her whole. "No, she doesn’t," he whispered, one hand moving up the back of her head. "She doesn’t hate you."

Vee stood stiffly at first, then slowly folded into him. Her face pressed against his shirt. Luca knew exactly who Val was blaming.

And it wasn’t Vee. It was him.