My Online Lover Was the Mafia Boss Who Fired Me Chapter 05
I went back to my desk to pack my things.
The whispers didn’t stop.
“She actually thought the boss would want her?”
“Couldn’t even bother to check what she looks like in the mirror.”
“Got fired and still won’t hurry out, waiting for him to change his mind?”
I stuffed my laptop, my notebooks, and my mom’s photo into a cardboard box.
I didn’t look back.
When I walked out of the Valtieri building, it was raining in Chicago.
Two rows of black–suited guards stood by the entrance.
They acted like they didn’t even see me.
I held the box and walked a few blocks before ducking
into the fire exit of a parking garage.
The second the door clicked shut, I slid down the wall to the concrete floor.
White dust coated my whole clothes.
The box tipped over next to me.
My mom’s photo fell out onto the ground.
I buried my face in my knees and finally broke down sobbing.
Someone walked past me on the stairs.
Their footsteps paused for a second, then kept going down.
No one stopped to ask if I was okay.
I cried for what felt like forever.
Until my phone buzzed again.
Nox texted.
[Why haven’t you talked to me in so long?]
I wiped the tears off my face.
I didn’t tell him everything.
Just said my boss chewed me out in a meeting and the company fired me.
Nox texted back right away.
[Who did this to you?]
[My boss.]
[What did he say?]
I stared at the screen.
My fingers hovered forever before I typed the words.
[He said my stupidity makes him sick.]
He went quiet for fifteen seconds.
The “typing…” indicator popped up.
Then it disappeared.
It did that a few times before he finally replied.
[They don’t deserve you.]
Then another text right after.
[Come work for me.]
[I’ll take care of you.]
I stared at those words.
Tears fell even harder.
In the morning, Elio told the whole world I made him sick.
At night, a man who’d never even met me said he’d take care of me.
It was so fucked up.
People who actually knew me couldn’t wait to get rid of me.
A stranger behind a screen treated me like I was something worth keeping.
[Don’t cry.]
Nox sent another message.
[Look at this.]
Then came a photo.
The guy had just finished working out.
Sweat ran down his solid chest, disappearing under the waistband of his sweatpants.
His abs were sharp and defined.
The angle was lower this time than the last photo he sent.
His entire left lower abdomen was completely exposed.
A silver snake coiled around a black dagger.
Right above the tattoo was an old bullet wound.
I stared at the photo, frozen.
Hours earlier, when Elio pulled his arm away from me,
I’d seen that exact same tattoo.
Silver snake.
Black dagger.
Even the bullet wound was in the exact same spot.
Nox was Elio Valtieri.
The man who told me I was beautiful every night and promised he’d protect me-
Was the same Chicago Don who’d just stood in front of his entire company and said my stupidity made him sick.