My Online Lover Was the Mafia Boss Who Fired Me Chapter 11
Life kept moving forward.
Work.
Meetings.
Signing documents.
Sometimes I worked late into the night.
When Julian and I ran into each other in the hallway,
he’d smile and call.
“Ms. Mercer.”
I’d nod and walk past him.
Life wasn’t sweet, but it wasn’t bitter either.
It was like a cup of lukewarm water.
Just good enough to drink.
Elio came to New York every once in a while.
He never came up to my office.
He just sat in the lobby downstairs waiting until the building closed.
Sometimes he waited the whole night.
I never went down.
Eventually, he stopped coming in person.
Only the champagne roses still arrived right on schedule.
One Friday, Julian was standing at my office door again.
“Ms. Mercer.
“Do you have time tonight?
“It’s just dinner.
“If you don’t want to go, I’ll never ask again.”
He was so nervous he didn’t know where to put his hands.
I looked at him.
I suddenly thought of myself back then.
Back then, I always thought you had to be so careful
when you liked someone.
You had to be pretty enough.
Smart enough.
You had to keep proving you were worth choosing.
Now I finally understood.
Real love didn’t make you feel worthless during the day, only able to get by on a few late–night words of comfort.
“Okay.”
I didn’t pull away.
Years later, there was still a story that got told in Chicago.
They said the cold, ruthless boss of the Valtieri family
loved a woman like crazy.
He took care of the deputy who betrayed him.
He publicly admitted he was wrong.
He sent thirty–six bouquets of champagne roses.
But he never got her forgiveness.
Elio owned half the docks in Chicago.
He owned casinos, hotels, and the lives of countless people.
But he could never get back that woman who used to stay up late waiting for a message from Nox.
Because Nox was dead.
And Ivy had finally started living her own life.