Mafia's Desire

22

Ermanno's POV

"Have you told her yet?" Arsenio asked me as we stood in the kitchen alone. Ansley, Eloise, and my grandmother were outside on the porch.

"Not yet," I said with a shake of my head. "I am going to tell her tonight."

He nodded. "Good, it needs to be done."

"I know. But she has been in a vulnerable state since arriving here. I was afraid that telling her too soon would push her away." I took a swig of the scotch in my glass as I thought of how to tell Ansley. I hoped she would understand.

I watched her through the window as she laughed at something Eloise said. Her smile, the way her face formed beautifully as she laughed, was addictive. Her essence was addictive. I couldn't lose her.

After everyone had left, I pulled Ansley to my office.

"What are we doing in here?" She asked.

"I have to tell you something."

"What? You're making me nervous," she said with a small laugh.

I pulled a picture up on my phone of the family seal and held it out to her.

She examined it for a moment before looking back up at me. "This is the mark on your back." After another moment of thought, she added, "What happened to you, Ermanno?"

"I was branded when I was young."

Her face morphed into one of sympathetic pain. "What? Who did that to you?"

"It's not as dark as what you're thinking, Ansley. I am part of an organization, a crime family." I didn't add much detail yet as I analyzed her face to determine how she was reacting to this information.

Her face was indifferent as she listen to me.

"An organized crime family. So... the mob?"

I nodded and fought to keep the smile off my face at her innocently phrased question.

"Yeah, the mob. The mark on my back is our family crest, our symbol, representing our Italian heritage."

Her eyebrows quirked up. "Why were you branded? It looks painful."

"It happened when I was young. I was excited and full of pride to do it. My father branded me as a right of passage to be fully welcomed into the family."

"Did it hurt?" She asked. I was surprised she was more concerned about my well-being when I'd just told her I was involved in the mafia. Though, I wasn't fully surprised. She was the most thoughtful and compassionate woman I had ever met.

"It wasn't pleasant, but I've experienced worse."

She winced at that and shook her head.

"Ansley, are you understanding what I'm telling you?"

"Yeah, that you're a part of the Italian mafia."

"How do you feel about that?" I asked. She still hadn't revealed any of her own emotions other than concern for me as a child.

"I feel... okay. I mean, I wasn't expecting you to have said this. And I thought all Italian mobsters were fat old new york men, so I'm a bit surprised."

"You aren't afraid?"

She shook her head as her hand ran down her belly. I was a bit distracted from the topic on hand when I saw one of Violet's limbs pressed out against her mother's abdomen.

"Afraid of you? No."

I crouched down in front of her seated position in the chair in front of me. I placed my hands on her things and squeezed gently.