Married Into The Mafia *Undergoing Re-editing*

The Bitch Is Back

--Nicolette--

I sighed out in frustration with a tuck of my hair behind my ear as I ventured through the mall. I hadn't expected to lose my cool like that with Diana. I can't believe I got so emotional and blew up over such a stupid thing. How embarrassing to look back on it now.

Let's just hope she at least keeps quiet about this. Jake told me to find out whoever it was that was spying on us last night, but I hadn't expected to do it so quickly. At least, from what I've observed from my sister, she is unlikely to get involved in anything that concerned the mafia.

"Hey! Lady! Can you please move?!" A high-pitched, irritating voice nagged me, jabbing me in the arm. I shot an unintentionally vicious glare at the small boy that was held up behind me in the line of a chocolate store and accidentally frightened him to swerve around me instead.

My fingers drifted up to my face and lightly touched it. Was my expression really that scary? Mother told me that after Nicholas died, I had adopted a habit of making an unpleasant expression.

"You won't make any friends your age if you look like that, Nicolette."

-was what she had said. So, I tried smiling a little more.

I checked the time on my watch and took in a deep breath. I still had the entire day to kill and I didn't want to face Steph and Miyuki like this. Diana wasn't an option either, so I might as well just go shopping by myself.

"What're you thinking about, Nicki?" The grim voice from intimately behind me sent my heart into overdrive, jolting my body away from the presence of a panic. My head whipped around and I settled for an exasperated huff when I recognised who it was. Are you kidding me?

"Miyuki, what the hell?" I complained, calming my heart with a touch of my chest. She smirked and let out a chuckle as she neared me again. I'm guessing she ditched Steph in the end after all. "Did you come looking for me?"

"I got a call from your sister telling me that you had left. So, I took it as an opportunity to fuck off away from your bitch of a second cousin," she drawled, hooking her arm onto mine and leading me into a stroll. So, Diana still called, huh? She's trying too hard. It's too late to be the type of sisters she wishes we were. "Looks like today isn't going as you planned, huh? Wanna talk about i-"

I immediately declined. "No, I'm fine thank y-"

But, Miyuki had seen it coming. "Well, too bad, 'cause you're going to," she smiled, evoking a groan from me. "Besides, you can't expect me to not say anything after you dropped that bomb on me last night," she joked, earning a deflated look from me. Well, good to know that my crippling guilt gives you so much happiness, Miyuki. "No, but on a serious note. Are you sure of what you said?" She grimmed, dropping the jokes with a pointed glare at me. I didn't show her anything in return. There was no point in breaking down over something that's already happened. You internalise and do better next time.

But...

My gaze was downcast as I pondered pessimistically. Perhaps if I had done something about it. I could've prevented that incident on the night of the wedding from happening.

In secret, I had visited the Lettner boy - Eloise's younger brother - in the hospital. It reminded me of Nicholas' last moments spent in a hospital bed.

I guess Diana was right in some way. Maybe she was the happier one out of the two of us. But, then again, regardless of how different our lives are now, we're still living in the same, shitty world and crappy reality.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it now," I sighed out whilst tucking my hands into the pockets of my jacket. I had seen Lilith there at the wedding venue. I had a suspicion about what she was here to do, but I kept quiet about it. And, as a result, Eloise's parents died and her brother was hospitalised. This wasn't my fault. It wasn't. I knew who was behind it now as well. And, I had no right to speak up about it. If Don Florenzo wills it, then we have to allow it. He was the man our families were making this deal with after all. All we had to care about was handing his daughter over to him. Whatever else he decided to do with Eloise's adoptive family was nothing of our concern. "And, anyway, that wasn't the only thing I had to say to you about the wedding," I mentioned as I plopped down on one of the tables in the food court.