A Mob Boss's First Love (Book 1 Of The New York Mafia Trilogy)

29. His unreasonable rules

Francesco woke up from his nightmare breathing heavily. He sat up on his bed and looked to his left at the sleeping form of Adele. He took a sigh of relief and got up. He turned on the bedside lamp post that dimly lit the room. He walked to his liquor cabinet and poured himself a large glass of red wine and turned around looking to Adele while sipping his drink slowly while still standing deep in thought.

It had been months now since his nightmares about Adele had started. It used to be just nightmares about Adele kissing other men or just Adele walking away from Francesco hand in hand with other men. But now in his dream tonight Francesco had seen her getting married in a church to another man. To O'Connor. His nightmare had ended with him shooting O'Connor and Adele crying over his corpse and whispering, "Francesco, I hate you. I would never be with you". That had hurt him.

Francesco kept telling himself that it was just a nightmare. Adele had rejected O'Connor's marriage proposal already. She had turned him down. She had the chance to become O'Connor's woman before knowing Francesco was watching her every move closely. He kept reassuring himself that Adele didn't love O'Connor so much to marry him ......... or could she? How much did his beloved love O'Connor? Did she love O'Connor more than she could have loved Francesco? He didn't know the answer to this question.

The only thing Francesco was sure of until that moment was the fact that O'Conner loved his woman enough to wish to marry her. Yet O'Connor lived. Francesco had his own reasons to keep him alive. But none of those reasons happened to be his uncle Piero's sympathy for father Rwan's family who happened to be O'Connor's uncle. That was just an excuse he had given Adele for sparing O'Connor. The true reason O'Connor lived was because Francesco loved Adele to the point that he didn't want her to feel the guilt of causing O'Connor to die. He had refrained from killing the man who had eyes for the love of his life solely out of concern for Adele feeling devastated at the loss of a friend.

But after having consecutive nights of his nightmare getting worse, clouds of doubt and jealousy were tempting him to take a different step. To stand up for himself and kill O'Connor. But he was much wiser than that to just let his jealousy makes him murder his love rival just like that.

The only way he was going to be convinced to kill O'Connor was if his angel loved this other man. So, first he had to find a way to use O'Connor to find out what Adele felt for him. He didn't know the answer to the question that would have condemned or cleared Adele of charges of unfaithfulness against her. So, no he couldn't kill him if he was not loved by his woman. Francesco had to be hundred percent certain if Adele truly loved him and how much she loved O'Conner. Until, he had some answers, he couldn't just kill O'Conner and condemn his beloved to unnecessary guilt that she didn't deserve. But once his plan was done, it was going to be verdict time. If Adele didn't love O'Connor, he knew torturing and then banishing O'Connor was enough punishment to satisfy his thirst for some justice and revenge. He didn't want to break apart Adele's heart from guilt of causing the death of another man who she happened to have spent one year with. She was attached to him at least as a close friend and colleague whether Francesco liked it or not.

But if Adele truly loved this man, ...... she deserved to live with the guilt. If she was unfaithful to him and loved O'Connor, he was going to take pleasure in ripping O'Connor's heart out of his chest right in front of Adele's eyes. There was no way around this. If any man was loved by his woman, he had to die as part of the punishment for his woman who loved another. But was that all his woman truly deserved if she was unfaithful? ...... "Absolutely not" Francesco told himself but was he capable of punishing his woman even more severely and hurt her to the point of breaking?

No one was allowed to double cross a mob boss. No one could break a mob boss's heart and walk away with only witnessing the death of their beloved. But that was all Francesco could think of. Could he go any further ever and hurt his woman more? ............ Francesco shook his head and cringed at the thought. He wasn't sure about how he was going to further punish his woman if she loved another man more than him. Could he hurt her until she was forced to love him and express remorse for breaking his heart? Of course she surely would have deserved that if she ever betrayed him. She had to realise she had wronged him and begged for forgiveness to make Francesco forgive her betrayal. But Francesco wasn't sure he could ever have the heart to hurt Adele directly. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't ever raise his hand on his woman. She was the most beautiful being he had laid his eyes on. She was his angel and all he wanted to do was to protect her and keep her away from harm. So no. His angel was safe from harm as long as he lived.