Page 42 of Mafia Maiden


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CHAPTERFOURTEEN

I could not get Isaac’s words out of my head. He was the second person who had mentioned to me that there was something larger happening within the Bratva. Andrea Bratva had also alluded that my father might not be going willingly into retirement.

The problem was that I did not know what possibly could be happening that would cause my father to give up the thing that he loved above everyone else.

When Isaac left, I decided to stay in the park. The sun was beating heavily on my skin, and I decided that I was going to enjoy a peaceful afternoon. I was done with schoolwork for the day, and that evening I was supposed to be going to some Bratva party with Leo. Though parts of that could be made enjoyable, overall, it was going to be a pain. My father wanted this to be our big debut, which meant that I was going to have to put on a pretty smile and a pretty dress and play along.

The very thought of that was exhausting, but not as exhausting as my brain currently was. My thoughts were churning over the little bit of information that I learned. This was the second time that I heard about Leo’s old girlfriend, but there were different things that were being said.

Andrea told me that she was his sister, and that she had been harmed because of Leo. Isaac told her that she died in a car accident, and that her death changed the trajectory of Leo’s entire life.

There was more pieces to this puzzle, and I felt compelled to make sure that I was going to know more about Leo’s past. I wanted nothing but to know who exactly I was going to be getting into bed with, and while in some ways, it might have been too late. I knew that information was power, and I would be sure to gather as much information as I could.

I grabbed my bag. The men in my life might not be hesitant to tell me the truth, but I knew that there was at least one place where I could get at least some information.

* * *

People would be surprised to find out that the library was one of my absolute favorite places. Even when I was a child, I found solace in the presence of books. These days, I spent most of my time in the library studying for class, and less enjoying personal reading.

This afternoon I was using the library for a more personal project. I was going through every newspaper that I could find that had Leo’s name, which was surprisingly a great amount.

Apparently, my future fiancé was a math prodigy. He had won more awards than any person I knew, and I could see why Isaac felt as though he was the black sheep. I did not know who the hell could compare to someone like Isaac who was constantly getting praises and accolades from school, parents, and hell, it seemed that at Harvard, even his classmates spoke highly of him.

I could see why my father made him a lawyer. He was clearly brilliant. In high school, he had been on the speech and debate teams, and he’d taken the school to some sort of championship.

Another person might have been intimidated, but instead, I was trying to figure out how I might use this information to my advantage.

So far, nothing told me about the man that I had in my bed last night. The person that I was reading about had an easy smile and his eyes sparkled, and though he shared similarities with the man I knew, they weren’t the same.

At some point, maybe when his girlfriend died, that spark escaped him, and his dark eyes became fathomless pits of despair.

I continued looking through the papers growing more and more frustrated as I came to the end of the papers with Leo’s name. There was nothing that linked Leo with a young woman. Everything that I could find was academic.

“Shit,” I muttered, growing frustrated. I could not believe that there was nothing here. I could not even find anything about a Blanchi daughter. It was almost as though she did not exist.

I rolled my eyes. I was not going to give up, which is why I was swiping through these newspapers looking for anything that might lead me to who this supposed girlfriend was. I released a groan as I started from the beginning. At least, the beginning of the college years. I knew that this girl was not going to be in anything before a certain point, and nothing after college, since that was when Isaac told me that the two of them were together.

Groaning, I continued reading every paper. I could feel my eyes starting to cross as I looked at the small, tiny text that was on the screen.

I felt my eyes starting to close, and I nearly put my head down on the table. When I started to, something at the bottom of the page caught my eye. On the front page of the paper that I was looking at was a very small photo of a young woman. It was so small that I nearly missed it, which was insane considering that I had looked at this for what felt like hours.

I leaned forward and looked closely at the small photo. It was a picture of a dark haired young woman who reminded me slightly of Andrea. She had a flute in her hand, and I missed her previously because half of Leo’s face had been cut out of the photo.

I would not have been able to associate this with Leo had I not noticed that the person that had been cropped out of the photo was wearing the same shirt that he had been wearing in a larger photo.

“Gotcha,” I said, smugly.

But as I scanned the article, I realized that I really did not have much of anything except that her name was Madeline, which was not very Italian, and that she played the flute.

I was going to call this a win though. It was not perfect, but I had a name, and I knew that Leo was attached to her in some way. The picture was proof, and I did not know who the hell would go to a flute concert unless they were getting some afterwards.

Madeline Blanchi was a mystery, and as I looked into the photo of her sweet face, I knew that it was a mystery that I was going to have to crack even if it was just for my own personal satisfaction.

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