AllFreeNovel
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I reach for my bottle of water and take a long sip. After two sleepless nights, I’m exhausted and emotional. This lying business is not for the fainthearted.
“I couldn’t tell you. No, that’s not true. I want to tell you the truth.” I wince, knowing that’s only half true. Goddamn. “I didn’twantto tell you. I wanted a life independent of the mafia, and I have. For two amazing years. Your friendship is so important to me, and I was hoping you would never need to know. I’m sorry.”
“Why tell me now?” she asks. “God, all this time, Mia.”
“Tomorrow, we’re announcing our engagement to the press. They know who I am. I’m boring, so never in the news, and I don’t think they’d even recognize me. Now I’m marrying Connor. It will be all over the news,” I say. “You can’t say anything. Please. Not until it’s released.”
“Yeah, of course. No one wants to cross the mob.” She lets out a dry, awkward laugh.
I hate it.
I hate that this is out and between us now. She’ll never look at me the same. I want to say it’s not like that, but it is.
Sienna glances around the room, then back at me. “I guess you can’t tell me anything.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
“Is it horrible?” she asks, and I can see my friend once more.
“Yes.”
“Is this why you are marrying Connor?” she asks perceptively but not as accurately as she might think.
Now the lies begin again.
When will I be free of them?
“No. I love him,” I reply firmly. It’s going to be imperative people believe me, so if I can get Sienna on board, then surely, I can sell the lie to others. “Apparently, love at first sight is a thing.”
She sits there, shaking her head in disbelief. Not at my lie, as she should, but at the truths I’ve told her.
“Wow. You’re going to be the wife of a billionaire. And you’re a mobster,” Sienna says, and I hear the unsaid words.
You’re not one of us anymore.
You are not who I thought you were.
I remind myself this is temporary, and at the end of everything, I’ll be free and can once again just be Mia.
Which is just one more damn lie.
