The Don's Unwanted Bride

CHAPTER 3

Alyssa’s POV

Six Months Later

It took me six months to find the courage.

Six long months of living under a new name, breathing air that didn't feel like it was laced with control, and pretending to be someone I wasn’t. But today, I finally dialed Estina's number.

My fingers trembled as I held the old rotary phone in the kitchen of the small home I'd called my sanctuary.

It belonged to Estina’s mother. For six months, she believed I was an orphan she found by chance, an educated young woman down on her luck.

Estina had crafted the perfect cover. I was her silent message to the woman she hadn’t spoken to in years.

When Estina answered the phone, her voice broke into my ears like sunlight through a locked window.

"Hello?" she sounded unsure.

I swallowed hard and whispered, "Esti... it's me."

There was silence. Then a gasp.

"Alyssa? Oh my God! Alyssa?!" Her voice cracked and then she began to sob. "I thought you were dead! I thought something happened to you... I—I kept imagining the worst."

"I'm okay," I said gently, my throat tightening with emotion. "I’ve been okay. Thanks to you."

"Where are you? Please, come home. Come home, Alyssa," she cried. "Please. Father’s been—"

"I can’t," I interrupted her. "Not yet."

"But why? You don’t understand what your disappearance did to everyone—what it did to your father."

My brows furrowed. "What happened to him?"

"He’s... different," she replied cautiously. "He’s not the same. You're running away, it broke him, Alyssa. It took a toll on his position."

I closed my eyes as guilt slammed into me.

Of course it did. In the Mafia world, image is everything. Loyalty is currency. And I, his only daughter, fleeing from a wedding alliance with a Mafia Prince, made him look weak.

"The Mafia Prince," Estina continued, her voice soft and hesitant, "he cut ties with your father. Publicly. It was humiliating."

I felt a tear trace down my cheek. My chest tightened.

"I never meant for it to be this way," I whispered. "But I couldn’t go through with it. You know I couldn’t."

"I know," she replied softly. "I never blamed you. Not even for a second."

"How are you?" I asked, desperate to change the topic. "I miss you. I think about you all the time."

"I miss you too. Every day. But it’s you I’ve been more worried about. I... I wasn’t even sure you made it out that day. You just vanished."

"Your plan worked," I said. "I used the name you gave me. Your mother took me in. She’s been so kind."

"You’re still with her?" Estina’s voice suddenly perked up. "How is she? I haven’t spoken to her in so long."

I hesitated.

"She’s... okay," I said carefully.

"Does she know who you are?"

"No. Just the name you gave me. She thinks I’m an orphan looking for work and shelter. And that’s exactly who I’ve been."

There was a long pause.

"Did she ever talk about me?" Estina asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"Not really," I replied. "She talks about her regrets, though. A lot of them. But never directly about you."

Estina sighed. "Maybe that’s why I wanted you there... so I could know how she was doing, even if I couldn’t bear to face her myself."

"Why did you stop speaking to her, Esti?" I finally asked. "You never really told me."

There was silence for a moment.

"She sold me," Estina finally said, and my heart froze. "She sold me to your father."

I sat down slowly on the chair, stunned.

"I don’t understand."

"I was just fifteen. Your father needed a loyal maid for you. My mother needed money. She handed me over like I was an object, Alyssa. I... I never forgave her."

"Estina... I had no idea."

"No one does," she replied, her voice laced with pain. "I kept it in for years. Served you like you were my family because, in a way, you were the only family I had left."

Tears pricked my eyes. "Esti... I don’t even know what to say."

"You don’t have to say anything. Just be good to her, okay? No matter what she did to me, she’s still my mother. And deep down, I still care."

"I promise."

There was a soft creak behind me. My body stiffened.

The kitchen door eased open slowly, and the old woman stepped inside, her gray eyes squinting as she focused on the phone in my hand.

"Isn’t that... Esti’s voice?" she asked, her eyes wide.

My breath caught.