A Ghost Stands Between Me And The Mafia Boss I Love Chapter 04
At eight that evening, Lorenzo left with his luggage. Before he walked out, he kissed my forehead.
“Wait for me.”
The second the door closed, I grabbed the car keys and picked an old SUV from the garage—the one the housekeeper usually used for errands.
I followed his black sedan the whole way.
Lorenzo didn’t head toward Boston. He bypassed the city and finally drove into a quiet residential area in Westchester.
I parked far away.
Ten minutes later, I walked through the snow to the outside of the house.
This was clearly a private safe house owned by the Vitale family. Security was low-profile, but the curtains weren’t fully drawn.
I looked in through the side floor-to-ceiling window.
The dining room glowed with warm yellow light. Lorenzo had taken off his suit jacket and was wearing only a light gray sweater. He was putting candles on a two-layer cake.
Bianca was wearing a birthday hat and sitting at the table, resting her chin on her hand, watching him with soft eyes.
The kitchen door opened, and Valeria came out carrying a pan of freshly baked lasagna. She set it in front of Bianca, then reached out and stroked her hair.
The gesture was as tender as a real mother and daughter.
Lorenzo lit the candles. The lights went out.
The three of them gathered around the table and sang “Happy Birthday.”
Bianca closed her eyes and made a wish.
Valeria and Lorenzo exchanged a smile.
Through that pane of glass, they looked like a real family.
At some point, snow had started falling.
It landed on my coat and hair.
I stood in the darkness.
A sharp pain ripped through my brain.
Ghosts from the past crawled out of the snow and stared at me with sad, hollow eyes.
The scene behind the glass began to warp. Valeria suddenly turned her head and stared straight at me through the night, like an owl spotting its prey.
“Why aren’t you dead yet?”
“If you died, Bianca could finally stay!”
I covered my ears and stumbled backward.
“No…”
The shadows of the roadside trees started to distort. Bianca’s face appeared among them.
She smiled at me.
“Your mother is mine.”
“Your husband is mine too.”
I finally screamed.
The last thread in my mind snapped completely.
I stumbled back to the car and slammed the gas, desperate to get away.
The snowy road kept twisting in front of my eyes. The traffic lights blurred into a blinding glare.
The next second—
Bang!
The car slammed into the guardrail.
The airbag exploded.
The impact sent my world black in an instant.
Snowflakes fell into my world—light, silent, pure.
All sounds, all ghosts, disappeared.
I don’t know how much time passed.
Someone kept calling my name.
“Celeste!”
“Celeste!”
I forced my eyes open.
The harsh hospital light made me wince.
My vision slowly cleared.
Lorenzo’s terrified face appeared in front of me. His eyes were shot through with red veins. He was still wearing that light gray sweater.
“Doctor!”
“She’s awake!”
He grabbed my hand tightly.
“You scared me to death. Why would you go to Westchester alone?”
I looked at the man in front of me.
His tears. His furrowed brows.
But my mind was completely blank.
I slowly pulled my hand out of his and shrank defensively to the far side of the bed.
“Who are you?”
Lorenzo went completely still.
