Falling for My Ex’s Mafia Dad — Episode 17
Fay remained on the sitting-room floor long after Kent left. The diamonds at her throat felt obscene against skin damp with tears, and Janeen’s handprint still burned across her cheek. She would have welcomed the pain if it had guaranteed her sister never looked back.
The door opened quietly. Fay expected a maid or another guard, but Daniel stepped inside. He stopped when he saw her collapsed beside the fireplace, and the practiced charm she once loved disappeared from his face. For once, he looked as lost as she felt.
“Fay.” He approached cautiously, as though she might break or strike him. She wanted to do both. Every disaster of the night seemed connected to the Lippert family, and Daniel had been the first thread that pulled her into it.
“Did you know?” she asked. Daniel understood without clarification. He swore he had never known she was Lorenzo Alden’s daughter or the missing girl promised to him. His shock when Kent explained the contract had been genuine.
Fay laughed bitterly. Ignorance did not make them innocent. Daniel had selected her as a respectable disguise, and Kent had selected her as a bloodline. Neither man had first asked what future she wanted. Even Lorenzo, whom she had never met, had shaped her life through an agreement made over her cradle. She felt surrounded by male decisions older than her right to object.
Daniel lowered himself onto the carpet a careful distance away. “You’re right,” he said. The absence of an excuse robbed Fay’s anger of its easiest target. He admitted that fear had made him selfish and that Colin had paid for his cowardice long before Fay discovered the truth.
Hearing Colin’s name inside Kent’s house made Fay glance toward the door. Daniel followed her gaze and lowered his voice. His father did not know, and in Daniel’s mind discovery still carried the threat of exile, violence, or being stripped of his place in the family.
“Kent asked if there was someone else,” Daniel confessed. “He meant another woman.” Fay wiped her cheeks and said nothing. Daniel’s secret no longer belonged to her, but the irony was cruel: they were being forced into marriage partly because neither had told the Mafia King the whole truth.
Daniel explained the agreement he had made downstairs. If they accepted the engagement, Kent would protect David and Janeen, and Fay would receive security and financial independence. Once the Alden situation stabilized, they could find a way to build separate lives behind the public arrangement.
“You mean pretend again,” Fay said. The same bargain she had rejected outside the restaurant had returned wearing armed guards and family oaths. Daniel winced because he recognized it too. This time, however, the payment was not millions. It was the survival of everyone they loved.
He promised never to claim a husband’s rights over her. Publicly they would be affectionate; privately they could be allies. Fay asked what would happen to Colin. Daniel looked away, and the pain in his face exposed an answer he could not yet speak.
“Don’t sacrifice him and call it duty,” Fay said. She knew what it felt like to be the disposable person in someone else’s solution. If they entered the agreement, Colin deserved the truth and a choice about whether to remain hidden.
Daniel nodded. He seemed surprised that she could defend him after everything. Fay corrected him: she was defending Colin, not forgiving Daniel. Forgiveness might come later, but it could not be negotiated alongside wedding terms.
A small, broken laugh escaped him. “There she is.” Fay glared, and he explained that Kent’s staff had transformed her into an heiress so completely he had feared the woman who loved romance novels was gone. Fay touched the diamonds and wanted to tear them away.
Daniel reached out, then stopped before touching her. The restraint reminded her of the man she had believed him to be, yet now she understood its hidden origin. Oddly, the truth made the gesture more honest. She gave a faint nod, allowing him to help her stand.
Her knees trembled, and Daniel steadied her without drawing her close. He apologized for failing her at the restaurant and for every consequence that followed. Fay could not absolve him, but she believed the remorse. That was more than she expected to feel tonight.
They agreed on rules. No lies between them about Colin, Kent, or the alliance. No physical performance in private. Either could refuse a public gesture that crossed a boundary, and both would work toward restoring Fay’s contact with David and Janeen when it became safe. Trust would have to be built deliberately because neither could afford another beautiful deception.
“And you help me learn this world,” Fay added. Daniel had spent his life navigating names, loyalties, and insults capable of starting wars. If her blood had become power, she intended to understand it rather than remain a token men passed across a table.
Daniel offered his hand as if they were closing a business deal. Fay took it. Their first relationship had been built on a lie disguised as romance; perhaps the second could survive because neither pretended it was love.
“Then we get married,” Daniel said. Before Fay could answer, a shadow crossed the frosted glass of the sitting-room door. Kent had paused outside long enough to hear their agreement—and Fay could not tell whether the silence beyond the door meant approval or jealousy.
