Dangerous Secrets: My Mafia Stepbrother

The next day, the two of them woke up without mentioning the events of the previous night. Isabella took Emanuele to play with Nicholas. After spending the day together, Nicholas was no longer as afraid of Emanuele as before.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Thinking about this, she held Nicholas in her arms, playing with him for a while, then gently handed Nicholas to Emanuele, saying, “Emanuele, why don’t you hold him?” Emanuele looked at the tiny baby, who seemed so soft and fragile, with beautiful blue eyes looking at him. Could he hold him? He was afraid that even a slight exertion might break the child. Despite having killed numerous people without batting an eye, when faced with a pile of bodies, he watched over them without flinching. However, as he gazed at Nicholas, Emanuele cautiously reached out and held him.

To his surprise, as soon as Emanuele held Nicholas, who had been quiet and even smiling at him, Nicholas suddenly began to struggle, squirming and crying loudly. Emanuele’s usually composed expression instantly shattered. He immediately looked flustered and looked at Isabella. “Why is he crying now? He was fine when you were holding him, and now he’s crying.”

Grazia couldn’t help but laugh. “Your posture when holding the child is wrong. If you hold the child like that, the child won’t be comfortable and will definitely struggle and resist.” Isabella also laughed and told Emanuele how to hold Nicholas. She thought Nicholas was much better than many babies. At least he wasn’t afraid of strangers, would let strangers hold him, and was very brave. His personality was also very good; he would smile when he saw people. There was not a single adult who didn’t like this kind of baby.

Even Emanuele, after adjusting his posture and holding Nicholas again, watched as the baby gradually calmed down, staring at him. The innocent, soft gaze of the baby meeting his own eyes, and Nicholas even showed him a pure and adorable smile. At that moment, Emanuele’s heart softened like a sponge. He hadn’t liked babies before; he thought they were noisy and required a lot of time to be spent with them. But now, as he interacted, he found babies truly healing. This made Emanuele’s perpetually cold heart now inexplicably warm. He hadn’t expected that his own hardened heart would become so gentle after interacting with Nicholas.

He was his sister’s child, and now, he was willing to give him the best toys in the world. What if it were his own child? Thinking of this, Emanuele’s heart ached. They had almost had a daughter. In the mafia, daughters were different from sons. Sons would inherit their mafia business, while daughters only needed to dress up like princesses every day. Of course, when necessary, they would need to enter into marriage. However, their powerful Lombardi family did not need their children to marry off. So, if they had a daughter, she wouldn’t need to be involved in mafia affairs and could dress up beautifully every day. He would give all the beautiful princess dresses in the world to his daughter. It should have been like that. But now, because he hadn’t protected Isabella well, they had lost their daughter, and Isabella had been left with psychological trauma. Every time he mentioned wanting to have a child with Isabella, she would instinctively refuse. At this moment, Emanuele looked at the child in his arms. Nicholas was not afraid of him at all and kept staring at him, his eyes full of curiosity. Emanuele felt that the more Nicholas stared at him, the more he wanted to pinch his cheeks. Thinking of this, Emanuele reached out and pinched Nicholas’s cheek, but, because he was a bit excited, he didn’t control his strength. This pinch hurt Nicholas, and he instantly started crying loudly. Emanuele hurriedly handed the child to Grazia. “I think I hurt him. Damn it, I’m sorry, Grazia, I really didn’t mean to.” For the first time, Grazia saw such a panicked expression on Emanuele’s face and couldn’t help bursting into laughter. “Don’t worry, Nicholas isn’t easily hurt.”

Over the next two days, Emanuele and Isabella stayed in Italy. Originally, they had planned to leave a week later. However, during dinner one night, Emanuele suddenly received a phone call. “What’s going on? Damn it, both of my warehouses were raided? Who the hell did this?” Emanuele grabbed the phone in a rage, as if he was about to crush it. Isabella was also startled by Emanuele’s behavior. Seeing the people at the dinner table staring at him, he apologized and then walked into the garden with his phone. Nevertheless, even though EEmanuele left, but the words he had just spoken seemed to ripple through the calm lake, instantly changing the atmosphere in the room. Initially, they had been discussing where to go the next day in a lively manner, but now everyone fell silent. Grazia asked Rocco, “Do you know what’s going on with Emanuele? He seemed really worried just now.”

“From what I gathered, it seems like there’s been another intrusion in Chicago,” Rocco replied. “And to think, Emanuele’s two warehouses were hit. It’s clear that the other side was well-prepared. Emanuele’s warehouses are supposed to be heavily guarded, so there’s no way they should have been breached so easily. It seems like the other side had some knowledge of Emanuele’s defenses. And what a coincidence that Emanuele happened to be in Italy when this happened in Chicago.”

Isabella’s mood also became uneasy, and she lost her appetite for the food in front of her. She simply wanted to wait for Emanuele to return and ask him what had happened. Soon, Emanuele returned. Before they could say anything, Emanuele said, “Isabella, I’m planning to return to Chicago tomorrow. You can stay in Italy if you want, or you can choose to come back with me.” Although it seemed like he was giving Isabella a choice, he actually hoped that Isabella would stay in Italy, as Chicago was not currently safe.

“I’ll go back with you,” Isabella replied without hesitation.

“Isabella, I think you’ll be safer staying here,” Emanuele attempted to convince Isabella, although he knew that he always asked Grazia and Rocco to take care of Isabella, but it couldn’t be helped. After all, they were his family, and they wouldn’t hold it against him for such a small matter. His relationship with Rocco was like that of brothers.

“You mentioned that your two warehouses were raided?” Isabella diverted the conversation, not directly responding to Emanuele’s suggestion.

Emanuele nodded. “Yes, many of my men were injured, and they’ve been taken to the hospital.”

“Didn’t I just start working at that hospital? You also mentioned that they are still short of doctors. I want to go back and help. Emanuele, I can help you,” Isabella said.

Emanuele looked at Isabella’s calm smile, her gaze so gentle, as if telling him that it didn’t matter how bad the situation was, she could stand by his side and help him. For some reason, Emanuele, who had just been feeling particularly restless, suddenly felt less anxious.