Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion

Chapter 170: Up to Me

"I found what I wanted to do with my life that night. After dealing with my father, I found Jack’s diary that my father had kept hidden for years. That was when I realized that I wanted to continue what Jack couldn’t finish," Ethan explained.

"My father’s diary?" I asked curiously.

"Yup. Up until then, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life but reading what Jack wrote gave me the answers that I was looking for. I want to fulfill Jack’s wishes," Ethan stated with determination.

"What did my father wish for?" I asked.

"Uniting Torex and Silva and your happy marriage to Hayden Torex," Ethan stated.

"I don’t think my father wanted me to marry Hayden anymore because he didn’t want me to associate myself with the mafia," I interjected.

"Why do you think Hayden became a doctor?" Ethan asked in response.

"That’s…" I mumbled.

Was it because of my father?

"Maybe it wasn’t all because of Jack but he surely played a part in it. Usually, doctors don’t associate themselves with gangs. Jack wanted Hayden to distance himself away from the gang. I guess the things in your childhood impacts what you want and how you think. Hayden and me, we’re prime examples of that," Ethan said followed by a small laugh.

"What do you plan to do, Ethan?" I asked seriously.

"Everything and anything to make Jack’s dream come true. What about you? What are you going to do now, Lisa?" Ethan asked as his green eyes watched me closely.

"I tried talking to Hayden about uniting the gangs, but he didn’t respond to me…" I admitted truthfully.

"There’s only two ways to unite Torex and Silva. First option, you convince Hayden, and we have a fairytale happy ending. Second option, you fail to convince him and I have to kill him," Ethan stated emotionlessly.

"No! Ethan…" I cried out loudly.

How can he say these things so casually? It was probably because Ethan had thought long and hard about it and he had decided that he was willing to do anything to reach his goals.

"It’s up to you, Lisa. I’m giving you time but understand that I don’t have all the time or patience in the world," Ethan said before grinning at me.

"I’ll try. Please…don’t hurt Hayden…" I replied in a small voice.

Honestly, I was so scared of what Ethan would do and what he was truly capable of.

"Watch me, Lisa. I’m going to make all of Jack’s dreams come true," Ethan said before he smiled gently at me.

While I was frozen in shock, Ethan walked out and disappeared as if he was never there. Suddenly, I felt very cold, and my body started shivering. I slumped down onto one of the chairs and held my face in between my hands. I wanted to scream in frustration, but I couldn’t do that in this classroom so instead, I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply.

It took me a while to figure out that the chill that I was feeling came from the inside.

My hand gripped my phone tightly as I debated with myself whether I should call Hayden. He did tell me to call him if anything happened, but I couldn’t predict how he would react if I told him that Ethan just showed up at my workplace. Hayden didn’t want me to meet Ethan but how am I supposed to sort anything out if I didn’t meet him?

I’m going crazy. All of this is driving me insane…

If I don’t tell him and he finds out later, what happens then? There’s also no guarantee that he hasn’t already found out from his men that are watching me either. What do I do now?

The hardest part was how to stay truthful to Hayden while not harming his impression of Ethan. I had to make Hayden believe somehow that Ethan was a good guy for the partnership to work. How am I supposed to achieve that? I had absolutely no idea. They hate each other like cats and dogs and that wasn’t helping my case of uniting the two gangs.

In the end, I decided to give Hayden a call. However, I thought that it would be better if I told him about this face-to-face. Hayden agreed to take me out for dinner, and I thought that that would be the perfect opportunity to bring this little talk between Ethan and myself up.

…

Hayden picked me up right on time and we headed to a restaurant of his choice. The wind on the rooftop of the skyscraper where the restaurant was located was slightly cool against my skin. I watched the light of the candle flicker on the table in front of me as Hayden sipped on his red wine.

I sucked on the straw of my fruit smoothie as my mind worked hard on figuring how best to bring the topic of Ethan up to Hayden.

"Malissa?" Hayden called my name.

"Y-yes?" I replied after snapping out of my thoughts.

"Is everything ok? You seem a little distracted," Hayden asked as he eyed me with a look of concern.

"Yes. Everything is fine," I replied a little too fast.

Shit…maybe I should have just spat it out that Ethan came to see me earlier today.

"I see. You’ve been teaching at the art school for a while now, you have any other plans in mind?" Hayden asked casually.

That was a good question. With the many things that had been going on, I had unconsciously been putting my career on hold. Apart from teaching at the art school, I didn’t have another regular job. Unfortunately, teaching kids at the school wasn’t going to lead me far in my career as a professional artist. At this rate, I’ll just end up as an art teacher somewhere.

That wasn’t what I had in mind for myself although I did enjoy working with children.

"I’m not sure yet. Honestly, I might have to study some more before I can become a professional artist. It is a very competitive market…" I replied before trailing off.

--To be continued…