Mafia Bosss Slave

POV Makidi

I opened the door to my house, feeling the sweat still clinging to my skin despite the cool evening air. My heart hammered as I stepped inside, each beat a reminder of the truth I'd uncovered. Nicolas...my son, or at least, the one I had raised as my own. The truth had blindsided me, a revelation I'd chased for years but never expected to find so close to home. My thoughts were tangled, running in all directions, yet they kept circling back to that undeniable fact: Nicolas was not mine.

My legs felt heavy as I walked through the familiar rooms, each one a quiet witness to years of secrets and shadows. But it was the living room, where Julianna and I had spent so many nights together, that I found myself pausing. Her absence lingered there still, like a perfume long faded but never truly gone. She'd taken her secrets with her to the grave, or so I had thought.

Mande was the only one left who knew the truth now. She'd been with us for years, caring for the house, for Nicolas, for Julianna in those final months when illness had drained the light from her eyes. Mande had loved Julianna as fiercely as I had, and it made sense that she would hold the secrets Julianna had kept.

But now that truth was out, and I couldn't ignore it. I needed to hear it from Mande's own mouth, to see her eyes and know she'd been keeping this from me, swearing herself to an oath that had bound her long past my wife's death. I felt a surge of anger and betrayal, but underneath it, a gnawing ache I couldn't shake. For years, I had raised Nicolas, poured everything I had into him. I'd taught him the code, the strength that a Makidi needed in this world, the resilience and ruthlessness to keep our family's legacy alive. He was supposed to be my son.

I found Mande in the kitchen, quietly tidying the dishes as if tonight were no different from any other. When she saw me standing in the doorway, her eyes flickered with a knowing sadness, a look that told me she had always feared this day would come.

"Mande," I said, my voice rough. "Tell me the truth. Tell me what Julianna swore you to keep from me."

She looked down, her hands twisting in her apron. For a long moment, I thought she wouldn't answer, that she would take that vow to her grave, just as Julianna had intended. But slowly, she nodded, a heavy sigh escaping her lips.