Doormat By Sam Crescent NovelM80021 Doormat (Chapter 02)

Doormat

“Do I need to go and warn Dad that you’re practicing and you could start war amongst the mafia?” Enzo Jr., her brother, asked. He had come into the gun range their father had built on his property.

Loading up the shotgun, she locked and loaded it, aimed the barrel, and fired. She had been practicing how to fire weapons since she was five years old. Her father kept several cases locked in the house, but he felt it was important for even his daughter and his wife to learn to shoot. She had vague memories of shooting with her mother. Being taught the safety, and learning how to aim. Even after her mother passed, she still came to learn. It felt important for her to do so.

This morning, she had left her room, snuck out, and come straight to the gun range. She had lost count on the amount of ammo she had used. She just liked to keep practicing.

“Do you want to get shot in the leg?” Liana asked.

Enzo Jr. put his hands up in surrender. “You don’t usually come out here and shoot, unless you’re mad as hell or need to think.”

“Yeah, well, you know why I came home last night, so you can guess.”

“You’re mad as hell, and the truth is, you wished you were shooting at your loved one.”

“Diego is not my loved one.”

“He’s your husband.”

She loaded up the shotgun, looked down the barrel, and fired once, then twice. “He doesn’t love me and I don’t love him.”

“I thought women were supposed to like … read into shit, and signals and all that?”

Liana turned the gun toward her brother. “Do you want me to shoot you as well?”

Enzo Jr. didn’t even flinch. Instead, he laughed. “Please, you would be so upset if you actually shot me. You’d probably cry, because you know Dad would be pissed. It would show a lack of gun safety.”

She turned back to the aiming board, and then put the gun down.

“Do you want to kill Diego?” he asked.

“No.”

“That’s good. That means you have resolved your anger issues.”

“I want a divorce,” she said. That was all she wanted, for them to go their separate ways. It was the only logical solution she could see for them.

“A divorce?”

She turned to look at her brother, who seemed incredulous at what she had just said. “What?”

“You do realize there has not been a divorce within the Colombo Mafia in quite some time. Even Francesco’s father before him didn’t allow it.”

She was aware that divorce had not been accepted within their mafia, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t demand it.

“I refuse to stay married to a man who considers me a doormat. You wouldn’t stay married to a woman who thought that about you.”

“I hate to break this to you, sister, but I’m not doormat.”

“Well, I’m not one either.” She turned to look at the guns, but the truth was, she didn’t want to fire any more guns today. She actually wanted to get the divorce started.

“Why did you even … change?” her brother asked.

“You heard what Dad said. That he wanted this marriage to work, and the best way to get by with Diego was to just behave and be agreeable. I took his advice.”

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“Before you start demanding a divorce, maybe you should consider giving Diego a piece of … who you really are? Does he even know you can shoot?”

“No, he never asked, and besides, there is no way I am going back to him. That is exactly what a doormat would do, and I am no doormat.”

She was getting tired of saying and thinking that very word. She was not a doormat and she would not be treated as one.

Her stomach chose that moment to growl. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. After last night, she didn’t stay long enough to sit down to dinner, which sucked seeing as Mia had probably painstakingly gone through the whole menu to make it autumnal feeling.

She would need to call her friends and ask how they were doing. Last night had not been fun for any of them. Mia had been having a laugh by showing them all the secret security cameras. They had stumbled onto the library where the men were, and just to have some fun, they listened. Well, the joke had certainly been on them, because it had not been fun to hear some of the stuff they had heard.

“Divorce is a pretty high demand,” Enzo Jr. said.

She turned to her brother. “Don’t worry. You can still be friends with him. I will not hold that against you.” She patted him on the shoulder and they made it out of the gun shed. Per her father’s instructions, she locked the door, typing in the security key that would keep it locked, then walked across the yard, all the way back to the house.

The weather had certainly changed in the last week. She wrapped her cardigan around herself, to keep from freezing to death. She felt so cold.

They went straight to the kitchen, and Liana entered first, then came to a stop when she saw her father and Diego talking. At first, looking at him, she felt that kick to her stomach that always seemed to happen when she looked at him. There was no denying Diego was handsome. Many women wanted to marry him, but arrangements had been made for her to be the one to take his name.

“Sweetheart,” her father said.

Part of her wanted to be sweet, bow her head, and act the role as she had been for the past six months. Only, that had resulted in her being insulted, and she was done playing a role he clearly didn’t appreciate.

“What’s he doing here?” she asked, and didn’t even turn to look at him.

“Honey,” her father said.

“What are you doing here?” Diego asked. “Running out on that party last night?”

“Be happy that I came to my father’s and didn’t go home and empty your safe and take off,” she said.

She had surprised him as she threw her threat right at him. Her brother and father had gone silent. Diego looked surprised.

“You know the combination to my safe?”

“It’s not exactly hard, and yes, of course I know.” She rolled her eyes. He had a six-digit code. Three dates that were important to him brought together to make the code. She had tried it out within a month of their marriage, and saw the money, jewels, and some contracts. Not very exciting, so she had left it.

“Breakfast,” her father said, sounding nervous.

Liana went to the pantry, grabbing the carton of flour, and she made a couple of trips until she came back and looked to her brother and father. “Pumpkin pancakes?” she asked.

Both of them looked happy.

“You cook?” Diego asked in a mocking term.

“Yeah, I do.” She glared at him, and then turned back to the fridge. “When Mom was alive, she preferred to cook meals for the family. Her mother taught her, and her mother before her, and so on and so forth. She started to teach me and Enzo. After she died, I continued her teaching with my grandmother, until she passed. I still use their recipes, as well as a whole bunch of new ones.”

“She is a damn good cook,” her father said.

Liana was not there to be praised. She wanted to be with her mom. There had been a few moments throughout her life where she wished she had her mother by her side. This was one of them. The times before when she got her first menstrual cycle. Talking about it with her brother and dad, they had been considerate, but it wasn’t the same. She would have loved to have her mother to talk to about her wedding night. But she had her friends. She made a note to call them, to see how they were.

After she broke the eggs into a jug, added the milk and some melted butter, she got to working on the dry ingredients and nearly forgot the canned pumpkin while she was at it.

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If it hadn’t been for his brother-in-law, Diego would not have gotten any food for breakfast. He had his doubts on Liana being able to cook. She had not stepped foot inside his kitchen at home, nor their penthouse apartment. He had a cook who handled his meals. A man he trusted.

However, the pumpkin pancakes with maple syrup and bacon were to die for. They were buttery but not too sweet, with just the right amount of pumpkin to make them taste so damn good. They were amazing. He was in shock. Liana could at least cook pancakes. According to her father and brother, she could cook a lot of other things.

He expected her to sit with them at the breakfast table, only Liana never joined them. He, instead, sat with her father and brother-in-law.

“She’s not coming to sit down,” Enzo Jr. said. “She’s too pissed at you to sit with you.”

“Son!”

“What? He should know the truth, like the fact she wants to get the D-word.”

He saw Enzo glare at his son.

“D-word?” he asked.

The Valentino family had always been close. He was aware of how loving Enzo was to his children. Enzo had been the first man to ever fall in love with his wife. Diego had never met Liana’s mother, but he heard the tales and saw the pictures. It had been rare, but they had an arranged marriage and a love that developed out of that arrangement.

Diego knew her death had come at a great cost to Enzo and the whole family. Unfortunately, it had been a hit at a gas station, and she had been at the back of the car. The bullet was intended for Enzo but had hit his wife. From what he heard, she had died in his arms, telling him how much she loved him.

He didn’t believe in love or connection, or soulmates. People described Enzo and his late wife as having been a true love. So much so, that no one ever mentioned her name. This was not out of a lack of respect, but to honor her, and to help Enzo heal.

“My sister wants to divorce your ass. You seriously hurt her last night.”

“That is not going to happen,” he said. There was no way he was going to be the first one who accepted a divorce in the Colombo Mafia. His name would not be smeared like that.

Enzo Jr. clicked his tongue and looked away. Even Enzo didn’t look convinced.

“What?”

“Liana is a very strong-willed woman. You hurt her, and she does not wish to stay married to you. You are going to have a difficult time attempting to convince her otherwise,” Enzo said.

“Strong willed? Do we even know the same woman?” Diego asked.

Enzo Jr. lightly slapped his father on the chest. “See, I told you, you were making a big mistake suggesting she be agreeable. He now thinks she is a doormat.”

Diego looked between the two men.

Enzo got to his feet with a heavy sigh. “Walk with me.”

He had no choice but to follow the older man. Enzo Jr. did not follow them.

Enzo’s office was covered with family pictures. Some were of his late wife, and he saw at times Liana did look like her mother. Pictures of Enzo Jr. and Liana were all there, and ones with just the three of them. He even noticed several of them wearing matching Christmas pajamas, but he was not going to ask questions about that.

“I’m afraid I gave my daughter some bad advice when it came to being married to you.” Enzo sighed. “Liana is no doormat, and in all honesty, she is probably not the most agreeable person either.”

Diego frowned.

“Liana is a lot like her mother. Marissa, God rest her soul, she wanted her daughter to grow up free and happy and not be burdened by the life we’re part of. She would always say that just because we are mafia doesn’t mean we have to have the evil in our home. She told me when I left home to deal with business, she wanted me to actually want to come home. And I did. No matter what, I knew my home was … everything. I did what I had to do, and my wife and two beautiful children were waiting for me. We were lucky with Enzo Jr. My wife got pregnant on our wedding night, and for ten years, we kept trying for another. We had pretty much given up hope of having a second child. Then, she got pregnant with Liana.”

He listened to Enzo bare his soul. He respected this man.

“Liana’s pregnancy was difficult but Marissa was so happy to have another baby. When she found out it was going to be a girl,” he stopped and smiled, “she was so damn happy. She wanted to have a little girl to play dress-up with, and to love and teach her recipes. It was a long pregnancy, a hard one. After she gave birth to Liana, the doctors told us there was no way Marissa would have other children. So, we cherished the two we had. Marissa knew that life within the mafia was not going to be easy. She didn’t want to raise someone who was weak and terrified. We taught Liana to stand up for herself, to fight, to be heard, but also to know when to bide her time, when to wait and be patient.”

Enzo got to his feet and walked over to the window. “Liana did not want to marry you, but she did because it was her duty. She was the one that was chosen, and I advised her that you didn’t want a hard wife. You wanted a good wife. A nice wife. Someone who was agreeable. I told her to behave as such, to never make waves, and if she did that, in time, it would lead to a good marriage with respect and possibly love.”

“I don’t do love.”

Enzo held his hands out. “I didn’t either, but with the right woman, you would be surprised what you would do. Liana will not be easy. You have hurt her, and I promise you, Diego, if you continue to hurt her, I will take matters into my own hands.”

“Are you threatening me?” Diego asked.

“I am telling you that until you are a father, you will not know what this is like. But make no mistake, diablo or not, hurt my little girl, and I will fucking castrate you. Now, you better fucking fix this, because I don’t want to have to explain to Francesco why we’re going to break the no-divorce streak.” He got to his feet. “You’ll find Liana in the pool.”

With that, Diego knew he was dismissed. This was an unusual feeling to him. He was used to gaining the respect of everyone around him. The person they were describing as Liana was not a woman he knew. The wife he had was the woman that smiled at him when he came home, offered him a drink, and would demand the chef change the menu to whatever he wanted. Wherever he wanted to go, they went. She didn’t cause a fuss, and would always give him space. She made no demands on him.

Now, as he made his way to the pool area, which was another room off the house, he stepped into the main room and watched as Liana took several laps in the pool.

There was no one else in residence, and for a second, he just stood there and admired. When it came to his wife, he had no problem with the way she looked. He loved to sink his fingers into her long blonde hair and twirl the strands as he drove balls-deep inside her. The sex was good. Amazing, even.

Considering the pain she had on his initial thrust on their wedding night, she had been more willing than he anticipated to have sex again. The sex was not a problem between them. She could even be pregnant now, seeing as when he was bored with her, he did just tend to fuck her. That was what made life easier—fucking his wife until he didn’t have to worry about anything else.

Liana came to a stop, placed both her hands on the edge of the pool, and turned to glare at him.

“What do you want?” she asked.

Her lack of respect surprised him and actually turned him on.