Taken By The Mafia Lord

“Thank you,” She said to him, sitting down.

“There’s no need to thank me, it’s my responsibility to treat you well,” Elijah said to her, going to take his own seat.

It was nighttime and he took her on a date. Just as he agreed, the both of them would date to the fullest until it was time to let go. Their situation was almost similar to a terminally ill patient spending his last days peacefully except in their case, no one was dying and they would only be going their separate ways, literally.

Elijah had to admit, keeping Adele from the truth was killing him from the inside out, but he had no choice. Yes, he had grown attached to her, but he was not stupid enough to think Adele wouldn’t oust him in the twinkle of an eye if she knew the truth about him. Just like her, when push comes to shove, he would choose family over emotion.

“What do you think?” Elijah asked, surprisingly nervous. He had spent a lot of time and resources getting a reservation here and hoped that it was up to her taste.

“Hmmm,” Adele hummed, looking around the place. It was a rooftop restaurant with candlelight dinner and the both of them were the only ones around, meaning that Aziz must have hired the place for the night.

Honestly, this kind of romantic setting was not her cup of tea, however, Aziz had put in a lot of effort to create this and that was all that mattered.

“It’s nice,” Adele said.

.....

In one word, she didn’t like it, Elijah winced inwardly. Perhaps he should have asked what she liked than assuming she’d be into this. Didn’t all women like this kind of romantic ambiance?

“I’ll reserve my final comment when I have a taste of their food,” Adele smiled at him.

Elijah smiled back, knowing that she just said that to make him feel better. Not long after, the meal was served and for starters, they had griddled fillet of sea brass – lemongrass and coriander cous-cous, crab bon-bon, sweet potatoes, and coconut Velonté.

“Mmmm, not bad,” Adele nodded, seeming to enjoy her meal, and Elijah was relieved to know the food made the cut at least. Else all of this would have been a waste.

For sure, a meal wouldn’t correct the mistakes he made or the reality that he would be leaving soon, but as he decided, Elijah was simply making happy memories that she would be able to hold onto amid the betrayal. He wanted her to know that although his initial reason for infiltrating her family was not genuine, his intentions were not all fake.

It was really hard to explain considering he made it his mission to get close to her, but he has had a change of mind. Sure, he manipulated her, but now, Adele was worth more than a means to accomplish his mission now. He was sorry and regretted using her.

But Elijah couldn’t say those words to her, not until everything was done and she would find out everything about him. Perhaps, if they had met in better circumstances “and family”, things would have worked out much better between them. But now, it was too late.

Elijah always wondered how it was easy to give up on Arianna, turns out that the truth was staring at his face all along. It was Adele. She took up Arianna’s place and though Elijah couldn’t say he loved her, he knew that he would do everything to keep her happy.

Unfortunately, the reverse was the case, he would bring Adele nothing but sadness when the truth comes out in the end. So he was sorry, very, very sorry. But there was nothing that he could do to stop the hurt from coming along.

“So tell me about yourself,” Adele roused him from his thoughts.

“What?”

“I just found out that since we are together, I know literally about you,” Adele told him, biting her lips in thought.

“What do you mean you don’t know me? You know everything about my background,” He shrugged.

“I mean your personal life. I do not know anything about your childhood, family, and a lot more except what’s written on the papers and it’s not like you’re an open book,” She confessed, “Sometimes when we are together, I feel like there’s this huge barrier between us and I can’t even get to you.”

Elijah gulped, knowing that it was the truth. He was almost taut and cautious and wouldn’t let anyone in, afraid that his secret would be out if he did that. Except he trusted you, Elijah doesn’t let anyone in.

“Fine,” Elijah breathed, giving in to her request, “What do you want to know?”

Adele beamed at him knowing victory was hers. She said, “Tell me about your childhood. What was it like growing up?” Adele wanted to know out of sheer curiosity and not as a result of the annoying suspicion nagging at the back of her mind.

Elijah pursed his lips, already thinking of a well-constructed story that wouldn’t give out his identity yet was a piece of truth from his childhood and aligned with his current identity.

“Well,” He started, “Like many average kids out there, I lived a pretty normal life as a kid. Although I was quite a handful to handle,”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Adele smirked at him.

“Really?” He arched a brow at her.

“No offense, but you have that feeling about you that says tall, dark and dangerous. So it doesn’t surprise me you were one hell of a kid,” She said in her defense.

Elijah laughed. Sincerely laughed. It has been a long time since he enjoyed a woman’s company like this.

“Well, you’re not far from the truth,” He affirmed,” I think I caused a lot of trouble for my brothers -”

“Brothers?” Adele was quick to pick that up and that was when Elijah realized the mistake he made.

She looked at him saying, “Didn’t you say you had just one brother?”