My Mafia Husband Faked Amnesia For Three Years, Now He Regrets It Chapter 05

My Mafia Husband Faked Amnesia For Three Years, Now He Regrets It Chapter 05

Matteo knelt on the stone steps outside Oheka Castle for three days, still in his hospital gown.

The Conte family guards didn’t announce him. Didn’t bring him water.

Not until the third night, deep into the hours, did the consigliere open the front door.

“The don will see you.”

In just a few days, Matteo looked like a different man.

His jaw was covered in stubble. His hospital gown was stained with dirt and ash. His eyes were bloodshot.

Aldo sat in the main seat of the sitting room. Giulia had her heart medication on the table in front of her. Several senior family members flanked them on both sides. And on the table lay Matteo’s sidearm, his family ring, and the Red Hook ledgers.

Giulia looked at him, her voice ice.

“How much do you remember?”

Matteo kept his head down. His voice came out raw.

“I remember Alessia pulled me out of that lake.”

“And?”

“I remember we met in Sicily when I was sixteen. She stayed with me through the worst years of the family war. Until that accident when I was twenty-six, I lost everything connected to her.”

Aldo lifted his eyes to him.

“So your actual memory loss is gone. And the so-called traumatic amnesia after thirty, that was just a diagnosis you paid a doctor to fake.”

Matteo’s whole body shuddered. He dropped to the floor.

“Yes.”

A glass shattered at his feet.

Giulia clutched her chest, pointing at him, her voice cracking with fury.

“You faked your disease and lied to us for another woman!”

“Do you have any idea how much people who actually have this condition suffer? They forget the most important parts of their lives! But you used it as a joke, making her life a living hell”

Matteo kept apologizing.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry to all of you.”

Aldo’s face was darker than the night outside.

“The person you owe the most isn’t us.”

“It’s Alessia.”

“She took care of you for three years. But you let your own men mock her at that dinner table, let everyone believe she was just some minor European family’s throwaway daughter.”

“You knew she’s the daughter of the Santoro family. And you never said a single word in her defense.”

Matteo looked up, eyes red.

“I only knew her father ran shipping in Europe. I didn’t know she was the heir—”

Aldo slammed his palm on the table.

“Because she didn’t want to lord her status over you!”

“Alessia is the sole heir of the Santoro family this generation. Her grandfather already named her successor in front of the European family council.”

“The ports, security firms and legitimate investment funds under her control amount to more than all of the Conte family’s assets combined.”

“That so-called alliance marriage was just how we phrased it to save face.”

“The truth is, she rejected every candidate in Europe and went to her own family herself to ask for you.”

“She came to New York with no guards, no shares, because she didn’t want you to feel like the Santoros were buying you out.”

Matteo froze.

He’d always believed her family sent her over because they needed the Conte family’s protection in North America.

When his friends looked down on her, he’d written it off as just the way things worked in the underworld, survival of the fittest.

Turns out, she was never the one who needed protecting.

She’d just put away every weapon she had for love.

Matteo’s voice cracked.

“Then why wasn’t she there for me that year after I lost my memory?”

Giulia raised her hand and slapped him across the face.

“Because after she saved you, she got pulled under herself!”

“She spent a month in emergency at NewYork-Presbyterian, stuck in a coma for an entire year.”

“You were in rehab at the same time. We were running between both of you—and that’s when Clara slipped through.”

“She stole Alessia’s photos and necklace from the hospital. She wore the white dress Alessia had on the day of the accident. She told you, over and over, that she was the one who saved you.”

“How many times did Alessia come looking for you after she woke up? How many times did she try to explain? Did you ever listen?”

“Every time you saw her or that blue diamond, you’d have an ‘episode.’ You’d throw things. You’d scream at her like a kid and chase her out.”

“Then, when the memory loss finally started to stabilize, you begged us to go to the Santoros and propose. You said even if you couldn’t remember her, you wanted to get to know her again.”

Giulia’s tears kept falling.

“She believed you.”

“We all believed you.”

“And then you used amnesia to fool everyone all over again.”

Matteo pressed his forehead to the cold floor. His whole body shook violently.

Aldo pushed the family ring across the table toward the consigliere.

“As of today, you’re suspended from all family authority.”

“Red Hook goes to your brother. You don’t touch the logistics accounts or the club ledgers either. A man who lies to his wife and his parents has no right to demand loyalty from his soldiers—and no right to be the next don.”

“Get out.”

Matteo stumbled home, hollow.

The house had no trace of Alessia left.

The white roses were gone. The sketchbooks were gone. Even her favorite coffee cup had been taken.

He thought of everything he’d done over the past year—and drove his fist into his own face.

“Matteo!”

Clara shrieked and rushed over.

“What happened to you?”