Ten Years Later, I Woke Up as the Wife of the Mafia Heir I Once Hated Chapter 01

Ten Years Later, I Woke Up as the Wife of the Mafia Heir I Once Hated Chapter 01

Alexander Charleston caught me by the shoulders and held me steady.

For about three seconds.

Then he let go.

He dropped his gaze to the little boy beside us and said, calm and flat, “Nick. Bedtime.”

Nick let go of my hand really slowly, like he didn’t want to. His face was all twisted up with hesitation.

But one look from Alex—that usual stare that could probably make grown men cry—and the kid turned around and padded back to his room without a word.

I just stood there watching the whole thing.

My brain was still completely offline.

Call Alex “Dad”?

And I was the mom?

Literally five minutes before I closed my eyes, I was a twenty-year-old college student surviving on instant noodles and 3 a.m. cram sessions.

Now I wake up as Mrs. Charleston, wife of the family heir, with a five-year-old son?

Oh, and it gets better.

My husband is Alexander Charleston.

Seb’s older brother.

The firstborn heir of the Charleston family.

The one guy I spent my entire college years actively avoiding like my life depended on it.

So how exactly did I end up married to my ex-boyfriend’s brother a decade later?

What kind of twisted family drama is this?

And where the hell is Seb?

Alex waited until Nick disappeared behind his door. Then those eyes swung back to me.

He just stared for a few seconds. Silent.

“Still not sleeping?”

“It’s late.”

I was still too dazed to think straight, so the words just fell out. “Sleep. Yeah. I’m going. Going now.”

I looked up at the man in front of me and froze.

This Alex—ten years older—was nothing like the one I remembered.

By my math, he should only be thirty-five now.

But why…

Why was there already so much gray at his temples?

I caught myself thinking that running a family like the Charlestons probably ages you faster than any normal job could. Especially this family. Every day wasn’t just about business rivals. There was always something from the underworld breathing down your neck too.

Maybe it was just years of instinct telling me to be scared of Alex, but I couldn’t handle him standing there staring at me like that.

So I forced myself to turn around and head for the bedroom.

Alex followed.

I could feel his eyes on my back the whole way, even without looking.

Seriously.

Can somebody please explain to me…

Why did I marry Alex ten years later?

And why did I have his five-year-old son?

Before I could even start piecing it together, Alex walked over with a pill in his hand.

His voice was even. “Vitamins.”

I eyed that pill like it was personally offended me.

Vitamins?

Then why not just hand me the bottle?

Do Charleston men really hand-deliver vitamins to their wives themselves?

Or is something else going on here?

Maybe I stood there hesitating too long, because Alex let out this quiet sigh. He looked down and took the pill back, the motion so smooth and natural, like…

like he was already used to me saying no.

“Forget it if you don’t want it.”

He didn’t explain. Just told me to get some rest and turned around and left.

After he was gone, I was even more confused.

Was the relationship between future-me and Alex really that bad?

Married but sleeping in separate rooms?

That’s basically unheard of in a family like the Charlestons. Marriage is all about alliances, about binding families together.

But if Alex and I actually had to share a bed tonight…

I probably wouldn’t get a single minute of sleep.

Because this was Alexander Charleston.

The man who, the very first time we met, made me understand exactly what it meant to carry the weight of a family heir on your shoulders.