Divorcing Her Mafia Family
Chapter 22

She slunk into the house at the compound at six the next morning feeling like death had visited her and then ran away in terror. She followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen and found Mrs. K. scrambling eggs and frying bacon. She felt her stomach roll. She dropped her laptop bag beside her on the floor.

“Good morning,” she croaked as she slipped onto a bar stool.

Mrs. K turned around in surprise, “Dimitra, what happened to you.” She moved to her quickly, grabbed her chin and stared into her eyes.

“Had contacts in and I’ve never worn them before. I passed out with them in. They’re out now but it really hurt to get them out.” She held up a bottle of eye drops. “Darya says I just need to keep lubricating my eyes and they’ll be fine in no time.”

“Why were you wearing contacts?”

“We went clubbing.” She m****d and dropped her head on the countertop. “I drank a lot of vodka.” The smell of the strong coffee the older woman set beside her head made her look up in appreciation.

“She ran an eight-thousand-dollar tab at my club,” Miklos commented as he stepped into the kitchen fresh as a daisy. “You look like hell.”

“It was worth it,” she lifted her head up higher and looked him up and down resenting his cheerful appearance. His presence told her he’d been waiting on her. “I gathered great intel and helped Darya get the ball rolling.”

He picked a piece of the bacon Mrs. K set on a plate for him with his eggs and eyed her curiously, “what kind of intel did you gather?”

“Now what kind of soldier would I be if I told the enemy the secrets, I have gathered to take him down.” She almost gagged at the plate the housekeeper slid in front of her. There was no way she was eating soft fluffy eggs when her stomach was this contrary.

“Well, your little recon mission gave me information as well. For instance, you still want me.”

“I want lots of things, Miklos. Doesn’t mean it’s good for me or I should have it.” At his frown she laughed, “did you think I was going to deny I want to sleep with you? Don’t be daft. Of course, I do,” she noted Mrs. K had vacated the room. “I want to fly an airplane but I’m afraid of heights so it’s too risky. I want to do Molly at a rock concert but it’s too dangerous. I want to go to one of those hedonistic resorts and do wild things with multiple people, but I’m afraid of diseases. Not all the things I want to do are things I’m going to do. I acknowledge I have weird wants, but they are wants, not needs and I am content to live my life without ever engaging in them, including f*****g you again.”

She sipped her coffee and didn’t look away from his furious gaze.

“A hedonistic resort?”

“Yeah. A friend of ours in college went. Said she had multiple o*****s on multiple occasions, and it was the most incredible time of her life. We all fantasized after she told us all about it.” She made a face, “She also came back pregnant and didn’t know the father and in fact didn’t even know the names of half the guys she’d been with. She’s now a single mom running a b**m parlor in Boston. I mean, she’s a millionaire, and her kid is a sweetheart, but you know, the risk just doesn’t outweigh the reward for me.”

“These are the kinds of people you went to college with?” he was staring incredulously at her.

“MIT? Yes. Did you think just because we’re smart, nerdy types we’d be boring?” she mocked him. Her phone rang in her pocket, and she pulled it out and answered it. “You’re on speaker Mags.”

“Great. My throat feels eerily like the time we did the bong thing in second year. Did we smoke last night?”

“No. We cried and then ordered hot wings and pizza. Darya opened up the jar of the pepperoncini and we got into the ouzo.”

“That explains my throat but why am I naked?”

“We went swimming.”

“That explains the seaweed in my hair,” Magda said quietly. “Last question and I’ll hang up.”

“Sure.”

“Did I really call Ares at four am and tell him I would never in a million years suck his c**k or let him near my virgin p***y?”

Miklos choked and spat his scrambled eggs across the table, hastily grabbing a napkin at her words.

“Yes,” Dimi sighed sadly, “you did. You also told him if he couldn’t respect your decision then our deal is off.”

“I see.” She sniffed, “well the contract was delivered here this morning ready to be signed so I’m guessing he accepted my decision.”

“He did.” Dimi made a face as Miklos wiped up his eggs from the table but continued to openly eavesdrop.

“When you go to London, I want to come. Maybe Big Ben has a brother or a cousin.”

“We will replace you your very own Big Ben and you can forget about arrogant billionaires.”

“I’m going to bed now.”

“Mags,” Dimi stopped her from hanging up, “whatever you decide, I have your back and so does Darya. We don’t have to sign this contract. It’s just money. Do what your heart is telling you.”

“My heart is telling me my body isn’t for sale.” She said simply. “I know why I called him. I read the texts again this morning. He crossed a line. I’ll take his money for our product and then I’m done with him.”

Dimi nodded, “get some sleep. I’ll check in on you later.”

“You will not be going back to London.” He glowered at her.

“I have an incredible job opportunity in London,” she leaned over the plate of breakfast and inhaled. Maybe she could eat. She lifted a piece of bacon in her fingers and tore a corner off with her teeth.

“What’s the name of the company?” he folded his arms angrily over his chest. “You can tell me now or I will simply replace out myself. Do you want Big Ben’s death on your hands?”

“Go ahead,” she met his gaze without a flicker of fear. “Do your worst Miklos. His death wouldn’t be on my hands. I am not the one acting irrationally. You see, I realized something this morning after my refreshing dip in the ocean.” She leaned back chewing thoughtfully, “you were my first crush. I loved you, not like a brother or family, but the way a girl loves her first crush. The way the teenage girls I went to school with in middle and high school had crushes on Zac Efron or Ryan Reynolds. While they put posters on their walls, my crush was a real live version of the ultimate bad boy and I got to see him every day. I do not deny I crushed hard after you.”

She swallowed the bacon watching his eyes narrow on hers as she lifted a forkful of the eggs to her mouth and sighed happily. She sipped her coffee to wash them down. She was already starting to feel much better. “Now, unfortunately for me and my tender teenage heart, unlike all of my girlfriends in school who never met their celebrity crushes, I knew mine very well and he stomped all over my heart like one of those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. I am however a woman, a Greek woman, hot-blooded and passionate and I have needs I have been quite capable of taking care of on my own for years.” She leaned forward boldly, “I even have more than one toy Miklos. Imagine!”

She watched the color flood his cheeks as he struggled to control his temper and his tongue, waiting for her to finish her little speech.

“But just like every one of my girlfriends in school, given the chance to sleep with their first childhood crush, I jumped at it. Just like Whitney Peters from high school would probably still spread her legs for a night with Zac Efron, and she’s a nun now so it’s saying something, I had the opportunity to f**k my childhood crush and I did. I have no regrets. It was good s*x. I mean, did we forget the condom? Sure. I did go to the free clinic took the plan B pill and got tested for diseases. My results will be back in a few weeks so I’m hoping I don’t start getting itchy before then or I’ll be pretty upset, but otherwise, I have no regrets. You are my Zac Efron. I’m content with the taste but I don’t need the buffet. I’m good.”

She folded an entire slice of bacon up and shoved it into her mouth and chewed it happily.

He opened his mouth to speak when her phone rang, and she answered it frowning. “What do you want?”

“Your head on a platter.”

She watched as Miklos sat up straight at the fury of the voice on the other end of her phone. He was suddenly protective, and she almost laughed at it. Big brother. It was almost funny.

“Bryce, come and try to get it. I’ll ruin you so fast your own mother will disown you.”

“You little b***h. You are going to get me arrested again.” His tone was downright infuriated.

She threw her head back and laughed, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. I swear on my mother’s life, Dimitra, if the FBI or CIA show back up at my door because of you, I’ll strangle you.”

“You don’t want to strangle me,” she mocked him openly into the phone. “Well, actually, I know you like breath play so maybe you do. I don’t replace you attractive though, so I’ll take a hard pass on the b**m games with you. You’re repulsive.”

He gave a frustrated curse at her words, “come back to Boston. I’ll change your mind.”

“For what purpose?”

“I just want ten minutes alone with you.”

“You wouldn’t last two. Did you forget the video I sent you this morning? Two minutes is your max I think.”

“Dimitra Lykiaos you are the devil.”

She could hear the way he struggled not to laugh. Theirs was a love hate relationship. He loved to want her. She hated his guts. He had been doing things to get her attention like a primary school boy since her first day at MIT. Their games had gotten infinitely worse over time. “This from the man who almost got me sent to Guantanamo.”

“It was your own doing, and you know it. You went too far. Now, get this video off my employer’s server and make sure there is no trace of it. You made consensual s*x look like snuff porn.” The irritation was back. “It looks like I murdered her.”

“Bryce, Bryce, Bryce, any computer programmer worth his salt could remove it. You just aren’t good enough.”

“Dimi, I swear to God –”

“Ugh, fine, you big baby. Next time you decide to go play games though, don’t do it with a girl I know and make it weird. She called me right away to tattle and it was unnerving. I hate you.”

“I knew she would call you,” he laughed at her. “Fix my systems. Now.”

“I want money.”

“How much?”

“Ten grand.”

“Done. It’s being wired to you right now.”

“Great. Stop naming your toys after me. It’s weird.” She hung up on him and then hopped off the stool and walked away from the kitchen heading to the guest bedroom carrying her laptop with her. She sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed and logged into her device and undid the damage she had done to Bryce’s current employer’s computer system after checking to make sure her money was received.

“What the f**k was that?” Miklos stood in the doorway.

She noted for the first time the door had been repaired. She shrugged, “my arch nemesis thought it would be good fun to go to my old business, hire one of the girls to pretend to be me and choke her out. s*x is completely off the table at the location, so he brought her back to his place.”

“He strangled a woman and pretended it was you.” Miklos’ face was rageful

“No,” she corrected with a smirk, “he had consensual s*x with a woman who also enjoys breath play. He made her pretend her name was Dimi while he f****d her and choked her out. As you heard, he knew I would replace out. He didn’t count on me hacking his home security and getting the video the minute, she called me to say he was up to his tricks again.”

“He’s done this before?” Miklos shoved his fingers through his hair in fury. “He’s fantasized of killing you?”

“He doesn’t want me dead, Miklos.” She laughed loudly now. “Did you not hear him on the phone? I hate the man. I really hate him. He stole what was mine, made it his and then made a career out of it. Programmers, every single one of us, are arrogant and ruthless. We take pride in our skills. I embarrassed him at a party and shot him down so hard he got teased for months. He took my program because I refused to date him in college, and he knew I would retaliate because it was mine. Since then, it has been his mission to f**k me. It’s all he wants. Just one roll in the hay and he’ll leave me alone, or so he says. I’m not interested. For him, it’s a challenge.” She wrinkled her nose and looked him up and down, “it seems I have a habit of this.”

“A habit of what?”

“Making men think I’m a challenge they need to win.” She turned her attention back to her computer. “Men have fragile egos. The moment you deny them, they think it’s within their right to chase. Thankfully, he has it in his head victory will only be when I come to him willingly, on my knees and beg for his d**k and he’s not truly a violent man. Never going to happen.”

“He’s going to die.”

“No,” she pointed a finger at him, “he is not. He is connected to the feds. If he dies, you make them descend on the family like flies on s**t. They know I am a person of interest to him, and I hate his guts for getting me arrested and detained for days. They will automatically connect Lykiaos to his death. He is untouchable and he knows it. Leave him alone.”

“He wants to f**k my wife!”

She chortled at his words, “f**k off, Miklos. For eight years you made it clear I wasn’t your wife and legally, because the marriage wasn’t consummated, I wasn’t. Screwing you yesterday was a mistake so now an annulment is out of the question, but I can still get divorced. It means if I am so inclined, I could go to Boston, f**k Bryce, and get him off my back once and for all but I’d rather shoot myself in the face. Though, if I’m being truthful, I edited the video to two minutes. The guy is a beast so maybe I’ll reconsider. Darya asked for his number after we hacked his cameras.”

“Do you f*****g hear yourself? You talk like –”

“Men?” she c****d her head to one side and met his gaze head on. “We talk like men. We speak the same way as a man does except, because it comes out of a woman, you replace it offensive. If Kostas spoke like this, you would clap him on the back and say well done. Because I have a v****a and not a p***s, you replace it offensive. Screw you with your double standards Miklos. My father didn’t raise a sweet innocent debutante with pigtails and gingham dresses. He raised me to be ruthless, hard, and calculating, just like you. The only difference is you,” she waved her hand in his direction, “only remember the rough parts of me when it’s convenient, like when you want me to conduct interrogations. Otherwise, I am nothing more to you than a burden. You never intended for me to rule this family with you the way Giorgio does my father. You never intended to make me your partner, not in the business, not in the family, not in a marriage. Before I showed up here this week demanding my divorce and bruising your fragile ego, you would have been content I stay away forever. You never wanted me at your side. Do not begin to pretend now you’ve had long-standing affection or respect for me when you’ve had none.”

“Dimitra,” her words appeared to have shocked him.

She sneered at him, “save it, Miklos. You didn’t want a partner. You wanted this family on your own. You can have it. Just give me my divorce and I’ll leave, and you won’t have to share a f*****g thing. In fact, you can have it all. I don’t want any of it. You can even keep my trust funds. We both know, my father will not cut you off. He loves you, probably more than me since he’s groomed you far too long to let anyone else take over.” She scoffed, “there was a time when I was much younger and stupid, I had believed he was doing everything he did with me so I would rule the family. Then he made me marry you so you could have it all and you made it clear I was only the pawn in the game. The only loser in this game is me. I’m done playing it.”

He stared incredulously at her, “you really believe your father would let you walk away from this family and be done with it? Did you believe I would let you walk away? You’re a smart woman, Dimitra. Don’t be stupid now.”

“Why Miklos? Why must I stay? Give me one reason to explain why I owe it to this family to stay in it? You have done nothing but cause me pain, heartache, and humiliation. I will not be my mother, sticking wordlessly by a philandering man and gaining nothing from it but the hope for martyrdom when her days on this earth are done.”

“You are born of this family. You are a Lykiaos. You are married to my family, and this makes you Laskaris. You sit there and talk of owing our families nothing, but you forget your place. You have not been invited to sit at my side in any meetings, to attend to business or to be part of our profits because you walked away. You threw a fit like a spoiled brat demanding to be allowed to move across the country and go to school like a normal teenage girl. You left me. When you decided to embarrass me and leave our home to go play sorority sister, you changed the game.”

“Bullshit!” she flung her hands at him. “On my birthday you looked me right in the eyes and said our marriage would never be a real one so I should stop my little lovesick fantasy right then and right there. On our wedding day, while we stood not feet away from our parents after reciting lies in front of God about love and respect, you whispered in my ear not to hold my breath for a real honeymoon because our marriage was a farce and on papers only. When my father insisted, we go to the villa in Crete for our honeymoon and on the jet, you said to me there wasn’t enough alcohol on the plane to make you consider doing to me what you knew my childish fantasies wanted so I should just go to the bedroom and sleep the trip, it was clear. Then, when we got to the villa, and you left me there all alone to go f**k someone else at the clubs, coming back covered in lipstick and perfume and you told me I would never be woman enough for you, so you had to go get it elsewhere because I was always just your kid sister, I knew I was trapped. I just didn’t know how to get out.”

“I didn’t f**k anyone in Crete.”

“Your words not mine.” She shrugged. “Did you lie then or now?”

“You changed.” He hissed furiously. “The minute they said we were getting married, you changed. You went from defiant, bold, and brazen to complacent and a doormat. You weren’t Dimitra, not the one I knew. You were ready to just part your legs like your father wanted because he ordered it. You didn’t even argue for your own self-worth.”

“Is this what you’ve managed to convince yourself over the last eight years? I wasn’t as spunky, so it turned you off?” she laughed outright at his words. “f**k you Miklos. I was crushed and my heart battered because the one person I loved and trusted more than anyone else in the universe rejected me so violently it took everything in me not to break down. I did what I was told to do for the family, but I did it with a broken heart. Unlike all the other girls who nursed their first broken hearts with ice cream, wine and crying on their girlfriends’ shoulders, I was pulled away from all of my friends, sent to live here all alone, in a house with nobody but Mrs. K. Yes, I retreated, and I was a shell of myself. I was f*****g depressed, you arrogant a*****e. The only light at the end of my tunnel was replaceing new purpose. You didn’t want me, so I needed to replace a way for me to feel useful again. So, I went to school. I did the things I knew I was good at. I made friends. I made enemies. I built a life for myself. I lived Miklos. Just because I didn’t have s*x until yesterday doesn’t mean I didn’t have a life without you. You and this family almost robbed me of my life. Had I not gone to school, I would have sat in this house for months and months and years and years on end while you f****d your way through supermodels and actresses while I would have become more and more my mother. I saved myself! I did it. I know my place, Miklos. My place is where I want it to be. Not wherever you and your mentor think it should be. Let me go!”

He stared at her hard.

She knew she was breathing erratically, anger fueling her words and the passion spilling from her lips as she contemplated whether or not she was finally getting through to him. His next words told her she had not.

“I will not ever let you go. You are my wife. We will replace our way. I love you, kopelia mou.”

His soft-spoken tender words caused searing pain in her chest, and she gripped it tightly, squeezing the t-shirt she wore in a firm fist as she struggled to breathe. “Too far, Miklos. Too far.” She pushed off the bed and stumbled into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

She slid down the door, curled into herself, and let the tears fall. The rapping of his knock on the door made her slam her head backwards against it and she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice breaking. He had gone too far.