Part 2- Take Nothing of Mine, the Mafia Boss Ordered — Unaware I Carried the One Thing He Could Never Lose
Take Nothing of Mine, the Mafia Boss Ordered — Unaware I Carried the One Thing He Could Never Lose
Part 2: The Secret He Spent Five Years Chasing
Five years.
That was how long I lived with the secret.
Five years of waking up every morning and looking into the same pair of gray eyes that reminded me of the man I had tried so desperately to forget.
Five years of telling myself that Mateo Lombardi was nothing more than a painful chapter of my past.
Five years of pretending I didn’t miss him.
But the truth was much harder.
I missed him every day.
I hated him every day.
And somehow, I loved him every day.
That was the cruelest part.
People always say time heals everything.
They are wrong.
Sometimes time only teaches you how to carry the pain without letting anyone see it.
My name was still Hazel Brooks, but my life had completely changed.
The woman who walked out of the Lombardi estate in Chicago with nothing became someone new in Portland, Maine.
I wasn’t a mafia boss’s secret lover anymore.
I wasn’t the woman people whispered about.
I wasn’t the person protected by expensive cars and armed guards.
I was simply Hazel.
A baker.
A mother.
A woman who worked twelve-hour days with flour covering her hands and exhaustion weighing down her shoulders.
And honestly?
I had never been happier.
My bakery, Sweet Crumb, wasn’t large.
It wasn’t fancy.
The walls were painted a warm cream color, the tables were simple wooden ones, and the chairs didn’t match.
But it was mine.
Every single thing inside that bakery was purchased with my own money.
No diamonds.
No gifts.
No protection from a dangerous man.
Just me.
And my son.
Leo.
My beautiful little boy.
The one thing Mateo Lombardi never knew existed.
Leo was four years old, and he was the center of my entire universe.
He had my smile.
My stubbornness.
My love for sweet things.
But his eyes…
Those eyes belonged to someone else.
Cold gray eyes.
The exact same eyes that had looked at me five years earlier and told me I meant nothing.
Sometimes, when Leo became serious, when he crossed his little arms and frowned while trying to solve a problem, my heart would ache.
Because I wasn’t just looking at my son.
I was looking at a piece of Mateo.
A piece of the man I had tried to bury.
“Mommy.”
Leo’s tiny voice pulled me back to reality.
I turned around from the bakery counter.
He was sitting at his little table near the window, holding a coloring book.
“What happened, sweetheart?”
“The green crayon broke.”
He held it up like it was a serious emergency.
I smiled.
“My goodness. The whole world is ending because of a broken crayon?”
He nodded seriously.
“Yes.”
I laughed.
That was the thing about children.
They could make you forget your pain for a moment.
I walked over and kissed his forehead.
“Use another color.”
“But trees are green.”
I smiled.
“Not all trees. Some trees are different.”
Leo thought about it.
Then he picked up a blue crayon.
“Okay. This tree is special.”
I watched him color.
And for a moment, everything felt perfect.
Until the bell above the bakery door rang.
I looked up.
And my entire body froze.
Because standing there was a ghost from the life I escaped.
Tobias Reed.
Mateo Lombardi’s right-hand man.
Five years disappeared in a single second.
The warmth of my bakery vanished.
The smell of cinnamon and sugar disappeared.
All I could feel was fear.
Tobias looked older.
There were more lines on his face.
More exhaustion in his eyes.
But I would recognize him anywhere.
He stared at me.
Then slowly looked around the bakery.
His eyes moved from my face.
To my apron.
To the small tables.
Then toward the corner where Leo sat.
My heart stopped.
Without thinking, I moved.
I stepped between Tobias and my son.
My body became a shield.
A mother’s instinct.
The same instinct that kept me alive the night Mateo destroyed me.
“Hazel?”
Tobias whispered my name like he couldn’t believe it.
I tightened my jaw.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked genuinely shocked.
“We thought you were dead.”
The words sent a chill through me.
“Dead?”
“After what happened in Chicago…”
He stopped.
I knew what he meant.
After Mateo threw me away.
After my brother’s supposed death.
After everything.
I crossed my arms.
“You should leave.”
“Hazel, wait.”
“No.”
My voice was calm.
But inside, I was shaking.
“I have nothing to do with Mateo Lombardi anymore.”
Tobias looked down.
“The boss isn’t the same.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Why would I care?”
“Because he never stopped looking for you.”
I froze.
For a second, I hated myself for reacting.
But Tobias noticed.
“He thought you betrayed him.”
I looked away.
“He made his choice.”
Tobias sighed.
“He destroyed entire organizations trying to find out what happened that night.”
I didn’t answer.
“He destroyed himself.”
The silence between us became heavy.
Then Tobias said something that made my blood run cold.
“Mateo needs to know you’re alive.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You will not tell him.”
“Hazel…”
“Listen carefully.”
My voice hardened.
“You have no idea what I lost because of him.”
Tobias looked like he wanted to argue.
Then suddenly—
“Mommy.”
Leo’s voice came from behind me.
My heart stopped.
I turned.
Too late.
Leo walked around me holding his blue crayon.
And Tobias saw him.
The room went completely silent.
Because Tobias wasn’t looking at Leo like a stranger.
He was looking at him like he had just seen a miracle.
The color drained from his face.
The little boy stared back at him.
Confused.
Tobias slowly whispered:
“No…”
I felt my entire world collapse.
Because I knew what he saw.
The dark hair.
The stubborn expression.
The gray eyes.
Mateo Lombardi’s eyes.
Tobias looked at me.
Then back at Leo.
“Hazel…”
His voice trembled.
“What did you do?”
I grabbed the rolling pin from behind the counter.
“Get out.”
“Hazel, he’s…”
“Get out!”
My voice echoed through the bakery.
Customers stared.
Leo looked scared.
I immediately dropped the anger from my face and pulled him close.
“It’s okay, baby.”
But Tobias wasn’t looking at me anymore.
He was looking at my son.
Mateo’s son.
Without another word, he stepped backward.
Then he turned and walked out.
The bell above the door rang softly.
A cheerful sound.
A terrible sound.
Because I knew exactly what would happen next.
Mateo Lombardi would find out.
That night, I packed everything.
Every document.
Every photograph.
Every memory.
I had prepared for this moment for five years.
Arthur Higgins, a man who specialized in creating new identities, had once warned me.
“One day, Hazel, the past will find you.”
I had hoped he was wrong.
He wasn’t.
I packed Leo’s clothes into a bag.
His favorite toys.
His books.
Everything.
“Mommy?”
I turned around.
Leo stood in the doorway holding his little dinosaur.
“Are we leaving?”
My heart broke.
I walked toward him and knelt.
“We’re going on an adventure.”
“Where?”
I forced a smile.
“Somewhere safe.”
He studied my face.
Even at four years old, he knew when I was lying.
“Are you scared?”
That question almost destroyed me.
Because children should never have to worry about protecting their mothers.
I hugged him tightly.
“No, baby.”
I whispered.
“Mommy is never scared when she has you.”
But I was lying.
I was terrified.
Because somewhere in Chicago, the most powerful man I had ever known was about to learn the truth.
He had spent five years believing I took nothing from him.
He was about to discover the one thing I had carried away.
His son.
And Mateo Lombardi was coming for us.
Not as a mafia boss.
Not as a king.
But as a father who had lost five years of his child’s life.
And I had no idea whether the man who came to find us would be the same monster who destroyed me…
Or the man I once loved.
