The Mobster's Girl

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Three

It had been about one year that Stella had been back in New York, and life had gotten back to as normal as it could possibly be.

The minute she'd returned, she immersed herself into rehearsals and making herself better at her role in the play. The cast and crew had been eager to have her back, and Christopher, the writer, was certain that all the press surrounding Jack and his new wife would bring more publicity to the play. He had been correct.

The minute Stella arrived at the theater or left it, she was hounded by both members of the press and by people, mostly women her age, who were fascinated by Jack and by the woman who had captured his attention. She was glad that it was bringing more attention to the show, but wished that the attention would be caused by her talent, and not by her husband's trial.

It wasn't until months into the show's run that the papers began to review the show and the cast. Stella had received mostly glowing reviews, to her delight, but received a few from bitter individuals who held a grudge against her due to her husband's career.

Thanks to those glowing reviews, Stella was beginning to receive other offers for lead roles in other shows, but was turning them down until the role and the pay felt right. Plus, she and her costar, Will, had formed a nice friendship after he'd finally accepted that he wouldn't be able to have a romantic relationship with her. She loved working with him night after night, and the two did have chemistry, so she knew that if she were to make the move to another show, she would need to bring him along, or find another costar that she enjoyed working with as much.

With a combination of the attention she received due to being Jack's wife, and her newfound fame, she was thankful that she and Jack had been smart before he had been arrested, and leased the apartment under a fake name, Dorothy Moore. This meant that the press and her sudden fanbase hadn't yet been able to locate where she lived. She was extremely grateful for that, so she had somewhere to escape from everything.

She had talked to Jack as often as he could, and he'd assured her that he had a pretty comfortable cell to live in and was given almost anything he'd asked for. They wrote letters back and forth frequently, but Stella had yet to visit him, as she'd been too busy with her show, and Jack had insisted he didn't want her to see him in prison.

She swore that as soon as the excitement surrounding her and Jack and her show died down a bit, she'd surprise him and simply not tell him that she was coming.

She knew that he had to miss her as much as she missed him, and it'd been far too long that the pair had been separated.

She expected some of the excitement to die down after Jack's trial and sentencing, especially after Jack had accepted a plea bargain, but the excitement was ongoing and seemingly never-ending.

Stella had been expecting that during the trial, they'd have her come and testify, but to her surprise, Jack had agreed to a plea bargain, where he agreed to the charges of racketeering, cross-border smuggling, and tax evasion charges, in return for a shorter sentence of seven years. They hadn't been able to successfully pin the murder charges on him.

The sentence was shorter than expected, but still quite a long time. She'd be twenty-eight by the time he'd be out, which seemed centuries away. She couldn't begin to imagine what kind of person she would be by that time, or what kind of person Jack would be. Would they still love each other?

Stella was relieved that his sentence was under a decade, she was still upset that she would have to spend seven years away from her husband. Jack had been optimistic though, and figured that as soon as he was able to pay back the taxes that he hadn't paid, it could take a chunk of time off of his sentence.