Married To The Mafia

74. Why Are You Up?

Stella let out a tired chuckle. "Okay then, good night." She said.

"Good night." Joanne smiled. "Anthony might stay over at the office with some paperwork by the way." Joanne couldn't help but add. It was a lie but she knew that Stella would just be more suspicious if she was to completely ignore the fact that he wasn't home yet.

"He told you that?" Stella asked, finally some hope in her voice. But why didn't he call her?

"He called Xander around eleven? They were talking Mafia shit I didn't understand." Joanne shrugged. "And he said he didn't want you woken up for that because he might come home."

Stella nodded. "His phone has been switched off." She knew that something was definitely wrong because he would never do that. She was worried about him because he didn't reply to her messages even though he had seen them. But then Anthony had been acting like that lately and hence she didn't know what to think.

"Probably ran out of battery." Joanne tried to shrug it off as well. The goal was to get Stella in bed and away from the drama. Stella, Anika and Gregory needed to be kept in the dark for as long as possible.

Stella nodded and mumbled another 'good night' before closing the door.

Joanne stayed rooted to the spot, straining her ears for footsteps and finally saw the lights go out under the door.

She tiptoed for a good distance before she dashed downstairs and out the front door where Xander had Anthony pinned against the car while Leon was talking quite angrily and animatedly to a distressed looking Daniella, while Wolverine watched everything like it was some boring commercial.

Joanne made her way to her husband and pulled at his hands, trying to get him off of his inebriated brother. "Let him go, Xander!" She hissed. "Remember what I told you?"

Xander looked at his wife exasperatedly. He knew she was right but that didn't make him any less mad at his brother.

"I-I am sorry!" Anthony croaked out.

"Shut up." Joanne turned to him because she knew that anything he said would only trigger both the older brothers' anger.

She then turned to look over at Leon. He seemed to have his temper under control.

"Go sleep in the guest room tonight, Tony." Joanne told her brother-in-law. "I don't want you anywhere near Stel in the state you are in."

He looked miserable and though Joanne knew that Xander was just going to get angrier if she did it, she couldn't help but move forward and hug him. He was an idiot and they had a frenemy-ship going on. And yes, he had fucked up big time. But he needed support and some kind of reassurance and they were his family - they were supposed to be the ones to be there for him.

"Run along now." She sighed as she took a step back. She could feel the daggers her husband was shooting at her with his glare but she ignored him as she watched Anthony walk into the house.

"Daniella, go home." She spoke next to the blond woman.

Her eyes darted between Joanne and Xander, feeling humiliated by the authority the newcomer suddenly had on her. She wanted to react but she knew she was not in a position to, so she had to silently obey her for now and that hurt her ego. She hated Joanne and tolerated her only for Xander but she could not forgive nor forget this humiliation she felt.

"Jo-" Leon started.

"Nothing can be done tonight, Leo." Joanne sighed, finally looking over at her husband. His jaws were clenched and hands fisted. It was evident that the only reason he was controlling his anger was because it was her who he was angry at her and he would never take it out on her now all thanks to her 'sickness'.

"I am sorry Xander. I will fix this, I promise." Daniella tried but was completely ignored by him who just grabbed his wife by her arm and walked into the room.

Leon turned to Daniella. "Don't make stupid promises you will never be able to fulfil." He said, taking a deep breath to calm himself out because he didn't want to yell at her anymore. "Tony was reckless. But you could have told us what he was up to! But you helped him instead and now we are all in this mess. Now we will find a way out. Tony and you are going to stay out of this."

Leon turned on his heels and was ready to go back inside and to his sleeping wife. But he was stopped by Daniella's words. "And Joanne?"

Leon turned back to her, raising a brow. "What about Jo?"

"Will she be 'helping out'?" She air-quoted, her voice bitter and mocking.

Leon tilted his head, irritated. After all that she had done, and after not being able to say one word in front of Xander, she really had the guts to talk like this now.

"Yes Daniella. Joanne is going to help out. You know why? Because she knows how to use her brain. And she keeps her head cool and doesn't act on impulse." Leon said. "Livy and Jo might not know much about how this works but they know a bad decision when they see one."

Daniella nodded, biting back tears. She had completely been cut off by the Kings at this point. Joanne and Olivia were going to be helping out but she, who had invested all those years, were to stay out. She turned on her heels and hurried into her car, determined to be the first to get to the solution of this and show the Kings that they need her. Then she was going to leave them.

She was not going to stay somewhere she wasn't appreciated but she wasn't going to leave until she proved them wrong and showed them her worth.

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Xander didn't say a word as he locked the door and got into bed.

Joanne sighed. Now she had an angry husband. And she didn't know if Wolverine had come inside or not, though she knew Leon would make sure that he did.

She decided it was best to get some rest now. They were going to have a hell of a day today and she needed all the rest before that.

Lying down on her side of the bed, she checked her phone - a habit she had before sleeping - and she almost froze.

It was a private number. An untraceable number.

Maybe she was getting excited for no reason but in her whole life, only one person had ever messaged her from a private number.

Quickly unlocking her phone, she navigated to the text.

Her eyes filled up with tears as she read the short text -

I am in NY. When do we meet?

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