My Second Marriage with the Mafia Kingpin

"So, what you were saying is... you actually asked her not to burn bridges?" Rum summarized Ashley’s story before scooping up a spoonful.

The six of them sat around the dining table, eating the feast she had prepared for them. Surprisingly, it tasted really good. Although they were unsure if that was because they were hungry, or if it genuinely was.

"Wow... look at you proudly saying you made her cry — they’re tears of joy! Are you kidding me?" Red harrumphed. "What are you so proud about that? Tch."

Gin shook his head. "You’re hopeless."

Ashley frowned at their criticism, glaring at them. All four of them — except the ever-quiet Tank — were looking at her in dismay. One would say she was stupid for not burning the bridge with Emma. That was if they didn’t know Emma’s real relationship with Lucian.

But even then, Ashley just didn’t have the heart to do that.

When she heard that Emma was able to live a privileged life, her initial reaction was one of envy. Who wouldn’t want to live Emma’s life? But when Ashley heard the conditions set for Emma to live, it made her think.

Nothing would justify Emma’s behavior as a mother. But at the same time, Ashley could sympathize and understand the woman (as a person) on some level. Their circumstances might be different by a large margin, but they were also the same in some ways.

Neither of them belonged to the family they were born into. And they were both not wanted because... they were bastards.

"What do you want me to do, huh? Kick her and pull out all of her hair?" she hissed. "It’s all a misunderstanding, okay?"

"What’s there to misunderstand?" Red quickly argued. "That night, you were bawling your eyes out. I actually thought they were going to come out! What’s there to misunderstand about that?!"

"Are those tears fake?!" Rum added in the same intensity.

"For sure, we didn’t misunderstand Tank speaking more than ten words in a single month!" Vodka added, making Tank lower his head and eat faster.

Gin nodded. "I don’t know how you’re making sense of all of this, but you are one big pile of walking frustration..."

The four of them kept rambling on and on about how frustrating it was listening to her nonsensical argument. Although they had stayed with her that night, mostly out of guilt and lack of choice, the whole situation was frustrating. Hence, they couldn’t stop themselves.

Amid their harsh criticism, Ashley mumbled, "She’s my sister-in-law. How can I just kick her out when everyone already made it clear that she didn’t belong anywhere, hmm?"

"What we’re saying is — ah?" Gin stopped abruptly as his brows knitted. "What? What did you say?"

Slowly, they all turned to her as they tried to process what she had just said.

"Sister — sister, huh?" Vodka, the big guy, blanked. "What’s going on?"

Even Tank furrowed his brows. The five of them stared at her with utter confusion. But the more her words settled in their minds, the more puzzled they were.

Ashley sighed.

"Emma is actually Lucian’s sister, half-sister. It’s a shame that she seemed to be a very nice lady too. And I never truly knew what it felt like to have a sister or something. I think we’ll get along well if we just give ourselves a chance to get to know each other."

But everything she said fell on deaf ears as the five of them stared at her blankly until Gin blurted out,

"You’re saying that woman and the master were siblings..." Then they all looked up, having a mental picture of the family tree.

Ashley nodded, and just when she thought they figured it out, Rum suddenly blurted out,

"Incest?"

SLAM!

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ashley slammed the table loudly and jumped up, making the five of them jolt in surprise. "Are you guys idiots or what? I wrote in the memo you are bums, not brain-dead!"

"Isn’t that the same thing?" Red gasped. "We literally do nothing! It’s killing our brains!"

"But madam, if it’s not that... does that mean..." Gin trailed off, shocked at this piece of information.

Ashley sat down and nodded. "Yeah," she answered, and glared at Red.

With that, their mouths dropped open.

"No way," they breathed out incredulously.

After a bit of thought, they looked at each other and then at Ashley until Red asked,

"Hell? Why are you telling us?"

She blinked. "Why not?"

"This is crucial information," Gin leaned forward, his expression solemn. The rest also calmed down and nodded, letting the brainy one explain what she didn’t seem to understand.

"You cannot just tell others about this so casually. Dominion might look like a solid structure, but the flow of information here is airtight. We don’t even trust other divisions about our plans if they have nothing to do with our missions or orders."

Again, the other four nodded.

Dominion was a huge international organization. Those living in the mansion before they moved in here were just a small fraction of Dominion. Their organization was divided like LEGO blocks; they were interconnected with each other, and together, they formed Dominion.

The only difference was that competition was always high, and trust among them was just as fragile as porcelain.

"What we’re trying to say is, this... we don’t even know this!" Red intoned, and everyone nodded in agreement again. "We’re sure some others already know this, and they’re keeping their mouths shut because it’s the master’s personal life."

Rum tilted his head. "We’re not told for a reason. Simply put."

Ashley tilted her head a little to the side. "But you’re my bodyguards."

They paused and looked at her, judgment clear in their eyes.

"Even so, you can’t just do that. What if someone in here spills this information to others?" Vodka argued politely. "We are your bodyguards, but you still have to be cautious. Like what they say, you don’t know who among us would leak this information."

"Would you?" she blinked almost innocently. "Would you leak information that I tell you?"

"No, but —" they answered in unison, only for her to smile brightly.

Seeing that she just believed them the second they answered, it left them looking at her with their eyelids twitching.

Red ground his teeth, and when he couldn’t take it anymore, he jumped from his seat and harrumphed. "Is this how information got leaked outside of Dominion before?!"

This simple? This stupid? This trustful?

Where was the scheme? The calculated manipulation? The things they had expected from her?

"How could you just trust us just because we said it?!" he fumed, making the others furrow their brows at him as he was more worked up than he should have been.

As for Ashley, she frowned and studied their faces. But just as her mouth parted, the front door suddenly opened from the outside. Slowly, she turned, and her face brightened.

"You’re back?"

The moment she said those words, the five bums froze in place. Their backs shivered at the walking air conditioning of Dominion before their necks twisted stiffly, as though their spines had rusted. When they finally saw the person standing by the front door, they held their breath.

Lucian.

He was the very person they had been avoiding since that night. He was also the very reason they had told her they would eat quickly and leave, only to end up lingering because she kept frustrating them.

"Shit," Rum whispered. "We’re fucked, aren’t we?"

"We’ll know..." Gin winced as he looked away. "... in a second."