Forbidden Temptation My Mafia Fiance's Alpha Father (Brooklyn and Aden) novel Chapter 48

Chapter 48
Brooklyn

I sit there sobbing on my bed, when I hear the door creak open. Hudson’s dark head appears.

“Brooklyn?” he calls, hesitating. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” I say, wiping at my eyes.

“Are you alright?” he asks, pressing the door closed and coming to sit next to me on the bed.

I nod, sniffing and working to contain myself.

“Just…looking through old pictures.” I gesture towards the album.

Hudson picks it up and leafs through it.

“Wow,” he says, looking between me and the woman on the page. “Brooklyn, she looks just like you.”

“I know,” I say, my eyes wide. “Obviously, I remember what she looks like, from when I was a kid, but…I didn’t realize I’d grown to resemble her so much.”

He nods, still leafing through. Then he looks at me. “I can see how this would be hard for you. I never, ever go through my mom’s old albums.”

I nod, reaching out a hand for his, understanding.

Life can be so hard, especially when you’ve lost a parent. It’s a fine line between wanting to remember them and missing them so horribly that all you want to do is run from the feeling.

Hudson squeezes my hand and we both sit quietly together, having our separate thoughts.

I mean, I’m not in precisely the same situation. I’m not married to a man I clearly love, having borne his child.

But in some ways, seeing my face in those albums, it feels like it’s all happening, all over again—repeating the past.

Am I really doomed to repeat it? Will I, too, find reason to flee from this world, to try everything I can to leave it behind and build a new life in hiding? Would it eventually take me out, too?

And what, really, killed her? Was it just a car accident, or is that too much of a coincidence? For a Don’s bride to be killed so shortly after she fled.

Oh my god, was I going to die young as well?

I burst into tears again, fear and sorrow and panic flooding my body.

Hudson puts his arms around my shoulders.

“It’s okay to miss her, you know,” he says.

I wonder, once again, what it would be like if Hudson could love me the way I want someone to love me.

I shake my head because he has it all wrong. I know it’s okay to miss her. But that’s not what I’m afraid of.