My Second Marriage with the Mafia Kingpin-Chapter 9: Silence Means Yes

"Tsk."

Ashley clicked her tongue as she watched Lucian turn away without much reaction to her big heart gesture.

"Don’t get annoyed. It’s your fault," she told herself. "I should be thinking... now what?"

"You’ve gone back in time, and now what?" she asked herself, rolling her shoulders, unsure of what she should do.

After a second, a light bulb seemed to go off in her head.

"Heh." She smiled and happily skipped away from the ruined garden.

As she did so, she felt some disdainful stares from members of Dominion inside the manor. Even the maids didn’t bother hiding their displeasure.

One of the things that strengthened her determination to leave this place was that she never felt she belonged. Everyone would say hurtful things whenever they got the chance. Although Ashley was partly at fault, they already disliked her simply because she was from the Di Carpio family.

"What is she doing?"

"Wasn’t she punished after what she did yesterday?" another maid whom Ashley had just skipped past whispered to her companion, looking at Ashley’s figure in disdain.

The other one scoffed. "The master is too lenient with her. I don’t understand what he even sees in her."

"Women would line up for the master to look in their direction, but that evil witch just does whatever she wants."

As the whispers continued, Ashley headed straight to the library. Her reputation had already sunk lower than rock bottom, but she didn’t care about what others thought of her. As long as they didn’t cross the line, they could buzz however they wanted.

Without knocking, Ashley walked into the library and quickly spotted the little treasure of Dominion—her stepson, Primo.

Primo, who was quietly doing his homework with his tutor, paused. He slowly lifted his eyes, meeting his stepmother’s squinting gaze.

"..."

"You have a game console, right?" Ashley rested her arms on the table, beaming. "Can I borrow it?"

He didn’t answer, which was not surprising.

She had never once heard him speak, but she knew this boy wasn’t completely mute. From what she heard, Primo simply refused to talk after a traumatic event.

"As you can see, I’m on house arrest," she explained indifferently, then urged like a bully, "I don’t have a phone either, but you have a game console. Lend it to me."

"Silence means yes," she nodded. "Thanks!"

She knocked on the table and jumped off the chair, humming and skipping out of the library.

Primo pressed his lips into a thin line, worry clear in his eyes. He looked at her retreating figure, then closed his book and followed her.

If there was one thing he disliked, it was people going through his things.

Primo quietly followed his stepmother to his room, stopping behind her. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Wow..." Ashley looked around the bedroom in awe. "I can’t believe that in all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never been in this room."

Her eyes twinkled before she gazed down at the kid. "Where is it, boy?"

"..." Primo blinked in confusion. When he shook his head to show his disapproval, she had already looked away and invited herself into his room.

Ashley walked around, touching some figures on the shelves. Every time she touched and set something down carelessly, the little boy panicked a little more and quickly fixed them back into position.

"Bingo!" She smirked smugly, rushing to the game console near the television.

Her eyes gleamed, but when she reached out, the boy’s hand landed on top of the console.

She paused, turned to him, and saw him shake his head.

"Hey, come on now," she frowned. "Just let me borrow it. I’m bored."

Primo pressed his lips together, his eyes sharpening as he pressed his hand on the console harder. Again, he shook his head.

"But you said you were going to lend it to me!" she complained. "I’ll just borrow it until I have money."

"!"

Primo huffed angrily and rushed to his desk, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. Then he ran back to her and wrote aggressively, making her squint at him.

Finally, he raised the paper.

[I didn’t.]

"..." Ashley blinked at the words, only for the corner of her mouth to curl up. "I... am illiterate. I can’t read that."

His breath hitched and his eyes widened in shock.

His stepmother had been here for half a year now, but he had never interacted with her. However, he was aware of her actions.

Was that the reason she kept escaping and getting caught?

Because... she was actually dumb?

Seeing the realization gleam in his eyes, her face twitched. She didn’t think whatever thoughts were going through this boy’s head were beneficial to her.

"Fine!" Ashley huffed, pulling her hand away from the console. "If you don’t want me to borrow it, at least let me play!"

Primo blinked and then wrote a large question mark on the paper.

"I said, let me play—here!" she stressed. "I’m not going to do anything, I promise!"

Primo’s pressed lips tightened as he studied the look on her face. For months, she wouldn’t even look in his direction. The only times she did, she scoffed and treated him like he was invisible. He preferred it that way.

But knowing how stubborn she was and how she constantly defied his father, Primo knew she was vengeful. She was the witch of this household.

[Don’t break it.] He wrote, only to see her beam happily.

"I promise!" she said, setting up the game console and jumping onto the couch. She raised her feet onto the table while choosing which game to play.

As for Primo, he stood beside the couch and watched her choose a game.

When she finally did, he watched her play—and frowned in disappointment.

She was... horrible at it.

*

*

*

Hours later...

"Where?" Lucian arched a brow as he lifted his eyes from his desk to Nolan. "What did you say?"

Nolan sighed heavily and lowered his head. "The Madam is with the Young Master, and they’ve been playing the whole day."

Lucian’s eyes darkened. Without a word, he pushed himself up and strode toward their location.

His eyes glinted with fury as he assumed she had finally set her sights on Primo.

Lucian didn’t care if she hurt him.

But Primo was a different matter.

However, when Lucian arrived at Primo’s room, the first thing he heard was—

"Cheater!" Ashley protested, gasping at Primo in disbelief. "Let’s do it again! This time you’re dead!"

Lucian’s breath hitched. He stepped inside, only to pause when he saw them seated on the couch.

Ashley was angrily mashing the controller with all her might, while Primo calmly used only two fingers—yet still beat her effortlessly.