A Family's Fatal Mistake

I let the bodyguards escort me to the place where I would be judged. When I looked up, I saw the Valenti family's underground arena.

Countless fights to the death had taken place there. Only the victor ever walked out alive, stepping over the loser's body.

And today, the doors of this private hell had been opened just for me.

I was still wearing the clothes from the club. They had been torn nearly off me when I was dragged away, so I kept one arm across my chest to cover myself.

The seats below were packed with the most important people in the underworld.

Even the old bosses who normally showed their faces only at private dinners had come, every last one of them.

And I was cuffed at the center of the platform, standing on a bed of sharpened spikes, the ultimate punishment, reserved for prisoners with the worst crimes on their heads.

I looked out at the aristocratic guests below. Every one of them had come for the same thing, to judge me, the real heiress the Valenti family had only just brought home.

The real daughter framing the adopted one. What a delicious scandal for people like them.

"That's Eva Valenti, the woman who put Emma in a coma and cost her the baby?"

"And she's actually the true Valenti heiress! But she doesn't come close to Emma in character or ability, and Emma isn't even blood!"

"I heard she grew up in the slums and was twisted from the start. It really does matter whether you raise them yourself. Emma is so kind, and that little bitch is that filthy. If you ask me, the bitch enjoyed every minute of that club!"

The voices came at me from every direction, like invisible blades going into my chest.

Then Leo stepped onto the platform. He was the Mafia Don whose name made all of Sicily fall silent.

He stopped in front of me, disgust plain on his face.

"I married you. I made you the Donna. I even shared my bed with you. What more could you possibly want?"

He paused. His eyes were full of contempt.

"If you hadn't appeared out of nowhere, Emma would have been my wife! You got my name and my bed. Emma has my heart. What's wrong with that? What gives you the right to be jealous of her, let alone hate her?"

The crowd below burst into agreement at once.

"Leo's right!"

"Eva came along later, and Emma even gave up her own fiance for her. How could that still not be enough?"

My father shot to his feet, glaring at me as if he wanted to tear me apart.

"Emma has been with us since she was a child! She is innocent. Since the day we brought you home, she has never fought you for anything. She even gave up her fiance for you!"

His voice shook.

"She went that far for you! What more do you want, you poisonous creature! Emma is still in a hospital bed, and you won't even tell us who did this!

"The doctor said Emma had sex with multiple men before she lost consciousness! That caused the hemorrhage and the miscarriage! Do you have any conscience at all, as her sister?"

The people below looked shocked. There were gasps, and a moment later every pair of eyes turned back to me in revulsion.

As if I were the unforgivable one. And the worst part was that I really had covered for a criminal.

Someone shouted straight at me, "Play all of her memories! Send her to hell with the person who did it!"

Leo clapped once, and a technician approached with the memory extractor.

Leo stepped forward and took my jaw in a hard grip. His voice was vicious. "Eva, I'm asking you one last time. What did you see?

"You wouldn't want everyone watching how you moaned for them in that club, would you?"

Everything I had suffered in that filthy place flashed through my head, and my body would not stop shaking.

"Don't look! Leo, Mom, Dad! Don't look! You'll regret it!"

The technician beside him hesitated.

"Donna, the damage this machine can cause is incalculable! Once it extracts every memory, even if you survive, you'll be nothing but an empty shell!

"Just tell them who was behind it!"

I looked at Leo and my parents and forced myself down onto the spikes. "Please. Believe your daughter just once. Let this be the last time I ever ask.

"Please don't look..."

"I regret ever going through hell to bring you home from the slums! Why couldn't you have died instead of Emma's baby!"

My father looked at me as if I were his enemy, even though we shared the same blood.

Leo shook his head, fitted the memory extractor over my head, and pressed the switch without hesitation.

"Let's have a look at the filthiest secret inside you, bitch!"

Cold metal locked around my skull, and needlelike electrodes pierced my temples.

The next second.

A hard current tore straight through my body.

I bit down on my lip as blood seeped from the corners of my eyes, my nose, and my mouth.

The huge LED screen lit up, and everyone in the room held their breath.

My first memory began to play.