Share

Chapter 3

Author: Belen
After two more quiet days at Santa Maria Hospice, Celeste came to see me herself. The obsidian brooch of the De Luca heir was pinned to her chest, and my parents, Marco and Isabella, followed her in.

"Sofia, come home with me." She walked up to my bed.

"What are you talking about?" I sat up straighter and watched her put on the act.

Celeste's voice broke with tears. "Dad, Mom, I did go to the docks that night. Sofia sent me a message using a code we had made up as children. She said she knew something about her escape seven years ago and wanted me to meet her at the docks. But by the time I got there, Anthony was already lying in a pool of blood!"

She wiped her eyes. "Sofia has been on the run for seven years, and she has carried that hatred the whole time! She wanted revenge on both the De Luca and Bertini families, so she killed him with a gun registered in her own name and lured me there to take the fall..."

"Enough!" I cut her off and turned to my parents. "This is absurd! Three things prove she is lying. Anyone with half a brain can see it.

"First, when I fled seven years ago, I left with nothing but the clothes on my back. How could I have taken the old cipher book locked in the family vault?

"Second, the pistol registered in my name has been locked in the most secure section of my father's armory for seven years. Who but someone with the highest clearance could take it out?

"Third, at the exact hour Celeste says she received my message, I was undergoing chemotherapy at this hospice. There is security footage to prove it. I was in so much pain I could not get out of bed. How could I have reached the docks and set all of that up?"

The room went dead silent.

I thought those facts were enough to expose Celeste. I thought my parents would at least have doubts, that they would at least check the footage.

Instead, Celeste broke down.

"I am sorry... Dad, Mom, I lied!" She pulled out a few printed pages. "I found that cipher book in a false panel in Sofia's old room. I thought she had left it there so I could contact her... And the armory... I took Mom's spare key and went in without permission. Sofia said she was going to kill someone and I was so scared, I wanted to take the gun and stop her. But when I got there she grabbed it away from me... I faked the remote login records because I was terrified of being punished..."

"You are lying!" I was shaking with rage.

My mother rushed over and pulled Celeste into her arms.

"Enough, sweetheart. Mom knows you have been wronged." She patted Celeste's back, then looked up at me with ice in her eyes. "Sofia, I am deeply disappointed in you. Your sister was only trying to stop you, and you are trying to pin everything on her! Unconscious from chemotherapy? Those drugs can cause hallucinations. Who is to say you did not slip out while the doctors were not watching?!"

I stared at her, unable to believe it. "Mom... you would rather believe a story full of holes than even check the footage?"

"Pulling the footage takes time! The Council gave us seventy-two hours!" My father came over and looked down at me. "Sofia, it does not matter whether questions remain. The Council will not wait while we investigate. The Bertini family wants an answer. Celeste is the future of the De Luca family. Do you understand?"

"No, I do not! I will not confess! I will not admit to something I did not do, even if it costs me my life!"

My mother's eyes went completely cold. She took out her phone and dialed. "Your Honor, regarding the emergency guardianship petition for my daughter Sofia... Yes, she has been on heavy sedatives and painkillers for a long time, she is severely unstable, and she is no longer competent to make medical or legal decisions for herself. Please sign the temporary guardianship order immediately."

She hung up and looked at me without a trace of warmth. "As of now, I am your legal guardian. Every decision about you is mine to make."

"This is kidnapping!" I shouted, and the bodyguards pinned me to the bed.

There was noise outside. The hospice phone lines were cut and the signal was jammed. They loaded me into a transport van and drove me to the De Luca family's private clinic.

In the sealed room at the clinic, there was nothing but the sound of machines. My father slid a document titled Blood Debt Confession Before the Five Families across to me.

Tears ran down my face as I lay there. "You are forcing me to die."

My father looked at me. "Sofia, the doctors say you have three months. Give up those final three months to secure your sister's future and spare the entire De Luca family a war. That is the last value you have as a De Luca daughter."

I looked at this man, and the last scrap of warmth inside me went out.

There was no hope. It was not that they failed to see the holes in her story or the evidence against her. They had decided to sacrifice me from the very beginning.

"Fine. I will sign," I said, my voice shaking. "But I have three conditions."

My father frowned. "Go on."

"First, once I am dead, sever every tie between me and this family. The name De Luca must never appear on my headstone.

"Second, my ashes must go to Santa Maria Church. Even if you scatter them at sea, they must never enter the De Luca cemetery.

"Third, from this day forward, you may never handle anything I leave behind on the grounds that you are my family."

My father was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Agreed. Once you accept the blood debt and the Council closes the matter, I will see it done."

At midnight, they blindfolded me with black cloth and took me down into the underground chapel of the Council of the Five Families. The elders of every family sat on the high dais.

The cloth came off, and candlelight stabbed at my eyes. The Blood Debt Confession lay in front of me.

I picked up the pen and, with everything I had left, signed the De Luca name for the last time.

The moment I finished signing, the Bertini representative drew his gun and aimed it at my heart.

Blood for blood.

The gun cocked. I turned for one last look at my father and mother in the corner. My father leaned on his cane, his face blank. My mother was crying, but she did not take a single step.

They just stood there and watched.

I closed my eyes and smiled.

"Bang!"

The shot cracked through the chapel.
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 10

    Seven days after my father died, my mother finished paying compensation to every victim's family.She emptied the vast De Luca estate, removed a century's worth of portraits of past dons from the great hall, and donated the property outright to the Sofia Refuge.When all of that was done, she put on the plainest white dress she owned, wore no jewelry and no brooch, and went to Santa Maria Cathedral.She carried my sealed urn out herself.My mother held me and made her slow way onto an old seawall outside Port San Vito.This was where I had seen the ocean for the first time, the year I was six.In my memory, the sun had been bright that day. My father lifted me onto his shoulders, laughing as he called me the De Luca family's little princess. My mother gently fastened my kite string, took my hand, and promised, "Do not be afraid, Sofia. Mom and Dad will never leave you."That was the only stretch of happiness the three of us ever had.My mother sat on the seawall as the sea wind tossed

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 9

    After Celeste died, my father returned to the underground chapel of the Five Families.He stood alone before the patch of stone floor where I had fallen and remained there all night.The blood on the floor had dried long ago, but that dark red stain had burned itself into his soul."Sofia... the one who should have paid that blood debt was me," he murmured to the empty chapel.Twice he had chosen the simplest, most convenient answer. The first time, he thrust me into enemy hands as a hostage. The second, he let them put a bullet through my heart.He was a mafia don, accustomed to sacrificing others for gain and order. In the end, he had sacrificed his only biological daughter.Early the next morning, my father made a decision that shook the entire underworld.He dismantled the De Luca family with his own hands.Marco walked into an FBI field office carrying several crates of the De Luca family's most sensitive files.He surrendered the entire underground network the De Luca family had

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 8

    Without the protection of the De Luca family, Celeste's world collapsed in an instant.After fleeing the church, she sought help from the wealthy socialites she once called friends, but they shut their doors on her. She tried to hide in a hotel owned by the De Luca family, but her credit cards had already been frozen. She ran to the docks to buy passage out, only for the killers and criminals who had once taken her orders to hunt her through the streets, determined to silence her before she could expose them.The untouchable heiress had become a stray that everyone in the underworld wanted dead.All she could do was hide in a reeking abandoned slaughterhouse and in damp, black harbor warehouses.Fear and hunger tormented her. Whenever night fell, she could not shake the feeling that a figure stood in the dark."Sofia... Sofia, stay back! I did not kill you! The Council pulled the trigger!" She would curl up in a pile of garbage and scream at empty air like a madwoman.In truth, I only

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 7

    The clergy at Santa Maria Church received my body with solemn reverence.In accordance with my wishes, my ashes were sealed temporarily in the chapel on the hill behind the church. They would remain there until they could be scattered at sea, never entering the De Luca cemetery.Three days later, my mother held a public memorial mass for me at Santa Maria Cathedral.The church was full.Besides the representatives of the Five Families and the De Luca captains, there were dockworkers from Port San Vito, the old doctor from the underground clinic, and the girls I had once helped.They wore plain clothes and carried white flowers, and they had come on their own to see me off.Celeste was brought there too.My mother did not allow her a seat in any family section. Celeste was dragged in by two bodyguards, dressed in a rough black gown with no family insignia, and forced to kneel alone on the cold stone at the center of the church.Vito stood at the lectern and read the full account of ever

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 6

    My father did not execute Celeste in the underground chapel.Under the rules of the mafia, private vengeance would have been the gravest insult to Sofia's memory.He had Celeste taken back to the De Luca estate and summoned every De Luca captain, along with witnesses from the Five Families.The century-old De Luca crest hung high on the wall of the great hall.Celeste was on her knees in the center of the hall, her gown stained with blood. She looked up at my parents on the dais and still tried to clutch the hem of Isabella's dress, crying pitifully, "Mom! I was wrong, I was really wrong! But I was just so scared... I was scared Sofia would come back and take your love away from me! My parents died to save you, so for their sake, please forgive me one more time!"Every other time, one mention of her dead parents had made Isabella give in without question.But this time, my mother sat in her chair with a face as white as a corpse and no warmth in her eyes. She did not look at Celeste ev

  • After I Died, Everyone Regretted It   Chapter 5

    The damaged recording kept playing in the deathly silent chapel.Celeste's soft, poisonous voice filled every corner of the chapel, "...The gun is in the spare cabinet in the armory, registered under that madwoman's name. I already altered the remote login records. Once she signs the confession, everyone will believe the traitor who ran seven years ago came back for revenge. My parents care so much about the family's reputation and mine that even if they suspect something, they will have no choice but to put Sofia in front of the firing squad themselves.""No... that is not me! It is fake!" Celeste crumpled to the floor, shaking all over, dragging herself backward.My father's face was ashen. My mother stared blankly at the player as if her soul had been torn out.Vito did not stop. He opened the scorched black strongbox and took out a thick stack of documents and two ledgers."Mr. De Luca, this is the complete evidence recovered from the abandoned warehouse." Vito's voice was cold and

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status