Don, Your Abandoned Donna Is a Mafia Heiress

The celebration at the Moretti estate carried on around me.

Seated at Raffaele’s right, Gianna kept raising her hand to show off the ring on her finger.

A rare black diamond sat in a band of polished platinum, its midnight facets flashing silver beneath the chandeliers. Our names were engraved inside, along with the date Raffaele had made me his Donna.

One by one, the capos approached and addressed her as Donna on Raffaele’s orders. By tradition, the title would not truly be hers until I had obeyed all three of her commands, but no one dared defy the Don in his own hall.

Their voices were respectful enough, yet their eyes kept drifting past her to me.

For years, I had trained the Moretti guards and planned security for every major gathering. Most of the men in that room had seen me put a bullet through a moving target from hundreds of yards away.

Gianna could claim the title of Donna, but she could not earn their trust overnight.

She had clearly realized that too.

Once she had soaked up enough congratulations, she crossed the room with a glass of champagne and turned her attention to Marco, who stood behind me.

“I hear Marco is the finest gunman in the Moretti family.”

She swirled her champagne, taking her time before continuing.

“I’ve only just become Donna, and I need someone reliable at my side. He’ll work for me from now on. Consider this my second command.”

Marco gave a derisive snort, one corner of his mouth lifting.

“I answer only to Miss Sofia.”

Gianna’s smile stiffened. Everyone around us looked to Raffaele at once.

He set down his glass with a frown.

“Marco, Gianna is the Donna of the Moretti family now. Her orders carry the same weight as mine.”

Marco did not move.

Six years ago, I had saved Marco from an enemy’s gun. Afterward, I trained him myself, just as I had trained every guard assigned to the Moretti inner circle. His loyalty had belonged to me ever since.

Gianna’s eyes narrowed. Calculation flashed across them, but when she spoke, she sounded as wounded as if she had suffered some terrible injustice.

“Forget it, Raffaele. If Sofia doesn’t want to give him to me, I can’t force her. Hardly anyone in this house truly accepts me anyway.”

Raffaele’s expression turned cold.

“Control your man, Sofia.”

In the past, that tone alone would have made me give in without thinking.

This time, I simply turned to Marco.

“Hand over your gun.”

His head snapped up.

I held out my hand, my voice perfectly even.

“As of this moment, you are no longer a member of the Moretti family. Leave the estate immediately.”

Marco stared at me for several seconds before understanding dawned in his eyes.

He removed his sidearm and family insignia and placed them in my hand. Then he dropped to one knee and pressed his lips to the back of my hand.

“As you command, Miss Sofia.”

He rose and walked out without sparing Gianna a single glance.

Instead of gaining the bodyguard she wanted, Gianna had been humiliated in front of every capo in the room.

Raffaele glared at me.

“Did you really have to take it that far?”

I swept my gaze over every capo in the room before speaking.

“Marco refused to obey the new Donna. A bodyguard who won’t follow her orders would be a threat to her safety, so I took it upon myself to dismiss him. Even so, I consider her second command fulfilled.”

“Does anyone here disagree?”

No one raised an objection.

As I handed Marco’s gun to a nearby guard, Raffaele found himself with no grounds to challenge me. In the end, he had no choice but to let the matter drop.

When the party ended, I returned to my room upstairs.

My phone lit up with an encrypted message from my father.

[The convoy will arrive in Palermo in three days. The entire De Luca family is waiting for you to come home.]

Heat stung the backs of my eyes as I read it.

The door suddenly swung open.

Raffaele strode in and snatched the phone from my hand.

The screen went dark at that exact moment.

He tossed it onto the carpet, then caught my chin between his fingers and forced me to look at him.

“You would rather release Marco from his oath than let him protect Gianna?”

I met his eyes calmly.

“Marco would never have been loyal to her. Forcing him to stay would only create more trouble for Gianna. Letting him go was the most practical solution.”

Something complicated flickered in Raffaele’s eyes.

He released my chin, wrapped both arms around my waist, and pulled me against him.

The scent of tobacco clung to him, mingled with Gianna’s perfume.

The combination turned my stomach.

Raffaele lowered his head, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.

“I know you were wronged today, Sofia. But Gianna’s brother died protecting me. Before he died, he entrusted her to me, and I promised him I would take care of her.”

“As long as you behave, there will always be a place for you in the Moretti family.”

He offered me, like an act of charity, the very place I had earned with my own blood.

Unfortunately for him, I no longer needed the shelter he was so generously offering.

Gianna’s frail voice suddenly drifted in from the other side of the door.

“Raffaele, I don’t feel well. Will you come stay with me?”

He turned to leave without the slightest hesitation.

At the doorway, he glanced back at me.

“Gianna is meeting several capos at the docks tomorrow. Your armored car is safer. Give it to her.”

A fine ache spread through my chest.

That black sedan had been mine for six years. Four years ago, we had been ambushed. Our driver had been killed, and a bullet had torn through my left shoulder, but I had still taken the wheel and driven Raffaele out of the kill zone.

Afterward, he had personally ordered the Moretti family’s silver crest mounted on the hood. He told me the car would always belong to me.

Now he was handing it to another woman without even asking me.

I was silent for several seconds before answering softly.

“All right.”

Raffaele, perhaps I should thank you.

Thank you for severing the last thread of affection I still had for you.