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From Stand-In to Queen

From Stand-In to Queen

短編ストーリー · Mafia
作家:  Naomi Harlow完了
言語: English
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概要

Tragic Love

Winning Back the Wife

Mafia

Bias

Everyone said I was lucky. After the Don, Lucas Vaughn, brought me back to his estate, I became the woman he treasured most. He would halt billion-dollar deals just to be home on time to put me to sleep. He even learned sign language in secret, just so he could communicate with me after my vocal cords were damaged. At first, I didn’t dare give him my heart. Whenever he looked at me, his focus would drift. He showered me with gifts, yet always disappeared on the days that mattered most. As the child in my womb grew, and as Lucas’s devotion intensified day by day, I let my guard down. I devoted myself completely to the role of wife and Donna. Until the night I gave birth. I hemorrhaged during a difficult labor, but Lucas never showed up. After surviving by sheer luck, I finally saw the trending news. Lucas attended a Thames-side gala arm-in-arm with rising movie star, Serena Vale. That was when I understood. To him, I had only ever been a substitute. He broke his rules for her again and again. He indulged her humiliations toward me and even shoved me toward armed attackers at the brink of life and death. Filled with hatred, I closed my eyes and sank into the deep sea, just as he wished. Later, he knelt, clutching the hem of my dress, begging, "Zoe, please give me one more chance. I’ll repay you with my life." His life was worth too little now. I no longer wanted it.

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10 チャプター
Chapter 1
The hospital room was cold and silent, a single-occupancy ward stripped down to the bare minimum.When the door was kicked open, I was forcing myself to endure the tearing pain in my abdomen while rocking my newborn daughter, Luna Vaughn, to sleep."How is your recovery, Miss Lang?" Her tone was deliberately restrained, yet nothing could conceal the innate elegance she carried.The moment I saw her face clearly, I froze.So this was Serena Vale, the national darling who had recently been appearing everywhere at Lucas Vaughn's side.My fingers trembled as I instinctively pulled the blanket tighter around myself.Before I could think further, she bent down toward the swaddled baby, handling her casually. Her sharp, manicured nails scraped across my daughter's cheek, leaving a red mark behind."So it's a girl?" she said lightly. "Lucas needs an heir who can inherit the family. Your womb is really disappointing."Her mockery hit me like a blade.I shook my head frantically.That
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Chapter 2
Dressed in a charcoal-gray bespoke suit, Lucas strode in, the residual menace of the negotiation table still etched between his brows.The moment he took in the rundown room and Luna crying herself hoarse, his expression darkened."Why would my Consigliere, Marcus King, choose a dump like this to house them?" Lucas's voice was razor-sharp. "If anything happens to the child, he'll be buried with her."His gaze swept the room before finally landing on me. There seemed to be concern in his eyes. The instant our gazes met, days of pent-up grievance surged, as if I'd finally found a place to let it spill.I raised my hand.I wanted to ask why he disappeared during my delivery.I was desperate to ask about his relationship with Serena Vale.I longed to hear him deny that I was nothing more than a substitute.Yet before anything could begin, Serena ended it."Lucas..." Serena looped her arm through his, her eyes reddening at the corners. "Miss Lang isn't doing well at all. She seems
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Chapter 3
By nightfall that same day, I was escorted back to Fog Harbor Estate.There was no stretch limousine waiting at the gates or butler bowing in greeting.I was not taken back to the top-floor master bedroom. Instead, the Soldati shoved me into a confinement room. The space was bare, with only a narrow iron window letting in a draft."The Don ordered you to reflect in here. Do not disturb the little Principessa."After that, the man turned and left.I braced myself against the wall and sank to the floor. The memories I had sealed away came rushing back, sharp with irony.Two years ago, Lucas had pulled me out of the ruins of St. Laurent. He told me that since the world had no place for me, Fog Harbor Estate would be my sanctuary.Back then, Lucas would finish handling the gang's blood-soaked business, wash away the stench of gunpowder, and drive across half the city late at night just to buy me a slice of cake I had casually mentioned.He would tirelessly read bedtime stories to m
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Chapter 4
The days of confinement were a slow execution.That afternoon, I was leaning against the frost-covered window when I unexpectedly saw Luna on the lawn below. The cradle stood near the grass.No one was around.By sheer chance, the main door had not been locked properly. My heart surged as I slipped out.Before I could reach her, I saw the cradle sliding toward the pool.No!"Get out of the way!"Lucas moved faster than I did. He lunged forward and caught the cradle in time.He turned on me at once, fury blazing. "Were you trying to drown her while no one was watching? Zoe, just to get back at me, you would even hurt your own flesh and blood?"[Not me! I was trying to save her!] I flailed, signing frantically, only to hear him laugh coldly."The blood of the Langs really is filthy to the core."What did that mean?Was he talking about my family? Did he know them?Why had he never mentioned this before?"Since you like water so much, then go cool off in it."With Luna crad
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Chapter 5
When I woke up, the dull, crushing pain in my organs was still tearing through my nerves.Lucas still had not come to see me. Of course, he had not. He was probably busy preparing for his wedding.Suddenly, chaotic footsteps echoed down the hallway. I braced myself against the wall and staggered toward the door, catching fragments of hushed voices drifting through the air: "kidnapping", "Naples syndicate", "hostage exchange". Each word sent a chill down my spine.The door was kicked open.Lucas stood at the boundary between light and shadow. Beneath his black trench coat, the outline of a holster was visible. The man who always controlled the board with cold precision now carried a restlessness he could not fully conceal.At the same moment, Serena's shrill, unhinged scream burst from the phone in his hand."Lucas! Save me! These lunatics grabbed the wrong person! They want to kill the last of the Lang family. I’m innocent! That illegitimate child isn’t mine either! They made a m
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Chapter 6
The fog finally lifted.Blood-soaked memories came crashing back like a tidal wave.I was never an orphan from St. Laurent.I was the Principessa of the Lang family, once the ruling power over the eastern shipping routes of Sicily.Two years ago, our family’s maritime empire suffered an unprecedented collapse. The capital chain snapped, and rival forces began circling like vultures.My father, Victor Lang, had frowned deeply that day."I’ve been brothers-in-arms with your Uncle Anthony Vaughn for decades. On account of the bond between our families, he will never stand by and do nothing."That was the last time my father ever walked out of the Vaughn estate.That same night, a fire broke out at the Vaughn compound.My father and Lucas's father, Anthony, were discovered in the ruins of the study. Their bodies were burned beyond recognition.When the news reached us, consumed by grief, Lucas's mother, Eleanor Vaughn, raised a gun and took her own life in front of him.Everyone
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Chapter 7
Tonight, at Fogport Manor, Don Vaughn was hosting a birthday banquet for Serena.Two years had passed. They were still not married, yet his indulgence toward his fiancee had never waned.The entire manor was alive with voices. Nearly half of Europe’s mafia elite had gathered under this roof.Serena wore a champagne-colored gown custom-made by a top Milan designer. Her arm was looped through Lucas’s as she accepted flattery from all sides, triumph gleaming uncontrollably in her eyes and brows.That was when I pushed open the doors to the banquet hall.Hellish training and high-pressure treatment had long since stripped away my timidity and softness.I had chopped my hair short. Wrapped in a dark trench coat, I stepped before the crowd like a sharpened blade, slicing into false splendor and hollow luxury."Who is that? Never seen her before.""Don’t recognize her. She looks… familiar."…The smile on Serena’s face froze instantly. The wineglass in her hand nearly slipped as she
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Chapter 8
After leaving Fog Harbor Estate, I had just wrapped my fingers around the car door handle when a brutal force slammed into it, smashing the door shut again.The tailored suit hung off him like a rag. His collar was torn open, fabric wrinkled and disheveled.Lucas.His eyes were bloodshot, balanced on the razor’s edge between frenzy and collapse.Before I could speak, he seized my shoulders, gripping me as if he wanted to fuse me into his bones and blood."Thank God. It’s really you!" His words came too fast, leaving me no room to interrupt.The all-powerful Don who once ruled with a wave of his hand was gone. Standing in front of me now was nothing more than a gambler who had lost his soul."You survived. That’s all that matters. These past two years, I’ve been living like a walking corpse…"I didn’t move. I watched coldly as he performed his grief.Seeing my silence, his urgency deepened, desperation spilling out unchecked."She completely deceived me! I deliberately found a
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Chapter 9
The rainy season was long and cold.In just a few short months, the once century-old Vaughn family collapsed like a towering tree hollowed out by termites, crashing down completely.I united the former factions that he had once slaughtered. I cut off his maritime smuggling routes, handed airtight evidence of his money laundering to Interpol, and turned the Consigliere he trusted most.By the time the Vaughns' stock became worthless paper, his allies defected one after another, and his territory was carved up clean, he finally asked to see me.His cheeks were sunken, his body frighteningly thin, like there was nothing left beneath the skin but bone. A single gust and he would fall over."Zoe." He lowered his head, defeated. "Stop. If this continues, the entire underground order of Sicily will collapse. The Vaughns and the Langs were allies for a hundred years. Why push things this far?"I toyed with the handgun in my palm and laughed softly. "Don Vaughn, are you confused about som
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Chapter 10
The rain showed no sign of stopping, as if trying to wash the city clean of its accumulated sins.An "Unconditional Asset Transfer Agreement" lay quietly on the table.I uncapped the fountain pen. The nib scratched softly against the paper. Every letter I signed was a death knell tolling for the Vaughn family’s century-long empire.When I finished the last stroke, I closed the folder and slid it across the table.Lucas sat there, like a puppet whose soul had already been stripped away. He was so gaunt he looked like nothing but a skeleton wrapped in skin. For a moment, I even wondered whether he still had the strength to lift a gun."Zoe." He spoke with difficulty, breath coming shallow, "Do you really have to destroy me completely? Could you not leave me a way to live?""A way to live?" I smiled at him, my eyes curving gently, though the warmth never reached them."Did you leave me a way to live on the Amalfi Coast Road? Did you leave our daughter a way to live at the Sicilian
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