LOGINThe day my only brother was cornered in a dockside warehouse by a rival mafia family, I knelt on the carpet of Damian's study and begged him. "Lend me ten men. I only need to hold until dawn, and the men I hired can get up here from the south side." He took a drag on his cigar and scoffed, "Ten men? Do you know how many people have eyes on that shipment on the north side tonight? My men aren't here to wipe up your messes." My knuckles went white where I had hold of the hem of his trousers. My phone screen lit up. A message about my brother taking a bullet, the blood a blurred smear of red. I was about to beg again when I heard him place a call over my head. His voice went soft, the way you'd soothe a child. "Go pick up the west-side shipment yourself. I'm giving you fifty gunmen to back you up. Don't be scared. If we lose men, that's on me. You just come back safe." That was the adopted sister he'd taken in. When he first brought her home she'd stuttered when she spoke. I let go of his trouser leg and got up off the carpet without a sound. Damian finally looked down at me. He smiled and wiped my tears away with his thumb. "That's more like it. Don't come crying to me every time the wind shifts. Handle your own family's business yourself. That's how the Moretti family works." I nodded calmly, walked out of the study, and dialed a number I hadn't called in a long time. "Dad, you were right. Giving up my place as a mafia princess for a man from some small family wasn't worth it. I'll marry the Don of the Gambino Family."
View MoreThree years later, to help me get out from under it all, Luca set his name aside and opened a dessert shop with me. The place was small but warm, with a string of wind chimes over the door that rang whenever the wind blew.I stood behind the counter in an apron, squeezing a pretty cream rosette out of a piping bag. A young couple at the window seat was sharing a strawberry cake, and the sun came in through the tall glass and filled the whole shop with warmth.The door pushed open and the chimes rang. A small round dumpling of a thing came barreling in, all tumbling steps, ran straight into my leg, then tipped his head back and grinned up at me. Round-cheeked and solid, sugar still stuck at the corner of his mouth, one little eyetooth showing on the left. "Mommy! I want strawberry!"I bent down and wiped his mouth with my apron. "Leo, have you been sneaking candy again? Where's your daddy?"Right on cue Luca came through the door with our son's jacket and a little water bottle in his ha
After the wedding Damian shut himself in his study for three straight days. Vivi knocked on the door countless times, and the food sent in came back out untouched.On the morning of the fourth day the door opened and Damian came out. He'd lost so much weight he hardly looked like himself, his eyes hollow, a layer of stubble come in, his shirt hanging off him in wrinkles.Vivi came up and reached for his arm, a sob in her voice. "Boss... don't be like this. It hurts to see you..."Damian turned his body and avoided her hand. He went to the living room, sat down, and lit a cigar, and the smoke rose and blurred his face. Vivi stood to the side biting her lip, tears swimming in her eyes."Boss, are you still thinking about Elena? She's already married someone else, she betrayed you. Can't you look at me? I'm the one who really loves you...""Go clear out the room on the third floor." Damian let out a mouthful of smoke, his voice as flat as if he were giving instructions to some ordinary su
The wedding day came quickly. I wore a white gown and walked into the church holding Luca's hand, surrounded by the good wishes of family and friends.At one corner of the hall my eyes caught. Damian was sitting in the shadows with an untouched drink in front of him. He had on the black suit I'd bought him, and the cuff links were still the silver pair I'd picked out. His hair was combed neatly, but his face was a terrible ashen color, his eyes sunken, so thin that his cheekbones jutted out.He looked at me, his lips moved, and no sound came. I looked away and walked on with my arm through Luca's. Luca had seen him too. He didn't say anything, just laid his hand over the back of mine and patted it lightly, then steered me toward the next table.Behind me came the sound of a chair being shoved back. Damian came striding through the crowd toward me. The laughter cut off, and every eye in the room turned."Elena." His voice was hoarse, with a tremor in it you could barely catch. I stopped
Meanwhile, on the other side of it, Damian spent three days looking for me like a man out of his mind. He went from the hospital to the docks, from the docks to the little apartment we used to rent, from the apartment to the boxing gym Adrian always went to. He called me a hundred times and sent countless messages. I answered none of them.He used every bit of power he had and couldn't turn up a single trace of me. Then one morning he opened his phone and saw the news everywhere on social media."Mafia princess Elena Marchetti to wed Luca Gambino, Don of the Gambino Family, in three days." The photo showed the two of us standing side by side in the garden of the estate, his body turned to block the cameras, covering me completely.Damian sat in his car looking at that notification on the screen, and his fingers clenched hard around the wheel.He enlarged the photo and looked at the way Luca stood in front of me, at the profile of my face that hadn't pulled away, at the relaxed smile at












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