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Chapter 2

Author: Jade
"Elena, you will always be the princess of the Cesari family."

My father's voice came through the phone. A car would arrive in a week to pick me up.

He was the Don of Sicily's most powerful and secretive mafia family, and he had never approved of my decision to hide my identity so I could date Antonio.

He had given me five years. If Antonio still loved me at the end, I could tell him who I was. If not, I would return to the Cesari family.

But the five years weren't up, and Antonio had already changed.

I put the phone away, looked around the room, and started deciding, item by item, what I would take with me.

The next morning the Renzetti family held its internal audit meeting in the top-floor conference room.

I put on a sharp suit and pushed the doors open.

Antonio sat at the head of the table. Franca was in the seat beside him, the one that had always been mine.

I stopped and looked at her in silence. Antonio seemed to sense my gaze and looked up at me.

"Franca may be a bartender, but she has a head for numbers.

"As my informant, she needs a chance to get close to family business. Take the seat on the opposite side today, if you don't mind."

A dozen or so senior members of the Renzetti family were watching me. Some of them frowned. Some of them were enjoying it.

I didn't say anything. I pulled out a chair at the far end of the long table and sat down.

I was leaving anyway. Soon the Renzetti family would have nothing to do with me. Why would I fight over any of it?

Once the meeting started, Franca stood up with a file in her hand.

"Don, I've found major discrepancies in the books of the charity foundation Elena runs.

"Three transfers totaling fifty million dollars are unaccounted for, and there are no invoices to support them."

A murmur ran through the room. Inwardly, I laughed at them all.

The foundation was the Renzetti family's most closely guarded money-laundering channel, so where every dollar went mattered.

Franca is an idiot. Not understanding something complicated is one thing. Having the nerve to question me about it is another.

Antonio turned to me, tapping a rhythm on the table. "Elena. Explain."

I met his gaze calmly. "I don't know what there is to explain. Those are special disbursements made by the Renzetti family. Each one bears your signature."

"Even the Don's signature can be forged," Franca shot back, meeting my gaze defiantly.

"Elena, do you think the Don has been so lenient with you that you dared to touch records this important?"

"That's enough." Antonio raised a hand to cut her off. He hesitated for a while, but then looked at me anyway.

"Elena, hand over the foundation seal. If even Franca can spot problems in the accounts, this project will be good practice for her."

I sat there, staring at the man I had supported and loved for five years.

To protect his new favorite informant, he didn't even defend me.

"All right." I opened my bag, took a black seal engraved with the Renzetti crest out of the inner pocket, and handed it to Franca.

Antonio's expression relaxed. He gave me a satisfied look and ended the meeting.

As the others filed out, Antonio came over, rested a hand on my shoulder, bent down, and kissed my forehead.

"Elena, I was wrong. Once things are settled with Franca, I'll make it up to you."

He didn't wait for an answer. He walked out with Franca, who deliberately bumped my shoulder as she passed and let out a soft laugh.

I stood alone in the empty room and scrubbed my forehead with a handkerchief.

You really do make me sick, Antonio.

I sat down, logged in to the encrypted system on my laptop, and froze all the secret funding I had asked my father to channel into the Renzetti family over the past five years.

If Antonio didn't need me, then he didn't need anything I had brought with me either.
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    The day after the summit, I heard that the Renzetti family had declared bankruptcy.My father told me that all the property and accounts in Antonio's name had been seized and that the rival family had sent thirty professional killers after him."I hear he's hiding in a basement in the slums like a sewer rat." My father scoffed."Even that is letting him off lightly."Lorenzo, standing nearby, spoke up at just the right moment. "They say the bartender tried to run off with the money, and Antonio caught her in the act. They went at each other. Their faces were torn up."By the time our people arrived with the police, all they found were two bloody shapes on the floor."I tried to picture it, and it was more satisfying than it should have been.Under pressure from the Cesari family, Antonio and Franca both received life sentences and were sent to the maximum-security prison in the far north.No daylight. Two pieces of moldy bread a day. Nothing inside but the worst of the worst.None of w

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    After the summit, my father stayed behind to speak with the families we work with. I headed for the Cesari family's private corridor and found Antonio already waiting there.I stopped and looked at how small he'd made himself. The sight amused me."Since when does the Don of the Renzetti family wait for me? That's a first."He saw me and dropped to his knees right there on the floor."Elena, I know how badly I messed up." His eyes were bloodshot."But our five years together weren't a lie. Franca blinded me, that's all. I swear, if you'll forgive me, I'll wait as long as you want."I didn't answer him. I turned to the bodyguard beside me. "Bring it out."He tipped a pile of broken porcelain out of a black case and spread the shards evenly across the floor between Antonio and me."Since you said the porcelain figure was just a cheap, lifeless object, crawl over it on your knees until you reach my feet, and I'll consider hearing you out."I looked down at him, my face impassive, as all t

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    Just as I'd expected, word came that a weapons shipment had been seized. It had been sent along the route newly assigned to Franca."Franca was the one who entered that route into the system. That idiot bartender leaked family secrets. Under family law, she has to be executed!"The atmosphere in the room turned grim. One of the Elders fixed Antonio with a thunderous glare.Eighty million dollars' worth of cargo had been impounded, and he had lost nearly half his men. The Renzetti family had never taken a hit this hard in its entire history.Franca had gone pale and was shaking hard.Antonio looked at me instead. His expression shifted, but he spoke anyway. "Elena has always been responsible for that shipment. It has nothing to do with Franca."Hearing him try to dress it up that way almost made me laugh, though none of it was funny.Anyone with eyes knew I hadn't touched family business since that meeting. Antonio was lying through his teeth.To protect Franca, he was even willing to p

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