The Ninety-Ninth Time the Don Chose My Sister, I Walked Away

The wine in the banquet hall had gone cold.

The rival family men were still seated at the far end of the long table, watching me with thin smiles.

"Still no Moretti?"

"Looks like he really did forget his underboss here."

The burn in my stomach had not faded, but my mind was painfully clear.

I ignored the mockery in their voices and set my empty glass down.

"A man can fail to show up."

"Business still has to be finished."

"Gentlemen, let's talk."

For the next few hours, I forced myself through the drug haze and deflected every trap they had buried in the conversation.

Only after I saw off the last car did I brace one hand against the doorframe and let myself breathe.

By the time I returned to the manor, dawn had already begun to pale the sky.

I took off my coat, still heavy with the smell of alcohol, and sat alone at my desk.

The port ledger I had not finished was open in front of me.

One page was circled in red.

It marked the shipping window the rival family had been trying to confirm all night.

If I had collapsed at that table, the cargo would have been intercepted before sunrise.

Moretti would never know what I had stopped for him during the hours he promised to come back.

The security system in my room was still broken.

I had told him about it a month ago.

He said he would send someone after the port accounts were settled.

Bella's fireplace broke once.

He went there himself and had it replaced that same night.

I looked at the unfinished work on my screen and almost laughed.

That was what seven years as his underboss had trained into me.

Secure the room first.

Put myself last.

But not this time.

I opened the safe and took out several contact lists only the underboss was supposed to know.

I could not take them with me.

I could not leave them loose either.

Before I left, I had to return every piece of the family to the system.

My phone went dark, then lit up again.

No call from Moretti.

Only another message from Bella.

【Iris, you weren't angry later, were you? Moretti said you're always the sensible one.】

I did not answer.

I deleted the message and went back to the ledger.

Three days.

Three days until I left the Valtieri family.