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Chapter 4

Autor: Peachy
The Continental Hotel, New York.

The Syndicate Gala was in full swing.

A red carpet stretched from the door to the main hall. The air smelled of cigars, aged bourbon, and gunpowder.

Victor and Eleanor walked in front with Chloe. They smiled and raised their glasses to the mob bosses. The perfect underworld family.

And me? I was put with the Callahan bodyguards. I entered through a side door. The staff entrance.

“Miss Aurora, you can wait here.”

A guard led me to a dark corner of the bar. The very edge of the ballroom.

It was near the kitchen and the fire escape. The light from the crystal chandeliers didn't even reach here.

“Mr. Victor said you should stay put. To avoid any unnecessary trouble.”

The guard recited his lines. Turned and left. Didn't even get me a glass of water.

I found a high stool. From here, I could see the whole main floor.

Chloe, in her starlight-blue dress, was the center of attention. Surrounded by a circle of mafia princesses.

The blood-diamond cross on her neck caught the light, dazzling everyone.

“Chloe, that necklace is stunning!” The daughter of some Chicago Outfit boss gasped. “That blood diamond... the shine... it must be a royal treasure from some family they wiped out, right?”

Chloe smiled shyly. She touched the cross. “Oh, this? It's just a simple gift.”

She didn't say who gave it to her. That vagueness only cemented the rumors. That she was the spoiled, beloved daughter of the Callahans.

Julian walked up to her with champagne. He casually put his arm around her waist.

The other women around them giggled with envy.

The perfect couple. A sight that stung the other heiresses who wanted to get close to Julian's family.

“Who's that sitting in the corner? Why is she dressed so shabbily?”

Finally, someone noticed me.

Chloe turned. Our eyes met across the ballroom.

A flash of panic in her eyes. Quickly hidden by a perfect smile.

“Oh, that's just a distant relative from my mother's side.” She explained softly to the girls around her. “She just came from the streets. Never seen a place like this. My mom brought her along to see it.”

“Oh, so she's one of those poor bastards doing street muscle work.” The girls lost interest. Their voices dripped with contempt.

“Chloe, you're too kind. Bringing someone like that here. You'll lower the class of the whole event.”

Just then, the heavy doors of the ballroom were pushed open from the outside.

The noisy hall went silent. Instantly.

A heavy, bloody scent filled the air. Oppressive.

The announcer's excited voice boomed over the speakers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for the man who controls Wall Street's money laundering empire, Mr. Silas!”

“And... the most ruthless Bratva boss in New York, Mr. Killian!”

The whole room gasped.

These two were at the absolute top of the North American underworld.

Silas, who controlled the flow of capital. Killian, who held absolute power through violence.

They rarely even showed their faces. And tonight, they were both here. Together.

Victor's eyes lit up.

The Callahans might be number one in Boston. But in front of these ancient, powerful clans, they were nothing.

If they could connect with either of these two men, the Callahan family's status would change overnight.

“Chloe, let's go.” Victor straightened his tie. He led Eleanor and Chloe toward the inner circle to offer a toast.

Julian followed close behind, glass in hand.

Everyone was pushing forward. Trying to get noticed by the two titans.

Only me. Still sitting in that dark corner. Swirling a glass of bourbon.

Silas wore a perfectly tailored suit. His eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses were deep and cold.

Killian was in a dark gray trench coat. A lazy, brutal energy about him.

They were surrounded by top-tier bosses. But they didn't even glance at them.

“Mr. Silas, Mr. Killian.” Victor finally pushed to the front. He raised his glass, his smile perfect. “I'm Victor Callahan. I've heard so much about you both.”

Silas stopped. Gave him a passing glance. No response.

Killian didn't even look at him. His gaze swept over the crowd. Darkly searching the large room for something.

Victor's smile froze on his face. His glass, held mid-air, was painfully awkward.

Chloe saw this and quickly stepped forward. Her voice was soft. “Hello, gentlemen. I'm Chloe.”

She deliberately showed off the blood-diamond cross on her neck. Trying to get their attention.

However.

Killian's eyes scanned past her. And stopped dead on her neck.

His lazy expression instantly turned to ice. Pure killing intent.

He ignored Chloe's greeting.

He reached out. Shoved Victor and Julian out of the way with a brutal kick.

Dead silence.

The two men at the pinnacle of power walked straight through the crowd of armed bodyguards.

Step by step. Toward the darkest, most remote corner of the ballroom.

Toward me. The one the Callahans called their ‘low-level relative.’

Every eye in the room followed Silas and Killian's path. All focused on that dim corner.

Victor stopped breathing.

Julian's hand froze, his glass in mid-air.

Chloe's sweet smile was frozen on her face.

The ballroom was so quiet you could hear a bullet drop.

I was still on my high stool.

One hand propping up my chin. My fingertips tapping the rim of my empty glass.

Killian was the first to reach me.

The ruthless Bratva boss froze. His brutal aura vanished. His eyes went completely soft.

“My little demon. What are you doing here?”
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  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 10

    “Did you hear?” Killian sprawled across my leather sofa, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “Chloe tried faking a heart attack in prison. The guards just hit her in the kidneys with a baton.”He took a drink, smiling wider. “She was in too much pain to stand up straight, let alone fake gasping for air.”I didn’t look up. I just kept cleaning my custom Glock. The steel gleamed under the light as the cloth went around and around the barrel. Quietly.It’s been three months.The first snow of winter is falling on New York.The Callahan family is officially a footnote in a history book.Victor is living with a broken Eleanor in a basement in the Bronx. It leaks. In the winter, it’s cold enough to freeze a rat.He shakes down street vendors for protection money to get by. I heard a few days ago, some rival crew’s thugs pinned him against a wall and beat his face bloody. He still had to limp back to that freezing basement and spoon-feed his mother.The man who slammed his fist on a table an

  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 9

    My laugh was still in the air when Julian crawled up from the mud, shuffling forward on his knees to grab my ankle.“Aurora, I said I’d worship you!” He looked up, mud and tears streaming down his face. “We can have the wedding tomorrow! Just say the word!”I looked down at him, my smile cold.“Where’s that backbone?” I said slowly. “Just a few days ago, you were so eager to break our engagement. You were much cockier then.”“What happened? Did your spine disappear along with your territory?”Julian’s face went pale. His lips trembled, but he couldn’t speak.I pulled the heavy coat tighter. My voice was like a knife.“I wouldn’t even spit on the Callahan family,” I said, looking down at him. “And I sure as hell have no use for a two-faced piece of trash like you.”Victor shot up, grabbing at a last, desperate hope.“We’re family,” he yelled hoarsely. “Blood. The good of the family. You can’t just watch us—”“Blood?” I cut him off. A cold laugh slipped past my lips. “You didn’t give a d

  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 8

    Chloe’s high heels slipped on the stairs. She shoved Eleanor’s helping hand away.“Don’t touch me!” she screeched, her sweet, fragile mask shattered completely.The assassins were faster. One of them lunged, tackling her onto the upstairs carpet.“Let me go! You’re all insane!”Chloe thrashed like a cornered animal, her face twisted with rage as she screamed at Victor and Eleanor below.“How else was I supposed to get my hands on millions in laundered cash? You think they just hand that out? I had to play sick!”She was spitting, her voice pure venom.“You Callahans are all idiots! You just had to provoke that demon Aurora, and now look! We’re all going down together!”Eleanor stood frozen, as if she’d been stripped naked in public.Chloe tried to crawl toward the window, but her legs were pinned.“Hold still,” the man in the lab coat said, walking toward her with a gentle, calming smile.He pressed the cold defibrillator paddles directly to Chloe’s chest.“BZZZZT—Two hundred joules.”

  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 7

    At 6 a.m., the phone at the Callahan estate rang for the first time.Three hours later, it rang for the seventeenth time.Victor slammed his phone on the desk. The screen spiderwebbed with cracks.“Our shipment at the docks was seized,” he said, his voice shaking. “Three of our weapons caches were raided. Overnight.”The butler stood at the door, his face paler than a ghost. “Sir, there’s more…”“What now?”“All of our offshore accounts… they were frozen last night.”Victor collapsed into his leather chair like his bones had turned to dust.In the penthouse suite at the Continental, the sun was shining.Silas was lounging on a velvet sofa, slowly twirling a lock of my hair around his long fingers.“Victor’s digging into your past,” he said with a low laugh. “Hired three PIs. Trying to find out where you really came from.”Killian sat by the window, polishing his custom Glock. The barrel glinted in the sun.“I dropped the firewalls on purpose,” he said. His voice was indulgent, like he

  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 6

    Killian’s eyes were fixed on Chloe’s trembling neck.“I’ll count to three,” he said. His voice was terrifyingly calm. “You don’t take it off, my men will chop off your fingers. All ten of them. Then they’ll ship them off with your head in a box.”“One.”All the blood drained from Chloe’s face.“Two.”She fumbled at the back of her neck, her fingers shaking so badly she couldn't undo the clasp.“I… I can’t get it off! Please, don’t kill me!”Eleanor scrambled over, her hands trembling as she pawed at Chloe’s neck. “She can’t get it off! Please, give us a minute!”“Three.”Killian didn’t hesitate. He raised his gloved hand to give the signal.Chloe let out a bloodcurdling scream, grabbed the chain with both hands, and just ripped it from her neck. The bloody necklace, along with a red welt on her skin, clattered to the floor.“Here!” she sobbed, scooping it up. Her hands shook like leaves in a storm as she stumbled forward, offering it to Killian.Killian looked at it like it was somethi

  • The Real Heiress Mafias Feared   Chapter 5

    He didn't wait for my answer. He raised his hand, his rough fingers, still warm from gunpowder, gently brushing my jaw.“Had your fun yet?”His voice was low, laced with a strange kind of affection.Before I could speak, he shrugged off his own expensive coat. Threw it over my shoulders without asking.The lining was cool, but the coat was heavy.Bulletproof. Custom-made, right down to the thread.His arm tightened around me, pulling me halfway into his chest. Guarding me. Like I was his, and no one else was allowed to even look.“Silas.” I looked up at the other man walking toward us.Silas held a dry martini. He offered it like a gentleman, but his eyes were sharp as a knife.“Fine, have your little adventure. But don’t push it.” His voice was deep, a gentle scolding. “Those transfer documents for the Swiss offshore accounts are waiting for your signature.”The whole room went dead silent.Like someone had just dropped a C4 in the middle of the crowd. The explosion hadn't come yet, b

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