LOGINThe day I married Dante Moretti, I became the youngest Donna in New York. He took the Family seal from me and put the Family's ledgers and vault keys in the hands of his Underboss Valentina. She was his second-in-command and his lover. Even as Donna, I needed her signature before I could spend a dollar of the Family's money. Then Beatrice Moretti, Dante's mother and the former Donna, was attacked outside a church. The secret clinic demanded half a million dollars in cash before they would operate. I couldn't reach Dante, so I had to go to Valentina for access to the emergency vault. She sat behind Dante's desk, painting her nails. "You want money? Kneel, kiss my instep, and submit a request form." I did as I was told. Because my mother-in-law was lying on that operating table, and she was the only person who had ever treated me like a daughter. Valentina deliberately spilled coffee on the form and tore it to pieces. Not long after, the church bells tolled for the dead. And Dante, with his arm around Valentina, asked, "It's your mother who died. Why should we pay for her?"
View MoreWhen I reached my childhood home in Chicago, pulling my suitcase up the driveway, my mother was in the yard pruning her roses.At the sound of my suitcase rolling up the driveway, she turned around, pruning shears still in hand. "Sweetheart? What are you doing here?"I smiled and told her I missed her and wanted to stay for a while.She stared at me for a moment before hurrying over. Her eyes lingered on my face, thinner than the last time she'd seen me, but she didn't ask any questions. She simply took my suitcase and led me inside."You must be starving. I'll make you something to eat."That night, I told her everything.When I finished, she fell silent for a long time. "When Dante was courting you, he acted like there was nothing in the world he wouldn't do for you. I thought once you married him, I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore."She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. "I never imagined he'd become someone like that."She took my hand. "Beatrice was a good woman
Three days after the funeral, Dante showed up at the apartment complex where I was staying.When I returned, I found him sitting on the front steps. He was alone, without a driver or a single bodyguard. His hair was unkempt, several days of stubble covered his jaw, and he'd lost so much weight that I barely recognized him.The moment he saw me, he scrambled to his feet. "Please. Give me five minutes."I didn't stop. I headed straight for the entrance."I know I have no right to ask you for anything, but I truly have nowhere else to go." He hurried after me. "Dad froze all my accounts. I'm no longer Don. I lost my ring, my men, everything. Even the safe houses won't let me in."Mom is dead. My dad doesn't want me anymore. And now I'm losing you too. I have nothing left."I stopped and turned to look at him. Once, a single word from Dante could make half the New York underworld move. Now he stood before me with nothing, hoping his misery would somehow make me forgive him."That's not my
Dante flinched. Then he crawled forward and clutched his father's trouser leg. "Please, Father. I know I was wrong. Give me one more chance."Salvatore looked down at him, his eyes red with grief."Your whole life, your mother gave you everything you wanted. Suits, sports cars, territory of your own, men of your own. All you had to do was ask, and she found a way to give it to you."Did you think being a Moretti meant all of this belonged to you?"Salvatore pressed a hand to his chest, and his voice began to tremble."Before the Family even had a proper office, Beatrice slept beside me in a storage room above a butcher shop. She hid our ledgers inside her coat and carried them through police checkpoints. When I was shot, she was the one who got me home alive."I swore before God that as long as I lived, she would never go hungry and would never have to face death alone."He paused, struggling to steady his voice. "But you let her die alone on an operating table. When it was over, it wa
Outside St. Mary's Church, Dante stood in the rain, clutching his mother's black urn, looking like a man who had lost everything.His bodyguard hurried over and lowered his voice. "Don Dante, the old Don ended his meeting in Sicily early. He's already on the plane back to New York, but he hasn't been able to reach the former Donna."Dante’s head jerked up. For the first time, real fear appeared in his bloodshot eyes.Salvatore and Beatrice had been married for more than forty years. He had always taken care of her in every little way, even checking that her water was the right temperature before handing it to her.Dante had inherited the title, but Salvatore had built the empire from the ground up—the territory, the docks, and the loyalty of its capos. Even after stepping down, the old Don's word carried more weight than Dante's.If his father found out that Beatrice had missed her chance at surgery while Dante stood by and let Valentina humiliate me, Dante knew he was finished.Dante






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