Chapter 3

Melanie

“Melanie!”

My mother yelled as she ran toward me as I stepped down from the car. Her eyes were wet, but before she could reach me, one of Dario’s men shoved her back like she was some infected animal.

“You are not to go near her!” Dario’s voice thundered across the courtyard like a bullet. “She’s brought shame running off with another man.”

My mother’s face twisted from relief to disbelief. In our world, a woman eloping was the highest form of disgrace—especially when promised to someone like Dario. So I was a disgraceful daughter who lost the only man she ever loved.

The universe really loved punching me in the face.

“Mela!” My mom finally found her voice. “Is that true?”

Before I could speak, Dario grabbed my arm and dragged me into the house like I was done rag doll.

I stumbled behind him, my shoes scraping against the marble floor, my heart pounding against my ribcage like a war drum.

The second the doors slammed shut, he yelled and it felt like a storm was unleashed.

“Where’s Enzo?” he roared, turning to Jack and Benito—my father’s loyal men. “Where the hell is he?”

Footsteps echoed down the grand staircase, and my eyes finally landed on my father.

He looked like life had already started draining from him the moment I vanished.

“You lied to me!” Dario spat.

“You fucking lied!”

His grip left my arm and found my hair. He yanked hard, like I was some toy, and he shoved me in my father’s direction.

“What are you talking about?” my father asked with a confused tone.

“Don’t play dumb, Enzo!” Dario barked. “You knew! You knew she loved someone else and still gave her to me! And now—she’s disgraced my entire family. Left me at the altar. You made a fucking fool of me!”

My father’s jaw clenched. “That’s nonsense you’re spitting, Dario.”

Dario laughed. It was dark, loud, and hollow. He sounded like a villain in a horror movie.

“Nonsense?” He said the word like it was a curse. “That’s what you’re going with?”

“I’m saying this because nothing you’re saying adds up. My daughter… she wasn’t in love. That’s why I gave her to you.”

Dario’s eyes narrowed, cutting away from him and back to me.

“I’m done with this bullshit,” he said, voice like broken glass. “I’m not standing here letting you two play innocent. You planned this together.”

Then—he reached into his coat and my breath hitched.

“And you know what happens to people who try to outsmart me, Enzo.”

He pulled out his gun. “I end them.”

“No!” I gasped. My voice tore out of my throat.

My Father’s eyes widened. Jack and Benito reached for their weapons, but Dario’s men were already pointing their guns like vultures ready to feast.

I glanced around the house, looking for my father’s other men and I assumed they were probably out looking for me.

“This is not a way to handle things!” My father said. “We can talk!”

“A Sanchez doesn’t talk after we have been slapped in the face,” Dario hissed. “We attack.”

He cocked the gun and the sound echoed in my chest.

“Prepare to meet your end.”

“Please!” I shouted. My voice was trembling. “Please don’t do this!”

My mother’s voice echoed behind me and I felt my heart break.

I stepped forward, tears burning my eyes. “My papa didn’t know anything about this! I was the one who planned it! I fell in love, not with him. I left you.”

My father wasn’t the best man in the world but then he was still my father. I still had to try to save him.

“Take me instead,” I said, eyes locked on Dario. “Spare him.”

My mother gasped behind me like she was watching a scene from a soap opera.

“You will do no such thing!” my father growled behind me. “You have a problem with me, Dario? Then fight me! Man to man!”

Dario smirked. “Isn’t this lovely? A father and daughter’s bond. It’s so pure, so sweet. Beautiful.”

Then his smile dropped and I swear he looked like a beast from the cartoons I watched as a kid.

“But there’s one thing I have learnt about love is that it’s going to cost you.” His voice rose and he raised the gun.

The next thing I heard was the sound of his gun, being pulled, being shot, and landing straight on my father’s chest. His men had fired too at my father’s men and one by one they dropped to the ground like animals.

Dario didn’t blink. He walked out of the house like nothing had happened.

My mother’s scream ripped through the silence. I couldn’t move—I was frozen, and I felt pain sinking into the marrow of my bones.

I watched as she crawled across the blood-slick floor, hands trembling as they touched my father’s lifeless face.

“Enzo!” she sobbed. “Wake up. Please… you’re all I’ve got.”

My vision blurred, and my chest caved in with grief I knew I’d carry for the rest of my life.

That night, I died too.

Because in their eyes, I wasn’t Melanie Armando anymore.

I was the girl who killed her father.

But the story didn’t end there.

My mother decided to leave everything behind. The mafia. The city. The life.

We moved. Far away. She struggled, and I watched her fall apart—until she didn’t.

One day, she changed. Started wearing makeup again. Smiling. Laughing.

I knew what that meant. She was in love but with whom?

“Federico Alonzo!” My mother had told me his name as she returned from work that night.

I stared at her. “He sounds like a bad man.”

“He’s not. He’s… my boss.”

I raised a brow. “Your boss? Seriously? What is this—Fifty Shades of Old People?”

She rolled her eyes. “Melanie…”

“I’m just saying, Mom. Work clichés are so beneath you.”

“I know, I know. But he’s different. He’s been through what I’ve been through. He lost his wife. He knows grief.”

“So he’s like dad, then? Another killer who got unlucky?”

She went quiet.

My stomach dropped. “So he is worse than the killer?”

“No. But he comes from that life. Just like your father did. He didn’t choose it—he was born into it. It’s in his blood.”

“Wow. So romantic,” I muttered.

She ignored the sarcasm. “After your father died, I promised—you’d never have to face the mafia world again. But Federico… he's different. I finally feel like I have a reason to breathe again.”

I wanted to hate her for it.

But how could I? She looked happy and I didn’t want to take away her happiness just like I did the first time. So I told her I approved of Federico.

I met Federico once after that. He was polished and handsome, in a silver-fox mafia don kind of way.

The second time… he announced their engagement and trust me I didn’t see that one coming but I embraced it.

Then things just kept getting worse. Federico wanted to return to Città dei re.

I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t relive the nightmare that I have tried so hard to bury. But I couldn’t tell my mom that. I had no choice but to go.

***

Now here I was on a private jet, going to a city that made my skin crawl.

“You’re going to love it there,” my mother chirped for the fifth time. “Federico’s son, Dante, is close to your age. And his cousin lives nearby too.”

I stared out the window, biting back a sigh.

“Of course,” I said, forcing a smile. “The more the merrier.”

But inside? I was already drowning.