All Chapters of Becoming The Mafia Queen: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

SOFIAMy recovery wasn't a straight line. Some days I felt like myself again. And other days, I stared at the ceiling for hours and couldn't even remember what that version of me had felt like.The first week was the worst. The painkillers dulled the ache, but nothing could numb the feeling of helplessness that came with having to ask for help to sit up, to shower, to put on a fucking pair of sweatpants. I hated the cane, and the way I leaned on it like a child learning to walk. I hated the silence that followed me everywhere I went, like everyone had started walking on eggshells the second I got back.But Adrian never made me feel weak. He was always there, every morning and every night. Sometimes even in the middle of the afternoon if he could sneak away from his meetings. He brought me food, tucked my hair behind my ears while I whined about how itchy my bandages were, and kissed my forehead before bed like it was some kind of silent ritual he didn't want to break. He read to me fr

ADRIANI didn't even make it to the end of the hallway before I lost it. My fist slammed into the wall with a dull and splintering thud, sending cracks through the plaster and pain shooting up my arm. I welcomed it, and I wanted it. I wanted more. I needed something to hurt. I needed something to fucking break, because God help me, I couldn't stand the way my chest was caving in right now. I couldn't fucking breathe, and I had to try so hard to stop myself from screaming. The silence after I left her was deafening. It wasn't just guilt anymore, because it was something much worse, and much deeper. It was like I had just stepped on the throat of the only person in this world who had ever looked at me like I was worth something more than the empire I controlled.And I walked out on her. I fucking walked out on her, like a fucking coward who couldn’t stand and deal with his own problems. At the first sign of vulnerability, when I should have been grateful that someone like her could loo

SOFIAI hated the silence in this room.Not because it was loud or eerie or unnatural, but because it let me hear myself too clearly. I could hear every shaky breath, every little sniffle I tried to swallow, and the way my heart was still beating like it hadn't realized yet that the only person it was beating for had just walked out of the room and left me shattered in the wreckage of my own feelings.I pressed the pillow harder over my head and curled tighter into the blankets, but it didn't help. Nothing was helping. Not the hot shower I'd taken just now, or the tea someone had left at my bedside. Not even the painkillers they'd given me for my leg, or even the memory of how gentle his hands had been or how soft his voice had sounded when he kissed my shoulder just hours before.Because none of it changed the fact that I told Adrian DeLuca I loved him, and he walked out like I hadn't said a damn thing worth hearing. And it hurt even more than I was willing to admit.I'd barely gotte

ADRIANThe pain woke me like a fucking bullet to the chest. There was no gentle return to consciousness. It was just fire, pressure, and the terrifying awareness that something inside me was broken. Really broken. My lungs screamed with every shallow breath I managed to take, and my side felt like it'd been ripped open by claws made of glass."Fuck," I groaned, voice cracking. "Fuck…fuck…fuuuck…"I couldn't move or see straight. My vision was a mess of light and shapes, swimming together in one blinding haze. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what the hell had happened. All I knew was that I was dying. Or maybe I already was.I tried to sit up and was immediately punished for the attempt. My back arched off the mattress, and a scream tore its way out of my throat before I could stop it. White-hot agony lanced through my abdomen, spreading like wildfire, and I clawed at the sheets beneath me, desperate for something (anything) to hold onto.My body was soaked in sweat. My pulse

SOFIAThe warehouse was cold, and not the kind of cold you get from the weather, but the kind that settles into places like this with the concrete floors, steel beams, and secrets nobody talks about. It was the kind of cold that doesn't go away, and I felt it deep inside my bones. All through the ride here, the only thing I could think about was what I would say to her. How would I look into the eyes of the woman who had once been in my spot, who’d once loved Adrian as much as I loved him now, and accuse her of trying to kill him? When he said her name before passing out, I could only accept that she was the one who did this. Nothing else made sense to me. But after seeing all the humanitarian work she’d done, a sliver of doubt was starting to creep into my head. I shook it off the moment I stepped out of the car however. I couldn’t be swayed by the mask that she presented to the world. One thing I’d learned from my short time in the mafia was that everyone was a liar and a pretend