Chapter 70 - And you’re… interesting!

Silvio ⊱⊶⊷⊰ Enrico had me pinned against the edge of Raphael’s workstation before I even got the monitor fully booted up. His mouth crashed onto mine and I grabbed a handful of his shirt, dragging him closer until our bodies lined up perfectly. The glow from the monitors painted him in blue light, he bit my bottom lip, just enough to make me suck in a breath. “Lock the damn door,” he murmured against my mouth. “No one comes in here,” I whispered back, pulling him in for another kiss anyway. His hands slid under my shirt, fingers cold but touch blazing, and I groaned quietly. “You’re supposed to be helping me mess with Raphael’s computer,” I said, though I didn’t sound very convincing with my lips brushing his. He let out a laugh against my neck, “I am helping. I’m keeping you motivated.” I laughed into his mouth and kissed him again until I felt dizzy. It was stupid how good he was at this. How good we were at this. My fingers tangled in his hair, tugging just enough to make hi

Last Updated : 2025-11-15

Chapter 71 - You were alive this whole time

Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─ Age 39 | Capone Estate | Chicago, Illinois. Saint Agatha’s always smelled the same, like melted wax and old stone, like incense soaked into wooden pews, like memory. My knees buckled before I even meant for them to. My hands were shaking so badly I had to grip the altar just to steady myself. “Please…” I whispered, though my voice barely made a sound. “Please keep him safe.” Silvio’s face wouldn’t leave my mind, his laugh, his dimples. The ache in my chest twisted deeper. My fingers brushed over the cold metal lighter as I reached for it. One candle. Then another. Then another. One for my mother. One for my father. One for Allegra, my sweet little girl whose light had been taken from me too soon. And one for Silvio… my stubborn, bright, wounded boy. The tiny flames flickered like fragile breaths, each one a prayer I couldn’t put into words without breaking. I knelt in front of them, the marble hard beneath me, but I barely felt it. Tears blurr

Last Updated : 2025-11-17

Chapter 72 - I lost her all over again.

Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─ For a long moment I just stared at it, my fingers hovering, trembling. I finally slid a thumb under the flap. It opened with this soft, clean rip like he’d sealed it gently, like he didn’t want to startle me. Inside was a folded paper. I pulled it out slowly, afraid it would crumble, or that I would. My hands shook uncontrollably as I unfolded it. I read the first line, and my vision blurred. My throat closed. I had to clamp a hand over my mouth because a sound clawed up from somewhere deep, somewhere broken. I blinked until the words steadied enough to read again. The ink felt alive, like I could hear his voice in every line. “Aunt Alessia, I don’t even know how to start this. I’ve been gone from home a year, but it feels like ten. And even when I wasn’t near you, I still felt you because every day I spent with Allegra, I saw pieces of you in her. Your calm. Your softness. That strength you carry without even trying.” My chest clenched hard. I p

Last Updated : 2025-11-17

Chapter 73 - It was waiting on me

Rino ─𖤝─ Age 41 | Blackthorn Cold Storage Facility | Outskirts of Chicago. I sat at the metal table, sleeves rolled up, the overhead light buzzing like it was seconds from dying. Paperwork was spread out in front of me, ledgers, transfers, digital printouts. Five years’ worth of our numbers. Five years of something not fucking adding up. Fabio sat across from me, tapping his pen like a nervous tick he thought I didn’t notice. My brother-in-law, my underboss… and Valeria’s only sibling. A man I’d taken under my wing even when I should’ve fed him to wolves after he ruined our friendship. His breath formed a faint fog in the air. Mine didn’t... rage has its own temperature. I dragged a thick finger down a column of numbers. “Walk me through this,” I said, and Fabio leaned in instinctively, like a dog conditioned by too many years under me. “Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said quickly, “You’re looking at— uh— the third quarter shipments, right? There were delays that year. A couple

Last Updated : 2025-11-18

Chapter 74 - Flick, flame, toss.

Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─ They married her off. They actually married my daughter off. They forced her into a life she never chose, shoved her straight into the arms of a man who lives and breathes blood and sin, the Underboss of the Cosa Nostra. Scott Mancini. Even saying his name made something in me twist. After everything I survived, after everything that was taken from me, I swore my daughter would never live the life I did. I swore no man, no family, no boss, no oath would ever decide her future. I swore she would choose her own heart, her own path. But life has a sick way of spitting on promises. She didn’t escape the chains, they just changed the hands holding them. She went from being forced into marriage with a fifty-year-old bastard... straight into the hands of the underboss of the Cosa Nostra. And the things I’ve heard from my boys. Stories of Mancini cracking skulls without blinking. Stories of him running the streets like they’re his personal hunting ground. Stories of