All Chapters of The Mafia's Substitute Bride: Chapter 221 - Chapter 230

The apartment was too quiet when Alecia woke up that for a moment it felt like she was in a dream, where she finally had her revenge and she just discovered that the body of Robert and her father's were no where to be found and all of a sudden they'll just pop out of nowhere to kill her.She moved slowly through the rooms, her bare feet on the cold marble floors sent cold into her leg, she barely noticed her silk robe slipping off one shoulder. She felt lightheaded from the bag of too many thoughts pressing in the wrong part of the brain. She opened the windows halfway, letting in a slant of gray light and the city noise in. The loud nois eof people going about their day and the sound of cars honking reminded her that she wasn’t the only person alive.On the kitchen counter, her phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with Kennedy’s name. It rang for a moment and the call ended, but it was followed immediately by a message.BarbieIsKen:: On my way with wine. Love you.Alecia walked into

Morning didn't stir Rebecca DeLuca the way it used to anymore, maybe it was because she's been a sleeping beauty for past four years, and now she didn't know how waking up should feel like, besides thinking about the weird dreams and semi-insomnia that goes on until four AM. There was no jolt from the early morning sun, no harsh slap of reality waiting like it use to be years ago. Instead, she woke up with her breath unfurling in a room that smelled of fresh linen and wilted roses. The vase on the bedside table was expensive, but it didn't quite fit the corner it occupied. She opened her eyes to the ceiling she'd forgotten and maybe missed, with scanty glow in the dark stars that Alecia had fixed at one point and removed a few when she realized her own room was missing some, other than that, the cream paint and lace-like molding looked exactly as she'd left them. The faint crack in the upper right corner was still there, ignored by the family and workers just like before.As she lay t

Rebecca felt the tremor of arrival before dawn broke through the curtains. She inhaled the scent of early roses, it reminded her of the multiple bouquets once brought to her bedside at the hospital. She lay in bed for a long minute, the silence swallowing her whole, before she slided out of the crisp sheets and moving through the house she had once known.The morning light streamed across the polished marble. Every step felt wide and echoing, and that only deepened the hollow feeling in her chest. She found Georgia in the hallway quietly arranging towels. The woman handed her a cup of tea and said softly, “Sir called this morning, says he’ll be here soon.” Rebecca nodded and walked to the conservatory where breakfast waited on a table laid with strawberries and warm toast, but she barely touched a bite. She folded her hands in her lap, watching sunlight drift across petals and porcelain, tasting nothing.Footsteps through the foyer heralded his arrival. Antonio entered in a crisp navy

Rebecca sat in the dining room late that afternoon, her two oldest long time friends gently asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer. She would be lying if she said she remembered everything about that, or why she stopped communicating with them before her accident but there had visited uninvited and there was no way she would send them away, even if that was all she wished to do at the moment. The soft and warm sun afternoon draped through the tall windows and over the polished mahogany table where cups of jasmine tea was letting out hot steam. The women—Elena and Margaret, whose laughter was loud enough to make a baby go deaf—sat on either side of her. Both women looked older and more concerned, but still familiar looking. They had flown in without any message, out of nowhere and one of Rebecca’s request was that no one pays a visit until she felt good again.Margaret reached across the table with a soft smile and squeezed Rebecca’s hand. “We thought visiting would be better, th

Valentina eased into the hospital lobby just after ten in the morning, her heart fluttering like a bird caught between panic and hope. The fluorescent lights hummed softly overhead and the reception desk buzzed with orders and paper rustling as they moved around. She checked in with her name and handed over her referral slip. A nurse appeared within minutes and guided her down a corridor lined with framed nature photographs that felt oddly soothing. She tried to steady her breath; gym-class breathing, except the stake wasn’t air it was everything she feared might change.When the nurse led her into the testing room, it was clean and small, smelling faintly of disinfectant and new plastic chairs that might have been donated by Vescari foundation, a good coincidence. A medical assistant introduced herself and asked her to pop a few pills before they drew blood—vitamin supplements to record baseline health and Valentina followed instructions as carefully as she could, anything to make su