All Chapters of The Godfather’s Favorite: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Ava’s Perspective“Why can’t I come?” I asked. “Is today your coming-of-age ceremony?”Samantha’s face tightened at once.I let my gaze travel over her slowly from head to toe. The effect was immediate and deeply satisfying. She had painted her face so heavily that her powder sat on her skin like a second mask, and the layers of designer labels stacked on her body looked less luxurious than desperate. The jewels were too much, the perfume too strong, and the entire result made her look not eighteen, but like a woman fighting a losing war against forty.Then I smiled.“Though,” I added lightly, “looking at you now, I suppose I should ask whether it’s your thirty-eighth instead.”The girls around her sucked in breaths. Samantha herself looked as though I had slapped her.“You—”“Mm?” I tilted my head. “I was only asking. It’s hard to tell.”Her face turned red beneath the makeup.“Don’t get too proud of yourself,” she snapped. “My sister is about to become Donna. Once she takes her place

Ava’s PerspectiveThe commotion was worse up close.Champagne ran in glittering streams across the marble floor. Glass lay everywhere, throwing back the ballroom lights in sharp, dangerous flashes. The woman, Mrs. Miranda stood in the middle of it with one hand pressed to her forearm, where a thin line of blood had slipped past the cuff of her glove. The silk at the hem of her dress was damp and stained. Her expression was furious.Julian and Samantha were beside her. The rest of their little flock hovered behind them, pale and useless.The moment they saw me approach, Samantha gave a short, ugly laugh.“Look who came to watch,” she said. “What, are you here to enjoy this?”Julian did not laugh, but her eyes were cold. “You always have excellent timing, Ava.”I ignored both of them and looked at Mrs. Miranda first.Samantha took that as an insult. “Don’t bother pretending to be kind,” she snapped. “I’d rather be punished than accept your fake concern.”Before I could answer, Mrs. Miran

Ava’s PerspectiveI went back to my room and spread the mafia map across the table.The Clarke family’s power stretched across the whole region, but not every part of it lived by the same rules. We were in the center now, where the main residences, internal command, and the family’s core power were rooted. The north lay beyond it, pressed close to the strait, rich with shipping routes, ports, warehouses, and trade. Trade kept that side gleaming, disciplined, and hungry in a way the center understood well. I had never wanted that world before.The south was different.The further down the map I looked, the colder I felt. Warm climate. Long sunlight. Good soil. Perfect for poppies. That was what made it valuable, and what made it filthy. It was where drugs were grown, refined, traded, and protected by people who would sell anything that breathed if the price was right. Traffickers, mercenaries, smugglers, brokers, killers—every kind of parasite and predator eventually drifted south if th

Ava’s PerspectiveI heard Sam behind me.“Ava—why are you running?”I didn’t slow. “I saw Julian.”“That’s impossible.”I cut through a knot of people and kept going. Sam caught up beside me.“I’m serious,” he said. “She told everyone the day before yesterday that her asthma flared up. She said she’d be at a sanatorium for the next two days. How could she be here?”“I know what I saw.”He tried again, but I had already lost patience for arguing. By the time I reached the street, Julian’s figure was gone.I stopped at a fork in the lane.Sam was still behind me, telling me to slow down, but I had slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers closed around the coin engraved with the Clarke crest.In the mafia, hesitation killed faster than a wrong decision.So I flicked the coin into the air.Heads, left. Tails, right.It spun, then struck the ground with a metallic click.Heads.The instant it landed, I stepped left.“Ava!”I ignored Sam and moved fast, weaving through the lane until I saw

Ava’ PerspectiveAlexander glared at me.His gaze was so clouded it was almost as if he regretted agreeing, but by then even that look had become familiar enough that I found it more endearing than frightening.So before he could say anything else, I leaned in and kissed the glare right off his face.A day later, the approval came through exactly as I had wanted. I was granted access to the medical division under the family’s name, which meant I could move through another layer of Clarke business without needing someone to hold my hand every step of the way.For once, it felt like a door inside this family had opened because I had pushed it open myself.I was still thinking about how to make use of it when I ran into Julian.She was standing in the corridor in a pale dress, one hand resting on the rail, as though she had been waiting to cross paths with me. The moment she saw me, her mouth curved.“You think you’ve won?” she asked. “A river doesn’t compete to be first. What matters is w