All Chapters of After I Cleaned Up Don Boyfriend's Rival for His Mistress, I Left: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I'd been with Vincent Maro for seven years. No title. No public acknowledgment.Everyone in the Chicago mob knew the Maro family had a woman named Elena who could handle anything, carry anything. Nobody could say exactly what I was — not a wife, not a mistress, not a consigliere, not a hitter.Vincent's definition was simpler than all of that: I fixed things for him.In seven years I'd fixed his political rivals, fixed the manslaughter case his brother caught at a casino, fixed every woman who thought she could go to the press.This time what he wanted me to fix was a man who was pestering his new girl, Sofia.Sofia was the daughter of the Maro family's biggest creditor. Vincent had brought her in and set her up beside him. Stripped down, it was a transaction — a debt that couldn't be paid back in cash, so it got paid in a daughter, in affection.Last month, at the Five Families' alliance dinner, the heir to the East Coast Caruso family asked Sofia, in front of everyone, if she'd like

Vincent's private family doctor was named Enzo. An old man, careful in a way that made you uneasy.He came to see Vincent while I was in the next room going over new proposals for the smuggling routes.I didn't hear what they said.But I knew the moment Vincent called me in that something was off.There was a document on his desk. He didn't tell me to sit. He just slid it across."Elena. Explain."I glanced down.It was a record of every medical visit I'd made outside the family's system over the past three years. Clinic addresses. Dates. Departments. All laid out."Routine checkups," I said."Routine checkups." Vincent repeated the words, his voice even. "The Maro family has six specialists on retainer. Why are you going outside?"I didn't answer.He stood up, came around the desk, flipped to the second page of the record, and pointed at a line.A date from four years ago.I'd gone twice that week. The clinic was down by the docks, nowhere anyone was watching. I'd thought I was carefu

The last guest walked out. A few family soldiers were still in the courtyard, not yet dispersed.Sofia stood in the foyer on Vincent's arm and turned to me."Elena, grab Vincent's coat for me, would you? You know which closet it's in."Not a question. An instruction.There were still men in the yard. They heard it.I didn't move. I looked at her."Dinner cleanup isn't finished."Sofia leaned her head against Vincent's shoulder, coquettish. "Vincent, you said the Maro family's going to be mine to run eventually. But Elena doesn't seem very cooperative. Have her show me around, would you? I don't want to be lost on my own later."Vincent looked at me."Elena. Take her."Sofia gave me a small smile. "Thanks, Elena. You don't mind, right?"She was already walking in, not waiting for an answer. She stopped in the hallway and waited for me.I followed.The only sound in the corridor was our footsteps.I walked her through the house. Which room was used for what. Where the backup armory was.

Day three at the safe house. The heat finally gave out completely.The sea wind came through the cracks in the window. I pulled my coat tight around me and went back to the accounts.The old accounts were worse than I'd thought.I didn't know how long I worked. At some point I felt a chill seep out from between my bones.I thought it was just late, the temperature dropping. I got up and pushed the window the rest of the way shut.The cold didn't lift.I sat back down and kept working.By afternoon I had a fever.I went down to the pharmacy downstairs, bought fever reducer, came back, kept working.By night my temperature was a hundred and two. The letters on the page started blurring. I closed the laptop and lay down on the bed.One of the bulbs in the ceiling was dead. The other still worked. A yellow half-light spread across the ceiling. The horns from the docks came in at steady intervals, like some kind of countdown.I thought about the early days with Vincent.It was my second yea

The first day I was gone, Sofia moved into the main house.The first thing she did was call all the staff into the living room, reassign their duties, and then call Marco in to tell him that from now on every outside communication through the main house went through her first.Marco didn't move.He'd been with Vincent in the Maro family for eleven years. He'd seen who came through that house. He'd seen how it ended for them.Sofia raised her voice. "Marco, did you hear what I said?"Marco lowered his head. "Yes, Mrs. Sofia."But his feet didn't move.Sofia acted like she hadn't seen it. Turned around and went to the master bedroom.That afternoon she went looking for the main house's backup medicine cabinet.She asked three members of staff. None of them knew where it was. I had always been the one who handled that cabinet. In seven years it had never passed through anyone else's hands. The staff just knew I'd produce what was needed when it was needed. Nobody knew where I'd locked it.