Alle Kapitel von Too Late, My Capo, Your Love Means Nothing: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 10

Returning to the estate, I pushed open the heavy oak doors, coming face to face with the wedding portrait hung above the fireplace.The man in the frame had a reckless smile, his nose brushing against my temple.It was taken at the height of our love.Julian and I were both kids who grew up in the orphanage.When I was seventeen, the headmaster decided to marry me off to a vicious old mobster to settle a debt.It was Julian who grabbed my hand, pulled me over the high brick wall, and helped me escape, running all the way to the shipping docks.The headmaster cursed at our backs, "Julian Marchetti! If you're so tough, let's see you protect her for the rest of your life!"He had turned around, a reckless determination in his eyes. "Then I'll protect her with my life!"He used the meager earnings from his underground fights to rent a basement apartment, then started collecting protection money on the streets for the Family."Once I'm a made man, I'll get you away from all this.""When tha

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a VIP room at the Family's private hospital.Julian was flipping through the folder I had risked my life to salvage. The marriage certificate with scorched edges fell out."This worthless piece of paper? You almost died for this?" His voice was tight with disbelief. "Serafina, you have a hairline fracture in your left calf and a lung infection. The doctor said if you'd been brought in ten minutes later, you would be dead!"I reached out and snatched the folder back.Without this original document, the expedited divorce with the lawyer couldn't move forward.Julian stared at my protective gesture over the folder, his brows pulling into a tight knot."All you had to do was back away and everyone would have gotten out alive. But no, you had to play this twisted game, forcing me to make a choice. Are you that desperate to prove where you rank in my heart?""This was a hit by our rivals. I protected Mia and got her out first because she's a civili

A trembling nurse helped me back to an examination room to clean and re-bandage the torn wounds."Mrs. Marchetti," she asked, her hand hovering over the receiver. "should I call the Capo?"I calmly reached out and pressed the receiver down. "There's no need," I said flatly. "I'll go back myself."Returning to the estate, I went upstairs to the bedroom, picked out a few simple outfits from the closet, and placed them into a small suitcase.My phone screen lit up. Mia had updated her social media status.In the photo, she was wrapped in Julian's dark gray suit jacket, her head resting on his chest. The caption read, "He is my only safe haven in this dangerous world."Stone-faced, I swiped past the glaring photo, tapped her profile picture, and hit "Block."Outside the main gates, the car I had hired in advance was already waiting.I grabbed my suitcase, got into the back, and gave the driver the address. "Central Station. The night train to San Celano."The engine rumbled as the car slow

My life in San Celano was a fresh start.I buried my past and entered the Family's inner circle. I started by auditing money laundering ledgers and handling business disputes between gangs.No one here knew about my life in Porthaven, or the grief over losing my child that nearly killed me.The men of this old city saw me only as a young widow from the north, a quiet woman with eyes as cold as ice.During the day, I sat in the study, flipping through ledgers, cross-referencing every transaction from the Family's vineyards, casinos, and shipping docks.At night, I read in Vittorio's underground library, studying the bloodlines of the Five Families and thirty years of their debts. On weekends, I locked myself in the windowless underground archives, staying there all day long.Vittorio became my strictest mentor."Your father could spot cooked books in three minutes," he would say. "You will be no less."Three months later, two hot-headed Capos drew their guns on each other at the negotia

Another three months passed. Vittorio invited me into his private study."There's a job. It's dirty, and it's highly dangerous." The old man pushed a locked black leather folder toward me, the key resting beside it. "But it's more important to the Family than anything we've dealt with in decades. You can refuse, Serafina. No one will blame you."I opened the folder: Southern Border, Blacksand.A smuggling route spanning three countries had recently been choked off by a smuggling boss named Salazar.His men had already butchered two batches of negotiators sent by San Celano, dumping their bodies in the desert. They didn't even send the heads back.The Family needed someone to go there in person, bearing leverage, to get a ceasefire agreement signed."I'll go.""Think it through." Vittorio's gaze was heavy. "Those outlaws don't play by the rules. Going there is a death sentence.""I have," I said. "My father didn't calculate the odds when he went. If he could do it, I have no reason to