All Chapters of They Auctioned the Mafia Princess: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

In the back seat of the taxi, Manhattan's neon lights slid across my face through the window.As the car passed the old jazz bar on the corner of Fifth Avenue, I turned and looked.Six years ago, Julian confessed to me on those damp back-alley steps.I was barely twenty then. To escape the endless feuds and arranged marriages of my Sicilian family, I'd hidden the surname "Corsini"—a name that made the entire European underworld tremble.I used my mother's maiden name, "Linton," and rented a tiny apartment in New York with unreliable heating. I just wanted to be an ordinary girl, to have a relationship untainted by family interests.Julian was a restaurant manager then.He brought me a hot latte on every rainy evening. He waited with me at street corners for taxis late at night. He remembered every little thing—that I didn't eat cilantro, that I was allergic to pollen.I turned him down five times.Until the sixth time, when two drunk men cornered me in a dark alley. He rushed in and to

I woke to the strong smell of disinfectant. My chin was wrapped in thick medical gauze. The stitched wound and my swollen left cheek throbbed."Claire, you're finally awake!"Julian, who had been keeping vigil by the bed, grabbed my hand. His eyes were bloodshot."You lost so much blood. You really scared me."Looking at his tense jaw and reddened eyes, for a moment I almost believed he truly cared.But the next second, he stroked the back of my hand and said softly:"Claire, Sophie really didn't mean to hurt you. She thought a fun costume party would cheer you up. She just goes overboard sometimes. Don't hold it against her, okay?"The room went dead silent.I stared into his eyes until he guiltily looked away, then spoke hoarsely:"Julian, the biggest mistake I've made in six years is believing you would protect me."His face stiffened. He was about to speak when the phone in his pocket lit up.The screen showed "Sophie."His eyes flickered. He let go of my hand and stood. "I'll take

In my first week back at the Sicilian estate, the family doctor came every day to change my bandages, treating the wound on my chin with the finest scar cream.The day the stitches came out, I opened the black velvet box I'd brought back from New York.Inside was a silver rose signet ring, symbolizing the highest inheritance right of the Corsini family.I put on the ring and formally took over the family's European shipping group and luxury winery business.What surprised me was that Luca wasn't the cold, domineering arranged-marriage partner the rumors made him out to be.Every morning, he brought fresh white camellias cut from the greenhouse to the estate to pick me up.At the board meeting, when a few old-fashioned uncles questioned how I'd wasted six years in New York, Luca just twirled his pen casually and coldly tossed out a port cooperation agreement in which the Rossi family gave up ten percent."Claire's name is worth exactly that. Anyone who objects can take it up with the sh

Seeing the Corsini bodyguards already reaching for their sidearms, Sophie was scared out of her wits. Her legs shook like leaves."Miss Corsini! It's not my fault!"Sophie screamed and dropped to her knees. She turned and slapped Julian hard across the face, wailing hysterically."It was all Julian's idea! He said you were like a dog that was easy to coax! He agreed to put your photo in the charity auction just to win the Manhattan apartment keys from me! And that day with the champagne at the apartment door—he was watching from behind the bar the whole time! He didn't stop me at all!"Julian clutched his slapped cheek and turned to look at Sophie in disbelief.The childhood friend he'd protected for six years, the one he always said "she's just playful, she means no harm"—at the first sign of disaster, she drove the knife straight into his heart without hesitation."Sophie... you vicious woman!"Julian's eyes bulged with rage. He lunged and grabbed Sophie by the throat. The two of the