Home / My Family Killed Me for Their Adopted Daughter / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of My Family Killed Me for Their Adopted Daughter: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

1

The blood was coming fast.I pressed a hand to the wound and dragged myself, inch by inch, toward the safe room door."Help... help us..."The words caught in my throat. Only a few hoarse breaths came out.Nonna and the others had been dead for only 15 minutes.If someone opened the door now, maybe they could still be saved.Someone outside heard me pounding on the door."Was that something in there?"Footsteps came closer, and a hand closed around the door handle.Another man stopped him."Did you forget Miss Bianca's orders? No matter what you hear in there tonight, nobody opens this door.""But that was a gunshot just now. What if Luca's wife did something stupid..."The other man snorted."The bullets in that gun were swapped for blanks ages ago. It can't hurt anybody.""But the Don's mother is in there, along with his sons' wives and his little granddaughter. If anything happens, who's going to take the fall?""Are any of them more important than Miss Bianca?"The Don, Mr. Santang

2

My soul drifted upward.It floated out of the safe room and past the greenhouse in the back garden.My father had built it for me himself the year he brought me home, when I was ten.He'd found me in a Brooklyn orphanage, held me and cried all night, and promised to make up for the ten years he'd missed.My oldest brother, Marco, had built the swing by the door.And Nico, my second-oldest brother, had planted every one of the lemon trees under the window himself.The lemons were still hanging on the branches.But I was dead.I drifted all the way to Manhattan, to a penthouse that took up an entire floor on Fifth Avenue.It belonged to Bianca Conti, the girl my family had adopted and raised.When my father built me a greenhouse, Bianca cried, so he bought her this place.When Marco brought me back a dress, he turned around and hired an entire design team from Milan for Bianca.For everything they gave me, Bianca had to get ten times as much.Because her father had died taking a bullet f

3

Several rounds of drinks later, it was the dead of night.Luca suddenly looked uneasy and set down his glass."Why haven't we heard anything from the estate?"Knowing Millie, once she heard we were dead, she'd either cry until she passed out or come tearing out with our men to find my body."My father waved a hand, unconcerned."Nothing will happen. I told the guards to go in and check if they heard anything strange, then send someone to tell me."Nico checked the time, looking uneasy."Nonna has a bad heart. Anna's been weak and nauseous lately. Mia's only five, and she scares easily. What if the scare is too much for one of them..."Marco asked, "What about Millie?""What could happen to Millie?" Nico said. "She can handle anything."I stared at him, stunned.They'd worried about everyone else.No one worried about me.At the other end of the sofa, Bianca kept her eyes down and said nothing.But I saw her discreetly signal to the maid by the door.The maid left the room at once.I fo

4

At the first gray light of morning, Luca pushed open the door, unable to wait any longer."Get the car. We're going back to the estate."My father was already dressed.He'd ordered Nonna's favorite limoncello and almond cookies loaded into the car."Nonna had a scare last night. I'll grovel as soon as I see her."If she wants to hit me with her cane, nobody is allowed to beg her to stop."Marco was carrying a velvet box."This necklace is for Anna. Once she's done yelling at me, I'll put it around her neck, and she'll come around."Nico hugged a stuffed bunny almost three feet tall."Mia's been begging for this bunny for almost six months. She must have cried her eyes out last night. Imagine how happy she'll be when Daddy comes back to life like Superman, bunny and all."Luca had just gotten into the car when he climbed back out, hurried inside, and returned with a cashmere coat.Bianca glanced at it."Luca, Millie's tough as nails. Since when is she that delicate?""Her hands and feet

5

Luca's voice caught in his throat.He stood in the doorway as if he'd been shot.I was lying right at his feet.A long smear of blood ran across the carpet from the table to the steel door. Ten crooked scratch marks scored the bottom of the door. Half a fingernail was still stuck in the deepest one.After I was shot, I'd dragged myself along that path inch by inch, begging for help.Luca dropped to his knees and pulled me into his arms."Millie? Millie, I'm back... look at me..."My body had long since gone cold and stiff. No matter how hard he rubbed my arms, he couldn't bring back any warmth.The sight of the gun still clutched in my hand seemed to give him one last hope."That's impossible. I swapped the bullets in this gun for blanks myself last night! How could a blank kill anyone? This can't be happening!"He frantically felt for the wound in my chest, then touched my neck.The chain was still there, but the bullet pendant was gone.Luca went completely still.The bullet he'd hun

6

Less than four hours after my father's order, word came back to the estate.The bodyguard had been found hanging in an abandoned warehouse on the Brooklyn docks.One of the men set the photos on my father's desk.The pig blood had been washed off his face, and a Moretti family badge had turned up in his pocket.Bianca took one look and covered her face, sobbing."See? I told you he was one of Moretti's. I'm the reason Nonna's dead. I'm the reason Millie's dead..."Marco pulled her into his arms and patted her back."It's not your fault."My father sighed too."Go get some sleep. We'll take care of everything else."A faint flicker of relief crossed Bianca's face when she saw that none of them suspected her. She left the study, her eyes still red.The moment the door closed, the room seemed to go cold.Marco clenched the hand he'd used to comfort Bianca so tightly that his knuckles went white.My father pushed the photos to the middle of the desk."I gave that order right here at the es

7

The next morning, Bianca stepped nervously out of her room. To her surprise, the Valenti men weren't taking it out on her. If anything, they were kinder than ever.My father had her things brought back from Fifth Avenue to the estate and even told the kitchen himself to make her soup."All the women in this house are gone. You're the only daughter the Valenti family has left. You've had a terrible shock. Stay here and rest for a few days."Marco brought her a new necklace, the same brand as the one he'd meant to give Anna.Bianca ran her fingers over the necklace and smiled.She asked to move into the south-facing bedroom on the main house's second floor.It was the room Luca and I had shared.My father didn't object.That afternoon, I hovered by the vanity and watched her open my jewelry box. She took out my wedding ring and slowly slid it onto her ring finger.It was half a size too big.She turned her hand back and forth in the mirror, pressing her lips together to hide her smile.F

8

The Commission met in the back room of an old restaurant in Brooklyn.The Dons of New York's major families sat along both sides of the long table.At the head sat Ettore Ferrante, the Commission's most senior member.He'd been a witness at Nonna's wedding 50 years earlier, when she married into the Valenti family.Don Moretti sat at the far end of the table, his face dark.Bianca walked in on my father's arm, dressed in black, her eyes red and my wedding ring on her hand.My father spoke first.He laid the maid's confession, the silver box, the capsule, and the bodyguard's photos on the table one by one."Mr. Ferrante, there's no need for a hearing. The Valenti family raised a snake in its own house."My adopted daughter, Bianca, acted on her own. She hired people to pose as Moretti gunmen and attack my estate. Then she had a box of poison sent in. She killed my mother and every woman in my family."This has nothing to do with the Moretti family. I'm here to answer to the Commission a

9

Mr. Ferrante put his glasses back on and looked down both sides of the long table."Gentlemen, any objections?"No one spoke.He turned to my father."First, the Valenti family used the Moretti name to fake a blood feud and deceived this Commission. Their lies cost the lives of dozens of Valenti women and a five-year-old child in their own home."As of today, the Valenti family is expelled from the alliance and will no longer have the Commission's protection."My father sank to the floor as if all the strength had gone out of him. His eyes went blank.Without that protection, the Moretti family would likely seize every piece of Valenti territory, every dock, and every business. The Commission wouldn't step in.The mafia empire he'd spent his life building vanished in that moment."Second, the men of the Valenti family lose that protection as well, and no family may take them in."The Moretti family was falsely accused of slaughtering women and children. They can collect that blood debt

10

Bianca was locked in a flooded cell in the Moretti family's secret prison beneath an abandoned slaughterhouse on Long Island.Don Moretti believed in "what goes around comes around." He followed the script Bianca had written on Thanksgiving night to the letter, with Bianca herself as the victim.Torture first.In that dark, damp dungeon, Bianca was brutally tortured, then left to wait for the final negotiation.But no one came to negotiate.The Valenti family was gone. There was no Don, no family, no one who would pay a cent to ransom her.Every day, she threw herself against that steel door, crying and screaming."Open the door! Please, open the door! I want to see Dad! I want to see Luca!"Outside, the guards drank, shared a roast, and laughed as they guessed how many more days she'd last."No matter what you hear in there, ignore it."No one opened the door.She lasted three days.Before dawn on the fourth day, the guards opened the door. Bianca lay sprawled on the icy floor, just a

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