Bias Mafia 단편 소설 & Countdown 소설

Five years ago, my older twin sister, Victoria Hayes, disappeared in an accident shortly after giving birth to Lily. The Moretti family's men searched the wreckage. They found her belongings, but no body. Adrian Moretti, head of the Moretti crime family, needed another Hayes bride to preserve our families' alliance. He arrived at my parents' house with his crying, premature daughter in his arms and asked to marry me in Victoria's place. I married Adrian in my sister's place and entered the guarded Moretti estate as his lawful wife. Adrian placed the Moretti family ring on my finger, and every night, I fell asleep in his arms. When Lily fell ill, we stayed beside her until dawn. After my final architecture licensing exam, he was waiting outside with Lily in his arms and pulled me close for a kiss. In our fourth year together, Lily wrote three words on the back of a family photograph: Daddy loves Mommy. I framed it and hung it in the living room. Adrian never corrected her. Yesterday, Victoria came back. She swept past the guards in a red dress, stopped in front of Lily, and laughed. “I couldn't stand being stuck here with a baby, so I faked my death. Look how big she is now!” Adrian watched her, his expression unreadable. That night, he held me close. “You don't have to worry, Evelyn. You're the only woman I love.” Today, he dug out Lily's old videos and played them for Victoria, explaining each one. I thought he was catching her up on the years she'd missed. Then I came home from the architecture firm with Lily and saw our family photograph. Someone had added a small beauty mark beneath my eye. Victoria's beauty mark. They had kept the family I helped build and replaced me in it. I opened my calendar and marked a date three days away. Enough time to put my affairs in order. Then I would leave.

My husband, Severo Falcone, is the Don who rules Sicara's criminal underworld. His days are filled with high-stakes negotiations and bloody turf wars. So, over the years, I've grown accustomed to his absence from our lives. On our wedding anniversary, he was negotiating by the docks. When our daughter, Lucia Falcone, attended her first family gathering, he was called away to deal with a territorial dispute. Even on Lucia's fifth birthday, all he offers is a promise over the phone. "Something's come up tonight. I'll make it up to her when I'm done." I think nothing of it. Then, half an hour later, Ylenia Bianchi sends me a photo. At a private clinic, Severo is sitting by her bed, personally tending to her wounds. The message attached to her photo is just as brazen. "Whenever I need him, he will always show up." In that moment, everything falls into place. I've always believed the family business was keeping him away from us. Turns out, he's been spending that time with her all along. He isn't too busy. He simply prioritizes Ylenia over his own wife and daughter every single time. Holding back tears, I turn to Lucia after she blows out her birthday candles. "What did you wish for, Lucia?" Lucia flashes me a sweet, innocent smile. "I wish for the two of us to stay together forever! I want you to be happy every day, Mamma. I hope you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want!" I smile and kiss her forehead. "I'll make sure your wish comes true." That very night, I book two plane tickets to leave Sicara in seven days.

In my previous life, I took three bullets for Conrad Kincaid, the guardian who raised me, and lost any chance of becoming a mother. Only then did he agree to marry me. When I was ten, my parents were killed in an attack by their enemies. Conrad saved me, took me home, protected me, and doted on me. I fell hopelessly in love with him. I was sure that if I stayed by his side and was good to him, I'd win his heart someday. But on our wedding day, Alice Brooks, who had loved him all along, left for Antarctica and died in an accident. From then on, every time he looked at me, he saw a murderer. In ten years of marriage, he never treated me badly, but he never once shared my bed. He was always cold and distant. Then a fire broke out. He gave me the only chance to escape and died in the flames. Before he died, he said, "In the next life, don't take a bullet for me. I don't want to be forced to marry you again." His words cut so deep that I passed out. When I opened my eyes, I was back at the moment before I took those bullets for him... Looking at the familiar face across from me, I made up my mind. This time, I'd let them have each other.

When I surprised my husband, Carlo, the Don of a Mafia family, with a positive pregnancy test, he threw an azoospermia report in my face instead. "Who seduced you?" I thought he was joking. Then his childhood friend Mia called. "Don Moretti, you've seen the report. Madison's trying to pass off another man's bastard as yours!" That was when I realized one piece of paper had convinced everyone I'd betrayed the Mafia Don I'd married. Carlo didn't ask for a divorce. He didn't even pursue the accusation any further. He still drove me to my law firm and canceled family meetings to accompany me to prenatal appointments. But every time we came home from the hospital, he'd stare at my belly and ask, "You still won't tell me the truth?" Over and over, I told him the baby was his. He would stroke my cheek and shake his head. "Give me your lover's name, Madison. Once he's dead, I'll accept the child." It was insane. There was no other man. A month later, I suddenly miscarried. Carlo stood beside my hospital bed, white as a sheet. I thought he might finally believe me. Instead, he immediately ordered the doctor, "Preserve the embryonic tissue. Run a paternity test against my DNA. I want to know if the baby was mine." I couldn't take another second of it. I pulled off my wedding ring and looked him in the eye. "I want a divorce." I didn't care what the test found anymore. Our marriage had been doomed from the moment he chose suspicion over me.

Half a month ago, I found out my husband, Vincent, was cheating on me. I accidentally discovered an encrypted burner phone hidden in a secret compartment of his armored SUV. Inside were dozens of explicit photos and countless graphic, flirtatious texts. The other person was his hot chief secretary, Chloe. The fairy tale was shattered by reality. I looked at the positive pregnancy test in my hand and calmly threw it into the trash can. I put the phone back exactly as I found it. That very day, I had my lawyer draft the divorce papers and signed my name, stroke by stroke. I opened my phone and replied to an email:[Professor, I officially accept the invitation to the Zurich Institute.] This time, I won't look back.

The day I married Santino Connor, he went from the infamous heir of a mafia fortune to a broke nobody. When he handed me a plastic ring in a shabby basement and asked if I would start from scratch with him, I looked at the man I had loved since I was a girl and nodded without a second thought. "Santino, as long as it was with you, I would do anything." For him, I worked more than ten hours a day until my stomach bled from the stress. Our son, from the moment he could walk, trailed me from one odd job to the next. I thought my love could eventually build us a life in the sun. Until, at a lavish banquet where I was serving the elite, he showered me with cash from his seat at the head of the table. "What's that thing crawling on the floor? It's blocking my view!" "Take the money and get out of my sight!" When I saw the woman by his side, her face an eerie copy of my own, I finally understood. To him, this was just a game, and I was the only one playing for keeps. If he was going to go to such lengths to deceive me, then it was time for his game to end. What he didn't know was that one month later, he would be tearing the world apart to find me.

After my fiancé Aiden Reynolds inherited his deceased twin brother's position as Don, he proposed a "split arrangement" to me. His time would be divided in half—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays belonged to me; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays he'd spend pretending to be his brother, keeping my sister-in-law Juniper company. The goal? To make sure Juniper safely delivered the Reynolds Family's first heir. So during that time, no matter how passionately Aiden and I tangled in bed, the moment the clock struck midnight, he'd pull away without a second's hesitation. Even when my fever spiked to 104 degrees, if it fell on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, Aiden would only say flatly: "It's Juniper's day. Call a doctor. Don't call me." When I was kidnapped by our enemies and dialed his number with trembling hands— All I got was his cold voice, "Stop being dramatic, be good. I promise you, once Juniper has the baby safely, I'll tell her the truth. After that, I'll throw you the grandest wedding and announce you as my one and only Donna." The line went dead. In that moment, something inside me died for good. What Aiden never knew was that I never gave a damn about being Donna. I was the only daughter of the Richardson Family's Don, the biggest Mafia family in Sicily. All I ever wanted was a man who loved me with his whole heart.

Bianca and I were switched before birth. She became the beloved daughter of both families. I became the girl neither one wanted. Every month, I carried a suitcase between two guest rooms while Bianca kept a bedroom, parents, and a place at the table in both estates. Then Bianca was diagnosed with a deadly blood disorder, and both families demanded that I become her stem cell donor. There was only one problem. My donor screening showed that I might be seriously ill too. They refused to read my medical report. They called my nosebleed an attention-seeking stunt. Then they forced me to voluntarily surrender every claim to both families before they would pay for my tests. The next day, I learned the truth. I had acute leukemia. Bianca had never completed the examination required to prove she was sick. I sent both families the evidence. They still didn't believe me. When they asked what I thought, I smiled and agreed to let them fly Bianca to Europe for treatment. They praised me for finally learning. While Bianca received treatment overseas, I suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage alone. As I took my final breath, I couldn't help wondering. Would they finally regret never thinking to spend more time with me?

On my sixth birthday, my older sister, Bettina Moretti, gives me a cake with a message written in frosting. It reads, "Happy Sixth Anniversary of the Day We Found You!" I burst into tears and run to my parents, desperate to know if it's true. My father, Vittorio Moretti, nods. "That's right. If your sister hadn't begged us to take you home, you probably would've frozen to death next to a dumpster." My mother, Elisabetta Russo, pats me on the head. "Your sister saved your life, Alessia Moretti. You owe her a debt you'll never be able to repay. Don't forget that." From that day on, Bettina always comes first. When she refuses to go through the family's grueling advanced combat training, I take her place without hesitation. Even when my ribs get broken, I don't dare complain. I don't want my family to think I'm a burden. But no matter how much I sacrifice, even when I put my life on the line, my parents only ever praise Bettina. "She's the pride and joy of the Moretti family!" Then, this Christmas, I come home to the estate early and find Bettina doubled over with laughter in our aunt, Giulia Moretti's arms. "Seriously, is Alessia an idiot? She actually thinks she's adopted! I made that up when we were kids, and she's believed it all these years!" Giulia stares at her in disbelief. "Wait, you never told her you were joking?" My father scoffs. "Why would we? It's just a harmless joke." My mother chimes in. "Exactly. Besides, if Alessia finds out she's our biological daughter and Bettina's the one we adopted, what if she starts picking on Bettina?" A sharp pain shoots through my chest. I clutch at it as my legs give out beneath me. For years, I've kept quiet about how sick I am, forcing myself to endure the pain because I'm terrified of being a burden to my family. Two days ago, I finally saved up enough money to see a doctor. But he told me I've waited too long to get treatment. I have only five days left to live. Suddenly, I taste blood in the back of my throat. "Papa, Mamma... if I die, you won't have to worry about me bullying Bettina anymore, will you?"

My husband, Bastian Howard, had finally taken his seat as the Don. But the woman he married and brought into the Howard estate was my "sister"—the fake heiress, Moriah. As for me, the wife who actually signed the marriage pact with him? I was stashed away in a separate apartment. I went from the Don's wife to a dirty little secret. Worse, when Moriah framed me for poisoning her, Bastian snatched away my adoptive mother's heirloom without a second thought. When Moriah and I were both kidnapped, he chose her without hesitation, leaving me to die. Every single time, he'd tell me, "I'll make it up to you next time." But he didn't know—there wouldn't be a next time. Soon, I'd fake my own death, leave this hellhole, and find the man I truly love.

Reborn as the long-lost Rogers heir, missing for fifteen years, I avoided every chance to bond with my two brothers in this family. When they tossed me Vivi’s discarded, ill-fitting gown for the family gala, I smiled and put it on. When they sent Vivi to get an elite education while ordering me to scrub the utility room, I picked up the mop without a word. When they let Vivi chase love and dumped her rejected suitor on me, I didn’t fight. I accepted her leftovers with a calm nod. This was all because in my past life, I had spent my entire life desperate for my brothers' approval, only to end up despised by everyone for it. When I died in the crossfire of a gangland shootout, my own son pushed my body away in disgust. "Mom, did you really waste your whole life on such a petty fight with Aunt Vivi? Dying for the family would have been a more dignified end. At least then you wouldn't have disgraced our name." I left this world filled with resentment, only to open my eyes and find myself back at the moment I first set foot in the Rogers estate. This time, I'm done fighting. The power, the name, the honor. I'm letting them have it all. I’ve already been accepted into a closed-door medical project. Soon they will never see me again.

When I was ten, my mother married into the Corleone family, and I followed her into that house. Before Vincent Corleone learned to hate me, he had once treated me like a real little sister. Later, he became the one who hurt me most. He believed my mother had driven his own mother to her death, and from that day on, he made sure I paid for it. Humiliation, contempt, cruelty—he never spared me any of it. Then Leo Moretti, Vincent’s closest friend, confessed that he loved me. I thought he was my way out. I was wrong. The morning after I gave him my first time, I overheard him speaking to Vincent behind a half-closed door. “I got the photos from her first night,” Leo said quietly. “Are you really going to make them public?” Vincent’s voice was cold enough to freeze my blood. “She owes my mother a life. If I can’t take that, then I’ll make sure she pays another way. I want her ruined.” That was the moment I understood. The tenderness had been fake. The love had been a trap. And the man I had trusted most had been waiting all along to destroy me. What they didn’t know was that two weeks earlier, I had already received an invitation from Professor Evans at the world’s top international medical research institute. So this time, I left first. And I was never coming back.

I was eight months pregnant when our armored car was ambushed outside the family’s docks. The blast tore open the door. Shrapnel ripped through my calf, and blood poured down my leg. My husband, Luca, was the Don of the Moretti crime family. He carried me into the family’s private hospital like a man possessed, demanding specialists and emergency surgery. Miraculously, our baby survived. But when I woke, both Luca and the baby were gone. I dragged myself out of bed and limped down the hall to find them. Outside the basement morgue, I heard Luca speaking to a doctor. “Don, that baby could still have been saved. Why did you stop treatment? He was your own son!” “Bianca gave me a son yesterday. I promised her our child would be the Moretti family’s only heir.” A pause. “As for Evelyn, I can give her anything she wants. Except a child.” I braced myself against the wall, my injured leg throbbing. The husband I thought loved me. The happy family I thought we had. None of it had ever been real. Then there was nothing left to stay for.

Two days before our wedding, my fiancé called it off for his childhood sweetheart, postponing everything by ten days. He sighed, "Daisy told me that day happens to be her birthday party. It's her first birthday since she lost her husband, so I can't miss it, or she'd be devastated. Elena, we're going to get married. What difference does a week earlier or later make?" This was the third time he had canceled our wedding for Daisy. The first time, Daisy claimed she was suffering from severe depression, and he dropped everything to rush to her side. He stayed with her for a whole week. The second time, Daisy said she wanted to see the northern lights. He was terrified she might travel alone in that fragile state, so he went with her. They were gone for ten days. And now this was the third. But unlike all the other times, I didn't argue with him. I didn't raise my voice or throw a single accusatory word his way. He thought I was a helpless orphan who'd never leave him. He had no idea that I was the princess of Rossi family, a powerful mafia family. To hide my identity and marry a man outside our world, I had made a three‑month wager with my father—a gamble that I could build a normal life and marry on my own terms. But I had lost. My fiancé still thought this was just another postponement. He didn't know that there would be no next time.

Three days before my wedding to Don Marco, I scheduled a memory erasure procedure. "Ms. Leah, are you certain you want to erase the memories from this period of your life and forget the people you knew?" I ran my fingers over the wedding invitation Marco had carefully prepared and said softly, "Yes." Three years ago, on the night Marco and I got engaged, Violetta was involved in a car accident. When she woke up, she identified me as the person responsible. That was when I learned that even an innocent person could become the villain in everyone else's eyes. Marco, the man I loved most, believed her and sent me to prison for three years. "Leah, you nearly destroyed her life. You should be grateful that she's still willing to forgive you." "But I can't keep cleaning up your messes forever. You need to learn to face the consequences of your actions." That was Marco's final decision. The truth was, if he had been willing to investigate a little further, he would have discovered what really happened. During those three years, Marco never responded to my pleas or my cries for help. All he left me was a promise that he would marry me after I was released. An empty vow. But I no longer needed his belated tenderness. Marco, I choose to forget you.

Ten years with Don Maximus. I went from the crazy girl who demanded his "undying loyalty" at gunpoint to Chicago's perfect Donna. When Maximus took the casino's hottest stripper to his private room, I didn't lose my mind. Instead, I tossed the woman the keys to a Manhattan penthouse. When Maximus's new flame threw a tantrum at a yacht party, I didn't bat an eye. Instead, after she slapped a waiter in a fit of pique, I made the police problem go away. When Maximus fought with one of his girls, I'd even send her a limited-edition Birkin to smooth things over. And today, Maximus is busy fucking his hot new toy in the study, while another pregnant mistress stands on the estate's rooftop, threatening to jump just to see him. And I'm still the one in my red-bottom heels, calmly going to clean up his mess. The mistress screamed, desperate. "I'm not having this baby! Get Maximus!" I took a sip of my wine, my voice bored. "He's busy today. You have the baby, and I'll make sure seven figures show up in your offshore account." My indifference set her off. She grabbed my wrist, her grip like iron. "You're pathetic, Angelina! There was a time he wouldn't even look at another woman because of you. He slaughtered an entire family for you. When you were shot, he knelt in the pouring rain outside a church, begging God to take his life for yours! But now? You can't even get into his bed. All you can do is stand here and play the gracious Donna!" Her nails left red marks on my skin, but the smile on my face didn't crack. Did she really think a little drama would change anything? I wasn't playing the gracious Donna. I was just done. And I was finally ready to let Maximus go.

Thirty minutes before the wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin, I was locked out of my own bridal suite at the estate. The butler swiped the master keycard three times, but the door still wouldn't open. “Miss, the system shows you don't have access to this suite.” I froze for a couple of seconds before explaining, “I’m the bride for today’s wedding.” The butler looked visibly put on the spot. “I’m sorry, Miss, but this suite is registered under Miss Sofia. Before she checked in, she specifically gave strict orders that no one is allowed inside without Don Dario's express permission.” The hallway fell instantly silent. Holding my wedding dress in her arms, my mother’s proud smile completely froze on her face. My bouquet, veil, tiara, and priceless pearl jewelry set left to me by my grandmother were locked inside that room. The wedding was set to start in thirty minutes, and I hadn't even gotten into my dress yet. I immediately dialed Dario Catania's phone. Less than a minute later, he came rushing up from the main banquet hall. Yet the very first thing he did wasn't to ask if I was okay. Instead, he pressed his ear against the door panel, listening closely. After confirming the person inside hadn't woken up, he let out a sigh of relief. “Sofia stayed up all night helping us oversee the wedding decorations, and she just fell asleep. Go get your makeup done in the room next door for now and let her rest a little longer.” I stared at my fiancé in disbelief. “All of my attire and jewelry for the ceremony are inside that room.” “That won't stop you from getting your makeup done. When she wakes up, I’ll go in and grab them for you.” I glanced down at the clock on my phone. “I’m giving you thirty seconds to unlock that door. Otherwise, this wedding is off.”

When Dante postponed our wedding because of Nadia for the fourth time, I accepted it silently as usual. But after hanging up, I immediately had my private lawyer draft a divorce agreement. I placed the agreement on the last page of our postnuptial agreement, then asked Dante to sign it. He was rushing pick up Nadia, so he signed his name without reading it at all. "The agreement will take effect 7 days after signing." Seven days. Seven days later was the exact wedding date Dante had promised me. The countdown began.

Every Christmas Eve in Port Saint Giovanni, the Camerlano family hosts the Claiming Rite at Saint Giovanni Manor. Twelve girls stand in a line. Whoever receives the white-gold signet pin becomes the heir’s publicly acknowledged bride candidate. I am Grace Sorrento, the bastard daughter of the Sorrento family. If I do not receive that signet tonight, by sunrise I will be put on a plane to Chicago and married off to a Rizzo, a man rumored to have killed two former fiancées. Adrian Camerlano, the boy I grew up with, swore to me in blood three days ago that the signet would be mine. But when the moment came, his hand turned. With a smile, he pinned it on Lucia, the orphan his family had sponsored. Then he leaned close to my ear. "Let Lucia have her moment. No one has ever really looked at her before. Don’t worry. This is my estate. No one will dare arrange your marriage without my say." I grabbed his sleeve, but he removed my fingers one by one. "Lucia has no roots and no last name. Tonight is all she has. But you are a Sorrento. Even without the signet, no one will touch you." That phrase, no last name, drew every gaze in the ballroom toward me, full of pity and quiet mockery. The next morning, I boarded a flight to Chicago. When Adrian heard, he made one call to Port Saint Giovanni Air Control. "Ground every plane. Nothing leaves today!"

Everyone in Sirano knows that Lorenzo Gallo only likes one type of woman—submissive and docile. I happen to fit those criteria. When we're dating, Lorenzo has gifted me jewelry, villas, and even a harbor. He has also prepared a grand proposal for me. After the proposal, Lorenzo tells me that the Don has ordered him to sire an heir with his widowed sister-in-law, Elena Marino. Only when an heir is produced will the Don acknowledge Lorenzo's wedding with me. Since then, the phrase that he utters to me the most is "just wait for a little longer". I have to wait for Lorenzo throughout all 99 nights of him sleeping with Elena. I need to keep waiting till she gets pregnant once again. Just as I think all the waiting has come to an end, I accidentally overhear a conversation between Lorenzo and his best friend. "Lorenzo, the hospital has confirmed that Elena is pregnant with a boy. This means you must marry Susanna now." "It's impossible for me to be with Elena in this lifetime. But Susanna is very docile, not to mention she loves me with all her heart. She's the best candidate for my marriage." It turns out that the man I thought who loved me deeply had fabricated those feelings just to protect another woman. That night, I no longer drag out Howardson University's invitation, and chose to leave for a ten-year classified medical research program abroad. Lorenzo Gallo, I don't want your misplaced love anymore!