Maiikling Kwento tungkol sa Plot Twists at Mafia, at mga Nobela ng Bias na may Revenge

In my last life, my boyfriend’s adoptive sister, Lexi, asked to borrow my jacket at a class party. I lent it to her. The next day, she bullied another girl and pushed her off a rooftop to her death. The security cameras didn't catch her face, but the limited-edition custom jacket she was wearing—my jacket—made me the prime suspect. I tried to explain, but Lexi just threw herself into my boyfriend Preston’s arms, looking utterly wronged. "Vanessa, I know you're upset that Preston pays more attention to me, but you can't just frame me like this." Then Preston pulled out a video. The person pushing the girl off the roof and running away in a panic… it was my face, clear as day. "Vanessa," he said, his voice laced with disgust. "You're a monster." Consumed by grief, the victim's family pushed me out of a window to my death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Lexi asked to borrow my jacket. This time, I wasn't just going to say no. I was going to send Preston and Lexi straight to hell. What they didn't know was that I am the only daughter of the Falcone family, the most powerful mafia in New York.

It was our wedding anniversary. But my husband's precious childhood sweetheart just had to go bungee jumping. Even though I'm terrified of heights,my husband forced me to come along to the edge of the cliff with the two of them. Nobody saw it coming when the main safety cable suddenly snapped. In my last life,I risked everything to tackle my husband,Dominic,just as he lunged forward to save her. With no one to catch her,Vanessa plummeted onto the jagged rocks below and ended up paralyzed. That was the start of my living hell. Dominic's revenge was brutal and bloody. In the end,he locked me inside a dark basement freezer at twenty below,freezing me alive into a solid block of ice. Now,I'm back at the exact second crisis strikes. Just like before,Dominic lunges toward Vanessa without a second thought. This time,I smile. And I let go. I'll let their pathetic "true love" rot in hell.

When the Russo family—the most notorious mafia empire in America—brought me, their long-lost true blood, back to the estate, I set three rules: One: Don't compare me to Chloe, the perfect adopted daughter. Two: Don't give her my things as charity, and don't dump her hand-me-downs on me. Three: Stay out of my private life. The man she was supposed to marry is hers. Our father—the Don—agreed. Chloe and I barely kept a fake peace. But when the marriage alliance came up, the rules went out the window. Her fiancé Marcello chose me—a street-wild girl covered in motor oil. My father was furious. My mother, bitter. My oldest brother, the Underboss, looked at me with pure disgust. Chloe was convinced I seduced her fiancé in bed. But God as my witness, I never touched him. I stormed into his private cigar club, demanding he clear things up. Marcello blew out a puff of smoke and sneered. "The Vitiello family's marriage pact was always with the true Russo blood. We have no intention of taking a fake." As he said it, his sharp dark eyes slid toward a trembling Chloe. A cruel, almost sick thrill flashed in them. It took me a long time to get it. He had too much wildness in his bones to marry a smiling puppet. And I—a foul-mouthed, reckless street girl—became his perfect pawn to rebel against his entire family. I was forced to become Marcello's wife. Three years later, he got bored. He threw a divorce agreement in my face. Filled with my unbearable "sins": "Too stubborn. Zero feminine, in bed or out." "Always showing your face at that biker shop. A disgrace. Unfit for the title of Donna." I stared at him. I remembered why he dumped Chloe—he hated her submissive elegance. Now, what he hated most was that I wasn't submissive, and I wasn't elegant. I flicked the ash from my cigarette and said, dead calm: "Fine. I'll sign."

My sister Seraphina and I were inseparable growing up. She played the fierce protector. She called herself my guardian angel. Deep down, she was a snake. She wanted everything I had. She stole my man—Rocco, a Capo in the Philly mafia's Cianci family. Her excuse? She wanted to "test" his loyalty to me. She claimed she was shielding me from his dark world of shootouts, blood, and FBI wiretaps. She maxed out the black card he gave me. Then she told him I bought a Rolex for a boy toy. She skimmed money from the family's money-laundering business. She pinned it on me. She said I was a gambling addict with massive debts. She got pregnant. Yet she still messed around with Rocco's uncle at a lavish yacht party. She got high and partied until she started bleeding. But in the end, I took the fall for everything. She spun a lie. She said I locked her in the bathroom out of jealousy. She panicked. She fell. The baby died. To avenge her, my man threw me into a rundown underground casino in Atlantic City. There, his uncle's mistress sold me to a pimp. I got hooked on drugs. Then they tossed me out on the streets. I was passed around from one man to another in pure humiliation. Until my body completely broke down. I died a slow, dirty, and lonely death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back to the very night my sister miscarried after that crazy yacht party.

I had just survived surgery. I took a bullet for the Family. Now, a rogue gangster had me tied up in an abandoned warehouse. My wife had stripped him of his turf. He was carving me up with a combat knife. Meanwhile, my wife mobilized our elite enforcers. She was the Boss of the Costa Family. But she did all this to save her pathetic old flame. He threatened to swallow pills and jump off a roof. This time, I didn’t call her private line for help. I had lived this exact nightmare before. The first time around, I begged her to save me. She ditched her old flame and rushed to the warehouse. I survived the bloodbath. Her old flame overdosed in his penthouse and died. My wife gently stroked my face back then. Her eyes held helpless affection. She even whispered that the coward deserved to die. A payback for my wounds. She promised me an unforgettable surprise for our anniversary a week later. But on our anniversary night, she drugged my wine. She tied me up. She slashed me dozens of times with a poisoned blade! "Caspian! You're my Consigliere! How could you stage a kidnapping just for my attention? You paid a hitman to put on a show! Your wounds aren't even fatal! You liar!" "You like bloody games? I'll show you real hell!" Then, I opened my eyes. The clock had reset. I was back in the warehouse. This time, I'd gladly let her go to her precious old flame.

When my husband, Angelo, slept with my best friend for the ninety-ninth time, he told the entire Family I was insane. He bought off the Family enforcers and the doctor. Everyone believed I had lost my mind, that I was unfit to be Capo. He let my so-called best friend, Bianca, humiliate me in every way imaginable, plotting to have me locked away in an isolated psychiatric facility. When I discovered the accident that caused my miscarriage was a murder they orchestrated, and that they were now conspiring to seize the territory my father had left me, I made a call to a number that had long been gathering dust. "I'll agree to any arranged marriage. My only condition is that you find me the most ruthless cleaner in the city." "I want my husband to wish he were dead."

Five years ago. Killian Rossi. The ruthless mafia heir. Framed for a hit. His own family wanted him dead. The whole underworld thought he was done. But I was a top trauma surgeon. I locked myself in the morgue for three days. Three days. No sleep. I dug bullets and trace evidence out of corpses. The real traitor went into the Hudson River. Killian was cleared. Since that bloody night, the mob boss worshipped me. He became the most dangerous lover. Pinning me against clinic walls. Kissing me rough. He gave me his dark empire. He gave me his wild heart. All of it. Two years later, we got married. We shut down three blocks in Manhattan. People called it a dark fairy tale. Everyone said I was lucky. A scalpel saved his life. And it made me the Mafia Queen. Easy. But it was all an illusion. And it shattered. Right outside a VIP room in his underground casino.

The day a rat sold out our East Coast safe houses, the FBI got its hands on the addresses of every old base belonging to the Five Families. The Commission gave the order: every associate had to report to the neutral church and register within seventy-two hours. Only those who completed registration would make the evacuation list and be picked up by the convoys. Once the list was sealed, no one could be added. But Viola Romano claimed she was the daughter of the Commission's Chairman. She said her father had already saved a spot for everyone. They didn't need to register, and they could still leave on the priority convoy. My friends believed her and canceled their registrations, one after another. I begged them not to gamble with their lives and told them to register just in case. Viola immediately accused me of being jealous and trying to ruin things for everyone. My boyfriend, Matteo Russo, said I didn't understand power and that I belonged in line with the ordinary members. In my last life, I reported the whole thing to the Commission. Viola was exposed. Everyone managed to register before the deadline and secure a spot on the evacuation list. She was cast out of the Family for impersonating the Chairman's daughter and obstructing an emergency evacuation. In the end, she died in an FBI raid. Everyone said she got what she deserved. They thanked me for saving them. But after we moved into the new safe house, Matteo shot me from behind. The bullet went straight through my heart. The people I'd saved just stood there, watching coldly. "The worst that could've happened to us was getting arrested by the FBI. Viola lost her life!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Viola promised to get everyone onto the evacuation list.

For three years, I used my family's mob ties and my own money to pave the way for Declan's crew. He was the boy I survived the streets with as a kid. But at this month's sit-down, his newly hired secretary, Roxy, tossed my casino ledgers and club records onto the table in front of all the guys. She accused me of skimming profits and slacking off. "These underground banks, these smuggling docks," she read the numbers out loud, her voice full of fake outrage. "Every time she bribes someone, she skims thousands of dollars! She's lining her own pockets." "I say the Boss strips her of her club manager title right now to save our cash flow." I glanced at Declan, the boss of the crew. He knew better than anyone what that missing money actually paid for. He knew how much dock security it covered. He knew how many nods of approval it bought from politicians and cops. He also knew what I was doing when I wasn't at the club. I was making deals with dangerous gun runners. I was drinking hard liquor to secure guns and ammo for his boys. But he just stared at me coldly. "Katerina, do you have anything to say about these ledgers and the proof Roxy just showed us?" I smiled. "I have nothing to explain." Very soon, all of them would find out exactly what happens when you pull a stunt like this on a Principessa's turf.

Six years into our marriage, Matteo Moretti slid a marriage pact across the table to me. My sister's name was at the top. Lucia Belardi, sixteen, unable to speak since birth. The lower-right corner of the document bore the Moretti Family's black seal, and beside it, Matteo's own signature. "The Volkov family has agreed to a ceasefire," Matteo said from behind the wide walnut desk in his study. "Ivan Volkov will marry Lucia. Once the wedding is done, the guns on the northern route will go silent, and our shipments held at the docks will be released." Cold crept into my fingers. "You agreed to hand my sister over to a sadist, just to save Viola?" Three days ago, Viola Conti had publicly humiliated one of the Volkov women at a cocktail party. The Volkovs seized her and threatened that unless the Moretti Family surrendered a girl of equal standing, Viola would disappear for good. "Viola's father took a bullet for me, and she treated over thirty of our men during the dock shootout six years ago." He looked up at me, his black shirt sleeves rolled to the elbows, exposing old scars on his wrists. "The Moretti Family owes her. Lucia will be the wife of the Volkov heir, not a hostage." I slapped him across the face. I picked up the letter opener from his desk, cut through the gold chain, and threw the severed chain onto the marriage pact. On our wedding day six years ago, he had fastened the chain around my neck himself. The pendant bore the Moretti and Belardi names on either side. He had told me that as long as the chain held, we would never be apart. He glanced at the broken chain, a brief crease forming between his brows. "Once this crisis is over, you'll understand. This is the choice that costs us the least." "Matteo, Lucia may be the one you're sending away today, but from this moment on, you're sending me away too."

After my mother died, my father, a Mafia Capo, turned our family home into my personal hell. So I put on my sexiest, deep-V red dress. I crashed the private casino of the Don of all Dons. I faked an assassination. That night, the Don’s enforcers painted the casino red. I was the “assassin” who started it all. And I walked away from the wreckage without a scratch. I left a black rose by my bastard father’s corpse. “Enjoy hell, Dad.” Later, I changed my name and started a new life. But my fiancé, a powerful politician, was screwing another woman on his yacht. He even tried to steal my inheritance. So I paid the cold Don another visit. This time, I made sure my ex-fiancé's money laundering network was nothing but ash by morning. And once again, I slipped away unharmed under the Don’s predatory gaze. Finally, I returned to the underground assassin organization that raised me. Only to be framed as a traitor by the top brass. I was strapping a dagger to my thigh. Ready to use the Don's power a third time. Before I could even step outside, the Don’s private army blew my organization’s base to kingdom come. That night, the powerful, dangerous man pinned me to a wall. His calloused fingers traced my lips. “Next time you want someone to disappear from New York,” he growled, “just say their name in my bed. Stop staging fake assassinations on me.”

One second before the ceremony was set to begin, my groom, Alvin Mercer, suddenly turned and walked out. "Lillian, Hannah's exhibition is falling apart. She's home alone right now and I have to be with her. We'll reschedule the wedding." Hannah Deneuve was the maid's daughter he'd grown up with. I caught him by the cuff. My voice came out flat and cold. "Alvin, this is the sixth time you have called off our wedding for her. If you walk out that door today, you and I are finished." But Alvin flung my hand off. "Enough! We can get married any time. Hannah needs me right now!" He left without looking back, and my heart slowly went cold. The priest clutched his Bible, visibly uncomfortable, and quietly asked me whether the ceremony should continue. I looked past a room full of stunned guests, straight at the man sitting in the corner of the very last row. "Of course. "Just with a different groom."

I went to an engagement party on my father's behalf. It was the engagement party for the daughter of one of his subordinates. As the Don, he couldn't attend himself. But when I arrived, I saw my fiancé, James Morris, proposing to another woman with my engagement ring. James spotted me and quickly pulled me aside, using the crowd to hide us. "So this is your business trip?" Tears burned my eyes. He looked annoyed. "Mina and I are just putting on a show. I'm doing this so I can give you a better life." If it were only a show, why had he left me burning with fever the moment she called? Why had he kissed her at a party while I was losing our baby, then let the photo spread across social media? Worst of all, why had he stolen the diamond made from Grandpa's ashes—my most precious possession—and used it to propose to her? Six years ago, I gave up half my inheritance so the Family would stay out of James's life. I stayed away for so long that many newer members had never even seen me. That was how Mina got away with pretending to be me. I also gave up wealthy suitors and chose to build a life with James from nothing. But the moment he saw a chance at money and power, he threw away our six years together without a second thought. "Oh, it's Eleanor." Mina walked over in a couture gown and slipped her arm through James's. I recognized the dress immediately. I'd thrown it out two years ago. "Don't worry. I'm only with James because my father likes him. He even wants James to be his successor." She looked me up and down. "I remember you don't have much going for you. You'll probably never find another man as kind as he is. If you ever need him, I'm happy to lend him to you." She smiled at me like I was beneath her. My fiancé. And somehow, I was the one who needed permission to borrow him. "Get out of here, do you hear me? I'll get you another ring." James wanted me gone before anyone started asking questions. Too bad he was sucking up to the wrong person. I smiled. "No need.

We were holding my father's wake when the church caught fire. The black drapes caught fire fast. I was standing nearby. Within seconds, the flames were all around me. I covered my nose and mouth and rolled across the floor until I finally escaped the flames. But my fiancé, Vincent Winston, was already shielding Bianca Hayes as he rushed toward the exit. When the firefighters arrived, they started evacuating everyone. They told us to cover our noses and mouths with scarves or towels and make our way to the exits without pushing. I had just pulled a scarf from my bag when Vincent snatched it away. He covered Bianca's nose and mouth with it and explained to me, "Bianca already has a cold. I can't let it get worse." I covered my mouth with my hand and fought back a cough as smoke burned my throat. I could barely breathe. I didn't argue. I didn't make a scene. The moment I made it outside, I followed the firefighters to safety. Then I pulled out my phone and blocked Vincent's number and every other way he could reach me.

On the day my fiancé, Raphael Moretti, and I were supposed to get our marriage license at city hall, I dressed with care. But by noon, he still hadn't shown up. Aurelia De Luca video-called me. "Sofia, where are you? Raphael's been waiting for you all day." Panic hit me. "Weren't we signing in Palermo?" Aurelia frowned. "It's Taormina, Sofia. Everyone's been waiting for a long time." I drove straight to Taormina. When I arrived, no one was there. When the video connected, Aurelia was crouched on the ground, laughing hard. "Sofia, don't tell me you actually went. We're already on Lipari. Raphael's setting up the wedding venue to surprise you." I left my car at the port and took a boat to Lipari. The water was rough. I threw up the whole way, and my makeup ran down my face. But when I arrived, no one answered my calls. I waited alone outside city hall until it closed, not knowing what else to do. Aurelia suddenly appeared behind me in a straw hat and smacked me hard on the back. "You really chased us all the way here? The underboss and Raphael only came to keep me company on vacation." I spun around with a yelp. My heel caught on the step, and I fell. Raphael stood there holding Aurelia's shopping bags and purse. "Didn't we agree to get our marriage license after the trip? You couldn't wait? You had to chase us all the way here?" My uncle, Vincenzo Ferraro, saw my pale face and frowned. "Lia is the cheerful one. You've been timid since you were a child. How are you ever going to take over the family?" Seeing Aurelia's smug smile, I didn't even feel like confronting her anymore. I wasn't angry. I wasn't sad. I just wanted to escape a home that had never felt like mine. I only had to stay away from the people and places that made me miserable. For good.

On my way to a wedding meant to seal an alliance between our families, our enemies kidnapped me. The maid who had look after me since childhood never told my father. Instead, she stole my identity and married William Voss, heir to the Voss family. It took everything I had to escape. When I saw their wedding photo, rage surged through me. I was ready to storm in and expose her when a stream of floating comments appeared before my eyes. [The heroine can't seriously think William knows nothing, can she? He planned everything. He and her maid staged the whole thing so the maid could take her place.] [If she exposes the truth on the wedding day, she'll be an idiot. Even if William has the maid executed on the spot, he'll hate her for it. Once he becomes Don, he'll throw her overboard on their honeymoon and feed her to the sharks.] I stared at the comments, unable to believe what I was reading. Only when I saw the Voss convoy pulling farther away did I run after it. I held up my family crest and called out, "I'm the eldest daughter of the Hathaway family. My maid was kidnapped. For the sake of our families' alliance, will you help me find her?" Sure enough, one of the Voss council members stepped out of the car. A bitter laugh escaped me. William wanted my family's support so he could become Don, but he also wanted my maid. I wasn't about to let him have both. I wanted to see how he would clean up the mess once his plan fell apart.

The night before our engagement party. My fiancé's childhood sweetheart, Isabella, said she had a "family welcome" for me. A little tradition, she said. For a "nobody." She tricked me. Lured me to the family's private boathouse on the lake. Then she opened the floodgates. Let the freezing lake water pour in. Icy water seeped over my ankles. On the shore, guests from the five Chicago families. They held their drinks. They watched me struggle. Watched me fight for my life. She smiled like an angel. Her words were pure poison. "Doesn't Alessia know all about rules? Let's see how low she'll go for Nico." My fiancé, Nico Falconetti, heir to the family, stood by the warm bonfire. Watching me across the dark water. He gave Isabella an indulgent look. Then his eyes met mine. His voice was calm. Arrogant. "Just don't let her die," he told his men. Careless. "A nobody like her needs a lesson. To learn our rules. When she learns her place, I'll pull her out myself." Later, I smashed the window. I crawled ashore. He offered me his warm jacket. I shoved it away. I wiped the water and blood from my face. Then I called my grandfather's Consigliere. "Tell our people. Freeze all credit to the Falconetti family. Cut off their south-side shipping routes. And send the video from tonight to every family on 'The Commission.' I want the Falconetti family wiped from Chicago's map."

As the only daughter of the Rossi family, I had three exceptional men handpicked and raised by my mother as potential husbands. Once, they had gone to extraordinary lengths to win my affection. One bought me a centuries-old watchtower on the Sicilian coast. Another presented me with a one-of-a-kind black diamond ring. Then Blair, the daughter of our longtime butler, returned from boarding school, and all three men became obsessed with her. They adored her kindness, her innocence, and her delicate nature. Meanwhile, they condemned me for the coldness and ruthlessness I had developed after growing up in a world of blood and violence. Once they had broken my heart beyond repair, I washed my hands of the three ungrateful bastards and agreed to marry Vito Capello, the Don of the Capello family, who had been left in a vegetative state. The news shattered their pride. What I couldn’t understand was why they still thought I was playing hard to get—even after I became Vito’s Donna.

The day Victor Moretti told me he was the Sicilian Don's heir, he also handed me a bill for everything he had spent on me over the years. "Elena, the Family will never let a woman who came to me for money become its next Donna." He pushed the ledger across the table to me. From the hot dogs we shared when we first got together to the condoms we used the first time we slept together. From the mattress-cleaning bill he had fronted to the hospital bill for my miscarriage. Thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars in total. Every single item, down to the cent. I looked at the man I had loved for five years, swallowed the taste of blood rising in my throat, and kept my voice low. "I have to settle my mother's surgery bill first. I'll pay you back next month." Victor frowned at once. "Camilla was right about you. Women who come from nothing, like you, always have an excuse. I should have listened to her. I never should have broken the rules and gotten involved with you at all. Fine. One month. But you'll pay the same interest rate the Family charges its borrowers." I gritted my teeth but didn't argue. I silently accepted the condition. But the hospital's billing desk had another shock waiting for me. A clerk told me the balance in my account was down to one dollar. The hundred and fifty thousand I had scraped together from every corner of my life to save her was gone. Shaking all over, I called Victor. His tone was as condescending as ever. "I hacked into your account. Camilla Marchetti wanted an antique jeweled necklace, and she was a hundred and fifty thousand dollars short." "It comes to more than what you owe me. Consider the difference payment for the damage you did to my Family's name." With two casual sentences, he had turned my mother's life into a bauble at the throat of a mafia boss's daughter. The call ended. Then a nurse behind me said, "Miss Hayes... you don't need to pay. Your mother... she just took her own life... She said she didn't want to be a bur

I took the fall for my husband over an illegal arms deal and spent three years in federal prison. By the time I got out, he already had a child with another woman. On the day of the christening, I calmly handed him divorce papers. Everyone said I had lost my mind—that I was declaring war on the Nelli family. I was perfectly clear-headed. Before I went in, my husband, Silvio Nelli, held my hand and swore he would never betray me as long as he lived. But the night before my release, I dreamed that he wiped out the Thorne family for that woman and took everything I had. I died beside my parents' bodies while he held that woman's child. In the end, he was the only one who came out ahead. Now the child from my dream was real. I wasn't going to wait for the nightmare to come true. I would take back everything my three years in prison had bought him. Then I'd make him pay in blood.