Feel-Good Story Mafia Short Stories & Novels

I’d been with Hurley, the heir to the Crescent Claw pack, for seven years. He’d insisted on throwing me a huge birthday party. But on the day of the party, Hurley gave the million-dollar custom gown my mother had commissioned for me to his childhood friend, Rachel. He said it so casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Rachel’s dress got ruined, and we couldn’t find a replacement in time. You two are about the same size, so I just let her borrow it.” “I remember you have a few backup dresses, right? Why don’t you just wear one of those tonight?” I thought back on the past seven years, and how this wasn't the first time he'd put me second for Rachel. For one of my birthdays, he gave me a cheap necklace from a street stall but bought Rachel a ruby necklace at a high-end auction. His excuse? “You’re an Alpha’s daughter; you already have everything. Rachel’s different.” When I was sick with a fever and needed him, he was busy comforting Rachel because she was afraid of the dark. He’d told me, “Rachel’s fragile and timid. She needs me more.” It happened over and over again. This time, I was finally done. The borrowed dress and the unfaithful man—I wanted neither.

I've gotten abandoned by my parents one week after my birth. In order to survive, I quickly call whoever picks me up "papa". The bigshots who are here for the gathering swap glances with each other. "Whose child is this? If no one wants her, then I'll adopt her." "Put her down! She called me 'papa' first!" Since then, I have 99 dads. Other than the fact that I have an extremely boisterous family, I make sure to keep to myself for the next dozen years or so. That is, until I get bullied during my high school times. Viola Mariani, the most popular girl in school, and her lackeys corner me in the washroom. Then, they start ripping my clothes off me. "So, you're the one seducing my boyfriend, hmm? Since you want to be a whore that badly, you might as well show everyone your nudes!" Since the beating I've received is a lot worse than I thought, I subconsciously shove Viola down the stairs just to protect myself. When I wake up in the infirmary, my teacher, Marianna Pagani, lashes out at me immediately. "So what if she berated you? Are you really going to kill her for that? I want you to call your parents here! I'd like to see who on earth is capable of raising an idiot like you!" Panic seizes me by the senses as I cry and plead to her, "Ms. Pagani, please don't tell my dad about this!"

The blood diamond necklace was a symbol of power. The moment Dante Corsini fastened it around Elena Ferri's neck, the banquet meant to seal a blood pact between our two great families turned into a complete farce. "And now, the heir of the Corsini family will place the token of loyalty on Ms. Serena Rossi." The voice of the Don presiding over the ceremony echoed through the hall. Dante picked up the necklace and walked toward me. Then he walked right past me. The heads of the five families stared in shock. The necklace represented control over half the underworld, yet Dante had fastened it around Elena's neck. She was the daughter of his trusted underboss. My hand froze in midair. "Dante, have you lost your goddamn mind?" A Rossi elder slammed his hand on the table, and the hall filled with the clicks of guns being cocked. Dante snapped out of it and jerked his hand back like he'd been shocked. He strode back to me, braced both hands on the back of my chair, and lowered his voice with his usual arrogance. "Serena, don't make this uglier than it has to be. The lights were in my eyes, and you were both wearing black gowns... It was a mistake. We'll do it over." When you're in real danger, the person you instinctively trust to watch your back is the one who matters most. "It's fine." His eyes were dark and dangerous. For three years, I'd been crazy about those eyes. But now I glanced sideways at the new bodyguard in the corner. If I had been in Dante's place, I might have walked straight toward that man in the shadows too. I knew the old scar on his wrist. It belonged to my first love, Gabriel Falcone, who had died in a car bombing seven years ago. So really, it was fine.

I am Novella Fontana. My sister-in-law, Carla Rossi, and I check into a resort owned by our family, intending to have a quiet vacation there. But while we are at the ski resort, a lavishly dressed woman shows up out of nowhere and sneers at us, "This is a high-end ski resort. How can you let some random nobodies get in here? Where are the guards? Throw them out before they bring in germs from outside." Upon hearing this, my expression turns frosty. Before I can say anything, Carla beats me to it. She snaps, "It's not like your family owns this place. What right do you have to kick us out? If you think we're an eyesore, go build your own ski resort!" The woman's face darkens instantly. She shrieks angrily, "How dare you speak to me like that! This is my fiancé's property! Do you have any idea? When Aldo Rossi gets here, you two are done for!" Carla and I exchange a glance, and we both see the same confusion in each other's eyes. It is because I am Aldo's wife. But before we can react, that woman lifts her chin impatiently and orders, "Roberto, teach them a lesson." In the next second, Carla and I are pressed down forcefully into the snow.

On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, I must choose a fiancé from among the heirs of three great families. Everyone believes I will choose Dario Morandi—the man I have pursued for years. Instead, I pick up the photograph of his older brother, Cassiano Morandi. Cassiano is known as the lunatic who was kidnapped by enemies at the age of five and thrown into an underground fighting pit. He survived on his own for ten years before the Morandis brought him back. No one thinks he is worthy of me, the Vito family's Principessa. In my previous life, I choose Dario. On our wedding day, Lina Greco—the daughter of Papa's chauffeur—shows up in a white wedding dress with her pregnant belly on display, crying as she claims the child is Dario's. Enraged, I have her thrown out. But amid the chaos, she suffers a miscarriage. Dario smiles and goes through with the wedding. But in the third year of our marriage, he steals classified intelligence and hands it over to my famiglia's enemies. I die that very night. Now that I have a second chance at life, I decide to fulfill his wish and let him be with Lina. What I never expect is that he has been reborn as well.

After ten years’ being in love with Don Bianco, I finally got the chance to take wedding photos with him. My best friend Amy, who facilitated our engagement, also came to help us. When Amy was dressed in her tailored bridesmaid dress, I saw a clear astonishment in Bianco’s eyes. Amy advised to take a photo together as a commemoration, As I stood in my wedding dress as the central one, Amy laughed at herself: “I look like a maid.” Immediately, Bianco dragged me to the edge, leaving the highlight to Amy. The flash lit up, they were the perfect match. When choosing the photos, Bianco required the photographer pick the one with me on the edge as the welcome poster for our wedding. I questioned Bianco: “Why should the middle of our wedding poster be left to another woman?” Bianco glanced at me with a dismissive smile: “You’ll be Donna anyway, sweetheart. Stop being jealous.” “Without Amy, we couldn’t have taken the photo. Picking this one shows our gratitude.” Staring at the photo, I found myself dressed up to the nines, but looked like a stranger. Even standing in the position, I couldn’t own it. I didn’t want to be in the middle anymore.

On the day the weapons deposit was due, my fiancé suddenly gave the money to a rival family’s daughter. A subordinate reminded him, “Don Sanchez, what about Miss Anna?” “For the sake of this weapons deal, Miss Anna hasn’t bought a single new dress for three years. If she finds out you gave the hard-earned deposit to Miss Lily, won’t she be angry?” Jackson only curled his lips indifferently. “Anna? It’s fine. She has the password to my safe. “Even if she knows I gave the money to someone else, she’ll just sell her jewelry and make up the amount. “She loves me and can’t be without me. It won’t affect our wedding.” I stood at the door, listening in silence. Then I smiled, turned, and left as if I had heard nothing. I didn’t urge him to pay the deposit, nor did I ask about the weapons deal. What Jackson didn’t know was that while he was trying to please Lily, I was pursuing my own goals. Even my years of frugality were never for him.

My name is Clara Kelly. I was born in Brooklyn, into an Irish-American cop’s family. My father spent his whole career walking a beat out of the 84th Precinct. My mother volunteered at the parish. I was the first girl on our block to get into Columbia Law. The year I graduated, I was volunteering at a charity gala. I picked up the wrong glass of wine and ended up dumping it down the front of a man’s Brioni suit. That man was Adrian Francesco Moretti. Fourth-generation Don of the Moretti Family of New York, and one of the five families of Cosa Nostra. He chased me for four years. I said no six times. The seventh time, he stood outside my law firm in the rain until three-fifteen in the morning. I married him. Two decades in, he’d handed me the keys to the entire Moretti Family. In our world they called me “the Irish Donna,” a woman with no Italian blood who somehow held the seat. Childless by choice, the two of us. Famously in love. Until that Wednesday afternoon, when my college roommate of twenty years, my best friend Vivian Sinclair, walked into my living room with a five-year-old boy. She said the boy was Adrian’s son. She said that five years ago, she’d taken a used condom out of the wastebasket in my upstairs master bedroom, kept it frozen for three years, and done IVF. She said she was the real mother of the Moretti heir. She was the real Donna Moretti. “Be smart. Pack your bags and walk out. You might even get to keep your life.” “You’re barren. The Moretti Family doesn’t need you.” I looked at the woman I’d called my best friend for half my adult life. I didn’t say a word. She thought she was holding the winning card. What she didn’t know was that she’d just stepped onto a board Adrian and I had been laying for twenty years. I needed exactly one sentence to shatter every piece of the Donna fantasy she’d spent five years building.

My name is Estella Savelli. I'm Severin Savelli's wife, and the Donna of the most feared Mafia family in this city. For ten years, I've devoted myself to managing his family's affairs and raising the two children he had with his ex. Then Valerie came back. His first love. The mother of his children. In just one week, she made my 16-year-old stepchildren, Lucien and Seraphina Savelli, forget who stayed up all night beside them when their fevers wouldn't break. Or how I'd pulled them into my arms when the shooting started and bled to keep them safe. The kids took her side fast. They helped Valerie frame me for stealing the Savelli family signet ring and selling secrets to our enemies. To punish me, Severin locked me in the dungeon. That night, I heard laughter upstairs. They were toasting Valerie. When the dungeon door slammed shut, I thought something inside me would die. But in that pitch darkness, I finally saw my own heart for what it was. I'd spent ten years loving them, and I'd never once loved myself. So I decided to file for divorce and walk away with nothing. Severin thought I'd end up on the street, begging for his pity like an abandoned dog. But when I came back after disappearing for three years, they were the ones on their knees, begging for my love. And this time, I wouldn't spare them so much as a glance.

My husband's eighth lover was pregnant. The Corvino family had waited years for an heir, and at last one was on the way. My mother-in-law, Olivia Corvino, the family's Donna, was overjoyed. My husband, Dante Corvino, put up a hundred million dollars for the baby on the spot. But the woman merely lifted her chin, looking down on us all. "I placed first on this year's written exam for an assistant U.S. attorney position. I'm going to Washington to make a name for myself. I won't let a child hold me back. "And I won't be the mob's broodmare. This baby has to go." Olivia nearly fainted with rage. Dante turned livid and crushed the whiskey glass in his hand. I sat at the far end of the table, barely daring to breathe. Then, out of nowhere, a tiny voice started grumbling in my head. [God set me up! He promised I'd come down and bring this family another 100 years of glory. So why'd he pick this idiot to be my mom?] [I carry all of heaven's luck, and my so-called daddy is destined never to have kids. If he misses out on me, the Corvino family's glory is gone for good!] [She doesn't want me? I'll just find a mom who knows a good thing when she sees it, and I'll still get born!] I jumped at the chance and blurted, "I know a good thing! Come into Mommy's tummy, quick!" Every eye in the room locked onto me. Dante strode over, his face dark. "Cecilia, what are you talking about?" Thinking fast, I grabbed his hand, pressed it to my flat stomach, and gave him a dazzling smile. "Honey, what I mean is... I'm pregnant too."

The first time Rafael betrayed me, he threw the woman from his club at my feet. His eyes were bloodshot as he told me to take my pick. My love for him was a sickness, so I forgave the transgression. For the second betrayal, I had the dancer sent out of New York, warning her never to set foot on the East Coast again. On the night of our engagement party, sealing the union of our two families, Rafael pinned me against the walnut desk in the study. His eyes burned with rage as he demanded: "Where is Nina? She's carrying a Mancini heir." "It was a mistake. You can take your anger out on me. Nina is naive; she doesn't deserve this. I'm begging you, just let the child be born safely. I swear I'll never see her again." "You're afraid of childbirth. This gives you an heir without the risk." "Listen, Alessia. You are the future Donna of the Mancini family. When that child is born, it will know only you as its mother. I swear on my life." He forced me backward until shards from the vase I'd knocked over cut into my skin, staining my silk dress with blood. I looked at him and smiled, then gave him the address of a safe house in Brooklyn. He slammed the heavy oak door behind him. Shaking, I pulled out my encrypted phone. "You were right about him. Is your offer still on the table?"

At the family meeting, my mafia Don husband spared his secretary one glance. I turned and walked away, canceled our wedding anniversary celebration, and decided I was done with him. I signed my name on the divorce papers I had prepared long ago. When Matteo Santoro saw the agreement, he called me at once, his voice tight with restrained anger. "What are you trying to pull this time? Is this really because I looked at Elena?" "Yes," I said. "Because you looked at her."

Giorgo Romero, the Don of the Romero family, gets ambushed by a suicidal madman who has bombs strapped to him. When that happens, my husband, Fabio Lopez, and his troops have already gone to a fashion show with his childhood sweetheart, Reina Digiorno, so that they can protect her there. Instead of pressing the signal button on my ring, I launch myself at Giorgo despite being heavily pregnant. Just like that, I'm able to protect him from the explosion with my body. In my previous life, I had pressed the button. Fabio had ditched Reina in favor of hurrying back to the scene to save Giorgo's life. Because of his contribution, he gets elevated to the position of Underboss. But Reina got mad at Fabio for leaving her in advance, resulting in her crossing the highway out of pure spite. That was how she got hit by a car and died. While Fabio didn't say anything, he chose to send me to an underground auction house on the day I went into labor. "The Don had so many soldati protecting him! Why did you force me to come back in the first place? Isn't it because you just want the glory of being the Underboss's wife? "If it wasn't for you, Reina wouldn't have died! You must go through a thousand times the suffering she did!" I could only watch as the guests bid for my organs one by one. Not even my newborn's umbilical cord could be spared from the auction. In the end, I died from an infection that had occurred while my organs were being removed. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Giorgo gets ambushed.

For three years, I slept with my father’s head of security behind everyone’s back. Last night, with one hand at my throat and the other under my dress, he finally asked for a name, a future, something real. “After graduation,” I whispered against his mouth. “Let me finish my defense first. Then we’ll tell them.” “No.” By then I was shaking beneath him on the leather seat. “Then sooner. On my birthday next Friday. I’ll stop hiding then... Cassian, please—gentler...” That seemed to satisfy him. His mouth softened against my skin, and his voice dropped low against my ear. “Good girl. I just want you too much.” The next afternoon, I met my best friend for tea. The moment she opened the passenger door, she spotted the torn foil packet caught beside the seat and lifted a brow. “Bourbon cherry?” she said, already grinning. “That’s our company’s unreleased line. So this is what you’ve been hiding.” I snatched it up and shoved it into my bag. “It’s not public yet.” She frowned. “That’s the strange part. We only sent those samples to a handful of VIP clients.” Then she pulled out her phone. “I did a product follow-up with one of them yesterday, and his private account was basically a shrine to his girlfriend.” She turned the screen toward me. I only looked once, and my whole body went cold. The man in the photo had a line of Latin script inked low across his abdomen. I knew that tattoo. I had kissed it the night before. My fingers started shaking as I opened the private account Cassian had never shown me. April 4. The conservatory. Me and him. April 7. The upstairs studio. Me and him again. April 11—last night. A six-second clip in the back of the car.

At a family dinner, Don Vincenzo’s new pet, a dancer named Ava, came for me. She puffed out her chest and slammed a ledger on the long table. “Vincenzo, I accuse her! Skimming from the family business, our club ‘The Siren’s Song.’ Betraying the family!” Every eye in the room turned on me, sharp as knives. But Vincenzo, my boss… his face went hard. I almost pitied the little dancer who’d crawled her way out of Brooklyn. The “family business” she was talking about? It was my private club. A gift from my father. I just lent it to Vincenzo when he was starting out, to give him a respectable front. I lent it to him for two years, and now it’s family property?

On my wedding day,I rode to the church in a prison transport van. I'm the future Godmother of the family. But his little side piece whined that she "wanted to know what marriage feels like." So,my future husband tossed me aside without a second thought. He let her wear my custom bridal gown. She took my bouquet,got into my getaway car,and drove off. Ever since we started planning this wedding,I've been a shadow. Just because that bitch claims she's "anti-marriage." She wanted a taste of a happy ending she'll never get. The wedding photos,the dress fitting—my fiancé put her first every single time. And now,she's hijacking my own damn wedding. I just laughed. It's pathetic. If she wants him that bad,she can have him. I don't do sloppy seconds.

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.

I'm Serena Sorrento, the sole daughter of Don Salvatore Sorrento. After seeing the news of a female employee getting stalked and assaulted by a stalker on her way home from work, I spend millions of dollars arranging specialized cars for every female employee in my company when they get off work at night. At first, I thought I'd receive a "thank you" from them. But those employees have the gall to criticize me on various major social media platforms. "Our boss is practically forcing us to work overtime!" "Why must employees hand over the information of their home addresses to the company, anyway?" "Since our boss has money to buy those luxury cars, she might as well give us the money right away!" The entire Internet bashes me for capitalizing on my charity, gloating about my wealth, and not knowing what my employees actually want. After receiving a bombardment of insulting and humiliating text messages, I decide to take the Internet's advice and call for a mandatory company meeting. "After receiving the sincere feedback from all the employees, I shall terminate the specialized pick-up service from today onward. Instead, I shall have it reclassified as a transportation allowance. Those who are eligible shall receive 100 dollars per month." As soon as the announcement is made, the entire company goes crazy.

The day after I gave my fiancé, Don Antonio Rossi, the cold shoulder, he took Sofia to Alicante for a romantic getaway. He expected me to explode like I always had before—trash his study, start a fight, maybe even put another bullet through Sofia’s head. After all, my arrogance and temper were infamous in the mafia world. But this time, I did nothing. When he came back a month later, he realized I had changed. He deliberately handed the arms route I managed over to Sofia, and I surrendered it without protest. He publicly criticized my competence to build Sofia’s authority, and I lowered my head and accepted every accusation. Even when he announced at a family meeting that the ports under my control would be transferred to Sofia, I nodded calmly. Sofia smiled at him triumphantly. “See? I told you. A spoiled principessa like Isabelle just needs the cold treatment. Once she’s afraid of losing you, she’ll behave.” Antonio believed her completely. That night, he held me in his arms and promised. “Darling, you finally look like a proper donna now. I’ve already reserved the church. Next month, I’ll give you the lavish wedding you’ve always wanted.” I only smiled at him and said nothing. What that fool didn’t know was that before he left for that trip, the document he signed was an agreement terminating our engagement.

On the day my sight returned, our family doctor, Anna Leone, stood right in front of me and mouthed to my husband, Don Marco Vitale, "Double the lubricant tonight. I promise it'll send you straight to heaven, my Don." Marco pressed a gentle kiss to my eyes. Then he turned away and replied with the same silent lip movements, "You little tease. That mouth of yours—and the one below—I'm crazy about them both." The two of them exchanged a knowing smile, convinced their secret was flawless. What they didn't know was that not only had my vision fully recovered—I was also fluent in lip-reading. My gaze drifted to the bottle of lubricant sitting brazenly in the wall cabinet. I said nothing. Instead, I quietly sent a single text message: [Papa, I've decided to come home.] In three days, I would vanish completely. All I would leave behind for them would be the hollowed-out fortune of billions—and that bottle of "lubricant" I had replaced with high-strength industrial superglue.