Cerita Pendek & Novel Mafia Revenge

For five years, I'd poured every resource my family had into making my fiancé, Julian Vane, a star. Now he was slipping the wedding gown of the century, the one supposedly made to my measurements, onto my best friend, Mia Shaw. The gown that had been digging into my ribs fit Mia perfectly. He looked at me with disgust. "Chloe, you don't deserve my designs." Meanwhile, my family was facing bankruptcy and liquidation. Julian was waiting for me to crawl back and beg him like a kicked dog. Instead, I knocked on the door of Killian Valentine, the most ruthless tyrant on Wall Street. He'd been my family's sworn enemy for ten years. "You hold the Winslow debt. Name your price. What do you want in exchange for leaving my family alone?" "I want you. Take off those dirty clothes and be my wife."

"Are you crazy, Donna Gallo?!" The doctor, Corey Dickson, stared at the plastic surgery proposal I had given him. He said in a trembling voice, "Don Gallo would never allow you to do something like this." I smiled softly. "He's too busy having an affair with a world-famous celebrity. He doesn't have time to notice me." Corey was taken aback. I looked at my wedding picture on the wall. Stefan was hugging me while looking at me with great tenderness in his eyes, but just yesterday, I watched him lead that celebrity into our bedroom. He pressed her down in bed as she stared at the silver handgun at the end of the bed and panted, "Aren't you afraid that I was sent here by the enemy to seduce you, Don Gallo? Are you sure you want to put that gun away?" Stefan laughed in a low voice. "It'd be worth it to die in your arms." That gun never left his side. This was the first time he put it aside for someone else. That was when I realized that this was the end of my marriage. It was time for me to leave. I had to find a way to leave this city, where the Don had eyes everywhere, without getting caught.

In the fourth year of our marriage, and a few days for our bond to be deemed permanent by the Mafia council, I found out my babies' deaths were never just a miscarriage. My husband, the same man who swore to protect me, had murdered my babies to please my cousin. They didn't know I had found out, and so nothing could prepare them for the revenge I planned. Hurt me once, shame on me. Hurt me twice… I'd make you wish you were never born.

Three years as his fiancée, reduced to nothing more than a soulless trinket. No going out. No friends. No opinions. Every breath I took was measured against Leo's mood. For three years I obeyed him unconditionally, trying to warm the heart of this mafia tyrant. Then today, in the fitting room at the atelier, his adoptive sister Alice snatched my couture wedding gown right off the rack. She didn't even have the decency to do it behind my back; she walked straight into Leo's arms while I stood there watching. Leo barely glanced at me. Just patted her head and said, “It's just a dress. Let her have it.” Three years of patience, and that's what it came to. A joke. I looked at the two of them, that smug, triumphant, and I thought: Marciano, did you really think I wouldn't fight back?

On my birthday, one of my husband’s subordinates leaned close to him and whispered in Russian, “Sasha has a surprise prepared for you tonight.” My husband smiled at me as he finished cutting my cake. Then, in the same language, he replied, “She has quite a few tricks in bed. I’ll see her later. “Just don’t let Madam find out, or I’m afraid I’ll get thrown out.” Everyone around laughed and assured keep it quiet. None of them knew that I’d been fluent in multiple languages since I was a child. What they also didn’t know was that I’d found the hidden phone he kept in the false drawer, where all the filthy videos of him and Sasha were saved. I didn’t confront him. Instead, I contacted a few remaining connections in the Vegas and had them prepare a new identity for me. In three days, Claire Vega would no longer exist, and he would never have me again.

I spent five years helping my boyfriend Marco rise to the position of Don. I nearly died countless times, but I didn't care; I loved him. He used to look at me tenderly and promised to propose to me publicly at his Don succession ceremony. But on that very day, he held the hand of another Mafia Principessa Sophia Romano and announced their engagement. To completely get rid of me, Sophia pulled a stack of photos from her bag and slammed them into my face. "See for yourself! She's been sleeping around to get intel!" In the picture, I was leaning into a man's arms. I tried to explain, but Marco interrupted me. "I always knew you were lowborn, but I didn't realize you were this cheap." "Get out!" Marco pointed at the door. "Elena, you are exiled from the family. Never let me see you again." I finally saw this man for who he truly was. He was completely subservient to me when he needed my help to seize territory, but after becoming the Godfather, he needed a more distinguished Donna, and therefore no longer needed me. I sneered; they had no idea that the man in the picture was my brother, the Don of the most powerful Corleone family. Sophia’s family was nothing compared to the Corleone family. I stopped arguing and simply turned and left. But when my true identity was finally exposed, he crawled back to me, weeping and begging for my forgiveness.

I grew up fatherless, clawing my way through the Chicago underbelly with my mom. She always said he loved us. That he just had to go far, far away. Until she got terminally ill. I dropped out of design school and rushed back, ready to drain our life savings to treat her. But she put a pair of scissors to her own throat. She told me not to touch the cash. It was the only thing she had to leave me. I pretended to agree. But the second I turned around, I took our fifty grand and ran to Mr. Sal, the neighborhood's back-alley doctor. I begged him to save her. "Fifty grand? This buys her three months. Tops." He lit a cigarette. Through the smoke, his eyes bored into me. Like he was looking at a ghost. "Your mother... she was once the brightest jewel in Chicago. Gave it all up for a man. That man took her money and became the city's real estate king. He's Mob-connected. Maybe you should go ask him for help." I took that poison home with me. And I didn't breathe a word. When she found out I spent the money, she held me and cried. "My foolish girl, why are you so stubborn? I'm dying anyway. What about your school? How will you pay for it?" But while I took care of her, I tore through all her old things, looking for proof of that bastard's betrayal. On the night of his empire's 20th-anniversary gala, I crashed his party. I brought two things: a blood-stained marriage certificate, and a lawyer. "I'm looking for Nico Russo. He can either honor a twenty-year-old marriage... or he can sign these divorce papers."

I hid who I was. The daughter of the Don. The boss of all bosses. In Brooklyn, Killian and I were just a regular couple. Madly in love. The day I showed him the pregnancy test—two pink lines—he loosened his blood-stained collar. His voice was rough. “I’m marrying the New Jersey syndicate’s daughter. In three days. At St. Patrick’s Cathedral.” “The Russos were nobodies ten years ago. Her father has the muscle and the ports I need to win this war. The ink is dry. And… to get the first weapons shipment… we slept together.” He saw me freeze by the bed. His rough fingers touched my cheek. “I’ll buy you a penthouse on Long Island. The most secure one. You and the baby will be safe. For life.” I slapped his hand away, stunned. “So I’m just your secret? Your mistress? Hidden away forever?” Killian looked away, his jaw tight. “She’s a mob daughter. She plays the part. But you get everything else. My money. My life. It’s all for you and the baby. Just not the ring.” My heart seized. So that's what I was to him. His dirty little secret. “What if I told you… my family could help you too?”

It's my seventh anniversary with Chase McGregor. I hide in his car's trunk while holding a pregnancy report. In my other hand, I hold a limited-edition watch that I've prepared for him. I want to surprise him and tell him we're about to have a child. To my surprise, I hear something that devastates me. "Chase, you're not really going to marry Daphne, are you? Lucille Gervais wants to marry you. As long as you do that, the North Sea's shipping routes, cargo operations, and drug trade will come under your control." "Help me set up a date with her. I'll break up with Daphne." My breathing hitches. I want to hear Chase object to this or show even the slightest bit of hesitation, but none of it comes. The pregnancy report slips from my fingers. I once thought he would be the father of my children; I thought we would have a happy family together. Now, my dream has been shattered.

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."

Six months later, Carlo, who once terrorized Port San Vito and forced us to pay protection money, knelt in the muddy water and blocked my path. Red-eyed, he begged me to bring the Moretti convoys back. "Ms. Moretti, if you come back, there'll be no protection money and no parking fees... I'll even pay you." I regarded him coldly and remembered how, six months earlier, he had flicked ash onto my financial statements and looked down at me as he said, "Pay, or get out of Port San Vito."

Victor Cordano was the youngest heir to the Sicilian Mafia, and I was his worst nightmare: the family's finance chief. Before the old Don died, he entrusted me with the books. I kept them with a Quaker's strict discipline. I slashed the budget for Victor's yacht parties, rationed his special-order cigars, and even checked the receipts on the estate's milk orders. A violent, reckless new Don against a stubborn stickler who couldn't be bribed or bullied. All his men figured he'd put a bullet in my head sooner or later. But the truth was, in a family where danger lurked around every corner, we'd been secretly in love for three whole years. The only one who knew our secret was my little sister, Bella, whom I'd raised like my own daughter. I risked my life for the family so Bella could live a normal life, study ballet, and put on her own art shows. I indulged her every whim. Victor had once pinned me against the wall, gritting his teeth. "Sofia, you're obsessed with protecting Bella. When are you going to give me some of that attention?" Later, I was sent to Mexico to collect a debt, and Bella made me a promise. "Focus on your work, Sis. I'll check all his expenses against your rules!" Two months later, exhausted and lucky to be alive, I made it back to the estate, hoping to surprise her. Instead, I saw Bella come out of the bathroom in Victor's oversized shirt, stand on tiptoe, and kiss him hard.

During our decade together, I stay by Felix Valentino's side as he slowly ascends to the peak of the mafia world. I become the woman he trusts most. However, he secretly names an island that we fought for and won together after my best friend, Lilian Fenati. Why? Because Lilian is terminally ill. Her dying wish is to marry Felix on the island named after her. Felix clamps down on this and forbids anyone from telling me. He has no idea Lilian live streams the whole thing for me. That night, I cry my heart out. Meanwhile, Felix spends the night with Lilian. I lie in a pool of blood. My heart condition acts up, and my breathing starts to slow. Where is Felix? At the hospital with Lilian. Five days later, I accept a marriage proposal from Harold Bonanno, the mafia king.

I came across a cage-fight livestream on the dark web. A girl was being forced to fight a vicious dog. Her clothes were torn, and her arms and legs were covered in blood. I couldn't bear to watch. I ordered the stream shut down. She looked about my daughter's age. Ten years earlier, when my daughter was born, I'd stepped back from everything to raise her. I handed the Lorenzi family's four most important operations to my four adopted sons. I'd raised every one of them myself. They were ruthless, capable, and each could hold his own. But with my daughter, all that toughness disappeared. If she so much as frowned, they'd spend ages coaxing a smile out of her. A second before the stream cut out, the girl suddenly looked up. The moment I saw her face, rage flooded through me. That blood-smeared face belonged to my daughter! Marco DeLuca, my second-in-command, came in with a report, his head bowed. "Boss, we traced the source of the stream. Your daughter clashed with a girl your adopted sons brought around. They said they'll let her out when she admits she was wrong." That dog cage was what we used to punish traitors. And my adopted sons had locked my own daughter inside it. They'd forgotten the promises they made back then and what it was like to fight beggars for scraps. I would make them remember.

Three years after marrying the Don, he died in a shootout. As second-in-command, I took the throne and ignored the whisperers. I needed my men focused on the streets. So I paid two hundred grand a month out of my own pocket. I built a bulletproof Long Island compound for their widows and kids, complete with top doctors and guaranteed trust payouts. Their leader Bianca bit my hand anyway. At our annual family summit, she ripped the ledger to shreds right in my face. She claimed I locked them in a cage, stole their money, and worked them like slaves. The old capos smelled blood. The crews cut side deals behind my back. They thought a woman on the throne made an easy target. They wanted to use those crying widows to carve up my East Side turf. Fine. They mistook my mercy for weakness. That same night, sirens wailed. My armed guards locked the gates. We tossed their designer luggage straight into the mud and turned that luxury compound into a military armory. Every perk was wiped clean. I threw three grand at each woman and severed all ties. As for the traitors leaking our intel, their names went straight to the hit squad for a blood debt. Those arrogant widows ended up in the dirt, sobbing on their knees and begging for shelter. I simply pressed cold steel against Bianca's temple. "Stop crying. You begged for freedom, didn't you? Now get off my land. Go enjoy your freedom in the slums."

The year I returned to the Moretti family, everyone expected the biological daughter and the adopted daughter to fight for their place in the family. But Gianna was different. She was the first to learn sign language so she could communicate with me. She knew I hated sitting with my back to a door. She also knew I didn't want anyone asking why I still refused to speak after two years back home. That night, at a charity gala, my father was supposed to sign an agreement that would end our family's involvement in the port's illegal operations. Instead, Luca Vitale stormed in with representatives from eight families and proposed a toast to my father. He took one sip and collapsed. A second later, the ballroom screen lit up. Gianna's payment to a pharmacist and chat messages mentioning "Dad's wine" had been used to make it look like she'd bought drugs to murder our father. She really had made that payment. She handed over her phone for everyone to see, but the original messages had been deleted, and she couldn't recover them. Luca gave us ten minutes: hand over Gianna or hand over the port. All the while, Luca's doctor stood beside my father with a syringe in his hand. He refused to say where he'd gotten it. My mother told Luca, "You can have the port. You can't have either of my daughters." Gianna pulled away from her anyway and walked straight to Luca. All she asked was that he let our father go to the hospital first. As she passed me, she signed with trembling hands, "Don't tell them about your past for my sake." I stared at the syringe. I'd seen that same medical kit at the clinic in Malta. I'd also seen what happened to patients once they became bargaining chips. If Gianna was willing to go that far for me, then I was willing to risk everything for her, just this once.

I spent six months and more than 30,000 pounds organizing a ten-day trip to the south coast for my husband and his family. Safe-passage papers, inns along the way, an armed convoy, a private doctor. I even checked the spare tire on every car myself. The night before we left, my husband's ex, Victoria, said she wanted to come along. He didn't even talk it over with me. He just gave her my seat in the convoy and told me to go alone through the Blackmoor district, controlled by a rival gang. That route took 36 hours, and just last month, three people had turned up dead along it, their faces beyond recognition. His parents said Victoria had grown up in their household. The sister-in-law I'd helped raise said Victoria was delicate and couldn't take risks. As for me, I could make money, I knew medicine, and I'd always cleaned up their messes, so of course I should figure it out on my own. On the day they left, I didn't argue anymore, and I didn't chase after the cars. They went south, and I turned and went north. For the next few months, I stayed at a mountain lodge, soaked in hot springs, took only the patients I wanted, and stopped paying all their bills while I was at it. Later, the man who'd never cared whether I was safe pulled nearly every string the family had, just to beg me to take one call.

After six years by Archie Valez’s side, everything changed when his uncle died—and Archie took over the family legacy… and with it, the responsibility of caring for his “young” aunt, Betty Cruz, whose age was practically the same as Archie’s. Still, whatever Betty wanted, Archie delivered. I just never thought it would include a baby. Betty said she wanted a baby with the Valez bloodline. And with the uncle gone, Archie was the only one left to do the job. So he gave her that, too. “Just wait a little longer,” he would say to me, “Sabrina. As soon as she’s pregnant.” What started as once a month turned into once a week… Then it became a nightly routine. Of almost eight months that we lived in New York, Archie went to Betty over a hundred times. And she finally got pregnant. Shortly after, the Valez family announced that Archie would be marrying Betty. “Mommy,” my daughter asked softly, climbing onto the couch beside me. Elly—our Elly. My Elly. The daughter Archie never had time for. “Is someone getting married?” I held her close and kissed her hair. “Yes, sweetheart. Daddy’s finally marrying the love of his life.” Elly blinked at the screen. “But what about us?” I smiled. “We’re going home, baby,” I whispered in her ear. Archie forgot that I was Sabrina Marcellus. And the Marcellus women didn’t beg for rings. And certainly not love after betrayal.

After I had stood by Don Theo Vitale through the hardest seven years of his life, he asked me for a divorce on our anniversary. He wanted me to step aside for the daughter of one of the Five Families. “Caterina and I grew up together. Our backgrounds are a better match, too. You’ve killed too many people. Keeping you as my Donna is too dangerous.” “Here’s twenty million dollars. Leave New York.” Before we married, I had used my beauty countless times to get close to the men he wanted dead. Until his position as Don was secure. He used to tell me that every person I killed brought us closer to having a warm, loving home. We had been married for barely three years, and there was already no room for me in that home. My eyes filled with tears. He grew impatient. “Enough. You’ve used those tears on me too many times. I’ll throw in a seaside villa. Will that do?” A single tear slipped down my cheek. “…You can have the Rolls-Royce Phantom, too.” Now tears streamed down both cheeks. I simply couldn’t stop them. “Enough already! What else do you want?” If I couldn’t have love, money would do. I wanted everything the Vitale family owned.

I used to think my husband was the angel who saved me from the depths of hell. Five years ago, I would have died for my ex-fiance, Marco Lombardi, but his carelessness caused Mom's kidneys to fail. He ignored 99 of my calls, and with an empty bank account, I couldn't even afford the surgery to donate my kidney to her. Only later did I discover that during that time, he was having romantic getaways with my stepsister, Penny Rossi. When I hit rock bottom, mafia Don Leon Costa showed up. He got me the best doctors, handled everything when Mom died, and even proposed to me when I was a complete mess. In our five years of marriage, he has spoiled me rotten. I've almost forgotten how much Marco and Penny hurt me. Then, today, I overhear his phone call with Penny. "Leon, thank you for giving my sister's kidney to my mother back then." My beloved husband just brushes it off. "Don't worry about it. I'll look after your sister. She won't ever know." He laughs quietly, and his voice is full of warmth. "You know I hate seeing you cry."