Novel & Cerita Donna Zuckerberg

One year ago, Frank Luccasio, the heir to the future Don of Newborough's underworld, saved me when I attempted to commit suicide. He cleared my school debt, admitted my younger sister, Ariana Romano, into rehab, and hired the best doctors in the world to treat my mom's cancer. His only request? I had to become his mistress. I thought Frank was a gift from God—that he was a beam of light illuminating my dark world. When he got ambushed by assassins, I used my body to block the fragments caused by the explosion for him. As Frank scooped my blood-drenched form into his arms, he screamed hysterically, "Isabella!" But… my name was Selena… After I got admitted into the ICU, the real Isabella Messina returned to Frank's life. Knowing that I was just a replacement, I sensibly left Frank, only to be brought back by force. Since then, I became a plaything for the both of them. They humiliated and tormented me incessantly while flaunting their love for each other. Unable to take it anymore, I sent a text to a certain someone and attached a photo to it. "Don Luccasio, the one giving your son head in the photo happens to be your darling wife, Isabella Messina. Those who betray the family must never be forgiven." This time, I would be the one sending Frank and Isabella to hell.

Quando eu estava grávida de três meses, a suposta irmã de criação do meu Don, Ruby, apareceu à minha porta. Sua barriga já saliente era impossível de ignorar. — Donna, já que a data do meu parto está tão próxima, achei que você deveria saber… o herdeiro do Don está na minha barriga. Ela colocou tudo diante de mim: fotos íntimas dela com Caleb, registros das transferências semanais de dinheiro que ele lhe enviava, até mesmo a escritura de uma mansão. As datas mais antigas remontavam à época em que eu perdi nosso primeiro bebê, quando os médicos disseram que seria difícil para mim engravidar novamente. Todos esses anos, eu vinha me submetendo a tratamentos de fertilização in vitro, tentando desesperadamente engravidar de novo e dar a ele outro filho — enquanto ele se envolvia com sua suposta irmã de criação. Bem, se Caleb queria tanto outra mulher, então podia ficar com ela. De qualquer forma, eu não tinha intenção de ficar. Eu já estava planejando ir embora.

Rumors said Fabrizio Medici, Don of the Medicis, was ruthless in everything he did. Yet he was nothing but devoted to me, his mother, as if I were his lifeline. Ten years ago, my husband, Victor Medici, betrayed us all. He conspired with foreign enemies, abducted Fabrizio, and staged a coup from within. To save my child, I blew up a car, destroying my leg and face, and erased myself from the world by faking my own death. Fabrizio hardened and lay low. Ten years later, he wiped out our enemies, killed Victor with his own hands, and reclaimed everything that had been stolen from him. Afterward, he spent a fortune rebuilding my body, piece by piece. But when I returned to the country under a new identity to attend Fabrizio's engagement party, his fiancée, Giovanna Valery, mistook me for a hidden mistress. She stormed in with her friends and humiliated me in every possible way. By the time Fabrizio finally arrived, I was covered in blood. Giovanna pointed at me, her voice shrill as she screamed, "No wonder I never see you messing around. So this is your type? Older women?"

No submundo de Corvona, existe uma regra não dita. Quando um Don mantém uma nova mulher ao seu lado por três meses consecutivos, a Donna deve, pessoalmente, remover o anel de sinete que simboliza seu poder e colocá-lo no dedo da nova mulher diante de toda a família. Quando meu marido, Luca, o Don da família Bellini, anunciou que levaria Mia sozinha em uma viagem de negócios de três meses, todo o submundo de Corvona esperou que eu tivesse um colapso. Eu estava com Luca Bellini há sete anos. Eu o seguia por toda parte, recusando-me a sair do seu lado. Eu até acordava no meio da noite para tocá-lo, precisando saber que ele estava ali para me sentir segura. Todos estavam cientes do meu apego e apostavam que eu nunca o deixaria ir. Mas quando Mia estendeu a mão para mim, com a voz transbordando falsidade, não derramei uma única lágrima. Calmamente, removi o anel de sinete gravado com o brasão da família e o deslizei pelo anelar dela. — Elara, você finalmente aprendeu o seu lugar. — Luca, recostado na cadeira de couro na cabeceira da mesa, girou o uísque em seu copo, a satisfação brilhando em seus olhos azuis frios. Baixei o olhar para o meu dedo nu, sem dizer nada em resposta. O que Luca não sabia era que, um mês atrás, eu havia recuperado todos os sete anos de minhas memórias perdidas. Eu não era nenhuma órfã de rua, mas a Principessa há muito perdida da família Rossi, a mais poderosa das famílias do Velho Mundo. Em três dias, o comboio armado do meu irmão entraria em Corvona para me levar de volta para casa.

"I agree to the divorce," I said as I dialed my mother-in-law's number. "Matteo Bellandi will never agree to divorce me, so you need to arrange a new identity for me. I need to disappear completely. He must never find me." Despite six years of marriage, I never conceived a child. In the Mafia world, how many men remarried for the sake of an heir? Yet Matteo always stood firmly at my side. To have a child, we tried everything—ninety-nine rounds of IVF that resulted in ninety-eight failures. The final pregnancy ended in fetal demise. Matteo held me and said, "Whether we have a child or not, I will always love you." Everyone said he was deeply devoted and that I was fortunate. Even I believed it. I believed it was my body that was defective. I believed I was the one holding him back. Until that day, when I went to the hospital for a follow-up exam. I saw him with my own eyes, pushing a mobile hospital bed into a VIP suite. On the bed lay a young woman named Sienna Vale, who had just given birth, holding a pair of twins—a boy and a girl. The congratulations inside the room were sharp and piercing. They praised his good fortune and Sienna's superior genes. They said the children were born to inherit the Bellandi empire. They mocked my education and my background and said I could not produce a "high-quality" heir. "Who do you think you are, daring to speak about her? My wife is not someone you get to judge. If I hear one more word of disrespect toward my Donna, you'd better weigh the consequences yourself," Matteo rebuked them coldly, preserving my dignity as Donna. In that moment, I finally understood that the marriage I had been so proud of was nothing more than a joke in everyone else's eyes. If that was the case, I would end this love story everyone envied with my own hands.

In the second year after dropping out of school, I decide to cosplay as a dancer and stage a chance encounter with my husband, Don Vincenzo Rossi, in order to give him a surprise. However, I happen to run into my old classmates in the club. When they see me pole dancing in a skimpy outfit, they burst into laughter immediately. Tatiana Lazzari, the one who's throwing the party and was my former bully at school, mocks me for being a lowly, slutty bitch. My ex-boyfriend, Cristian Paleno, who had cheated on me with Tatiana back then, has his brows drawn into a tight frown. He seems to feel sorry for me. "If you didn't insist on breaking up with me back then, Aria, you wouldn't have gotten reduced to having to work as a stripper." In order to spice up the party, they drag me into their private room and force me to strip in front of them. When I reject them, they dump all sorts of alcohol and beverages onto my exposed skin and my thin, skimpy clothes. Then, they force me to kneel between Cristian's legs in submission. As Cristian leans in close to my ear, I can see the lust brimming in his eyes. "Come back to me, Aria. Otherwise, you can only remain as a horny bitch for the rest of your life." Out of sheer jealousy and rage, Tatiana kicks me in the gut right away. That's when Vincenzo hurries to my side and scoops me into his arms. By then, I'm in so much pain that I'm all curled up. He then glares at everyone else, whose faces have gone white from terror. "How dare you harm my wife and our unborn child! You can forget about leaving this room today!"

When I pushed through the main door, covered in blood, I found my amnesiac husband right on top of my best friend. His arm was wrapped around her waist with practiced ease, and she was passionately reciprocating his advances. "Ada will be devastated if she finds out…" Camilla said in a sweet voice through bated breaths. "After all, she really thinks you've lost your memories." Lucio chuckled softly and said in a mocking tone, "It's not my fault she loves me that much. Then again, it's a good thing for me since I can just let her do all the tough and dirty work." He leaned down and planted a kiss on Camilla's lips, mumbling, "Right now, you're the only one I recognize as my wife. Just wait. Once I sign the deal with the Della Veras, I'll have her kicked out and pass everything she owns to you. After all, I no longer remember a thing." Only then did it hit me. My husband's amnesia was all an act, a farce to fool me. Moreover, my best friend conspired with him to stab me in the back. Too bad they didn't know that the Della Vera family, the most feared Mafia family in Ritelle, only acknowledged one person: Me, Ada Rossi.

Once I became pregnant, I was hailed as the most precious woman in the underworld. My husband, the new Don of the Jenkins family, shut down an entire private hospital wing for my check-ups, while my father, the Collins Don, summoned every Michelin-starred chef in New York to the estate, just so I could pick whatever I craved. The baby I carried was destined to be the sole heir of the two most powerful mafia families. But on the day we were to sign the papers securing my child's inheritance, they both vanished. "An urgent family matter came up," my husband, Vincent, said, kissing my forehead. "We can finalize the child's inheritance when we get back. There's no rush." Shortly after they left, I received a link to an anonymous live stream. My father's voice came from the video, colder than I had ever heard it. "You're saying your marriage contract with Evangeline was never valid. Doesn't that make the child a bastard?" Vincent, lounging in a club, blew a smoke ring. Cradled in his arms was my half sister, Sarah. "Evangeline has always had all the love and affection. Her child will want for nothing." "Sarah has been mocked for her status for years. I have to make things right for her, give our child a legitimate name." In that moment, my heart seized, and I could barely breathe. Then my phone vibrated again. It was a text message: "Welcome home to the Gallo family, my queen." "Just give the word, and the child you carry will bear the Gallo name and become the most powerful heir in the American underworld."

When Elijah cheated, I didn’t cry or make a scene. I pretended not to know. When he kept Naomi on the side, I forced down the pain and endured it. After all, I had a lovely son with Elijah. He loved me, and I wanted to give him a complete family. It wasn’t until the day I found out that my son, Kai, had gone with Elijah to that other home and was calling Aunt Naomi with affection that I stopped wanting to endure it any longer. I told my childhood friend that I wanted a divorce. He looked at me deeply, saying, “Hazel, everyone in Neopolis knows that Elijah loves you with his life. His influence covers the entire city. Leaving him won’t be easy.” However, I replied numbly, “Then let Hazel die. Let her die in front of Elijah. Let him watch his wife disappear with his own eyes. From that moment on, there will be no more Hazel Foster in this world.” When I learned that Kai preferred Naomi, I realized that the past two years of endurance had been nothing but a joke. This time, I don’t want either my husband or my son anymore.

I was once the most respected female intelligence officer in the underworld. I controlled black market trade, port lockdowns, and risk assessments for every smuggling route. These were the basics every new recruit learned on their first day in the Mafia. But my intel was never reliable. As time went by, everyone caught on. In this city, whether the ports were locked down or open for business didn't depend on intel. It depended on whether Vincenzo's childhood friend was in a bad mood. I had just sent an order over the family's secure channel: "Level-one lockdown. All shipping routes are closed." A moment later, the ports were thrown wide open. My rival mocked me in front of everyone. "Isabella's supposed to be the queen of underworld intelligence, isn't she? What happened, did she lose her touch?" Other family members twisted the knife without a second thought. "Her husband changes the rules at a word from his precious Amelia. Who's going to listen to her anymore?" "She's on the hook for any losses from this. That route reopening is going to bankrupt her!" I clutched a stack of formal censures from the family. I said nothing. It didn't matter. I was done being a pawn in their games. Soon, I would be gone for good.