After Escaping The Family, I Chose to Scatter My Ashes into the Sea
The 99th time my fiancé, Draven, hung up on me, I dragged myself to the family's church, my diagnosis of end-stage renal disease clutched in my hand.
"Father, I wish to renounce the Rocci family and break off my engagement to Draven Frost."
The words had barely left my lips when my parents burst in with my adopted sister, Bianca.
My father, the family's Consigliere, didn't hesitate. He slapped me across the face, right there in front of the priest.
"Your fiancé is a respected Capo in our world, and you choose to insult him like this!"
"You're dragging our family's name through the mud in front of the whole organization!"
My mother snatched the diagnosis from my hand, sneering after a brief glance. "Playing sick for attention again, are you? What is it you want this time?"
My adopted sister, Bianca, clung to our parents' arms, her voice choked with tears. "I'm so sorry, sister. You can have my place at the gala. Please, just stop making trouble for Mom and Dad!"
I wiped the blood trickling from my nose and calmly repeated my words to the priest.
"I am no longer a daughter of the Rocci family. I am not worthy of an alliance with the Frosts."
"I will be dead in three days. I want this engagement broken before then."