He Lost His Donna Forever

It was three days later when Leone finally turned a corner. I carried him back to the estate, only to find Dante pacing restlessly in the living room.

He walked up to me in long strides and asked, "Where have you been, Elena? Do you realize how many of our rivals are lurking in the shadows right now? How could you take Leone out on your own?"

"Leone was burning up with a fever, so I took him to the hospital," I replied flatly, my voice frighteningly calm.

Dante's expression shifted sharply. "Why didn't you call me then?"

I gave a short, humorless laugh. "You want me to call you, huh? What is Leone's life worth when measured against Lucia, your darling 'daughter,' Dante?"

Dante reached out for Leone, only for the latter to recoil into my embrace, trembling with fear. He froze for a moment and said softly, "I had no idea Leone was ill, too. Lucia's situation was just so critical then—"

I cut him off, saying, "It's always about Lucia, Dante. Do you even remember Leone's birthday? Do you remember when he was last hospitalized? Do you even remember that Leone's allergic to peanuts?"

Dante tried to speak but found himself silent. He tried to make up for it, attempting to win Leone over with various pricey toys. "How about I take you to the famiglia's training range to play, Leone? You've always wanted to watch me use a gun, right?"

Leone's eyes shifted with a spark of interest—the innate longing for strength that all boys possessed. "Do you mean it, Papa?"

"Of course!" Dante replied, lifting Leone into his arms.

I saw the expectation in Leone's eyes and couldn't bring myself to refuse the invitation.

Dante, Leone, and I were just about to head out when Lucia burst onto the scene. "I'm coming too! I want to see Zio Dante fire the guns too!"

Sofia trailed after Lucia with a worried expression. "You ought to stop making a fuss—that's a place for boys, not girls, Lucia."

Lucia yelled, "I don't care! Zio Dante gave me his word, saying that I'm the Principessa of the Moretti famiglia and that I can go anywhere I please!"

Dante looked toward me, appearing torn.

I sneered before he could even open his mouth, saying, "Let's go together, then."

I understood him too well—in a situation where he had to choose one of two, he would always make the wrong choice.

Dante held Lucia's hand in his left hand and held Sofia in his right arm after arriving at the training grounds, introducing them to his Made Men.

I, on the other hand, held Leone's hand and followed in the back, as if we were merely two superfluous bodyguards.

It was then that one of the Made Men, brown-nosing without a clue of the situation, exclaimed, "Your daughter is the spitting image of you, Don Moretti—she's got that same ruthless edge!"

Dante's expression immediately hardened. "What the hell are you talking about? That boy behind me is my son."

In that instant, the atmosphere went dead still, and I suddenly felt Leone's hand shaking in mine.

It was then that Dante's trusted confidant came running over. "It's time to hold an emergency meeting, Don Moretti—the Illyrians have made a move!"

Dante hurriedly instructed, "You guys should wait in the lounge—and you're not allowed to wander around, Leone."

I returned from getting water only to find Sofia standing in the hallway. "You're so pitiful, Elena. You're the Donna, yet you're living like a nanny. Do you actually believe Dante loves you? He is merely going through the motions of being a husband, while his heart was given to me long ago, Elena."

I paid her no mind and walked right by.

Sofia blocked my path, unwilling to back down. "You'd better hold it right there! What makes you think someone like you—a hothouse flower—deserves to be the Donna?

"You were a mere nobody while I fought alongside Damiano to build this empire! You ought to know that I won't allow you to be the Donna if I can't have that position, Elena!"

I stopped walking and met her eyes calmly. "If you want to be the Donna that much, I'm willing to hand over the title to you, Sofia. If you are capable of bearing it, that is."