Revenge for Mom: Destroying His Mafia World
My fiancé, the Underboss of the DeLuca Crime Family, promised he would burn the world down for me.
But when my mother was dying in the hospital, he chose a ski trip with another woman.
It was that woman's dog that attacked my mother, but when I called him, shaking, he was annoyed. He was in Aspen with Isabella, and I could hear her laughing in the background. He dismissed my mother's injuries as a "minor scrape" and told me not to "make a big deal out of this."
While my mother's fever spiked, he ignored my desperate pleas. Instead, my phone lit up with an Instagram post of him and Isabella smiling by a fireplace, sipping hot chocolate.
My mother slipped into septic shock. That picture was a public declaration, a judgment on my mother's worth, and my own. A cold fury burned away every last bit of love I had for him.
She died at 3:17 a.m. I held her hand until it was cold, then walked out of the hospital and called the one number I was never supposed to use—the number for my father.
"She's dead," I said. "I'm coming to Chicago. I'm leaving this life, and I'm going to burn his world to the ground."
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Chapter 3
Alessia POV:
The day after the funeral, Caden finally called. I was sitting on the porch steps of my mother's house, the air heavy with the sickly-sweet decay of funeral flowers.
I let it ring three times before answering.
"Ally." His voice was low, threaded with a practiced, hollow sorrow. "I just got back. I'm so sorry."
I said nothing.
"Why aren't you at the apartment?" he asked, a hint of his usual impatience creeping in.
"I'm at my mother's house."
He sighed, a sound of pure inconvenience. "I should have been there. I know." He paused. "Look, Isabella is a wreck. She's blaming herself for what happened. She's with me now, she's completely falling apart."
My voice, when I spoke, was a flat line, stripped of all emotion. "Put her on the phone."
A moment of silence, then Isabella's voice, thick with theatrical, hiccupping sobs. "Ally, I am so, so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. Caesar has never... maybe your mother had a dizzy spell? Maybe she fell on him?"
And just like that, the blame shifted. From her aggressive dog to my sick mother.
"Caden already has his lawyers handling things," she added, her voice gaining a sliver of strength. "To protect me. To make sure everything is taken care of."
Caden came back on the line. "It was a tragic accident, Ally. You're being emotional."
"The doctor said the dog wasn't vaccinated," I said, each word a chip of ice.
"That's not true," he snapped, instantly defensive. "Isabella is meticulous about her dog. You must have misheard. You were in an emotional state."
His tone morphed, the anger dissolving into the kind of patronizing calm you'd use on a hysterical child. "Listen to me. I know this is hard. But you don't have to worry about a thing. I will handle everything."
I will handle you. That's what he meant.
I hung up.
Then I blocked his number. Blocked Isabella's.
I sat on the porch, the wood cold beneath me, and finally accepted the truth. The life I had fought so hard to be worthy of, the man I'd mistaken for my salvation-they were phantoms. Illusions I had conjured to keep myself safe.
There was nothing left to hold on to. Only an empty house and the long road ahead.