
Taking the Throne
Chapter 2
Ever since I was young, I knew that in the cannibalistic world of the mafia, only absolute ruthlessness could keep you alive.
So I climbed my way up over countless corpses and became a monster in everyone’s eyes.
However, standing out too much is never a good thing.
My stepmother, Darlene, and Angelina have always seen me as a thorn in their side.
For the past twenty years, Darlene has sent assassins after me again and again. And Angelina, to seize territory, threw my trusted men into the river.
I constantly reminded myself that I needed to take the don’s ring of power as soon as possible and crush them both under my feet.
I never dared to relax until a year ago.
With ruthless methods, I took over the largest underground casino on the West Side of New Haven, called “Gates of Heaven”.
It was the money-laundering base Angelina had long coveted, and also her stepping stone into the core of the family’s power.
When I cut off her path, she went mad with jealousy and swore to make me pay the price.
So, she sent her childhood companion, Lorenzo Corleone, known as “New Haven’s underworld’s most handsome man”, to me.
That night, the casino was deafening with noise, and I had just finished dealing with a traitor.
Lorenzo appeared in front of me with his perfectly sculpted face.
A face that was exactly what my desire wanted.
His body outshone Hollywood stars.
As he moved, his suit outlined his perfect muscle lines and stirred my most hidden desires.
I wanted him.
He leaned against the roulette table, playing with a chip, his gaze burning as it landed on me.
“Principessa Annelise, I hear you like exciting bets.”
He pushed the chip toward me. His posture was lazy, but his voice was tempting.
“Tonight, I’ll bet myself against you. What do you say?”
The men behind me immediately tensed, gripping the guns at their waists.
The heir of the Corleone family was no joke. However, I wasn’t afraid.
“Sure.”
I took the chip and agreed without hesitation.
That night, I kicked him onto the king-sized bed of the presidential suite, and in the most primitive way, completely took away his control.
I was riding on top.
He probably never expected that the skills he was so proud of would be lost to me.
Watching him beneath me go from initial shock and humiliation to eventual surrender and indulgence, I truly understood then what it felt like to control a top-tier prey.
I had to admit that Lorenzo appeared at the perfect time.
Although many of the senior figures in the family appeared respectful on the surface, I knew they had already secretly sided with Darlene and Angelina.
Since they hadn’t made a mistake, I had no way to remove them without a reason.
I was just worrying about how to wipe out these cancers in one move when Lorenzo appeared.
His original plan was to lure me in slowly, like hunting a rare butterfly, and make me fall deeply in love before eventually offering everything to him.
Unfortunately, I was not a butterfly but a trap.
I knew the moment he came to me that it wasn’t because he had taken a liking to me.
He was the poison Angelina sent to destroy me.
‘Now that you’ve delivered a high-end toy to my door, I’ll play this game with you to the very end.’