The Don's Revenge Bride

After Dante and Enzo left, memories kept coming back to me.

When I was 12 and had a high fever with nightmares, Dante and Enzo took turns watching over me.

Dante said, "Don't be scared. Nightmares aren't real."

Enzo comforted me. "With us here, no one can hurt you."

When I was 15 and got bullied by other kids in the family, Dante took on three of them by himself.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he grinned and said, "Touch Chiara, and I'll break your bones."

On my 18th birthday, they both kissed my cheeks under the moonlight: one on the left and one on the right.

Enzo said, "You'll always be ours."

Dante said, "Always."

So that was how short 'always' was.

I wiped my tears and touched the ring I had worn for 12 years. Then, I pried open the large pearl on top.

Inside was only a yellowed piece of paper with my father's handwriting, written a week before he died.

[Chiara, if the Lucchese family ever comes for your life, call this number. He won't refuse you because I once saved his life.]

Below it was a phone number.

I lifted my trembling hand and dialed it.

"Who is this?" A deep voice with an accent answered, classical music playing faintly in the background.

My voice was so hoarse it was barely audible. "My name is Chiara Colombo, Giovanni Colombo's daughter."

The line went quiet for three seconds, and the music stopped.

"Giovanni's daughter..." The man repeated, his tone unreadable. "How is he?"

I said, "He died 12 years ago. The Lucchese family killed him."

There was an even longer silence.

"What can I do for you, Ms. Colombo?"

"I want to destroy the Lucchese family," I said slowly, each word slicing through my burned throat. "I have 12 years of their criminal evidence: money laundering routes, lists of bribed politicians, murder records, drug ledgers, all of it. Enough to put Don Lucchese and his two sons in prison for life."

"Your terms?"

"Marry me. Give me a new identity, and make me part of your family. Protect me and help me get my revenge."

My voice was so calm it surprised even me.

"Do you know who I am?"

I admitted, saying, "No. But my father said you'd help me. He said you owed him your life."

The man laughed. The sound was low and carried a dangerous magnetism.

He replied, "I'm Eugene Corleone, the current Don of the Corleone family, and the Lucchese family's mortal enemy."

The name struck like thunder.

The two oldest families in New Orleo's underworld, the Corleones and the Luccheses, had been spilling blood over control of this city for 50 years. In last year's shootout, both sides lost seven men, including the Corleone family's number two, Eugene Corleone's own uncle.

Well, I had just proposed marriage to that family's Don.

"Now," Eugene Corleone said with an amused edge to his voice, "do you still want to marry me, Ms. Colombo?"

I looked at myself in the mirror, at the burn marks on my throat left by the poison, and at the eyes that could no longer shed tears.

I said, "I want it even more now because only you can give me real revenge."

On the other end of the line, I heard the soft clink of a glass being set down.

Eugene replied, "Tomorrow night at ten at the east cemetery of the Lucchese estate. Seventh row, third headstone, the one engraved with these words: Angela Lucchese, my love. Wear black and come alone. If you're followed, I'll watch you die."