“You’re fucking awake,” he said, walking closer. "Thank God!"
I took a step back, my heart racing. Why was he looking at me like that? Did he think I was someone else?
"I—what happened to me?" I asked, my voice trembling.
Matteo frowned, sitting on the edge of the bed like he owned the place. "You don’t remember? The accident. You’ve been in a coma for three months."
"Three months?" I whispered, disbelief crashing over me.
He nodded. "You had us all worried, Valentina."
Valentina.
My stomach flipped.
Matteo brushed a strand of hair behind my ear gently. "You’re safe now," his voice soft.
Safe? I didn’t know what that meant anymore.
I wasn’t Alessia. I wasn’t even me.
I was Valentina DeLuca—the heiress of the mafia family I had been trying to destroy. And I had no idea why—or how—I was supposed to survive this!
“Are you okay?”
I swallowed hard. “I— I don’t remember any accident. I was… I was working. I was—” My voice trailed off. Nothing made sense. The life I knew was slipping away, like sand between my fingers.
Matteo tilted his head, watching me carefully. “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it yet.” He paused, looking like he was about to say more, but instead, he just gave me a small smile. “You’ve been through enough.”
I nodded numbly, my mind still whirling. This wasn’t just a bad dream. I was in deep now. Was this the mafia world I was supposed to be a part of now?
Before I could ask more, the door opened again, and a woman stepped inside. She was tall, blonde, and looked like she belonged in a fashion magazine. “Matteo, you’ve been gone too long. We need to—”
Her eyes snapped to me, narrowing. “Valentina? You awake?!”
I froze.
Matteo stepped between us, his voice hardening. “Watch your tone, Alessandra.”
Alessandra. Another name I wasn’t familiar with, but I could tell right away she wasn’t happy to see me awake. She looked pissed off, almost like she was annoyed I was still breathing.
I had to tread carefully.
"Is something wrong?"
Her eyes lingered on me for a second, and then she turned to Matteo. “You’ve got to be kidding. She’s been out for three months and now she’s acting like nothing happened?”
“I’m not acting like anything,” I snapped, suddenly feeling defensive. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened to me.”
Matteo held up a hand. “Enough, Alessandra. We’ll talk later.” He turned back to me, his expression softening slightly. “You should rest. We’ll have a full conversation soon. There’s a lot to explain.”
As Matteo walked out, Alessandra shot me one last look before leaving as well, slamming the door behind her.
I stood there, trying to piece together what little I knew about Valentina. She was part of the DeLuca mafia family, which was already a big enough mess. But from the way Matteo and Alessandra were acting, it seemed like things had been falling apart for them long before I woke up.
I was here now—stuck in Valentina’s world, pretending to be her. And if I was going to survive this, I had to learn the game fast.
I wasn’t just fighting to stay alive anymore. I was fighting to keep this family—and this life—from swallowing me whole.
But as I lay back in the bed, staring at the ceiling, one thing was clear: I was no longer just a lawyer trying to take down the DeLucas. This was no longer just about surviving the mafia world as Alessia Moretti. This was about pretending to be someone else, someone with an entirely different life—and it was dangerous.
The DeLuca family was one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the city, and I had been trying to take them down. But now, I was trapped in their world. I had no choice but to play their game, pretend to be Valentina, and try to figure out how I could survive long enough to get out of this nightmare.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Valentina’s life was a lot darker than I ever imagined.
In the few hours I’d been awake, I’d already seen signs that she wasn’t just another spoiled heiress.
From what I’d overheard from the few people who’d visited me, Valentina had been trying to leave the mafia world. She’d been trying to get away from the family, from the violence and corruption that surrounded them. And then… the accident.
Was it an accident? Or was someone trying to stop her?
The questions piled up, and I had no answers.
I had to be careful. If I wanted to survive, I needed to play my part—be Valentina. But I also needed to keep my eyes open.
Valentina had been planning to escape, but now, I was the one in her place.
And I had no idea who I could trust in this world of lies and betrayal.
