So much so that when we died miserably in my past life, he didn't shed a single tear.
If anything, he was relieved he wouldn't have to write up divorce papers after all.
This time, no matter what it took, I would change my daughter's fate and my own.
Valentina and I knelt at the gates of the Castellano compound. The guards couldn't bear the sight of us and sent word inside five or six times. Two hours later, my father finally came out.
"Reduced to this sorry state, and NOW you remember you have a father?"
He held a walking cane in his hand and raised it as if to strike me. I didn't flinch, didn't move to dodge. Instead, I stepped closer.
"Your daughter knows she was wrong. Beat me, kill me, do whatever you see fit."
"I regret not listening to you back then. I put my trust in the wrong man."
Tears streamed down my father's weathered face. He didn't strike me. He threw the cane to the ground and pulled me to my feet with trembling hands.
"You were so heartless back then. You threw away your own father and your Family for a man. But since you know you were wrong, cut those ties clean and come home where you belong!"
"As long as you sever that cursed bond completely, you are still Serafina Castellano, and this compound is still yours."
He told me to change out of my rags, but I shook my head.
His expression shifted. "Don't tell me you still intend to have dealings with that man?"
I smiled faintly. "He wronged me this deeply. You think I can just turn the page? I need to make him pay first."
That same day, I took Valentina to the Ferrante estate and sent word inside.
"Tell Dante Ferrante his wife has come home."
The soldiers at the gate took one look at my tattered clothes, wrinkled their noses, and moved to shove us back toward the street.
"Where'd you beggars crawl out from? This is the Ferrante house."
"The lady of the house is hosting a banquet for the most powerful families in the city. If you disturb her guests, you and your little brat won't have enough lives to pay for it."
"Go on, get. Get out of here."
I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Dante Ferrante married me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a daughter! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his wife before the Family. But now that he's claimed the Ferrante territory, he left me and my child in a tenement on the waterfront eating scraps! Is that something a human being does?"
The estate sat on a busy street in the old neighborhood, where everyone knew everyone's business. The commotion drew neighbors from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the new Ferrante Boss is famously devoted to his wife. He's got two children with her and won't even keep a woman on the side. So where did THIS wife come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Ferrante house is connected. She claims to be his wife, but she looks like a beggar off the road. Bet she's just some grifter trying to latch onto a Family name."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a marriage certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Dante Ferrante's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his wife, I'll take this certificate straight to the Commission and demand justice."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows of the gate, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate soldier. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Boss and the lady of the house."
I saw every bit of it.
Sure enough, before a quarter hour had passed, Dante Ferrante came striding out of the estate, and right behind him, draped in gold and silver, was Gianna Greco.
The steward pointed at me. "Boss, this woman claims to be your wife. If she's a fraud, I'll have her thrown out at once."
Dante looked down at me from the top of the steps. "Lift your head."
I tilted my chin up slowly, the ghost of a smile on my lips.
The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.
