"Mom, I mean it. I want a child of my own. Soon."
I sent the text and stared at the screen for a long moment.
During my stay at the private clinic, Dr. Amato had made one thing painfully clear: this latest incident had severely weakened my body.
If I wanted children, I needed to have them while I was still young.
While I still could.
My time was running out.
And I refused to waste what little I had left on Luciana or the Valenti twins.
A sudden thought crossed my mind.
What if those twenty years hadn't been a waste?
What if they were simply a lesson?
I lifted my gaze toward the dull gray sky overhead.
Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance.
A light drizzle began to fall from the heavens.
Dr. Amato said it would take about a week for me to recover fully.
One week.
And I intended to spend every day of it proving to Caius, Milo, and Luciana that I could live perfectly well without them.
My eyes drifted to the mirror across the room.
The woman staring back at me barely looked alive.
My skin was unnaturally pale.
My cheeks hollow.
My eyes dull and exhausted.
A ghost wearing my face.
One step closer to the grave.
That was what the poison had done to me.
The same poison that had nearly killed me.
Dr. Amato, the Family's personal physician, had told me bluntly that if I had arrived at the clinic even one minute later, there was a good chance I would already be dead.
I stared at my reflection.
At the girl the Valenti twins had cherished and spoiled for twenty years.
The girl they once claimed they would protect forever.
And now?
Now I looked like a living corpse.
Luciana had done something I once thought impossible.
She had twisted Caius and Milo completely around her finger.
After the poisoning incident, neither of them had even bothered to ask if I was okay.
Not once.
The only thing they cared about was forcing me to apologize to her.
To treat her like some fragile porcelain doll that needed endless protection and care.
A weary sigh escaped me.
There was no point trying to explain myself anymore.
Not now that Luciana had inserted herself into every corner of their lives.
Going back to the compound and telling the twins my side of the story would be no different than placing my head on a silver platter and handing them the knife.
Before leaving, I said goodbye to Vittoria Valenti.
My mother's closest friend.
The woman I had long considered my second mother.
She had visited me secretly during my stay at the clinic.
No Family driver.
No official escort.
No one from the usual rotation.
Just a tinted car arriving quietly in the night.
Even a Donna had to move carefully when her own sons no longer listened to her.
"I'm sorry about my sons, Lou," she whispered as she kissed my forehead.
"They're their father's children."
A bitter smile crossed her lips.
"Besides, boys will be boys."
She gave a soft laugh devoid of any real amusement.
I didn't laugh with her.
I simply looked at her with lifeless eyes and gave a small nod.
The phrase lingered in my mind.
Boys will be boys.
She was right.
The Valenti twins were boys.
Nothing more.
A faint smile tugged at my lips.
Vittoria immediately cupped my cheeks.
"There it is," she said softly. "That's what I love most about you. Your smile."
This time, I managed a genuine one.
"I should go now, Donna Vittoria."
My voice softened.
"Thank you... for taking care of me these past twenty years."
I turned to leave.
But gentle fingers wrapped around my arm.
I looked back.
Vittoria's eyes glistened.
"You know..." she began quietly, "I always hoped that one day you'd become my daughter."
Her voice faltered.
"My real daughter."
I saw everything she tried to hide.
The sadness in her eyes.
The tremble of her lips.
The emotion she fought to keep buried.
The wind lifted a few strands of her hair as she stood there waiting for my answer.
"I know."
My throat tightened.
"I hoped for that too."
It took everything I had to keep my voice steady.
Then I turned and walked away.
A month earlier...
I had just returned from the clinic after breaking my leg.
The injury happened when Luciana startled me at the top of the staircase, causing me to fall.
The car rolled to a stop in front of the Valenti compound.
Though I was born a Don's daughter, I had never been trained as an enforcer.
I wasn't raised for violence or Family operations.
The injury had already left me weak and numb.
But things got worse the moment I stepped out of the car.
Ice-cold water hit me from head to toe.
"Lou!"
Luciana's cheerful voice rang through the courtyard.
The exact same voice she had used when she startled me at the staircase.
She stood nearby holding a garden hose.
And it was pointed directly at me.
Even when my teeth chattered so violently I could barely say her name, she continued spraying me.
Relentlessly.
Until every inch of me was soaked.
Only when the twins appeared did she finally lower the hose.
The cold morning breeze struck my drenched clothes.
Sharp shivers crawled down my spine and into my injured leg.
Pain exploded through me.
My knees nearly buckled.
I slammed a hand against the stone wall for support, forcing myself to stay upright.
Refusing to collapse in front of them.
Caius and Milo exchanged a look.
A silent conversation passed between them.
Then they turned toward me.
And sneered.
I was practically folded against the wall, one hand bracing my weight while the other clutched my chest.
Yet neither of them seemed concerned.
"It looks like you're putting on another performance the moment you come home, Serafina," Caius drawled.
I glared at him before shooting a murderous look toward Luciana.
"Is that what she told you?"
My laugh was cold.
"That my broken leg was an act?"
I scoffed.
"I didn't realize people could fake screaming in pain or fake an actual injury."
The bite in my words made Luciana flinch.
But only for a second.
Almost immediately, she rearranged her expression into something pitiful and fragile.
The same helpless look that had captured the twins' attention within mere months.
Milo cleared his throat.
"If you're really as strong as you claim, Serafina, why did you come back here?"
His gaze shifted toward Luciana.
Right on cue, tears shimmered in her eyes.
An award-worthy performance.
"Oh, please."
Caius laughed mockingly.
"Even her own mother doesn't want her."
"Not even her uncle, the Don."
His voice dripped with cruel sarcasm.
"Where else could she possibly go?"
The words cut deeper than any blade.
So deep that tears instantly filled my eyes.
Real tears.
Not the manufactured ones Luciana was squeezing out.
"Caius. Milo. That's enough."
Luciana spoke in a trembling voice.
Like a saint showing mercy to someone beneath her.
Like a victim defending her abuser.
Even this early in the morning, she couldn't resist creating another scene.
As I looked at them, a memory surfaced.
The first day I arrived at the Valenti compound.
Milo had held my hand.
Caius had gently stroked my cheek.
Both of them had promised that their home would be my home too.
Back then, they meant everything to me.
Then Luciana arrived three months ago.
And everything changed.
The paradise I once treasured became a battlefield.
A prison.
A living hell.
She entered our lives as a Capo's daughter, arriving alongside her mother under the pretense of helping around the household.
The Don didn't seem to mind.
But Vittoria?
Vittoria had never liked her.
Every time Luciana flashed one of her sweet smiles or spoke in that soft, innocent voice, Vittoria would roll her eyes.
As if both of us could see straight through the act.
Now, as I stared at the faces before me, I finally understood something.
The Valenti compound had stopped being my home.
The place where I had spent twenty years of my life no longer belonged to me.
It had become my prison.
Worse.
It had become the place where they delighted in hurting me.
And in that moment, I knew.
My time here was over.
I had already stayed too long.
I shouldn't waste another second living in this place.
I needed to leave.
As soon as possible.
