Regret Is Useless: The Mafia Queen Rises

and he was the gutter ra

hundred guests watching, Luc

a secret child, he looked at me with

ed to the silent church. "She

and their illegitima

iliated in a dress that cost

ours later, h

future, and his name, all to prot

r, he looked at me with cold eye

em, convinced I would fade

break a Vitiello a

ter, I return

as I walked in, wea

begging for a second chance, claiming h

he could

irl ran into the

her walked

the Reaper himsel

ed pale as he re

play father, but I had marrie

pte

Vitie

us. The metal clattered against the wood-a soun

efully.Because if you walk out that

three y

of steel and a heart that beat only for the boy who

on who wanted

saw the fear in his eyes. Not fear of death,

hose

itress at my father's club-to disappea

I th

posed to be t

suffocating scent of white lilies and expensive per

d at the altar, the delicate lace of my veil scratching against my skin, wa

ndsome. Deva

holster at his ribs, his dark hair s

d up the aisle. He didn't look at me. His expressio

atmosphere in the church shifted. I

opene

It wasn't a slow fade; it was instant,

Even from where I stood, I

odd

s and eyes that mirrored the

to was a docum

a

hered. He looked up, scanning the back of t

y panic. The panic of a man who had built his

" I wh

nswer. He s

" the priest said, confus

his head.

rough the pews lik

r the first three rows to hear. "She's here. She's g

ice was already sprea

ine. If I marry you, she exposes the girl as

art s

able three years

e. He had just del

altar," I said, my voice

aughter,"

d his back on the Vitiello family.

Capos, past my furious father who was alrea

of his own insecurity, leaving me standing alone

hundred pairs of eyes burned i

ry. I didn

e lace ripped with a sound like tearing skin. I dropped

to the mi

e vaulted ceiling. My father froze, his hand

e bright sunlight blinding agains

," I said to t

didn't just lose a br