Shirley

During the five years I was in a vegetative state, all ten family soldiers assigned to guard me were murdered. One of them merely smoked a cigarette outside my hospital room. The next day, he was found upside down, drowned in a toilet. Another simply adjusted my pillow. The next day, he took a dive from a skyscraper rooftop. The Corleone family was in chaos, but they couldn't find a single trace of the killer. With no other choice, the ten executions, all textbook Mafia hits, became cold cases. Strangely, the very second the tenth guard's heart stopped, I opened my eyes. The first thing I did upon waking was call the FBI and turn myself in. The agents were stunned. "Miss Corleone, are you saying that while in a coma for five years, you planned and executed the murders of ten fully armed Mafia soldiers?" My fingers tapped lightly on the table, a faint smile playing on my lips. "That's right." "Being in a vegetative state only means I couldn't move." "Who ever told you that killing, something so crude, required me to get my hands dirty?"

Pada hari pernikahanku, tunangan mafiaku, Ryder Soesatyo, menyuruh anak buahnya menghalangiku masuk ke gereja. Sebaliknya, dia malah berjalan di lorong altar dengan wanita lain di lengannya. Ryder mengangkat bahu ke arahku dari balik gerbang besi. "Emilia, Keluarga Soesatyo butuh seorang pewaris dan Carmela sedang mengandung keturunan Keluarga Sutanto. Begitu aku memakai pengaruh Keluarga Sutanto untuk mengukuhkan posisiku di keluarga, aku akan menceraikannya. Kamu akan tetap menjadi wanitaku." Semua orang mengira aku akan menganggukkan kepala dengan patuh dan menunggu Ryder kembali. Aku mencintainya melebihi hidupku sendiri selama sepuluh tahun ini, bahkan putus hubungan dengan keluargaku demi dia. Namun, aku naik jet pribadi malam itu juga untuk pergi ke Sikilua dan menerima perjodohan dengan pemimpin dari Keluarga Basuki. Sejak saat itu, aku menghilang tanpa jejak dari dunia Ryder Soesatyo. Tiga tahun kemudian, aku kembali ke Nalumandia bersama suami dan anakku untuk membereskan seorang pengkhianat di keluarga. Zayn memiliki urusan mendadak, sehingga dia menyuruh anak buahnya menjemputku. Namun, aku tidak menyangka akan melihat wajah seseorang dari masa laluku. Ryder menatapku sambil menyeringai. "Sudah puas bersenang-senang di luar sana? Karena kamu sudah merangkak kembali, ini pas sekali. Putranya Carmela butuh juru masak. Kamu bisa mengerjakannya." Tunggu. Ryder baru saja memanggilku, Nyonya yang paling dihormati di dunia bawah tanah, ini sebagai juru masak?

When I was three months pregnant, Stella Falcone, the principessa of an allied family, was also carrying another man's child. To preserve the alliance, my Mafia lover, Matteo Gallo, had to marry her. "Stella is Don Falcone's only daughter. In our world, alliances are worth more than sentiment." "Ava will understand." What Matteo forgot was that I had no one but him, and that the child I carried was the true Gallo heir. Later, as everyone mocked my unborn child, calling him a bastard who would taint the bloodline, Matteo stood by with his new bride and did nothing. That was when I learned that in this world of blood and secrets, love was the most worthless currency of all.

The day I married Santino Connor, he went from the infamous heir of a mafia fortune to a broke nobody. When he handed me a plastic ring in a shabby basement and asked if I would start from scratch with him, I looked at the man I had loved since I was a girl and nodded without a second thought. "Santino, as long as it was with you, I would do anything." For him, I worked more than ten hours a day until my stomach bled from the stress. Our son, from the moment he could walk, trailed me from one odd job to the next. I thought my love could eventually build us a life in the sun. Until, at a lavish banquet where I was serving the elite, he showered me with cash from his seat at the head of the table. "What's that thing crawling on the floor? It's blocking my view!" "Take the money and get out of my sight!" When I saw the woman by his side, her face an eerie copy of my own, I finally understood. To him, this was just a game, and I was the only one playing for keeps. If he was going to go to such lengths to deceive me, then it was time for his game to end. What he didn't know was that one month later, he would be tearing the world apart to find me.

I took a poisoned silver arrow for my Alpha, Kaiden, during an assassination attempt. In doing so, I lost my wolf forever, falling from a proud warrior to a disgrace to my pack. Driven by guilt and duty, he kept me as his mate for thirty years, but our relationship was built on polite distance. On my deathbed, I discovered that the 199 memory crystals I had filled with a lifetime of love for him had been tossed into a dusty corner of a storage room. All the while, he kept another she-wolf's crystals locked away in a magically sealed safe, treasuring them above all else. As I lay dying, all I felt through our bond was his chilling indifference. Kaiden arrived late. The last words he whispered in my ear were, "Next time, don't take the silver arrow for me." I finally understood. He would rather have died than be shackled to me by a life debt. When I opened my eyes again, I was back before the tragedy. The Moon Goddess had granted me a second chance. This time, I would sever our fated bond before he could mark me. But when the silver arrow flew toward me this time, he was the one who threw himself into its path. "This time, let me protect you."

During a turf war, I took a bullet for Daniel Wilson. When I woke up in the family hospital after three years in a coma, I discovered that Eva, the showgirl I'd saved from a black market auction, had usurped my place in the Wilson family. My husband Daniel, the family's Underboss, saw that I was awake, and his first words to me were: "The entire underworld recognizes Eva as the woman by my side now. Why did you have to wake up at a time like this?" "Alice and I both love her. She's the one who's been by our side these past three years. And you? You've just been a body in a hospital bed, absent from our lives." "We're through, Sarah." Watching the man I once loved so deeply speak such heartless words, I didn't put up a fight. I simply nodded and gave him what he wanted. But he had no idea the Wilson family was about to burn to the ground.

Rocco Falcone, who is the Falcone family's Don and my so-called husband, hangs up on me for what feels like the 99th time. Having been diagnosed with leukemia, I haul my ravaged body into the family lawyer's office. "I'm here to file for a divorce," I said. … When Rocco hears about it, he barges in with my family ten minutes later. The moment he enters, he slaps me. "Did you use the emergency line just to ruin Sofia's big night? Are you out of your mind?" Lily Marone, my mom, snatches the diagnosis right out of my hand and skims through it. She chuckles dismissively. "Did you fake being sick just to get attention? How many lies have you told since you were a kid, Claire?" Sofia Moretti holds Rocco's arm with tears in her eyes. "Forgive me, Claire. I shouldn't have taken the position. Please stop hurting yourself and Rocco." I wipe the blood from my mouth and turn back to the lawyer. "I have no family left. Please hurry with the divorce paperwork. I need it settled before my cremation in three days."

El día de mi boda, mi prometido miembro de la mafia, Ryder Conti, hizo que sus hombres me impidieran la entrada a la iglesia. En cambio, caminó hacia el altar con otra mujer del brazo. Por si fuera poco, me hizo encogimiento de hombros a través de las puertas de hierro. —Emilia, los Conti necesitan un heredero, y Carmela lleva un Rossi en su vientre. Una vez que use la influencia de los Rossi para consolidar mi posición en la Familia, me divorciaré de ella. Tú seguirás siendo mi mujer. Todos pensaron que asentiría obedientemente y esperaría a que regresara. Durante diez años, lo había amado más que a mi vida, incluso rompiendo lazos con mi familia por él. Sin embargo, esa misma noche subí a un jet privado a Sicile para aceptar un matrimonio concertado con el Padrino de la familia Vettori. Desde entonces, desaparecí sin dejar rastro del mundo de Ryder Conti. Tres años después, regresé a New Valley con mi esposo y mi hijo para lidiar con un traidor en la Familia. En esa ocasión, Zayn tuvo un asunto de última hora así que envió a sus hombres a recogerme en su lugar. Nunca esperé ver una cara de mi pasado. Ryder me miró con una sonrisa burlona. —¿Ya te divertiste suficiente? Ya que has vuelto arrastrándote, esto es perfecto. El hijo de Carmela necesita una cocinera. Tú puedes quedarte el trabajo. Espera, ¿me acaba de llamar a mí, la Donna más respetada del bajo mundo, la cocinera?

« Papa, j'ai accepté l'alliance matrimoniale avec la meute du Boisnoir. » Un silence s'est étiré de son côté du lien avant qu'il ne réponde enfin : « Caterina, es-tu certaine ? » « Je le suis. » Je ne lui ai pas dit la vraie raison. La nuit dernière, une douleur déchirante m'a transpercée à travers notre lien de compagnons. À travers ce maudit lien, j'ai tout vu… Mon Alpha, Rocco, était dans la cabane de ses terrains de chasse privés, clouant Scarlett, son amie d'enfance, contre le mur et l'embrassant avec une frénésie désespérée. Je l'ai confrontée directement lors de la réunion de la meute. Un éclair de triomphe brillait dans ses yeux avant qu'elle ne feigne l'innocence. « Caterina, je n'ai aucune idée de ce dont tu parles. » À ce moment-là, la voix de Rocco a rugi à travers le lien mental ouvert, résonnant dans les esprits de tous les présents. « Caterina, en tant que Luna de la meute, tu ne devrais pas créer une scène comme celle-ci. Scarlett n'est qu'une amie. » À cet instant, mon cœur est mort complètement. Il était mon Alpha, mon mari – l'homme avec lequel j'avais passé des années à l'aider à gravir les échelons du pouvoir. J'ai rompu mon lien mental avec Rocco. La douleur de cette déconnexion forcée était tellement intense que j'avais du mal à tenir debout, mais j'ai redressé ma colonne vertébrale et ai envoyé ma réponse. « Je serai à la maison dans deux semaines. » Retourner à la maison et épouser l'Alpha le plus puissant en France. On dit qu'il est froid et impitoyable, indifférent à toute louve. Parfait. Je n'ai pas besoin d'amour. J'ai juste besoin d'un Alpha assez fort pour m'aider à sécuriser la meute de la Lune Argente. Et quant à Rocco ? La Déesse Lune nous a donné un destin, et c'est lui qui l'a brisé de ses propres mains. Maintenant, je vais saisir le mien.

After three years of gathering herbs, I finally returned to Green-Pouch Valley. But my master, Mr. Gu, was not there. On the ground, only a dark red pool of blood remained, soaking his cloth robes. My senior brothers and sisters, usually so lively, were nowhere to be found. My master's wife, Auntie Qin, sat collapsed beside the pool of blood. Her once-black hair was now mostly white, her voice a hoarse whisper as she called to me. "Shuang'er, your master traded his life for the valley's ascension. You must go to the Nine Heavens and offer your thanks." It was only then I understood. The Celestial Lord, Jun Che, in his quest to forge an immortal body for his mortal wife, had coveted my master's rare Celestial Bones of Healing. He used the promise of ascension for everyone in Green-Pouch Valley as bait, then brutally tore the bones from my master's living body. I was born with a strange affliction, a void where joy and sorrow should be. The others in the valley secretly called me a cold-blooded monster. Now, as I stared at the blood-soaked robes of the man who had saved me and treated me like his own daughter, my expression remained blank. "Auntie Qin, did Master do this willingly?" Auntie Qin's eyes instantly reddened. "Jun Che is the Celestial Lord. His word is heavenly law. How could we ever defy it?" I gave a faint nod. "If it was not what Master wanted, then Jun Che deserves to die." Auntie Qin's face went pale with fright. She lunged forward and clutched my arm. "Shuang'er, your master's last words were for you all to protect yourselves, not throw your lives away fighting an unwinnable war against the heavens." I pried her fingers off one by one and looked up at the glittering, golden Celestial Realm beyond the clouds. A faint smile touched my lips. "Auntie Qin, Master taught me that a healer's heart must be compassionate." "But he never taught me that gods can't be killed."