The Stand-In’s Stoke Back, Everyone Regretted It

The day someone told me I was legitimate blood of the Mafia family, I went from being the Don's daughter's personal maid to being the Don's daughter myself. Three days after they brought me home to the family estate, I went looking for Luciano, the man I'd secretly married, and found him in the study, talking to Don Moretti. "Nina is obedient. She wouldn't dare utter a word even when bullied. She is the perfect person to take the fall for Avery at that bloody party and she won't crack." "Good, Luciano. You think of everything! She's nobody — a street girl. She walks into that bloodbath and dies, nobody's going to miss her. Let her go. Avery's waiting for you to make underboss first, then we do the wedding proper." I stumbled back three steps. My heel hit the marble floor and the pain shot straight up my leg, but it was nothing compared to what just exploded in my chest. I wasn't Don Moretti's real blood. And the man who had sworn his life to me, my own husband, was planning to send me into that slaughterhouse so he could marry the Don's actual daughter. I'd already heard what happened to the last stand-in at one of those events. Shot to pieces. That news drove into my spine like an ice pick. But what they didn't know, what I'd only just found out, was this: My brother, who'd been missing for years, was the highest power in the Cosa Nostra. The one they called the Shadow King. Chapter 1 I ran. Fell twice on the way back. My fingers had gone white, nails biting into my palms. My knees scraped open on the marble hallway floor and the blood came dripping down. But the physical pain was nothing. The real wound was the one that had just been torn straight through the middle of my chest. Four years. Four years I'd been at his side, watching him go from a street nobody to a made man with a crew behind him. In winter, his hands cracked from the cold, so I tore apart my own leather gloves to wrap them, embroidered handkerchiefs to sell for gun oil and blades. My hands bled and I never let him know. In summer, he hated the heat, so I stayed up all night running a fan for him. Come morning I'd be out in the blazing sun hauling freight at the warehouse, negotiating with dock traders, doing whatever needed doing. The third time he failed to take over a crew, he got blackout drunk and said he didn't want to live anymore. I stayed up watching him all night, and the next morning I smiled and told him, "It's fine. There's always next time." I even sold myself into servitude at the Don's mansion to scrape together the bribe money he needed to move up. Signed the contract with all ten fingerprints. The broker told me: once you sign, your life isn't your own anymore. What I thought was: it's okay. Once he makes his rank, he'll come back for me. He did make his rank. And now the Don wanted him as a son-in-law, so he was going to use me as a chip and cash me into a grave. I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the half-melted white candle on the table. The night we got married in that run-down little chapel, that candle was all we had. The priest was a drunk from down the block. The ring was an iron band Luciano had taken off a dead man's finger. He said, "Nina, when I make crew boss, I'll buy you a thousand candles, and your wedding motorcade will stretch ten city blocks." The wax had long since hardened into something that looked like a dried drop of blood. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I'd carried it with me for four years, and now the sight of it just made me sick. I laughed. It sounded worse than crying. That evening, Luciano came. He was flushed, wearing a new custom-tailored suit with a silver tie bar. I remembered when he used to wear cheap leather jackets. He'd been just as good-looking back then, but without this polished, well-fed distance that now sat between us. He pushed open the door and found me still lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. He frowned, then smoothed it out and put on his soft smile. I'd seen that smile a thousand times. Now it looked like someone else's face. "Nina, you're still awake?" He sat down on the edge of the bed and reached out to touch my hair. His hand was warm. I flinched like I'd been burned. That gesture. He only did it when he wanted something from me. Last time, he needed me to settle a debt with a dock supplier. The supplier said I had to balance his books for three days. I sat with those blood-money ledgers until my fingers went numb and my eyes were red, and when I brought the receipt back and fell into Luciano's arms, he snatched it away without once asking if I was tired. "Nina, there's something I need to tell you." The corner of his mouth lifted, and there was joy in his eyes he couldn't quite hide. "The Don trusts me. He believes I can open the north corridor, and he wants me to marry his eldest daughter." He paused, then sighed, the sigh of a man dispensing charity. "This is the Don's trust and his favor to me. I can't say no. So I'll have to ask something of you..." My body went rigid, then started shaking. He paused again, stroked my cheek, his voice dripping with sincerity. "You've been with me on the streets for four years. I won't forget that. Trust me — once I'm settled, I'll take care of you. I'll keep you close, as my favorite, for the rest of your life." I almost threw up. There was nothing left in me to heave. His favorite. That's the word he used. Four years at his side, from the streets to the inside of a real crew: I signed a contract of servitude and starved myself so he could climb. And all I got in return was favorite? Not a wife. Not even a name. Just a kept woman. Chapter 2 I sat up and looked straight at him. Luciano flinched, a flash of guilt behind his eyes, then steadied into irritation. "Avery was raised with everything she ever wanted. She's the Don's real daughter. She can't handle hard things the way you can." His tone got impatient. "Nina, you've been through the rough stuff with me. You know how hard I worked to get here. Just be smart about this. Don't make it harder than it has to be." Be smart. I had been smart for four winters. Hands cracking, healing, scarring over again and again. While he strategized indoors, I hauled freight, ran accounts, took insults, froze in the cold. The third time he failed to move up and said he had no money for the next bribe, I knelt in front of that broker and sold myself. The day I signed, the broker grabbed my wrist like he was appraising merchandise. He knew all of this. But all he ever said was: "Nina, once I make my position, I won't let you down." He made his position. And what I got was be smart. My eyes burned. I tilted my head up and stared at him. "You should be grateful, Nina!" He snapped to his feet, like my stare had embarrassed him into fury. "Avery is the Don's daughter — old money, real class. I'm about to run the north territory. We're a match. That's how it works." His voice went up, contempt sliding into his eyes. "And you? A street girl. I'm offering to take care of you, and that's more than you deserve after four years." A street girl. I looked down at my hands and felt my heart being squeezed dry. Four years ago, in that beat-up chapel, the weak candlelight played across his face. He'd smiled, nervous and earnest at once, and held my hands and said: "Nina, I'm honored you'd have me. When I've made something of myself, you'll be my wife. One life, one loyalty, I swear it." I'd carried that for four years. Through winter chilblains. Through hauling cargo until my arms couldn't lift. Through being hit in the face with a stiletto heel by the Don's daughter at the Moretti mansion. I'd held on to that promise. Turned out I was the only one who had. I spoke, and my voice came out so flat it surprised me. "You're right. I got ahead of myself." He blinked. "Really?" His eyes were suspicious. I pulled up a smile. "Really. I'm just a street girl, Luciano. That you took an interest in me was already more than I deserved." He exhaled and launched into his monologue: "Once I'm settled I'll raise your status," "I'll never let you go short," "Avery may be the wife but you're first in my heart." White noise. I didn't hear a word. When he left, a draft crept through the door and knocked the candle stub off the table. It hit the floor and snapped in two. I bent down and picked up the pieces, held them in my palm. Outside, the night was heavy. I went to stand in the doorway. Three days earlier, Avery had decided my coffee wasn't hot enough and poured the entire pot over my arm. The burn still hadn't healed. Wind hit the wound, cold and painful, but my head finally cleared. They wanted me dead. I wasn't going to die. They wanted me as a pawn. I was going to blow up the whole board. I needed to find my brother. Find the Shadow King. Chapter 3 First thing the next morning I put on the old coat Avery had thrown out, my "gift" from the Moretti estate since being brought back to the family. Nice fabric, worn through at the cuffs. She'd gotten tired of it. I fixed my hair in the mirror. The face looking back was pale, but the eyes were unnervingly steady. Out in the main hall, the orders had already come down. Luciano was having afternoon tea with Avery in the garden. Don Moretti sat at the head of the table. When I walked up and volunteered to take the assignment, something lit up in his eyes. "Nina. You mean that?" I kept my head down. "Godfather, you've given me everything. Avery is my sister. If I can share her burden, it's an honor." Only I knew that every word of that came out through gritted teeth. Don Moretti turned the ring on his finger and nodded, like he was checking a piece of equipment. "You've always been sensible." He smiled. "I thought I'd have to talk you into it. Nice to see you understand the bigger picture." He didn't know that the Shadow King was my brother. I kept my head bowed, hid my face, kept my voice soft. "I've had a hard time out there. Being brought back to the family is already more than I could ask for. If I can spare my sister any trouble, that's what I should do." Smooth and seamless. When you spend years as someone's servant, the thing you learn fastest is how to say exactly what they need to hear. Luciano came in late, still glowing from his time with Avery. He got one foot in the door, heard my last words, and the look on his face went strange. He'd probably expected crying. A scene. Accusations. Not this. Avery let a flash of satisfaction cross her face. She tucked herself under his arm and laughed, sharp-edged. "A servant's always a servant. Some people are just born to their knees. It's in the bone." She barely glanced at me when she said it, the same tone she'd used when she'd made me jump into a freezing pool to fish out her earring, the same tone she'd used when she'd made me take the blame in front of the family elders. Don Moretti gave her a token look. She pouted prettily. He chuckled, indulgent. Luciano's expression flickered. He started to say something but Avery tugged his arm, and he let himself be pulled into the Don's planning conversation. I was the only outsider here. I stood in the cold while every person in that room circled around how to use me up. I closed my eyes and pressed the weight of their looks into my memory until it was bone-deep. They thought I was walking into my grave. They didn't know the Shadow King was my brother. Once he brought me back, I would become the most protected woman in the most powerful family in this city, and nobody would ever lay a finger on me again. After the meeting broke up, Luciano came and found me. He blocked my way, voice low and tight. "Nina. Why'd you agree? Did you change your mind about me? I told you I'd take care of you — don't do something stupid." He still thought I didn't know the truth, that I was just sulking, going along with it out of spite. The fact that he'd lost control of the situation was clearly eating at him. I stopped and looked up at him. My face was still. This man, handsome and warm-eyed, the face I'd known for four years, and I had never once seen through him. I smiled. "I'm doing it for you." Something in his expression cracked. He grabbed my wrist. "I don't buy that. You said you'd wait for me. You said—" His voice shook. He was trying to keep it together and not quite making it. I just looked at him. Four years, and this was the first time I'd seen him like this, eyes reddening, jaw tight, like a scared kid. "Isn't this what you wanted?" I said quietly. He froze. "You want to marry Avery, don't you?" My voice sounded like someone else's, too calm and too distant. "You want to be the Don's son-in-law. You want a wife who's your equal in status." "I—" "I'm doing this for you." I cut him off, and even laughed a little. "What's the alternative — I make a scene? Scream that you can't marry someone else? Embarrass you in front of the Don, blow up everything you've worked for?" Luciano's mouth opened. Nothing came out. His hand went slack around my wrist and dropped to his side. He seemed to deflate, shoulders caving in. "Nina..." "Don't worry." I stepped back. "I won't cause you any trouble once I'm gone." He stood there watching me, something in his eyes: guilt, unease, and underneath it a shadow of loss, like something was slipping through his fingers. But my eyes were cold. He had the nerve to look like he was about to cry. Chapter 4 Avery had appeared in the doorway without either of us noticing. She was wearing a scarlet evening dress that made her look stunning, and she was watching us with open contempt. Her eyes moved back and forth between me and Luciano, then settled on his hand still near my wrist. Luciano startled and pulled back like he'd touched something dirty, stepping quickly to her side. "Avery, I was just—" Avery walked toward me instead. "Nina." She stopped in front of me, looking down. "Forget who you are?" "Miss Avery—" Crack. The slap was loud and clean. My head snapped sideways and my ear started ringing. "You trash." She wiped her hand on a silk cloth and smiled. "Get them." Two guys came in fast, one on each side, and they drove me to the floor and started working on my face like they'd done it a hundred times before. Luciano went still, surprised or pretending to be. My hair was everywhere. Blood at the corner of my mouth. I turned away so I didn't have to look at him. He probably didn't know that since the day I sold myself into this house to help him, every day had been something like this. Avery was jealous, said I was prettier than her, and that was reason enough. My body always had bruises somewhere. I used to tell Luciano I'd fallen. There are still whip scars on my back from the time she accused me of breaking a vase she'd broken herself. In a family like this one, giving the order didn't even require a second thought. Luciano finally opened his mouth. "Avery, she's leaving in a few days anyway—" Avery's eyes went shiny and tears came like a tap being turned on. She pressed herself into his chest, voice going small and hurt. "Luciano, I came to check on Nina. I thought I'd be kind. But my mother's diamond ring is missing — the one she left me before she died. I think Nina took it to get back at me." She shook against him, wracked with sobs. I stared at her. I had never touched her ring. Luciano wrapped an arm around her waist and looked down at her. His eyes were full of tenderness, but calculating. He'd been through hard years with me. He knew I was the kind of person who'd walk three blocks back to return a five-dollar overpayment. I watched his face. Avery sobbed harder. Luciano held her, panicked, running his hand along her back. Then he lifted his head and looked at me, and the look landed like a blade. "Nina." His voice was tight with controlled anger. "Avery came to see you in good faith and this is what you do? That ring was her mother's. Do you have any idea what that means to her?" I felt like I'd been dropped into ice water. No matter whether I'd taken it or not, he'd already decided. Blood at the corner of my mouth. I tilted my head up and looked at him. "I didn't take it." "Stop lying." He cut me off, voice going colder. "Avery is not the type to make something up. You took advantage of her being soft-hearted and now you want to play innocent?" Avery sobbed louder in his arms. Her fingers twisted into his tie. Her face was buried in his chest and her shoulders heaved, but I saw her head tip up for just a second and glance at me. She was smiling. Trash. She mouthed it at me, clear as anything. My teeth were chattering. I wanted to lunge across the room and tear her apart. But I couldn't. Luciano hadn't seen any of it. He was focused on the woman in his arms, voice going soft enough to melt. "Don't cry, Avery. The ring is gone, it's gone — I'll get you a better one. Not worth ruining your eyes over something like this." "But it was the only thing my mom left me..." Avery whimpered. "I know, I know." He stroked her back. "It's not your fault. I'll apologize on her behalf. Okay?" I was on my knees. The pain came in waves from the floor, from my knees, from somewhere deeper, a hollow ache that hurt more than any of it. It's not your fault. He hadn't asked if my knees were bleeding. He hadn't even looked down to see what I was kneeling on: broken glass, the pieces of a shattered drinking cup. I let out a sound that was almost a laugh. Tears slid down my face, not from grief but from a final, clear-eyed reckoning with my own stupidity. I remembered once, years ago, when Luciano got cornered by a rival crew and took a bullet. In the dark of an alley, I used my bare hands to knock out two men twice my size, then carried him three city blocks to an underground clinic. The doctor said another half hour and he wouldn't have made it. When he came around, he held my hand and said, "Nina, I owe you my life." Now, over a ring, knowing exactly who I was, he didn't believe a single word I said. "You've really let me down." He turned to face me, voice flat with disappointment and disgust. "I thought you were different. Guess I was wrong. Avery came in good faith and you put her through this. Do you feel anything?" I opened my mouth, closed it. The words dried up in my throat. Avery lifted her face right on cue, eyes still red-rimmed, voice gone soft. "Luciano, my head hurts." He was instantly alarmed. "What's wrong? Is it the old thing again?" "Mm." She folded into him. "Hold me and it'll pass." He pulled her close with the careful hands of someone holding something irreplaceable, then looked back at me like a knife. "Nina, if you have a single shred of conscience left, you get on your knees and apologize to Avery right now." Chapter 5 My lips had gone white. "No." Luciano's face collapsed into disgust. He stood up sharply, jacket lapels snapping. "Then I can't protect you." "On your knees." One of the guys kicked the back of my leg and I went down hard, hitting the floor with a thud that rang through my whole body. Avery picked up a glass and dropped it on the floor right in front of me. Broken glass, right under my kneecaps, sharp edges biting into skin. She settled back into Luciano's arms, watching me. The corner of her mouth curved. "Search her. Make her crawl over there." She pointed to the scattered shards and checked Luciano's face. Luciano's jaw tightened. "Do what my fiancée says." His fiancée. I was shaking, laughing without any warmth in it. The man pushed my head down, both hands on my shoulders, and I crawled forward across those broken pieces, inch by inch. Blood drew two long tracks across the marble floor. I didn't make a sound. I bit down hard and swallowed everything. It hurt. But the real pain came from looking up at Luciano as I crossed that glass. He had his eyes shut and his head turned away. I remembered four years ago, when I tripped in the warehouse and cut my knee open on a crate. He'd gone red-eyed tying the bandage and said, "Nina, does it hurt? I'm sorry. If I were worth anything, you'd never have to suffer like this." Now I was bleeding all over the floor and he wasn't watching. I didn't know this man anymore. I felt nothing but ash. "Still not sorry." Avery heaved a sigh against him. "She needs to learn her lesson." Two men dragged me up. I fought them, fingertips leaving red smears across the floor. Luciano kept his eyes on Avery, kept talking to her softly. Never looked back. Hands locked on the back of my head, and they drove my face down into the garden fountain. Cold water rushed into my nose. I choked, fighting, thrashing against the grip, but the grip didn't move. Water in my ears. In my mouth. My chest felt like it was splitting open. The edges of my vision going dark. From somewhere behind me came Avery's laughter, Luciano's low coaxing murmur, then something softer and closer between them, sounds that had no business being made in a moment like this. I wrenched my eyes open against the water, lips shaking, and screamed with everything I had. "Luciano! Do you even have a soul—" "Shut up." A kick to my ribs. I went sprawling onto the stone steps at the edge of the fountain, my abdomen hitting the ledge corner-first. Pain tore through me from the inside like a blade being turned. Then warmth, down my thighs, mixing with the pool water, dark red in the moonlight. "She's bleeding—" One of the men went silent. Both of them let go at once, backing away, faces going white. I lay on the cold stones with my arms clutched over my stomach, my whole body shaking. One of them said something under his breath, a word that landed like a door slamming shut. I went very still. My ears started ringing. Avery wrinkled her nose and pressed a handkerchief to her face. "Disgusting." Behind her, Luciano saw the blood on the ground and went pale as paper. He started forward, and I could see his hands shaking. Avery's voice cut across the courtyard. "So she was carrying a bastard. A woman who's about to take the fall for someone else, and she's been running around with who knows which man." The contempt in her voice was casual, offhand. "Could've been anyone." Luciano stopped. His fingers curled. He looked at me with something unsteady in his eyes. Avery laughed. "When she was working for me, she was very friendly with the male staff. God only knows whose it was." Luciano's eyes found mine. "Nina." His voice was careful and still. "Whose child is it?" I looked up at him. At that moment I understood, with total clarity: he didn't believe me. He had never believed me. I laughed, a hollow ruined sound, and closed my eyes. The whole world had left no room for me. But I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of watching me give up. You wait and see whose grave gets dug first. "Take her to the storage room." Avery's voice, satisfied. Then she turned back to Luciano, and the sound of soft laughter and teasing filtered through to where I lay. Even as my eyes closed for the last time in that moment, I saw clearly: Luciano's arm, tight and steady around Avery's waist. Chapter 6 They dragged me to the storage room. The floor was already turning brown. I curled into myself, vision going black, everything burning. The baby was gone. I let out a sound I'd never made before, not a word or a cry but something jagged and animal from somewhere deeper than I'd known I had. My nails drove into my palms until blood came. Fever and pain picked at the edges of consciousness. Just before it pulled me under, one last thought surfaced, clear and hard as a stone: I can't die yet. I need to find my brother. I need to make them pay. The next morning was the day the family sent someone to collect me for the event. Don Moretti stood in the main hall, hands clasped behind his back, looking well-rested. Luciano stood behind him, wearing a smile of quiet self-satisfaction. Avery leaned against his arm, playing the part of the adoring girlfriend. She looked up at the Don. "Father, should I go out to greet the family's representative? Proper daughter and all that." The Don smiled. "Of course. You're the real heir here. Your husband's going to run a territory one day — good for you to be seen by the right people." Luciano took Avery's hand with a look of devotion so thick it was practically a costume. "You don't need to worry about anything. I'll make sure you have the highest standing in this family." She pushed him away with a little pout, but her eyes glittered. Then rapid footsteps from outside: the doorman stumbled in, all the color gone from his face. "Sir — sir, there's a problem—" The Don's brow furrowed. "Calm down. The family sent someone, what's—" "It's — it's not that." He pointed toward the gate, hands trembling. "The Shadow King. The Shadow King came himself." The air in the main hall went solid. The Shadow King. The hidden supreme of the Cosa Nostra. The man who controlled the life and death of every crew in this city, who ran operations that left no trace. Every underboss in the organization deferred to him. Even Don Moretti lowered his head. The iron gates of the estate swung open. Don Moretti moved without thinking. He grabbed the hem of his jacket and dropped to one knee. "Your servant, Vincent Moretti, welcomes the Shadow King. Forgive me for not meeting you at the gate. I am unworthy." The Shadow King said nothing. He walked slowly into the courtyard, his gaze sweeping over the assembled faces and landing on Avery. "Don Moretti." His voice was level. "I understand there's someone here who was meant to take a fall on someone else's behalf. Which one?" Luciano's expression shifted. He tightened his grip on Avery's hand and got there first: "Your Excellency, it wasn't Avery — there's another girl going in her place. She's just not feeling well right now." "She's not showing the family the respect they deserve by hiding in her room. I'll go get her out." He said it through his teeth, stood up fast, sweat on his forehead. In the storage room, a hand grabbed me and hauled me upright. "Get up. Stop playing sick." I coughed twice. My face was burning. Luciano's face was dark. "Nina. You really want to pull this right now? You agreed to this yourself. Now you're faking an illness — what, you're trying to force Avery into taking your place?" His eyes were full of fury, like I'd become something he just needed gone. He half-dragged me out, and I hit the courtyard floor on my knees with a dull sound. Everything he'd ever been to me looked, from here, like something that had never existed. Blurred and fighting to keep my eyes open, I felt tears drop onto the stone. Too weak to do anything else. Luciano pointed at me and addressed the Shadow King. "Your Excellency, this is Nina. She agreed to go. Now she's putting on this show — it's a disgrace to the family." I lay half-collapsed on the courtyard floor, hair loose, the dried blood on my skirt cracked into dark flakes. Face paper-white. I managed, barely, to lift my head. The Shadow King was looking at me. The hand that had quietly moved armies was trembling slightly. He was staring at the mark on my inner wrist and had been staring for a long time, long enough that the entire courtyard had gone silent. The Shadow King's throat moved. His voice came out rough, almost unrecognizable. "...Nina?"