He Let Our Son Die for His Stepsister, So I Burned His Empire Down

My husband was the Don of the DeLuca Family. As his Donna, I had spent years tolerating his indulgence of his stepsister. That was, until My five-year-old son and my husband's beloved stepsister were strapped to ticking time bombs. My terrified little boy screamed for me. As the DeLuca Family's lead bomb disposal expert, I knew I could save him. But my husband Matteo, the Don who ruled a mafia empire, pressed a cold gun barrel between my eyes. "Disarm Lilia's bomb first, or I'll shoot our son myself." He gave the order without a flicker of emotion, all to protect the stepsister who had perfected the helpless-innocent act. I could only watch as Noah vanished in a ball of fire. But Matteo forgot something. I wasn't merely his wife. I was the intelligence and explosives expert who kept his entire weapons empire alive. When I ripped his precious Family out by the roots and returned on the arm of his greatest enemy, the untouchable Don finally broke. He dropped to his knees and begged me to come back. Chapter 1 "Matteo, you've lost your mind! Noah is your own son!" I screamed at him, fighting to break free of his grip, my eyes locked on the numbers counting down on Noah's body. Nine minutes and fifty-three seconds. Matteo didn't let go. He pressed the barrel deeper. "I said, save Lilia first." "Her brother took three bullets for me. I swore on the Family crest to keep her safe!" Every drop of blood in my body froze. I stared at Matteo in disbelief. "Mommy, save me!" Noah reached out his chubby little hand toward me, crying in terror. My eyes were bloodshot. My voice came out raw and shredded. "Matteo, that is our child! Don't push me!" Matteo glanced at Noah with cold indifference, his lips pressed into a thin line. "Noah is my son. As the Family heir, he must be willing to sacrifice for the Family." "DeLuca men are not cowards. Save Lilia first!" There was no time to think. I leapt to my feet and lunged toward Noah. "I can do this. I can save them both!" Bang! A gunshot rang out behind me. The bullet grazed Noah's cheek. I froze in place, turning back in horror. Matteo had his gun aimed at Noah's head, his expression glacial. "Sera, I will not risk Lilia's life!" A surge of horror tore through me. "Then you'll risk Noah's life?" "Lilia matters more than me and Noah combined?" Matteo clenched his jaw. "My oath comes first! Save Lilia, or I'll kill Noah myself! I keep my word!" Nine minutes and thirty-one seconds. No more time. I gritted my teeth and rushed toward Lilia. Every step felt like walking on a knife's edge. I cut the detonation wire on Lilia's body as fast as I could. Her timer stopped. I spun around and threw myself toward my son like a woman possessed. "Noah, don't be scared. Mommy's here!" The timer on Noah's body was still ticking. Five minutes and thirty-two seconds. There was still time. I could make it! But just as my fingers reached for the wires, a piercing alarm shrieked. The screen on Noah's timer flickered wildly, and the numbers raced to zero at an impossible speed! My world stopped. "Mommy!" Noah looked at me one last time, screaming in terror. The next second, a deafening explosion swallowed everything. The blast wave hurled me backward. My back slammed against the cold wall. I ignored the agony tearing through my body and struggled to lift my head. Where Noah had been, there was nothing left but a blood-soaked ruin. "Noah!!" Hot blood surged up my throat and sprayed from my lips. Matteo rushed to my side, shock and grief across his face. "...Sera! The enemy must have tampered with the bomb! This... this was an accident..." I stared at him blankly. Whatever he said after that, I couldn't hear a single word. The air reeked of gunpowder and blood. It was Noah's blood. I couldn't remember how I got back to the DeLuca estate. I wailed alone in Noah's room until my throat was raw. And Matteo was in another room, gently comforting a frightened Lilia. The second hand hit midnight. I traced my fingers over the little toy car Noah used to love, listening to Lilia's broken sobs from the next room, and dialed a number I hadn't used in years. On the other end was Matteo's most feared enemy, the Don of one of the Five Families: Victor Moretti. I told him everything. "Will you help me?" My voice betrayed no emotion. "I know every one of Matteo's weaknesses." After hanging up, I called my private attorney. "Draft a document for me. Package all of the DeLuca Family's core assets into an independent offshore trust. The beneficiary..." I paused, then enunciated each word. "Me." Chapter 2 Rumors spread through the DeLuca estate. Word was that the Family Elders were furious with Lilia. "What right did Lilia have to take young Noah out on her own?" "Noah was the Family heir, and he died because of an outsider! What will the East Coast think of us?!" "Lilia is a curse on the DeLuca Family! She owes us a blood debt!" The family members erupted in outrage, ready to execute Lilia on the spot. Lilia's face was deathly pale. She hid behind Matteo, trembling uncontrollably. Matteo narrowed his eyes. His cold gaze landed on me. "Sera," he said in a tone that left no room for argument, "go explain to the Elders." I looked up at him. "Explain what?" "It was your misjudgment that caused Noah's death. Lilia is innocent. You are the one responsible." It felt as if a fist had closed around my heart. The pain stole my breath. "My son is dead, Matteo. And now you're saying it was my fault?" Matteo's expression darkened instantly. He leaned close to my ear, his voice low enough for only the two of us to hear. "If you don't take the blame, Noah won't be buried in the family plot." "I'll dump his body in a landfill and let his bones rot with the garbage." He paused, then spoke each word clearly. "Sera, I keep my word." My body turned to ice. I looked at him, this man I had once loved with everything I had, and realized for the first time just how cold his heart could be. For Noah's final peace, I had no choice. That night, I stood before every Elder and bowed my head for the first time in my life. "It was my misjudgment. As the Family's lead bomb disposal expert, I... failed to read the timer correctly." "I failed to protect the Family heir." I bit through the tip of my tongue. Every word tasted of blood. "I am the one who killed my son. I take full responsibility." After a moment of stunned silence, the Elders unleashed all their fury on me. I went from a respected Donna to the arrogant fool who had gotten her own son killed. At the Elders' unanimous demand, Matteo convened a Family tribunal. The vote to condemn me was unanimous. They stripped me of my title as Donna, revoked my access to the Family arsenal, and ordered me to kneel in penance before the Family crest. "From this day forward, Sera, you are no longer the DeLuca Family's Donna." Matteo sat beneath the Family crest, his eyes cold and flat. "Now kneel and repent." I knelt in silence. Even as my world had long since been turned inside out, to them, I was simply quieter than usual. This war was mine to fight alone. While I knelt in penance, Lilia stood at Matteo's side. She lowered her eyes, but couldn't quite hide the triumph in them. I didn't care. Let her enjoy her little victory for two more days. To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Her turn would come. After the penance, I produced a document I had prepared in advance and handed it to Matteo. It was packed with dense legal jargon and cross-border provisions. I said flatly, "This is the transfer document for the arsenal access codes. Look it over and sign if everything's in order." "Very good, Sera. You know how to put the Family first." Matteo took the document and added reassuringly, "Don't worry. Once this blows over, I'll give everything back to you." With a flourish, he signed his name. The moment I watched his pen leave the paper, I laughed silently to myself. He had no idea that what he'd signed was far more than an arsenal access transfer. Buried in the stack was an irrevocable trust agreement that could swallow every core asset the Family owned, along with a divorce agreement. Chapter 3 I was confined to the estate's interrogation room, facing the Elders' relentless questioning day after day. The day of Noah's funeral was no exception. My eyes were red and raw. I screamed until my voice gave out. "I'll take the blame for everything. Just let me say goodbye to Noah one last time!" Lilia stood beside Matteo, her face a picture of guilt and remorse, her voice choked with tears. "Matteo, it's all my fault... it's all because I insisted on taking Noah out... please, let me... let me go in Sera's place to see Noah off. Think of it as my atonement..." She grew more emotional as she spoke, until she buried her face in her hands and wept. Matteo gazed at her tenderly and reached out to wipe her tears. "This isn't your fault. But if that's what you want, then go in Sera's place." He turned to me and ordered, "You killed Noah. You don't deserve to attend his funeral. Stay here and continue the inquiry." I lunged at Matteo, but the bodyguards pinned me down. Matteo stepped back, disgust on his face. "Put her in shackles. Let her cool down." The guards snapped cold steel shackles around my wrists and fastened me to the interrogation chair. And Lilia, cradling Noah's urn in her arms, glanced at me with triumph before following Matteo out. The heavy door swung shut. After what felt like an eternity, the door burst open. One of the men rushed in, his voice frantic. "Something's happened! The hearse carrying Noah went off the road and flipped into the river! The Don wants Sera there now!" My mind went blank. When I arrived at the scene, I couldn't move. The acrid stench of chemicals mixed with the reek of silt hit me like a wall. This wasn't a river. This was a reeking, black sewage canal. A black stretch hearse lay on its side in the filthy canal. On the bank, Lilia was soaked from head to toe, leaning weakly against Matteo. "Matteo... I'm sorry... I couldn't protect Noah's ashes..." "When the car flipped, the urn slipped out of my hands... it's all my fault..." Matteo held her tight, gently patting her back. "Where is Noah's urn?" I shoved my way to the front, my voice a frightening rasp. "Where are my son's ashes?" Lilia flinched and burrowed deeper into Matteo's arms. Matteo snapped his head up, his eyes full of irritation and impatience. He snarled, "Sera, haven't you caused enough trouble? The driver fell asleep at the wheel. It wasn't Lilia's fault!" "She came to say goodbye to Noah out of the goodness of her heart, and the guilt is already destroying her. Stop using a dead child to torture the living!" Using the dead to torment the living. Those words nearly tore me apart. I looked at the trembling "living" person in his arms, then at the filthy canal that had swallowed my son. The fury in my heart burned away every last trace of warmth, leaving only numbness. I shoved aside the bodyguard who tried to hold me back and walked step by step into the revolting canal. The thick, sludgy water swallowed my calves in an instant. Under the horrified stares of everyone watching, I plunged my hands deep into the black mud. My son was in here. I was taking him home. "She's lost her mind! Leave her!" Matteo stood on the bank, sneering. "Let's go!" Everyone left. Only I remained, along with a few guards assigned to watch me. I dug blindly through the muck with both hands, again and again. Jagged glass and broken stone sliced my fingers to ribbons, but I felt no pain. The freezing water numbed my entire body. All I knew was to keep digging. The sky faded from light to dark, then light again. I had been digging for an entire day and night. All ten fingers were torn raw, caked so thick with mud and blood I could no longer tell which was which. Just when I thought I couldn't hold on, I felt it. The box. Noah's urn. I clutched that mud-caked box to my chest, as if I were holding the entire world. Noah, Mommy's taking you home. Chapter 4 Back at the DeLuca estate, I repaired Noah's urn with painstaking care. The cold beneath my fingertips did nothing to quench the fire inside me. When I finished, I fell asleep with tears still on my face. I had no idea how long I slept before frantic barking, snarling, and ripping sounds jolted me awake. Instinctively, I looked toward the table. In the next instant, every drop of blood in my body ran cold. Noah's urn was gone. Lilia's laughter rose above the barking, sharp enough to pierce my skull. A terrible premonition seized my heart. I followed the barking to the back courtyard, and what I saw dragged me straight to hell. Lilia was lounging on a garden swing, watching her pit bulls tear at something in a frenzy. It was Noah's urn! The box had been chewed to pieces. My son's pale ashes were scattered across the ground. Those animals were lapping the powder off the dirt with greedy tongues! "No!!" A roar filled my head. The last thread of my reason snapped. I pulled the Browning from my waistband, aimed at Lilia with red-rimmed eyes, and screamed. "Lilia, I'll kill you!" Bang! A gunshot rang out. The bullet didn't hit Lilia. It hit me. The round tore through my wrist. Searing pain shot up my arm, and the Browning clattered to the ground. Matteo's towering frame stepped in front of Lilia. "In my Family, no one kills without my permission, Sera." Lilia peeked out from behind him, tears streaming down her ashen face. "Sera, I was just feeding my dogs their calcium supplements. How could you try to kill me over that?" Calcium supplements? I clutched my bleeding wrist and used every last scrap of sanity I had left to call the Family doctor. After examining the powder, the doctor went white. He turned to Matteo. "Don DeLuca, these appear to be human cremated remains..." "It's Noah." I cut the doctor off, my eyes burning, biting out every word. "Matteo, these are the ashes of your child and mine. Noah." Lilia swayed on her feet, crying harder, and buried herself in Matteo's arms. "Matteo, I'm so sorry... I really didn't know... Wasn't Noah's urn supposed to have fallen into the sewage canal..." Matteo held her tight, one hand stroking her hair, and glared at me with venom. "Enough, Sera!" he snarled. "This is your fault! You never told us you'd recovered the urn!" "This ends here. Not a word to anyone!" His voice carried absolute authority. "You don't want the entire East Coast laughing at us because the DeLuca heir's ashes were eaten by dogs, do you?" For Lilia's sake, he had ground my dignity and my son's into dust. Again. Hatred cracked through the numbness and spread through me like vines overtaking a wall. I didn't cry. I had no tears left. From here on, there would only be blood. My enemies' blood. That evening, Lilia came to my room, red-eyed, claiming she wanted to apologize. She handed me a heavy wooden box. "Sera, I'm sorry... I... I sent people to the sewage canal, and they managed to salvage some of Noah's belongings." I snatched the box from her hands. The moment I flipped the latch, Lilia spun away. A blinding flash of white light exploded in my face. Searing agony tore through my eyes, and I understood instantly. Inside the box was a compact flashbang device, rigged to detonate on opening! I spent three days in a hospital bed. When the bandages came off, my world had turned gray, like an old black-and-white film. Matteo made a point of visiting. "I've already asked. Lilia didn't know about it either. I'll get to the bottom of this." "Take your time. No rush." I sent him away and called my attorney to speed up the asset transfer. After hanging up with the lawyer, I dialed Victor. "Don Moretti, I'm prepared to hand you half of the DeLuca Family's assets." I paused, then spoke each word with care. "In return, I want your full backing." Chapter 5 Matteo promised to investigate, then turned around and whisked Lilia off to Switzerland for vacation. I worked in the shadows, accelerating every moving part. Everything was falling into place. Then, the day before the asset transfer agreement was set to take effect, an unexpected piece of news shattered the calm. Lilia had been attacked in Switzerland and shot in the arm. Matteo flew her back to the DeLuca estate on his private jet that same day. He kicked my door open like a maddened beast. Lilia trailed behind him, her arm swathed in bandages, weeping with practiced fragility. "Sera! The assassin was carrying a letter with your instructions!" Matteo's bloodshot eyes bored into me. "You won't stop until she's dead. You sent an assassin after Lilia!" Lilia tugged at Matteo's sleeve, sobbing in despair. "Matteo, don't blame Sera... I know she can't stand having me around... If I just die, she won't have anyone left to hate..." Her words poured fuel on the fire. Matteo lost all control. He seized my throat and slammed me against the wall. "You killed Noah, and now you're trying to kill Lilia! You've ruined everything!" I could barely breathe under his grip, but I managed to choke out: "It's a setup... you actually believe I'd put my orders in writing... you idiot..." My words sent him over the edge. "Guards!" He released me, his voice like ice. "Administer Punishment Zero!" Punishment Zero was the DeLuca Family's most severe sentence. Ninety-nine lashes with a whip soaked in brine and studded with glass shards. Every stroke was enough to tear off a strip of flesh. I was dragged to the open courtyard and bound to the cold iron frame. The Elders stood in a half circle, watching me with dead eyes. Matteo stood across from me and took the whip from his man's hand. He ripped my clothes away, baring my skin. "Sera, you brought this on yourself." Crack! The first lash fell. White-hot agony ripped through every nerve in my body. I clenched my teeth and refused to make a sound. Crack! Crack! Crack! Lash after lash, whistling through the air, striking flesh already torn to ribbons. Brine and glass shards ground into my open wounds. Each blow felt like being flayed alive. Hatred annihilated pain. I swallowed every scream with my own blood. I would never show weakness in front of my enemies. I gritted my teeth and counted silently. Ninety-one, ninety-two... ninety-eight... Ninety-nine. The final lash fell. My body gave out, and I collapsed against the frame. When they cut me down, I crumpled into the pool of my own blood. Matteo and the Elders stood at a distance, watching me struggle in my own blood with nothing but contempt. Lilia covered her mouth to hide her laughter. I summoned every last ounce of strength and stood. The phone in my pocket vibrated. I pulled it out. A faint, blood-stained smile curved my lips. The core assets were ready to transfer into the offshore trust. All the transaction needed was my final confirmation. With one tap, I emptied Matteo's core accounts and locked down the arsenal access codes. Then I dragged my blood-soaked body out of the DeLuca estate, step by step. Outside the gate, a row of black armored cars waited in silence. I climbed in and sat beside Victor, casting one last glance at the DeLuca estate. Enjoy your final moment of peace, Matteo. The next time we meet, I'll drown the DeLuca estate in fire and blood.