Sacrificed To The Don They Now Regret novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Verdict

Fiorella held the glass up to the light and turned it slowly.

"It's not poison," she said. "It's a sleeping draught. Mama bought it from the old chemist on Harbor Street."

My mother's face went blank.

"Fiorella, be quiet."

"She meant for you both to fall asleep at the table," Fiorella said to me. "Then her friend's men would have come in the side gate, and you'd have been carried out."

"Which friend?"

"The one who held the Don at the font." Her mouth twisted. "He is not coming now. He's in a car on the way to the airport."

I looked at Lorenzo.

Lorenzo had not moved, but his hand had closed on the back of the chair.

"He will not reach it," he said.

Fiorella nodded.

She set the glass down on the table very carefully, and folded her hands.

"I took it from her because I wanted the Don's oath," she said. "The one he swore in the church. Now I have given him a name and a glass. I walk out."

"No," I said.

She turned.

I stood in my wedding dress in front of two hundred guests.

Both families were there, and the commission, and the whole dock crew in their good jackets.

My husband stood beside me.

I did not look at him.

I had the floor, and I knew exactly what to do with it.

"You do walk out," I said. "I'm keeping Lorenzo's oath, because he gave it. But the oath was your life. It never covered anything else."

"Livia."

"You tipped scalding coffee into a woman's eyes. She is sitting there half blind, with a surgery in two weeks, because of you."

Ilaria raised her chin.

"You practiced for a week. You practiced on a paper cup, and you came to my table with your hands steady, and you smiled."

"Mama made me."

"Mama made you once. You came to the church, and you lied to me again, and you tried to buy me off with her money. Nobody made you do that."

Fiorella's eyes flashed.

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend