Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 01

Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 01

I was twenty-eight when my birth parents finally found me.

The fake heiress had become the Donna of a mafia family. Meanwhile, I was getting side-eyed by blind dates for being “too old.”

There’d been an arranged marriage waiting for me once. The fake daughter had already married into it in my place.

She and Marco De Luca, the family heir, hit it off. Now they had two kids and were the golden couple of high society.

When the truth came out, she was drowning in guilt, crying so hard she couldn’t get a word out.

Her husband couldn’t stand to see her like that. He swore he’d be faithful to her for the rest of his life.

My birth mother, trying to comfort her, told her she was the only child she’d ever truly love.

I stood there alone.

I dug my nails into my palms. It stung all the way through.

That night, during one of our “heart-to-hearts,” she told me to let it go.

To make it up to me, she started planning my wedding.

I stared at the crystal chandelier blazing over the ballroom and found myself missing the dusty little lamp back in my old rental.

“Mom,” I said. “I want to go home. Just let me go home.”

She wouldn’t hear of it.

She got a little angry. “Go home? This is your home.”

“Clara, your dad, your mom, your brother, we’re all trying to make this up to you. Have we not been good enough to you?”

My throat closed up. I couldn’t answer.

Of course they were good to me.

It’s just that when I asked one of the maids to make me a bowl of pasta, she smiled and said sure. The second she turned around, I heard her whispering to the others: “She actually thinks she’s a princess now? Making me cook for her? A high school dropout playing Moretti princess, that’s rich. She’s not fit to touch Juliet’s little finger.”

My mother had a limited-edition bag put on hold for me. The sales associate asked if she wanted the crocodile-skin one sent over too.

Without even glancing at me, she said, “No, I’ve had my eye on that one for six months. That one’s for Juliet.”

A maid asked her, “Ma’am, should I make Miss Clara’s truffle soup with white truffles today?”

“That’s for Juliet,” she said. “She’s pregnant, she needs the good stuff. Clara can have the regular black truffle. Lower grade, but it’s edible.”

Weren’t they good to me?

Everything a mafia princess was supposed to have, they could give me.

But they’d give Juliet better.

Say it out loud and I sound petty.

Seeing me go quiet, refusing to answer her, my mother lost her patience.

“That’s enough. Don’t talk like that again, you’re breaking our hearts. I’ve set you up with Marco’s younger brother. He’s young, successful, cut ties with the De Luca family and built his own company from scratch. Marry him and you’ll have a good life.”

I met Marco’s brother, Dante.

His skills were every bit as sharp as his brother’s, which made him the total package in most people’s eyes: rich, gorgeous, ambitious.

Before all this, I could only look up to him from a distance.

Now here he was, forced into a blind date with the exact kind of woman he used to be way out of reach for.

He obviously didn’t want me.

Cold expression, arms crossed, straight to the point. “I already have someone I love. Marrying you is just me clearing up her mess.”

I thought about it, then guessed. “The person you love, that’s Juliet?”

His face went a shade colder. His eyes narrowed.

I understood everything in that moment.

“I came here to tell you I’ll marry you,” he said. “I’ll make sure I never step out on you. In public, you’ll get all the respect that comes with being Mrs. De Luca. But don’t expect anything more than that from this marriage. And one more thing: I’ve already made things right with Juliet. If you’re still holding a grudge against her, don’t blame me for what happens next.”

Every word out of his mouth was ice cold.

A young, successful, gorgeous man was willing to marry me, all just to keep me from disturbing his sister-in-law’s perfect little life.

Everyone here was looking out for Juliet.

They’d sacrifice their own marriages for her happiness.

How pathetic.

Fine, he could arrange his own marriage. But he’d gone and arranged mine too.

Except I already had someone.