Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 05

Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 05

Under my accusations, my mother lowered her head, asfiamed.

Thankfully, she agreed to my request.

She hired tutors for me so I could finish my education.

I moved out of the Moretti estate, just to get some peace.

In the nights before I left, my mother barely slept, waking up over and over, worried I’d have a hard time out on my own. She packed me bags full of things.

She drove me to my apartment building, and before leaving, told me to call frome often, to let her know if I needed anything.

I answered politely, “Sure thing, ma’am.”

She froze. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Clara, why won’t you call me Mom?”

I smiled. “You want to hear it? Fine, I can say it. Sure. Mom.”

Her knuckles went white around the strap of her purse.

It was just a word, really, no big deal. I could say it to her, I could say it to anyone. It didn’t mean anything

either way.

I didn’t have the energy to care about her feelings anymore.

I stayed in my apartment, studying hard with my tutors.

I didn’t expect Dante to show up.

He was leaning against a luxury car, head tilted down slightly, moonlight catching the top of his head like something out of a movie.

Someone like that, standing outside my building.

He’d been waiting a long time. When I finally came downstairs, his dark eyes studied me for a moment

before he said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

I was confused, until he explained: “I should’ve spoken up for you that day. I just thought, why would a kid

lie?”

Then I understood.

He was apologizing for that night I got blamed for pushing Talia.

For a second I just stood there, stunned. Then came this absurd urge to laugh.

And underneath that, some kind of anger I couldn’t quite name.

“So, deep down, you’d already decided I was some vicious woman, vicious enough to push a kid into a pool. You made up your mind about that, and then you just took a kid’s word for it.”

Dante went quiet, then said after a while, “I’m sorry. I was small-minded about it. If you’re willing, I can talk to your parents about our marriage. With the De Luca name behind you, nobody would dare give you

trouble anymore.”

“Get out.” I clenched my fists, forcing down my anger. “You think your marriage is some kind of charity, that I should be grateful and just take it? I don’t need it. I don’t even want it.”

Dante froze.

That night, he lingered outside my building for a long time.

He’d made me too angry to sleep too.

It was deep into the night before I finally heard his car start up downstairs.

With that mess handled, I threw myself fully into studying./

Six months later, the Morettis sent me to a university in Europe for business school.

Studying abroad, I inevitably ran into people I knew, all of them curious about the whole “switched at birth”

story between me and Juliet.

I didn’t want to talk about it.

Luckily, Valerie Russo pulled me out of that mess, linking her arm through mine, indignant.

“I know what they’re really thinking. They say they’re curious, but really they’re just feeling sorry for Juliet, like she fell from heaven overnight, so tragic. Like it’s not even her fault, it’s the nurse’s fault for mixing up

the babies.”

“They think Juliet’s innocent, that none of this is on her. But I just don’t like her. I think she moved into a life that wasn’t hers and still gets to keep the innocent-victim spot, so nobody can even be mad at her, and everyone pities her on top of it. How does she get to have it all?”

Valerie’s words let out something I’d been holding in my chest for a long time.

Those were exactly the things I wanted to say, but if I said them myself, everyone would just call me petty.

I’d already gotten back what should’ve been mine to begin with. How was I supposed to blame Juliet, the innocent one, on top of that?

In their eyes, she’d already suffered enough.

I couldn’t blame her, couldn’t even dislike her. Disliking her would make it my fault.

When you’re powerless, you don’t even get to have a single dark feeling.

Thankfully, there was still someone out there who understood where I was coming from.