The Mafia’s Unwanted Daughter Is Now Their Downfall Chapter 03

The Mafia’s Unwanted Daughter Is Now Their Downfall Chapter 03

After I washed up and got into bed, Luca Ferraro sent me a message.

The first thing he asked was, “Did you finalize your college decision? It’s the one in Los Angeles, right?”

Luca had always wanted to attend the best business school on the East Coast.

The Ferraros had named him a potential heir, and he’d said more than once that he would only accept the best training.

But a month before the application deadline, he suddenly changed his mind.

He announced he wasn’t leaving California and moved the university in Los Angeles to the top of his list.

I had never understood why.

Now, I finally asked.

Luca paused for a few seconds before answering.

“Bianca’s entrance exam scores were a little low. She’ll have a better shot if she stays in-state.”

For a moment, I thought I must have misheard him.

“So you’re giving up on your own goal just to go to the same school as her?”

Luca sounded completely relaxed.

“It’s just a school. How could that possibly matter more than Bianca?”

A bitter laugh almost escaped me.

Back when I first learned what his goal was, I’d been riddled with anxiety for weeks.

At the time, my grades were only good enough for an ordinary state university. I didn’t dare dream of a school like his.

But because I wanted to stay in the same city as Luca—and because I wanted to use data engineering to one day leave Moretti territory—I studied like a woman possessed, burning through practice problems, memorizing vocabulary, and fighting for every last point.

The day the scores were released, I stared at the high number on the screen and cried with pure, unadulterated joy.

And now, just to accommodate Bianca, he was tossing aside his dream without a second thought.

And with it, the promise he’d made to me.

I forced down the ache in my chest and asked him another question.

“Then why did you still want me to stay in Los Angeles, too?”

Before he answered, I had imagined all sorts of possibilities.

Maybe he couldn’t bear to part with me. Maybe he was worried about me going out of state alone.

But Luca just gave a small laugh.

“Anyone in the spotlight needs someone standing in the shadows to set them off.”

“Bianca is the daughter the Moretti Family wants to show its allies. With you standing next to her, people will see just how special she is.”

“And with you there to handle her schoolwork and her problems, I won’t have to worry.”

At that moment, a cold shock went through me, leaving my hands numb.

Ever since I was born, everyone around me had compared me to Bianca.

They said she belonged at the head of the Family, while I only needed to stand behind her.

Luca was the only one who had ever told me, “You’re your own person.”

He had said that no matter how other Families saw me, in his eyes, I was one of a kind.

I believed him.

I thought I would always be his exception.

Until he met Bianca.

After that, his gaze never really left her.

I closed my eyes for a moment, forcing my feelings down.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m going to sleep.”

I hung up without waiting for a response.

Just as I was about to turn off the light, I looked up and saw Bianca standing in my doorway.

She was holding a glass of milk.

“Elena, can I come in?”

I nodded.

She handed me the milk, then smiled. “Oh, right. We’re taking the annual Family photo tomorrow. Don’t oversleep like you always do.”

Then she winked at me and turned to leave.

I wanted to say I wasn’t going, but the words caught in my throat.

When we were little, Bianca had always been in poor health.

So that my parents could devote more time to her, they sent me to live with my grandmother in a small town out of state.

They rarely came to see me, but every Christmas, they mailed a formal Moretti Family holiday card.

In the photo, Bianca always stood in the center, smiling brightly, surrounded by our parents and Matteo.

It wasn’t just a photo.

It would be hung in the reception hall and sent to all our allied Families. The people in it were the blood relatives the head of the Family publicly acknowledged—and therefore protected.

Taking one real Family photo with my family had become a deep-seated desire.

After I returned to the mansion, there should have been plenty of chances.

But every time photo day came around, I—someone with a perfectly stable schedule—would inexplicably oversleep.

I would sleep so deeply that no matter how hard my parents knocked, I wouldn’t wake up.

After it happened several times, they stopped bothering to wait for me.

With one missed photo after another, Bianca became the only publicly acknowledged daughter of the Moretti Family in the eyes of our allies.

Now, I had already decided to leave, but I still didn’t want my name to be missing forever from the Moretti public record.

To make sure I didn’t miss it again, I set three alarms and turned the volume all the way up.

I usually went to bed around ten. That night, I turned out the lights before nine.

But the next morning, the exact same thing happened.