The True Mafia Principessa Chapter 04

The True Mafia Principessa Chapter 04

There were too many people around right now. If I got caught, I’d never escape, no matter how long I waited.

I was ready to stay patient.

Clara wasn’t.

She came to the storage room alone, stopping a few steps away, looking down at me like I was beneath her.

“So what if you really are the Vayne family’s Principessa?” she said with a sneer. “Doesn’t change the fact that everyone thinks you’re the fake.”

I said nothing.

She smiled, smug and taunting. “You didn’t know, did you? Quentin and I met at the orphanage. He promised he’d give me a better life. After you brought him home, he used his allowance to support me on the side.”

My heart clenched.

“He told me I’m the only one he loves,” she went on. “He even said he’d use the Vayne family’s wealth and your uncle Lorenzo Grimaldi’s empire to marry me.”

Her voice dropped, dripping with malice. “Oh, and one more thing. He already planted someone close to your dear Uncle Lorenzo. Just a little more effort, and the Grimaldi family will be finished.”

She laughed softly. “In the end, everything will belong to us. I can’t wait to see you all begging like dogs.”

So that was his plan.

He wasn’t just after me. He was coming for Uncle Lorenzo too.

She stepped closer and nudged me with her foot, annoyed at my lack of reaction. “If you kneel and beg me now, I might convince Quentin to go easy on you.”

I grabbed her ankle and yanked.

She hit the ground hard with a scream.

Before she could react, I flipped over and pinned her down, my hand striking her face again and again.

“You want me to kneel?” I hissed. “You think you’re worth that? What the hell are you?”

Her screams turned hysterical. “Quentin! Quentin! Help me!”

The door burst open.

Quentin rushed in, fury written all over his face. He shoved me off her. “Olyria, you still haven’t learned your lesson? Clara came here to apologize, and you attack her again?”

I let out a low laugh.

Call him a fool, and he had spent years hiding his ambition, waiting patiently.

Call him smart, and he believed a lie this obvious.

I crawled toward him, grabbing onto his pant leg with all the strength I had left. “You’re going after my uncle… aren’t you?”

His body stiffened.

He didn’t deny it. He didn’t confirm it either.

“Olyria,” he said quietly, “you can’t keep everything for yourselves forever. I just want a better life.”

He pulled free from my grip and ordered the door locked.

“For the next few days, no one opens this door. Not until she admits she’s wrong and kneels to Clara.”

The lock clicked shut.

I lay on the cold floor, teeth clenched, hatred burning through me.

All these years, I had given him everything.

And all I did was invite a wolf into my home.

Slowly, I forced myself back up and dialed Uncle Lorenzo’s number.

Minutes later, the door was breached in complete silence.

My uncle’s men moved like ghosts, slipping inside and pulling me out.

On the way out, they set the storage room on fire.

I took off the ring Quentin had given me when he proposed and tossed it into the flames.

That was the end of us.

The next time we met, it would be a reckoning.

…

The fire triggered the alarm system.

Quentin frowned, confusion flashing across his face just as a servant rushed in.

“Mr. Ashford, the storage room is on fire!”

He froze. “Which one?”

The servant hesitated. “The one… the one where the girl pretending to be the Vayne Principessa is locked up.”

The three others in the room went pale.

Lucian was the first to react. He rushed to the window, throwing it open.

In the distance, thick smoke rose into the sky.

From the direction of the storage building.

The others saw it too.

“Put it out! Call the fire department!” someone shouted.

“Olyria is still inside!”