Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 09

Born in the Mud, Crowned the Mafia Queen Chapter 09

Eyes blurred with tears, I looked at him and asked, bitter, “Mr. De Luca, what exactly are we measuring ‘better’ by here? Social status? Money? Or just being a decent person?”

Dante said, conflicted, “He was just some ordinary guy. He gave you a cheap watch, and you still can’t let it

go?”

“That’s right. He was an ordinary guy.”

I looked at Dante’s face, and the more I looked, the more arrogant it seemed.

“He was ordinary. So what, I’m not allowed to think about him? Ordinary people don’t deserve to be

remembered?”

I understood exactly what he meant.

With a handsome, wealthy man standing right in front of me, how could I still be hung up on a man in a coma, lying in a hospital bed?

Not choosing him meant I didn’t know what was good for me.

“Mr. De Luca, no matter how talented or successful you are, in my heart, you’ll never measure up to him.

Never measure up to someone that ordinary.”

Even if I fell in love with someone else down the line, Dante still wouldn’t measure up to anyone I chose.

Dante’s face went pale.

After that, Dante finally disappeared from my life.

I felt nothing but relief.

Over the years, my hard work had started paying off. My parents warmed up to me, but my brother’s

attitude turned strange.

I never felt like that house was home, so I rarely went back. I could count the visits on one hand over the

years, and every single time, my brother had something snide to say.

I didn’t let him get away with it either, so the house usually ended up tense, and the two of us would part on

bad terms.

A few years later, on Thanksgiving, my mother begged me over and over to come home for a family dinner.

By then, we hadn’t seen each other in nearly a year.

Her voice was full of pleading.

I’ll admit, in that moment, sotuething in mne softened. So I went.

It was just the four of us.

By then, Juliet and Marco had gone to Altiça chasing a new investment opportunity. Word was Marco had his eye on mining, betting everything on one last shot to turn things around.

Juliet didn’t have to go, but she didn’t want to be apart from her husband. She said once you’re married and have a family, there’s too much to think about, so she insisted on going with him.

I wasn’t going to judge her choice. That was hers to make.

Coincidentally, that same Thanksgiving night, she called.

She wished our parents a happy holiday, then suddenly burst into tears.

She said the climate over there was awful, the food didn’t agree with her, and the mining venture wasn’t

going nearly as well as they’d hoped. Marco had sunk a fortune into it with no returns in sight, the pressure

was crushing him, and his temper had gotten worse and worse.

He used to give her whatever she wanted. Now he snapped at her over nothing.

She said the kids weren’t around and had grown distant from her.

They were hitting their teenage years, acting out, not listening to her at all. She didn’t know what to do, asked our mother if being a parent was always this exhausting. Thinking back to her own teenage years, she

said, Mom, you really went through it.

Hearing that, my mother’s heart broke for her.

She left the table right then and spent a long time out in the garden, talking with Juliet.

My father and brother, he per

solutions for her.

she was struggling, got so worked up they scrambled to come up with

I slowly finished the last bite of my dinner, looked up at the bright full moon, and felt nothing at all.

It didn’t matter. My father and brother would retire soon enough. Plenty of time to worry about flying to

Africa to take care of Juliet.

The other top members of the family had grown increasingly frustrated with them, and increasingly

impressed with Vivian.

I was on Vivian’s side too.

She was going to become the real power behind the family.

Just thinking that put me in a good mood.