The Don Lost His Little Orphan Chapter 08

The Don Lost His Little Orphan Chapter 08

After that day, Nico didn’t show up again. 

But I knew he hadn’t given up. 

Because strange good luck started finding me. 

I bought cheap rice, and the shopkeeper threw in a bag of 

flour. “Promotion,” he said. 

I took in laundry, and the owner paid me three times what he 

should have. 

Elias went to the used bookstore for bar prep materials, and 

the owner gave him a brand new set for free. 

Elias didn’t know. He thought people were just being nice. 

But I knew. 

Beyond the small handouts, Luca brought a box of jewelry, a 

black card, and keys to an apartment on the Upper East Side. 

He stood in our doorway, uncomfortable. 

“Mrs. Reed, the Don says if you divorce Elias Reed, he’ll give you a proper place in the Moretti estate. No one will look down 

on you again.” 

I looked at those expensive things and felt sick. 

What made it worse, I found out that Mrs. Dunn, the cleaning 

lady who’d once secretly given me a scarf at the service 

entrance, had been fired because she was on duty the night I 

escaped. Nico blamed her. 

I tracked her down. She’d died in a shelter. 

I used the last of my money to buy her a cheap grave. 

That grave shattered whatever gratitude I had left for Nico. 

That day, I put all the extra money, the free food, the expensive books, the jewelry, the keys, into a big bag. 

When Elias went out, I took it to the back gate of the Moretti 

estate. 

Luca was waiting. 

He looked uncomfortable. “Sienna…” 

“Call me Mrs. Reed,” I said. 

Luca stopped. 

I dropped the heavy bag at his feet. 

“Tell Nico,” I said coldly, “the Reeds are poor, but we have 

pride. Handouts rot your soul. Tell him to keep his 

condescension to himself and stay away from me.” 

Luca looked pained. “Mrs. Reed, you misunderstand. The Don 

just wants you to live better.” 

“Better?” I laughed. 

“When I was burning up with fever at the Moretti estate, he 

punished me. When I was drowning in the pool, he cared about 

his floor. Now that I’m married, he’s showing up with credit cards and apartments?” 

I looked at Luca. “He doesn’t want me to be happy. He just 

wants to ease his own guilty conscience.” 

“Sienna.” A low, rough voice came from inside the gate. 

Nico stepped out of the shadows. 

He wasn’t wearing his usual black suit. Just a dark gray 

sweater. 

His face was worn. Stubble on his jaw. 

He didn’t look like Don Moretti at all. 

He looked at the bag on the ground. There was pain in his eyes. “Do you hate my things that much?” 

I looked at him and felt nothing. “Yes. They’re dirty.” 

Three words, three bullets. 

Nico staggered, grabbing the doorframe. 

“Dirty…” He laughed, but it sounded worse than crying. “So that’s what I am to you now. Dirty.” 

He looked at me hard. “Sienna. What if I told you I had a reason for treating you like that? Would you believe me?” 

I was quiet for a moment. “It doesn’t matter.” 

“Why not?” He straightened, desperate. “Seven years. I raised you for seven years. You won’t even listen to an explanation?” 

“Fine. I’m listening.” I stood still. “Go ahead.” 

Nico’s throat moved. 

He opened his mouth. The words seemed heavy. 

“After East Harbor, the Moretti Family was in chaos. The old 

Don’s loyalists. The Cross family. The capos I’d taken down. 

They were all watching you.” 

His fists clenched. “They knew you were the kid I brought 

back from the docks. If I showed I cared about you, you’d be 

leverage.” 

I watched him. 

Nico’s eyes were red, his voice shaking. 

“That night at the pool, Vivienne was there. So were Cross 

family men. If I’d defended you in public, you’d have been in a 

trunk the next day, dumped somewhere no one would ever find you.” 

“I said what I said because I needed them to think you meant 

nothing.” 

He stepped forward, reaching for my shoulders. “Sienna, I 

pushed you away to keep you alive.” 

Silence. 

Luca said quietly, “Mrs. Reed, the Don has turned down so 

many deals for you. He lives with death every day. He was just waiting for things to settle, so he could…” 

“Could what?” I spoke. My voice calm, even I was surprised. 

I didn’t cry. I wasn’t moved by his confession. 

I looked at Nico. “Do you think you’re a hero?” 

Nico froze. 

“You used the cruelest way to push me down, all while telling yourself it was for my own good.” 

“You thought pushing me away was protecting me. But did you ever think about what Sienna needed? The one drowning in that pool? The one burning up alone in her room?” 

I stepped closer. 

“I didn’t need someone to decide my fate from on high. I just needed someone to pull me out of the water. Just an ordinary person willing to stand up for me.” 

“Nico.” I looked into his shaking eyes. “You’re too proud.” 

“You took family politics and applied them to feelings. And what did it get you? You kept your position. You lost me.” 

Nico’s body seemed to collapse. He braced himself against the 

wall, gasping. 

“I owe the Moretti Family for saving my life. Seven years of 

walking on eggshells and that ice water paid it back.” 

I turned away. “From now on, we go our separate ways. Don Moretti, stop bothering Elias Reed’s wife.” 

I walked away. 

Behind me, Luca’s panicked voice. 

“Don! You’re bleeding!” 

I didn’t stop. 

Because there was someone in a rundown apartment with a 

warm light on, waiting for me to come home to a hot meal.