The Mafia Princess Asked for a Beautiful Ashes Box Chapter 08

The Mafia Princess Asked for a Beautiful Ashes Box Chapter 08

“Those were her exact words,” Dante said. “Mia, do you think Nina might hurt herself? Did I push

her too far?”

“Of course not!”

Mia immediately gripped his hand.

“Nina wouldn’t kill herself. She has no reason to. Everything she said and did was meant to make you feel guilty. Have you forgotten that she smashed your mother’s crystal figurine with her own hands? She’s probably too ashamed to face you, so she’s hiding.”

Confusion flickered through Dante’s eyes.

“But we didn’t actually see her drop it. Now that I think about it, it looked more like the pawnbroker let go before she had a grip on it.”

“Dante, she’s manipulating you again!” Mia cut in sharply. “The moment you start doubting yourself,

she wins.”

Dante’s lashes trembled. He fell silent.

He sank back onto the couch and tried to reassure himself.

“You’re right. Nina is fine. She survived five miserable years. She wouldn’t kill herself now.”

Hovering above him, I felt bitterness spread through me.

So he had known how miserable my life was.

Dante’s phone vibrated.

He picked it up, and his pupils contracted the instant he saw the screen.

The message was from his consigliere. Attached was a photograph of the receipt for my urn,

bearing my signature in unmistakable ink.

Even through a text, the man’s fear was obvious.

consigliere: [Don Russo, Principessa Nina did order the urn. She never paid the remaining $500, so

the shop has already sold it to another family.]

Dante’s vision seemed to go black. He nearly collapsed.

His hand shook as he tried to reply, but a call from the police came through first.

“Mr. Russo? We need you to come to the office of chief medical examiner to identify your sister.”

The officer paused. “She died by suicide. We also recovered a phone she had hidden near the river.”

Before I died, I left myself one final way to be heard

Whether Dante believed me or not, I had written a note in my phone.

[First, I took my own life. Please don’t waste police resources looking for anyone else. I had stomach cancer, and my medical records are saved on this phone. I chose this freely, and I have no

regrets.

Second, I want to say one last thing to my brother. did not sell Mom’s keepsake five years ago. Mia framed me. The pawnbroker knows her. If you investigate the payments and records carefully,

the truth will come out.

Last, I still want the beautiful urn I ordered. I only owed another five hundred dollars. Dante, please

show me one final act of mercy and pay the balance.

Actually, I take that back. Paying it wouldn’t be an act of mercy. You still owe me five hundred dollars for those three bottles of whiskey.]

I knew it wouldn’t take long for someone to find my body, so I wedged my phone between the rocks along the riverbank.

The police found it exactly as I had expected.

Near midnight, Dante sat in the waiting area of the chief medical examiner’s office, clutching my phone and staring at the note in disbelief.

He read those few paragraphs over and over.

At last, his eyes turned red, and he asked hoarsely, Are you sure this is my sister’s phone? Could there be some kind of mistake? How could Nina be dead?”

The officer sighed. He had seen grief like this too many times.

“Mr. Russo, I know this is difficult, but you need to think about making arrangements for your sister.

Your sister was thoughtful enough to leave us a note. It made our job easier. You don’t look like a man who has to worry about money. If that urn was what she wanted, you should get it for her.”

A single tear slid down Dante’s face.