The Mafia’s Forgotten Daughter. The Desert King’s Jewel Chapter 01

The Mafia’s Forgotten Daughter. The Desert King’s Jewel Chapter 01

I loved ice cream, but my adopted sister did not–so it disappeared from our house.

I used my own allowance to buy myself a cheap ice cream cone.

I was happily licking it when the fake daughter dropped to her knees at my feet.

“Are you saying one day I will not even afford a cheap dessert?”

Before I could blink, my brother struck me twice.

“You got the funds, but love cannot be bought–Camille is my only real sister.”

Then my father poured scalding coffee over my head. “A disgrace like you does not deserve the Vescari name!”

Their punishment? They sent me to an overseas refugee camp.

Ten years later, I walked into an elite charity gala holding another ice cream. And there he was–Rafael.

“After all these years, you still have no dignity.”

I could not be bothered. “Let go. My Papa is waiting–this will melt.”

“Papa? Who gave you the right to use that word?”

I rolled my eyes. Did he really think I meant that worthless deadbeat?

I meant my adoptive father–the true king of the underworld, a man who loved sweets more than life itself.

And if his ice cream melted? You had no idea what the consequences would be.

…

I craned my neck, scanning the crowd.

Tonight was my brother Zayn Al-Nassar’s wedding. Mr. Harris gave me this address—it should be right.

Rafael grabbed my arm. “Everyone in here comes from top-tier mafia empires. You show up looking like that? You’re an embarrassment to the Vescari name.”

I laughed coldly. “I’m not a Vescari. So how exactly am I embarrassing them?”

Irritation flickered in his eyes. “Classic gutter trash—all bark, no bite.”

I wasn’t going to engage. I shook him off and strode inside.

Vescari guards blocked my path. “This isn’t a place for bums like you.”

One of them looked me up and down, disgust plastered across his face. Then he muttered to his partner, “She really thinks she’s a princess? Look at what she’s wearing.”

I glanced down—my designer pink gown was dirty from all the running.

Rafael let out an annoyed sigh. “Even if the Vescari family won’t claim you, you don’t have to live like a beggar. Show a little dignity.”

“Move!” I snapped. “I’m here for a wedding. I got an invitation—you have no right to stop me.”

My brother—my real brother, the Oil King’s son—came to America for a strategic marriage alliance. Then he found his match and decided to hold the wedding in her hometown.

Dad and I flew in from our desert compound especially to celebrate with him.

Rafael’s mouth twisted. “An invitation? I don’t remember sending you one. Still pretending you’re not just after our family’s money?”

I blinked. Wait—there was a Vescari wedding tonight too?

“Ten years gone, and you haven’t grown an inch. I almost considered letting you come back—but clearly, you haven’t changed at all.”

I smiled coldly. So he did know I’d been gone for a decade.

When I first landed in that foreign country, I was barely twelve. In the desert, I cried until my throat burned.

That land was torn apart by war—fighter jets and artillery nonstop. Every day, I was terrified I wouldn’t make it to the next.

Until I saved a wounded elder during an ambush.

I scavenged food scraps from the camp and shared whatever little I had with him. After he recovered, he took me home—an eighty-story palace that pierced the clouds.

No exaggeration—I literally screamed.

Turns out, that war was just a power struggle between the Al-Nassar family and a rival oil dynasty. My adoptive father had been targeted. I saved his life—and he crushed every single enemy and annexed their territories.

I was brought into the palace and formally adopted by the Al-Nassar family.

With my help, the entire mining zone quieted down. Peace returned.

They called me their lucky charm. I became the Oil Princess—everyone in that region knew my name.

So if the Vescari family had bothered to check on me even once in those ten years, they would’ve known—I’d been adopted by a family that owned half the desert.

I was about to speak when a voice cut in.

“Rafael, today’s my big day—don’t fight, okay?”

A girl in a pink gown stepped out of the hall, radiant, flashing a sweet smile.

But the moment I saw her face, my body went rigid.

Because that face—it was identical to the woman who’d abandoned me in that dump all those years ago.