I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 26
The service ledger review took a full two months.
On the day the results came out, Mom sent me a copy.
The year of work I had done was not retroactively added as “service.”
At my request, it was listed separately in an appendix.
*Unrecorded, unrewarded, completed in fact by Cosima Marino.*
My father and the consigliere had both signed below it.
The Family couldn’t use a few overdue entries to bargain me into coming back, and they could no longer pretend those things had never happened.
The new rules were written after that.
From now on, every service would have to be personally confirmed by the one who carried it out. The head of the family and the consigliere could not shift one person’s responsibilities onto another, and work completed by someone else could not be counted toward an heir’s assessment.
Nico’s previous assessment results were nullified.
If he still wanted to become the heir, he would have to start over from the very beginning.
Francesca voluntarily gave up the winter performance slot my father had helped secure for her.
She entered her dance company’s open selection again and only got a position in the back of the ensemble.
She sent me a message.
“This time, there was no Dad and no Family. For the first time, I learned that even standing in the back row can make me this happy.”
I replied with just one line.
“Congratulations.”
Not long after that, Nico sent me a message, too.
It no longer started with “hey.”
“Cosima, I’m sorry I called you a maid.”
I looked at it for a long time, then answered him with the same words I had given Francesca.
“I heard you.”
By the time they began to regret it, I no longer needed their apologies.
That day, Mom came to the lab’s open house.
She really hadn’t brought the service ledger.
All she had was a very thick photo album.
“These are all the news clippings from after you started winning awards.”
She didn’t hand it directly to me. Instead, she asked first, “Would you like to see it?”
I nodded.
On the first page was the International Mathematical Olympiad gold medal.
The second page was me and Luca at the European competition.
After that came the national championship, the world championship, and the report announcing Aurelia Academy’s decision to establish the lab.
Each clipping had a date written beside it.
Mom’s handwriting wasn’t very pretty, and she had misspelled a few words.
But she had not placed Francesca’s or Nico’s photos over my news anymore.
At the very end, one page was left blank.
“I don’t know what should go there next.”
She looked at me, her voice cautious.
“So I wanted to wait until you decided for yourself.”
I closed the album.
“Leave it blank for now.”
“There will be plenty more later.”
Mom froze for a second, and then tears suddenly fell. She turned her face away and wiped them quickly.
This time, I didn’t cry with her.
At the entrance to the lab hung the names of every founding member.
Mine was on the first line.
Not because I was the daughter of the Marino family.
But because I had proposed the plan, completed the core model, and secured the first round of funding.
Everyone here knew exactly what I had done.
That was clearer than any photo album could ever be.