The Sister Who Shot Me Got Everything I Had Chapter 01
The Bullet That Bought Her a Throne
Seven years ago, my little sister Gia put a bullet in my spine playing with Papa’s pistol—and the whole Family swore the heiress’s seat would still be mine when I got back on my feet.
To punish her, Papa and Mama shipped her off to Sicily. Matteo scrubbed her from every contact list. Even Luca, my fiancé, swore he’d never see her again.
I really thought they were doing it for me.
Until today, when I found out they were just waiting for Gia to be old enough to take over the Family.
Mama came into my study, “Sienna, are you coming?”
She paused. “Gia is flying back this afternoon. Your Papa and I are going to pick her up from the airport, and then we’ll head back for dinner.”
I looked up from my laptop. My monthly report was due at the sit-down meeting this afternoon. I’d been building the docks numbers for two weeks. I was still on the roster.
I said, “I’m not going. I need to prepare for the meeting this afternoon.”
The room went dead quiet.
Mama’s eyes filled up on cue. “Seven years, Sienna.”
“Your sister was alone in Sicily. Alone on her birthdays. She couldn’t even fly home when Nonna died.”
“When are you going to let it go?”
Papa set down his espresso, his voice low, “She was fourteen. She made a mistake.”
“You’ve got your law degree. You’re at our family meeting every week.”
“I promised you I’d make you the heiress of the Falcones. What more do you need?”
“You’ve got a future. She lost seven years of her family.”
Matteo leaned in the doorway, arms crossed. My own brother looked at me like I was a stranger.
“You lost a shot at one meeting, Sienna. She lost everything.”
Then Luca spoke. Luca Romano. My fiancé. The boy I grew up next door to. The boy who held my hand in the ICU seven years ago.
“I haven’t seen her in seven years either,” he said softly. “I never held her, never wished her happy birthday, never flew out. I did all of that for you.”
He crouched down beside my chair. Brown eyes wet.
“Baby, I’m marrying you. But please. Don’t make her die out there alone before you let her come home.”
Half my body’s been dead weight for years.
In that moment, the other half went numb too.
…
Before leaving for the airport, Mama knocked on my door and dropped a set of keys on my desk.
“Sienna. Air out the south room on the second floor.”
“Your sister loves the sunlight.”
That room used to be Papa’s study. After that bullet, they draped every inch of it in white sheets.
Mama held me in the hospital and cried. “Don’t look, baby. It’ll only hurt.”
I believed her. I thought they sealed it off because they couldn’t bear for me to see what I’d never be again.
But today, the housekeepers pulled the sheets down. Sunlight hit the old oak desk.
Mama supervised them personally. White roses replaced the family crest. Lily-of-the-valley candles on the mantel. Pale pink curtains where the heavy velvet used to hang.
I sat in my chair in the doorway and looked at the throne, polished to a shine.
Turns out, the room wasn’t untouchable. It just wasn’t touchable by me.
Downstairs, Papa was hanging a red-and-gold banner in the foyer: WELCOME HOME, GIA.
Matteo had put on a three-piece suit at dawn. He was driving to JFK himself.
Luca was supposed to stay and help me rehearse the presentation. But he took off with my family too, leaving nothing but a message.
“Gia just landed. She’s a mess. I’m going with your parents.”
I stared at the screen a long time and typed one word.
“Okay.”
No fight. No question. Because I already knew they got me nothing.