As long as I can remember, the Marino family has had one rule: when a child completes a task for the Family, the consigliere enters their name into the black leather service ledger. A signature from my father means you can claim your reward.
My older brother once delivered a sealed tribute list for my father. His name went in the book. He got a new phone.
My older sister spent an hour keeping a capo’s wife company at a dinner with our allies. Her name went in, too. She got front-row concert tickets.
But when it came to me, no matter how much I did, the consigliere always dismissed it as simple housework. My name never appeared in the service ledger.
To earn a spot on the family trip to Aspen, I took over the daily operations of the estate for an entire year.
I inventoried the safe house supplies, incinerated used cipher sheets, prepared three meals a day, did the laundry, memorized every guard’s shift schedule, and tracked everyone’s needs, day in and day out.
But on my birthday, my mother took Francesca shopping.
“Your sister entertained a capo’s wife for me today,” she said. “It’s in the ledger. I promised I’d take her to Saks for a new bag.”
My father said Nico had swept his car and found a tracker, so he was taking him to the new amusement park as a reward.
That day, I was the only one left at the estate.
Head bowed, I sent a full year’s worth of my work into the encrypted family group chat—photos, dates, detailed records.
No one replied.
That night, Francesca came home with an expensive new bag and watched a movie with Mom. Nico returned from the amusement park wearing a new pair of Air Jordans.
My hands were still empty.
After everything I had done, no one had ever bothered to ask what I wanted.
So I decided to give myself a reward.
I was done with this Family.
I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 28 Three years later, I graduated from Aurelia Academy. The lab had grown into a full research team. The encryption system I designed had received formal approval for application, and the first long-term contract bore only the lab’s name. I had finally become the cryptographic
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 27 The day the lab officially opened, a lot of reporters came. Chloe, Emma, and Maya were standing in the front row, even more excited than I was. Chloe held up her phone, searching for the best angle. “Cosima, over here!” When the flash went
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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.
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 25 When my father called, I was in the library. I stepped out to the lounge area and answered. “Cosima.” He sounded tired. It was the first time he had said my name without immediately following it with something he wanted me to do. “You
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 24 The second time my mother came to Aurelia, she asked me three days in advance. She said she only wanted to have lunch, no service ledger, no talk of the Family. I agreed. But the moment I walked into the restaurant near campus, I
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 23 A week later, Francesca came to the school again. This time she didn’t bring a guard, and she wasn’t wearing an expensive, limited-edition dress. All she had was an old phone. “Mom used to film videos with this.” “After the service ledger review started,
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 22 My father withdrew the application that same day. But it didn’t end there. That application had already gone through an internal Marino review. Several capos had seen the newly added line in the service ledger. They had already been asking why the Bellandi family
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 21 After my father sat down, he looked at Luca first. “This is internal Marino business.” “Luca is part of the lab’s founding team.” I placed the application on the table. “The moment you put my name on that application, it stopped being an internal
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 20 “The Marino Family is willing to cover the full cost of the lab for its first three years.” The academic counselor pushed an application across the table to me. “The condition is that the lab be established in the Family’s name, with you serving
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I Was The Mafia’s Maid Now I’m Their Regret Chapter 19 I looked away. “I know that if I go back to that house, and it comes down to a choice between me and Francesca or Nico, you’ll still choose them.” “You’re willing to give me a formal status now because another Family recognized my
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