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 matter.”
My father’s face darkened.
“Cosima, I’m paving the way for you. Without Family support, it’s very hard for a young student to build a lab.”
The project lead looked up.
“She didn’t enter this project through Family support.”
“Her full scholarship, her prize money, and her research standing all came before the Marino Family ever contacted the school.”
My father didn’t respond to him. He only looked at me.
“You’re my daughter.”
“So?”
“Your achievements naturally bring honor to the Family.”
I turned to the consigliere.
“Please open the service ledger.”
He didn’t move.
My father frowned.
“Open it.”
The black cover opened.
My brother delivering the list. My sister keeping a capo’s wife company. Nico checking the car.
Every entry was followed by a reward, and every one bore my father’s signature.
The consigliere kept turning pages until he reached the end, where the line they had recently added finally appeared.
“Starting from page one, how many entries are there for Cosima Marino?”
No one answered.
“One.”
I answered for them.
“And that one was added after I became number one in the world.”
My father tapped a finger on the table.
“The consigliere missed it before.”
The consigliere’s head snapped up.
“Boss, I asked you.”
“You said what she did was just estate chores and there was no need to write it down.”
The room fell silent.
My father turned to him, his expression ugly.
“You’re misremembering.”
“I am not.”
The consigliere flipped back through the ledger.
“Francesca organized a week of wardrobe changes and got a new room. Nico delivered one lunch and got a month of personal care. Cosima ran the estate for a whole year, and you said yourself that was simply what she should be doing.”
Mom, sitting at the far end of the table, was growing paler by the second.
All at once, she pulled out her phone and opened the encrypted family group chat.
When she searched my name, the photos and dates I had posted came up one after another.
Safe house supplies, cipher sheets, guard rotations, meals, laundry.
There was not a single reply beneath any of them.
Further down was my father’s message telling me to skip school and bring Nico lunch.
“With your grades, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’re not getting into any school worth mentioning.”
When those words were projected onto the conference room screen, my father finally stopped talking.
I took the taped-up admission letter from my folder.
“That same day, I received a full scholarship offer from Aurelia Academy.”
“You went to Iceland and left me alone at the estate.”
“And now that I’m building a lab, you say you’re paving the way for me.”
My father opened his mouth.
The project lead had already closed the application.
“Aurelia Academy will not be accepting this funding.”
“And the Marino Family must withdraw all documents submitted in Cosima’s name.”
My father’s expression hardened.
“And if I don’t?”
I picked up my phone and dialed the school’s legal office right in front of him.
“Then I will formally state that you used my name without my authorization.”
“Dad, I’m not asking for your permission.”
“I’m informing you.”