The Mafia Princess’s Revenge Chapter 12
Almost at that very moment—
The screech of brakes erupted outside the estate, one after another.
Everyone looked up. The next second, the door swung open.
Dozens of men in black swept through and secured the entire corridor. Every one of them wore the same emblem over their hearts—a silver iris wrapped around a dagger. The Ricci family.
Giulio shot to his feet. “That’s impossible…”
The sound of heels striking marble grew closer.
Click.
Click.
Click.
I stared at the doorway.
A woman walked in. Black suit. Hair swept back. A face I’d seen in photographs a thousand times.
She saw me too.
Sofia Ricci stopped in the doorway—and every trace of coldness vanished in an instant.
“Baby.”
My tears fell before I could stop them.
“Mama…”
Sofia crossed the room in quick strides and pulled me into her arms.
I’d thought I would have so many questions.
Why was she still alive?
Why had she never appeared in all these years?
Why had she only now found me?
But the moment she held me—I couldn’t get a single word out.
All I could do was cry.
Sofia held me tight.
“Mama was late. It won’t happen again.”
Behind her, the four men seemed to have lost the ability to speak entirely.
A long time passed before Nicola managed, his voice wrecked: “Sofia?”
She finally turned around.
Every trace of warmth vanished from her face.
Giulio’s eyes were already red. “You’re really alive…”
Adriano took a step forward. “Sofia, what happened back then—”
BANG!
The gunshot split the air. Adriano’s shoulder exploded. He staggered backward. Everyone froze.
The gun in Sofia’s hand was still smoking. She said calmly:
“I didn’t come back to reminisce.”
Giulio’s face drained. “Sofia—”
“And don’t tell me you were fooled by Marta.” She cut him off. “Twenty-one years ago, Lucia fooled you the exact same way.”
All four faces changed at once. Sofia smiled thinly.
“What? Her daughter used the very same method—and you fell for it again.”
No one answered.
“Back then, you didn’t believe me. Twenty-one years later—” She glanced back at me, and her voice went stone-cold. “—you nearly killed my daughter.”
Nicola’s lips moved. “Sofia, we didn’t know—”
“Not knowing gives you the right to destroy her like this?”
Nicola had nothing left to say.
Sofia didn’t argue with them any further.
She simply raised one hand.
The lawyer behind her tossed several documents onto the table.
“Over the past seven days, the Ricci family has reclaimed every resource we originally lent to your families. The three largest investors in the Greco conglomerate have pulled out. Vitale’s arms channels in South America have been severed. The account books for every underground medical facility under the Fiore name are now in the hands of the people who should have them.”
Finally, she looked at Nicola. “As for the Orsini family—” A slight smile. “Starting today, your name will carry no weight in the Italian underworld”
All four faces went completely white.
I stared at her, stunned—and only then did I understand. When Mama said she was “coming to get me,” she never meant just taking me away.
She meant a reckoning.
Giulio finally panicked.
“Sofia, you can’t—”
“Why can’t I?”
She turned the question back on him. “These things belonged to the Ricci family in the first place. We’re the ones who helped you acquire them. Now I’m simply taking them back.”
She took my hand. “Let’s go, baby.”
I didn’t move.
Instead, I took one last look at the four of them.
They had once been my entire world. As a little girl, I believed I would always have four fathers. It took me three years to understand—some people, once lost, aren’t worth missing.
Giulio suddenly called out: “Elisa!”
I paused.
“We truly know we were wrong.”
I didn’t look back.
Six months later.
Sicily.
I sat on the terrace of the Ricci estate, unwrapping birthday presents.
Mama had given me a car. All of my grandmother’s jewelry had been returned to me. Even my right eye—the one that had lost most of its sight—was undergoing new treatment. The scars were still there. Some things would probably never go back to the way they were. But I didn’t care anymore.
My phone buzzed.
Another email from Giulio.
I didn’t even read the subject line. Deleted.
Mama walked over with two cups of coffee.
“Them again?”
“Mm.”
She took my phone, went straight to the contact list, and blocked every last number belonging to the four of them.
“There.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
After a while, I finally asked the question that had haunted me since childhood.
“Mama.”
“Hmm?”
“Who is my real father?”
Sofia’s coffee cup paused halfway to her lips. Then she gave me a long, meaningful look.
“Do you really want to know?”
I nodded. She leaned close and whispered a name in my ear. I went completely rigid.
“What?”
Mama was already laughing as she stood and walked away.
I bolted after her.
“Wait!”
“How can it possibly be him?”
“Mama!”
“Get back here!”
Her laughter drifted from the far end of the corridor.
Sunlight flooded every corner of the Ricci estate.
And this time—I had truly, finally come home.