The Mafia’s Lost Daughter Came Home. Then She Tore the Family Apart. Chapter 04
“Pay for it? That was my father’s. You want to pay me back with your life?”
I pointed at Chiara, still on the floor. I laughed, coldly.
“She loves crafts so much? Then let me do her whole room for her today.”
I walked to the princess bed, grabbed the scissors off the desk, and tore through the lace comforter. Stuffing filled the air.
Then I grabbed her dolls one by one, snapped every neck, and threw them back at her face.
Ten minutes flat, and the room was garbage.
Chiara was crying hard enough to choke on it.
Enzo and Marco came running at the noise, and the second they saw the room, both their faces went pale.
“Reese! I’m calling the police on you!” Enzo shouted.
“Call them. I dare you.”
I slammed the scissors down on the floor. Everyone flinched.
“Have them check who broke into whose room first while you’re at it.”
I brushed the stuffing off my hands, walked up to Chiara, and looked down at her.
“Remember this. You break one of mine, I break ten of yours. You touch a single hair on my head, I’ll take your arm off. Try me.”
Then I shoved past Enzo, blocking the doorway, and walked out without looking back.
…
To save the family’s face, my mother forced me to a charity gala.
Her exact words: “You’re with the Morettis now. So act like it. And quit cowering in this house like a stray.”
I only went because I heard there was a free seafood buffet.
The event was at the fanciest hotel in the city. I wore a black slip dress and hid in a corner with a plate of king crab legs, gnawing through them.
Chiara floated through the room in a pink princess gown, all three brothers orbiting her like moons.
She worked the crowd in that baby voice.
“Hi Aunt Margaret, Chiara ate all her din-din today.”
“Uncle Mark, does Chiara’s dressy dress look pretty?”
The guests around her smiled, but their eyes flickered with something closer to secondhand embarrassment.
A twenty-year-old still saying din-din and dressy dress. My three blind brothers just beamed at her like she was the cutest thing alive.
I was on my third crab leg when Chiara crept up beside me, wine glass in hand, voice gone small.
“Don’t be mad at me anymore. Let’s make up.”
She pressed in close. Her wide skirt brushed against my leg.
Something hard slid down her sleeve and dropped straight into my open handbag.
I didn’t even glance up. Just cracked another shell between my teeth.
The gala was in full swing when a scream cut through the hall.
Chiara clutched her throat, sobbing.
“Where’s my necklace? The Heart of the Ocean Enzo gave me, it’s gone!”
The whole room went silent. That sapphire necklace ran into the millions. Losing it wasn’t a small thing.
Enzo was at her side instantly. “Don’t cry, Chiara, I’ll get someone on it right now. Who was close to you just now?”
Chiara’s eyes, still wet, drifted straight to my corner of the room.
“Just now… Chiara only went near Reese. She grew up out in the country. Maybe she’s never seen a necklace this nice before…”
Marco shot forward, pointing at me. “It had to be her! Reese, you thieving little rat!”
Every head in the room turned. The whispers started fast, and loud enough to enjoy the show.
“The real heiress is a thief?”
“Figures. Country girls have no manners.”
Chiara tugged at Enzo’s sleeve, crying harder. “Don’t blame her, big brother.”
“If she wanted it that bad, just let her keep it… please don’t search her bag, it’ll hurt her pride…”
Enzo’s mouth curled. “She’s got nothing left to lose. Not even her pride. Someone search her bag.”
Two security guards started toward me.
I pulled a napkin from the table and wiped the grease off my fingers, unhurried.
“No need.”
I pulled my bag open myself and lifted the necklace straight out.
A wave of gasps went through the hall.
Marco lit up. “Caught red-handed! “
“Now get on your knees and apologize to Chiara, then get out of this family!”
Donna Moretti’s face had gone the color of ash.
“You shameless little brat. What did I ever do to deserve a daughter like you?”
I weighed the necklace in my palm. “You all sure this is the million-dollar Heart of the Ocean?”
Enzo frowned. “What are you talking about?”
I didn’t answer him. Walked to the center of the hall.
Then I raised my hand, and slammed the necklace down onto the marble floor.
Crack.
It shattered into a spray of glass, a curl of cheap foil peeling up from underneath one broken piece.
I brushed the dust off my hands.
“Nine ninety-nine, free shipping, and you tried to frame me for stealing a million-dollar necklace with it?”
Dead silence swallowed the room.
I looked at Chiara. Her face had gone white.