Waking Up To The Mafia Don's Betrayal

Waking Up To The Mafia Don's Betrayal

Catlaina Sloggett

5.0
Comment(s)
6.6K
View
24
Chapters

I woke up from a five-year coma, only to find my death certificate filed away-signed by my own husband. Dante Vitiello, the Don of New York, looked at me like a miracle, but he was holding the hand of another woman. Sofia Bianchi was wearing my diamonds, living in my house, and standing beside the man I had built an empire for. But the true betrayal wasn't the mistress. It was my son. When I reached out to Leo, my baby, he recoiled in terror and buried his face in Sofia's dress. "Go away!" he screamed. "Mama Sofia said you're a monster! You're a ghost!" Sofia smiled at me, a sharp, victorious blade. She didn't just steal my husband; she rewrote my son's memories to make me the villain. To protect the family alliance, Dante forced me to stay silent. When Sofia later rammed my car on the racetrack to finish the job, Dante ran past my bleeding body to comfort her over a broken nail. When she faked a fatal illness, he dragged me from my recovery bed. He forced me to donate my rare blood to save her. "Do it for the family, Elena," he said, watching the life drain out of me to fill the veins of the woman who destroyed us. That night, I didn't just leave. I erased myself. I left my wedding ring on a cliff's edge and let the world believe Elena Vitiello had finally drowned. Six months later, Dante sat in the audience of a global tech summit in Zurich, desperate to find his dead wife. I walked onto the stage in a white suit, looking him dead in the eye. "My name is Kate Harding," I announced. And I prepared to burn his world to ash.

Chapter 1

I woke up from a five-year coma, only to find my death certificate filed away-signed by my own husband.

Dante Vitiello, the Don of New York, looked at me like a miracle, but he was holding the hand of another woman.

Sofia Bianchi was wearing my diamonds, living in my house, and standing beside the man I had built an empire for.

But the true betrayal wasn't the mistress. It was my son.

When I reached out to Leo, my baby, he recoiled in terror and buried his face in Sofia's dress.

"Go away!" he screamed.

"Mama Sofia said you're a monster! You're a ghost!"

Sofia smiled at me, a sharp, victorious blade. She didn't just steal my husband; she rewrote my son's memories to make me the villain.

To protect the family alliance, Dante forced me to stay silent.

When Sofia later rammed my car on the racetrack to finish the job, Dante ran past my bleeding body to comfort her over a broken nail.

When she faked a fatal illness, he dragged me from my recovery bed. He forced me to donate my rare blood to save her.

"Do it for the family, Elena," he said, watching the life drain out of me to fill the veins of the woman who destroyed us.

That night, I didn't just leave. I erased myself.

I left my wedding ring on a cliff's edge and let the world believe Elena Vitiello had finally drowned.

Six months later, Dante sat in the audience of a global tech summit in Zurich, desperate to find his dead wife.

I walked onto the stage in a white suit, looking him dead in the eye.

"My name is Kate Harding," I announced.

And I prepared to burn his world to ash.

Chapter 1

The ink on my death certificate was five years old, dried and filed away, signed by the man who was currently holding my hand and weeping about miracles.

I lay in the sterile white bed of the Vitiello Sanatorium, my muscles atrophied and my mind racing to catch up with a reality that had moved on without me.

Dante Vitiello sat beside me.

He was the Don of the New York families now. I didn't need to be told; I could tell by the cut of his bespoke Italian suit and the way the guards outside the glass door stood with their hands clasped over their groins, terrified to breathe too loudly.

"Elena, my love," he whispered, pressing his forehead against my knuckles. "You came back to us."

Us.

I looked past him.

My parents, Carlo and Maria, stood in the corner. They did not look like people witnessing a resurrection. They looked like people who had just been caught stealing silver from the church collection plate.

"Where is Leo?" I asked. My voice was like gravel grinding in a mixer.

Dante stiffened. "He is at the estate. He is safe."

I tried to sit up. The machines beeped in protest.

"I want to see my son."

"You need to rest," Dante said, his hand heavy on my shoulder. It was a command, not a suggestion. "There are complications, Elena. The world thinks you died in that river. For your safety, we had to... make arrangements."

I didn't understand what arrangements meant until a week later.

I was strong enough to walk to the window. I felt like a prisoner in a glass cage. I needed money. I needed to access the crypto-ledger I had built for the family, the billions of dollars in laundered currency that made the Vitiello empire untouchable.

I borrowed a nurse's tablet when she wasn't looking.

I logged into my bank.

ERROR. User Deceased. Account Closed.

I tried my government ID.

Status: Deceased. Date of Death: May 12, five years ago.

I felt a cold sweat break out on my neck. It wasn't just a cover story. It was a legal erasure.

I marched to the clinic administrator's office. He was a small man who smelled of antiseptic and fear. I demanded the file.

He handed it to me with shaking hands.

There it was. A death certificate. Cause of death: Drowning.

Signed by Dante Vitiello. Witnessed by Carlo and Maria Rossi.

They had buried an empty coffin while I lay in a coma upstairs.

I didn't scream. The old Elena would have screamed. The Architect-the woman who wrote code that baffled the FBI-just went cold.

I demanded to go home.

Dante tried to stall me on the phone. "Stay there, Elena. It is complicated."

I threatened to walk out the front door and flag down a police car.

He sent a car.

The drive to the Vitiello Estate was a blur of gray highway. My heart hammered against my ribs, not from love, but from a terrifying suspicion that was starting to take root in my gut.

The iron gates opened. We pulled up to the driveway.

The front door opened.

Dante stepped out. He looked regal, powerful, the King of New York.

Then she stepped out.

Sofia Bianchi.

She was wearing my diamond earrings. She was wearing a silk dress that looked suspiciously like one I had bought in Milan. She stood next to Dante, her hand resting possessively on his forearm.

And then, a small boy ran out from behind her legs.

Leo. My baby. He was so big now. He had Dante's dark curls and my eyes.

I opened the car door and stumbled out. My legs were still weak.

"Leo!" I cried out.

He stopped. He looked at me with confusion, then fear. He looked up at Sofia.

"Mama?" he asked, tugging on Sofia's dress. "Who is that scarecrow lady?"

Mama.

The word hit me harder than the truck that had rammed my car five years ago.

Sofia smoothed Leo's hair. "Go inside, baby."

She looked at me. Her smile was sharp, like the edge of a fresh sheet of paper. "Welcome home, Elena. We didn't expect you to wake up."

Dante walked toward me, his hands raised in a placating gesture. "Elena, please. It was a political marriage. The Bianchis were going to war. I had to secure the alliance. I had to save the family."

I looked at my parents, who had followed in the second car. They wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You sold me," I whispered.

"We protected you," my father muttered.

I looked back at Dante. He was the man I had taken a bullet for. The man I had built an empire for.

He was still wearing his wedding ring. But standing next to Sofia, he looked like a man who was trying to keep two worlds from colliding.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was the burner phone I had swiped from the nurse station.

Unknown Number.

I answered it, keeping my eyes on Dante.

"Hello, Elena," a deep, distorted voice said. "Or should I say... Kate?"

"Who is this?"

"Luca Salvatore. The Wolf."

I froze. He was the rival Don. The man who killed without blinking.

"I have a jet waiting at Teterboro," he said. "You are a ghost, Elena. Ghosts don't belong in the land of the living. Come work for me. I will give you a new name. I will give you the vengeance you are too weak to take right now."

I looked at my son, who was watching me from the window, his hand pressed against the glass.

I looked at Dante, who was reaching for me.

I hung up the phone.

Not yet, I thought. I am not leaving until I burn this house down.

Continue Reading

Other books by Catlaina Sloggett

More

You'll also like

The Mute Heiress's Fake Marriage Pact

The Mute Heiress's Fake Marriage Pact

Alma
5.0

I was finally brought back to the billionaire Vance estate after years in the grimy foster system, but the luxury Lincoln felt more like a funeral procession. My biological family didn't welcome me with open arms; they looked at me like a stain on a silk shirt. They thought I was a "defective" mute with cognitive delays, a spare part to be traded away. Within hours of my arrival, my father decided to sell me to Julian Thorne, a bitter, paralyzed heir, just to secure a corporate merger. My sister Tiffany treated me like trash, whispering for me to "go back to the gutter" before pouring red wine over my dress in front of Manhattan's elite. When a drunk cousin tried to lay hands on me at the engagement gala, my grandmother didn't protect me-she raised her silver-topped cane to strike my face for "embarrassing the family." They called me a sacrificial lamb, laughing as they signed the prenuptial agreement that stripped me of my freedom. They had no idea I was E-11, the underground hacker-artist the world was obsessed with, or that I had already breached their private servers. I found the hidden medical records-blood types A, A, and B-a biological impossibility that proved my "parents" were harboring a scandal that could ruin them. Why bring me back just to discard me again? And why was Julian Thorne, the man supposedly bound to a wheelchair, secretly running miles at dawn on his private estate? Standing in the middle of the ballroom, I didn't plead for mercy. I used a text-to-speech app to broadcast a cold, synthetic threat: "I have the records, Richard. Do you want me to explain genetics to the press, or should we leave quietly?" With the "paralyzed" billionaire as my unexpected accomplice, I walked out of the Vance house and into a much more dangerous game.

HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION(An Erotic Billionaire Romance)

HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION(An Erotic Billionaire Romance)

Viviene
4.9

Trigger/Content Warning: This story contains mature themes and explicit content intended for adult audiences(18+). Reader discretion is advised. It includes elements such as BDSM dynamics, explicit sexual content, toxic family relationships, occasional violence and strong language. This is not a fluffy romance. It is intense, raw and messy, and explores the darker side of desire. ***** "Take off your dress, Meadow." "Why?" "Because your ex is watching," he said, leaning back into his seat. "And I want him to see what he lost." ••••*••••*••••* Meadow Russell was supposed to get married to the love of her life in Vegas. Instead, she walked in on her twin sister riding her fiance. One drink at the bar turned to ten. One drunken mistake turned into reality. And one stranger's offer turned into a contract that she signed with shaking hands and a diamond ring. Alaric Ashford is the devil in a tailored Tom Ford suit. Billionaire CEO, brutal, possessive. A man born into an empire of blood and steel. He also suffers from a neurological condition-he can't feel. Not objects, not pain, not even human touch. Until Meadow touches him, and he feels everything. And now he owns her. On paper and in his bed. She wants him to ruin her. Take what no one else could have. He wants control, obedience... revenge. But what starts as a transaction slowly turns into something Meadow never saw coming. Obsession, secrets that were never meant to surface, and a pain from the past that threatens to break everything. Alaric doesn't share what's his. Not his company. Not his wife. And definitely not his vengeance.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book