Chapter 1

My sworn sister wanted to play the pretty, clueless little thing who "accidentally" spills a drink just to catch the eye of the outfit's new acting boss.

I knew better. Real life isn't like the whispers that run through the neighborhood or those stories they tell about a Don falling for a nobody. So I tried hard to talk her out of it.

She hesitated, but in the end, she finally gave up the idea.

Then, like something out of a story someone else got to live, a low associate spilled a drink on the man, and actually ended up wearing his ring.

My sworn sister smiled and offered her blessings to their faces, but underneath it, she laid every ounce of blame at my feet.

During a trip to the coast, she shoved me off the rocks into the black water, her face twisted, screaming, "If it wasn't for you meddling, I'd be the boss's wife by now, you damn bitch!"

The next thing I knew, I woke up. Back to the night she first told me about her grand plan.

I looked at her eyes glittering with delusion, her hands clutching mine.

I gently pulled away, smiled faintly, and gave her the words she wanted. "Go for it."

This time, I wasn't getting in her way.

Let's see if you really have what it takes to marry into the bloodline.

——

"Adriana, the new acting boss is unmarried! Every woman in the outfit is losing her head over him.

"I've been listening to all the old stories lately. They all say men like him fall for the sweet, clueless type. I'm pretty, I'm soft-spoken, and I've got the right way about me. Should I go for it?"

Her familiar voice pulled me out of the fog. I was still shaking off the feeling of water closing over my head.

"Adriana, I'm talking to you!" she snapped, impatient.

That was when it hit me. I've been given it back. All of it.

I was back to the very night Carmela Rizzo told me she meant to "accidentally" spill a drink on their new acting boss.

Her cheeks were flushed, already lost in her daydreams.

Looking at her, I remembered everything from the life before.

The new man who'd taken the seat at the top of the Blanco outfit was young, holding more money than she'd ever counted, and handsome. After too many of those romantic tales, she was obsessed.

She was set on playing the clumsy beauty and staging her little accident.

As someone who spent her days quietly setting down the truth of how this world really worked, I knew how far the stories sat from the way things went.

I tried hard to talk her out of it. In the end she dropped it and kept her head down.

But then a low associate spilled a drink on him.

Next thing any of us knew, the union was announced in front of the whole Family.

Carmela pretended to be glad for them, but underneath she was furious, grinding her teeth in silence.

And all that resentment? She threw it at me, the one who'd only tried to protect her.

And in the end, that psycho held me under the water until I stopped moving.

Now that I'm back, I see her for exactly what my sworn sister always was.

I watched her turn this way and that in front of the mirror like she was posing for someone, and I couldn't help the cold laugh that stayed inside me.

"You're gorgeous," I said, smiling. "You'll pull it off, no question."

"I know. I'm the prettiest one in the whole outfit. Those old hags can't touch me. I just have to use my head a little..."

My words clearly fed something in her.

"Oh, right. I'm going shopping tomorrow. Come with me. And you should buy yourself something decent for once. Stop walking around in those rags. Try to look like you belong somewhere, would you?"

She took one last look at herself in the mirror, then turned to me, her voice dripping with that easy sense of being owed.

"Use your card first. I'll pay you back when the money comes in."

She dropped her clothes on my bed and walked into the bathroom, bare as the day she was born.

The moment she was out of sight, my face went cold.

Same as last time.

Even though she pulled in more than ten thousand a month, it was never enough.

Every time we went out, I was the one who paid.

And every time she'd say, "I'll pay you back once the money comes in."

Not once did she ever pay me back.

I used to believe she was my sworn sister, blood of my own neighborhood.

I told myself, it's only money. Who cares. I earn more from my own work anyway.

What I didn't see was that I was the one feeding it.

And she'd grown fat on it. Any time we stepped out, she simply assumed I'd cover it all.

Dio, I even paid for the gifts she gave that little brother of hers.

Remembering it now, I genuinely wanted to reach back into the life before and slap the Adriana I used to be.