Undressed By The Mafia God

Regina had been holding herself together for too long. Far too long. She had been carrying the pain of betrayal while pretending she still knew which direction was up.

Eventually, something had to give. Especially after the speech Massimo had just given her. He looked down at his glass and smiled to himself.

Cruel?

Yes.

He knew exactly what he was doing. Every word had been placed exactly where he wanted it, because sometimes people only showed you what they were truly willing to do when you pushed them hard enough.

And Massimo needed to know. More importantly, he needed history to repeat itself. That required pressure.

He had done this before, decades ago, with Carol. Back then, Luca had stepped in as a child and offered himself in her place. That single decision had told Massimo everything about the boy his son would become.

Now he needed to see what the man would do. So yes, he was being cruel. He had to be. The worst of it had not even arrived yet.

Carol would arrive in New York ready to kill him herself, and Massimo had no doubt she would enjoy every second of trying.

Still, it was necessary. Massimo chuckled under his breath and swallowed the rest of his drink.

Upstairs, Luca burst into the bedroom and immediately understood the sound he had heard. His wife was crashing out.

Everything from the vanity was on the floor. Everything had been swept down in one furious movement.

The mirror was shattered.

Luca stopped just inside the doorway. She stood near the vanity with her hands trembling at her sides, breathing too fast. She was doing everything she could not to cry. Dragging in sharp breaths, forcing them out, trying to contain the sobs before they escaped. "Bambola..." He stepped carefully over the debris.

Vee immediately shook her head. "No, don’t." She swallowed hard and took another quick breath. "Just don’t come closer."

He ignored that completely. She saw him coming and backed away half a step.

"Luca, I mean it."

He kept moving.

"I’ll cry if you hold me."

Luca crossed the remaining distance between them and pulled her into his arms. Vee stiffened at first.

She fought it. Then her body gave up. She collapsed into him, gripping his shirt as the first sob finally tore free. "You don’t listen..." she sobbed.

Luca held her tighter. "It’s me. It’s just me, Bambola."

This was what Luca had always been afraid of. Seeing his wife like this crippled him in a way nothing else could. He could take a bullet. He could take a knife. He could face down police, half the fucking underworld if he had to. Physical pain had rules. You found the wound, stopped the bleeding and dealt with whoever caused it.

This was different. Vee was breaking in his arms, and there was nothing he could kill to make it stop.

If Luca could have taken the pain from her and put it inside himself, he would have done it without hesitation. Every last piece of it. He would have carried it until it crushed him if that meant she could breathe without hurting.

But the pain of betrayal could not be shared. Valentina simply did not matter to him the way she mattered to Vee. He had tolerated her, protected her because she belonged to Veronica, and even loved her in that complicated way people eventually became family through proximity.

But Vee had loved Valentina long before Luca existed in her world. Luca respected Marco enough to give the man his life, but even their bond was not what Vee and Valentina had. They were sisters, yes, but that barely covered it. They had been partners. Best friends. Two girls who had survived Vito together and somehow carried that survival into adulthood.

Vee had practically raised her. And somehow Valentina had convinced herself that destroying Luca was another way of protecting her sister.

Even now, Luca knew Val believed her cause was noble. She probably still thought every lie, and every desperate move against him had been done for the people she loved.

She had no idea how much pain she had caused. Luca held Vee tighter as another sob shook through her.

"I cannot fix this for you, can I?" he eventually asked.

The admission tasted bitter. Vee shook her head against his chest. Her hands went instinctively to her stomach as another sob vibrated through her entire body. It felt as though the baby might simply pop out from the force of it.

Luca immediately covered one of her hands with his. Vee had known Valentina would be her biggest test in the famiglia from the moment everything came together.

She knew what betrayal meant in this world. She knew what happened to people who crossed the family. And somewhere during that miserable night in the interrogation room, she had even begun to accept what would eventually happen to her sister.

Accepting it privately had been one thing. Then Massimo had looked her in the face and told her she would do it herself.

That was different.

How was she supposed to put a gun against Valentina and pull the trigger? Valentina, whom she had fed with her own hands.

Valentina, whose tears she had wiped away, whose fights she had fought, whose mistakes she had defended long.

She had watched her grow. Raised her in every way that mattered. And now the famiglia might demand that Veronica be the one to end her life.

Massimo’s words would not leave her. Vee understood exactly what this was. She knew what saying no would look like. People would whisper that Luca’s wife could not uphold the laws she benefited from. That she expected protection from the famiglia but lacked the stomach to defend its rules when the traitor happened to share her blood.

Saying no would prove to everyone she wasn’t strong enough to be Luca’s wife, and saying yes felt like a betrayal of its own.

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