A Family's Fatal Mistake

Emma, the fake heiress, and I were sold into an underground BDSM club. When my parents, the richest couple in the country, and my husband, Leo DeLuca, the feared Don of the DeLuca crime family, finally found us, I was bound with duct tape and covered in wounds. Emma lay beside me, heavily pregnant and unconscious. Three months later, doctors confirmed that her baby had died in the womb. She was the adopted daughter my parents had cherished for twenty years, and the girl my husband had never gotten over. My parents and husband went half mad, offering a nationwide one-hundred-million-dollar bounty for any lead on the person responsible. I was the only one who might have seen the culprit's face, and I said nothing. My father locked me in the basement for seven full days without food or water, but I still refused to identify the person responsible. At my weakest, my enraged husband dragged me before a memory tribunal. "Your sister is still unconscious, and you are protecting the person who did this because you are jealous of her! The thought that I share a bed with someone as poisonous as you makes me sick!" My father, Victor Valenti, watched from a distance, his face hard with disappointment. "I regret ever going through hell to bring you home from the slums! Why couldn't you have died instead of Emma's baby! Today I'll use the Valenti family's own interrogation device, the memory extractor, and neither you nor the person behind this will have anywhere left to hide!" But when my real memories appeared on the huge screen, my husband completely lost his mind. My parents hung their heads and knelt before me, wrecked. Chapter 1 I let the bodyguards escort me to the place where I would be judged. When I looked up, I saw the Valenti family's underground arena. Countless fights to the death had taken place there. Only the victor ever walked out alive, stepping over the loser's body. And today, the doors of this private hell had been opened just for me. I was still wearing the clothes from the club. They had been torn nearly off me when I was dragged away, so I kept one arm across my chest to cover myself. The seats below were packed with the most important people in the underworld. Even the old bosses who normally showed their faces only at private dinners had come, every last one of them. And I was cuffed at the center of the platform, standing on a bed of sharpened spikes, the ultimate punishment, reserved for prisoners with the worst crimes on their heads. I looked out at the aristocratic guests below. Every one of them had come for the same thing, to judge me, the real heiress the Valenti family had only just brought home. The real daughter framing the adopted one. What a delicious scandal for people like them. "That's Eva Valenti, the woman who put Emma in a coma and cost her the baby?" "And she's actually the true Valenti heiress! But she doesn't come close to Emma in character or ability, and Emma isn't even blood!" "I heard she grew up in the slums and was twisted from the start. It really does matter whether you raise them yourself. Emma is so kind, and that little bitch is that filthy. If you ask me, the bitch enjoyed every minute of that club!" The voices came at me from every direction, like invisible blades going into my chest. Then Leo stepped onto the platform. He was the Mafia Don whose name made all of Sicily fall silent. He stopped in front of me, disgust plain on his face. "I married you. I made you the Donna. I even shared my bed with you. What more could you possibly want?" He paused. His eyes were full of contempt. "If you hadn't appeared out of nowhere, Emma would have been my wife! You got my name and my bed. Emma has my heart. What's wrong with that? What gives you the right to be jealous of her, let alone hate her?" The crowd below burst into agreement at once. "Leo's right!" "Eva came along later, and Emma even gave up her own fiance for her. How could that still not be enough?" My father shot to his feet, glaring at me as if he wanted to tear me apart. "Emma has been with us since she was a child! She is innocent. Since the day we brought you home, she has never fought you for anything. She even gave up her fiance for you!" His voice shook. "She went that far for you! What more do you want, you poisonous creature! Emma is still in a hospital bed, and you won't even tell us who did this! "The doctor said Emma had sex with multiple men before she lost consciousness! That caused the hemorrhage and the miscarriage! Do you have any conscience at all, as her sister?" The people below looked shocked. There were gasps, and a moment later every pair of eyes turned back to me in revulsion. As if I were the unforgivable one. And the worst part was that I really had covered for a criminal. Someone shouted straight at me, "Play all of her memories! Send her to hell with the person who did it!" Leo clapped once, and a technician approached with the memory extractor. Leo stepped forward and took my jaw in a hard grip. His voice was vicious. "Eva, I'm asking you one last time. What did you see? "You wouldn't want everyone watching how you moaned for them in that club, would you?" Everything I had suffered in that filthy place flashed through my head, and my body would not stop shaking. "Don't look! Leo, Mom, Dad! Don't look! You'll regret it!" The technician beside him hesitated. "Donna, the damage this machine can cause is incalculable! Once it extracts every memory, even if you survive, you'll be nothing but an empty shell! "Just tell them who was behind it!" I looked at Leo and my parents and forced myself down onto the spikes. "Please. Believe your daughter just once. Let this be the last time I ever ask. "Please don't look..." "I regret ever going through hell to bring you home from the slums! Why couldn't you have died instead of Emma's baby!" My father looked at me as if I were his enemy, even though we shared the same blood. Leo shook his head, fitted the memory extractor over my head, and pressed the switch without hesitation. "Let's have a look at the filthiest secret inside you, bitch!" Cold metal locked around my skull, and needlelike electrodes pierced my temples. The next second. A hard current tore straight through my body. I bit down on my lip as blood seeped from the corners of my eyes, my nose, and my mouth. The huge LED screen lit up, and everyone in the room held their breath. My first memory began to play. Chapter 2 The screen glowed a dim, suggestive red. Along the wall, racks held tools used for "punishment": whips, handcuffs, low-melt candles, and an assortment of phallic toys. I recognized it. It was that club. Of all the things to remember, why this. I saw myself bound to the bed, battered and exposed. And the fake heiress lay beside me, heavily pregnant and unconscious. There was no one else in the room but the two of us. So this was the moment we were rescued. The next second, the door crashed open and a squad of bodyguards stormed in, guns raised. Once the room was clear, my parents and my husband rushed inside. I stared at them, overwhelmed, twisting against the tape with everything I had, waiting to be saved. And in the middle of all that hope, the parents I revered and the husband I loved went right past me, straight to my sister. To Emma. "God, Emma's barely breathing!" my mother screamed. Leo found a clean blanket and covered Emma with it, then scooped her up in his arms and ran out. I was tied to the bed with wounds all over me, and I could only watch my husband carry another woman out the door. Then my parents hurried out after him. "Leo, slow down! Emma's pregnant!" my mother called after her son-in-law, and the daughter in his arms was not the one she had given birth to. They passed me as if I were air. The remaining bodyguards exchanged uneasy looks at the naked Mafia heiress on the bed. The shame of it. In the end, Leo's assistant cut the tape off me and shoved a scrap of lingerie at me to put on. I swallowed the pain, dressed myself, and walked out of that room. The playback stopped. In the seats below, people began talking over one another. "Eva is despicable for holding back what she knows, sure, but isn't this family a little too obsessed with the adopted daughter? Who treats their own child that way?" Someone spoke up for me, and was immediately drowned out. "You're only looking at the surface. Didn't you see the marks on Eva's body? Maybe she couldn't get enough and asked for it herself!" "Exactly! Look at Emma, not a mark on her, not a scratch!" "Don't let that bitch's wounds fool you. Maybe she loved every second of it. Pain and pleasure at the same time. The pleasure of being used." I listened to the poison coming from below and the world in front of me seemed to bend out of shape. Why did the pain of my wounds, and the pain of having no family and no husband who cared, mean nothing to them? Just because they had decided I was filthy and deserved it? Leo gave me a humorless smile. "So that setting wasn't high enough, was it? You're a scheming little thing. You skipped the part that mattered and jumped straight to the end, didn't you! "Let's see if you can still keep your mouth shut this time!" Leo turned up the setting on the memory extractor, and my whole body started convulsing. The screen came back on. Leo's face appeared first, vicious and full of disgust. It was three months after our rescue, the day doctors confirmed that Emma's baby had died. "Emma's baby is dead. What gives you the right to stand here in one piece! "It's because of you! All of this is because of you!" My mother stood beside Emma's bed, weeping. My father held the tiny, fully formed body of the stillborn baby and glared at me. "Are you satisfied now! You bitch! Will you finally tell us the truth!" my father demanded. And I still said nothing. My silence sent Leo over the edge. He kicked me so hard that I hit the floor before I could react. "Leo! Have you lost your mind? You know I'm carrying your child. You may not care about me, but don't you care about the baby?" My words cracked through the room like thunder. Shock rippled across the crowd. But no one had any idea that the part that would truly turn their stomachs was only just beginning. Chapter 3 On the screen, I stared at Leo, my voice so hoarse I barely recognized it. "You knew I was carrying your child, didn't you?" I braced myself against the wall and slowly pushed myself to my feet. Leo answered calmly. "Yes. I knew. So I already took care of it for you." "What?" On the screen, I went completely still. "Took care of it? What does that mean?" Leo's expression stayed flat, as if he were about to discuss something utterly ordinary. "You know Emma's baby is gone. So your baby..." Something flickered in his eyes. "...didn't need to stay either." My mind went blank. Something inside me collapsed all at once. "You... what did you say?" Leo walked toward me, one step at a time. "Emma's baby is gone, so yours had to die too. Do you understand?" "But that was our child! How could you! Are you even human!" I fisted the front of his coat. "When did you do it? When!" Leo threw me off without even looking at me. "The sixth day you were in the basement. "A doctor examined you. You were already weak." He spoke without emotion. "I signed the form." I lowered my head and pressed a hand to my stomach. I could not hold it in any longer, and the crying that tore out of me split my chest open. "My baby! Mommy never gave you up! Mommy just didn't protect you well enough! I'm sorry!" The force of the memory overwhelmed me, and static tore across the screen. The entire arena went dead silent. The people who had been screaming for my death a minute earlier were frozen in place. "Leo did something that cold?" "How is that possible? It was his own flesh and blood!" The man beside him quickly caught his arm. "Shut up. "This is the Valenti family's business." "If Eva really did that to Emma, then her baby was that sin carrying on." "Right! Emma lost her baby. What gave her the right to keep her own?" "Leo did it to get justice for Emma." "Hold on. That woman is filthy. For all we know, the baby was never Leo's." "Exactly. Leo is a don. How stupid do you think he is!" Listening to them, I suddenly started laughing. I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face. So in their eyes, my baby had never been a child at all, only a life they could trade for someone else's. Leo knew better than anyone that he was the only man I had ever been with, yet he stood there in silence. He did not defend me. He let them tear me apart. This was the husband I loved. Wonderful. Leo's eyes were bloodshot. "You chose this memory on purpose to win their sympathy, didn't you! "You think a baby is going to make me go soft on you? Dream on!" My father stormed onto the platform, seized my shoulders, and shook me hard. "So you lost a baby, so what! You're still standing here, aren't you! And what about my daughter, what about Emma! "She still hasn't opened her eyes! And it's all because of you, because you brought a curse down on a family that used to be happy!" The memory extractor let out a sharp warning tone. The picture on the big screen flickered again. The technician looked as if he had struck gold. "Boss!" "What is it?" "The system has detected a large cache of memories sealed deep inside Donna's mind." Leo narrowed his eyes. "Is that so? Then that has to be the truth she's been burying! "Keep digging into her memories!" "But Don, Donna is close to giving out! If we continue, her body will tear itself apart!" I shook my head at my father and Leo with the last of my strength. "Please. I'm begging you. Stop." "I said keep going! Whether she lives or dies is my decision!" Leo did not waver. The huge LED screen lit up again. This time. It showed nothing but a crumbling slum. Chapter 4 Narrow streets, rusted tin roofs, garbage piled everywhere with flies and maggots crawling over it. A girl appeared on the screen, so thin she was mostly bone. She was under a dim streetlight, reciting from a textbook over and over. "Once I get the scholarship, I can leave this place." That was me. Me at seventeen. I closed the book, stood, and walked into a run-down diner. I started clearing tables, one after another, until the sky started turning gray. The crowd below went quiet, bit by bit. Nobody was talking anymore. The playback went on. I studied while working three jobs. The diner, a grocery store, cleaning offices at night. I earned my way from the slums into Columbia University. Then the picture cut away. A black Rolls-Royce pulled up in that broken-down neighborhood. After that I was brought into the Valenti estate. I met the parents who had given birth to me. I met the man who would later become my husband. And of course I met Emma, the one who had taken my place. Every one of them told me the same thing. "Emma is your older sister. She was there for your parents for twenty years, in your place. "You're a stranger who just got found. So don't get any ideas about replacing her." The screen went dark, and someone below said quietly, "She grew up there and still made it into Columbia?" "She doesn't look anything like a woman who would sit around being jealous of Emma." For the first time, Leo's expression changed. He stared at the dead screen. It was as though he were seeing me for the first time. The technician suddenly looked up. "Boss! "The machine has reached its limit. Her mind appears to be actively blocking the critical memories." Leo kept staring at the screen. "Who is he? Who could possibly be worth all this hatred, worth betting your own life just to keep quiet for him? "Bring me the brand-new upgraded memory extractor!" The technician brought it at once and clamped it around my head. "Don, this version delivers one hundred and thirty times the pain of the last one! "If we use it, Donna could die!" Leo wheeled on him. "I want the truth! If she dies by my hand, that will be justice for Emma!" "Boss, the system found a memory with an extreme emotional spike!" Leo turned sharply. "Pull that one." My body started to shake. "No! Leo!" I lifted my head. My vision blurred with tears as I crawled toward my father again. "Please. "Don't play this one. You'll regret watching it!" Leo only stared at me, cold and unmoved. The machine started up again. This time the picture was sharper than it had ever been. I knew this was the end. That hazy red light returned. A dim corridor. A cold steel door. And me, being dragged roughly into a room. The memory played from my point of view. Three men tore at my clothes while two more pinned me down at the head of the bed. The arena filled with the obscene sounds of bodies moving together and the crack of a whip. I clamped my hands over my ears because I couldn't stand to hear it. But laughter rose from the seats almost at once, sharp enough to cut. "Didn't she keep saying she was the victim?" "Looks pretty willing to me. Listen to the noises she made." "She walked into a place like that on her own two feet, didn't she?" The insults came over me like a tide. The picture on the screen changed again. The door opened, and I used the confusion to stumble out. I didn't dare look back. Barefoot, I felt my way along the dark corridor, searching for an exit. But as I passed one door, voices came from inside it. "How was this one?" "Isn't this exactly your type?" Several suggestive laughs came from inside. Then the same voice came again. "Especially pregnant ones." I slowly turned around. One step. Two steps. I held my breath and moved toward that door, the one that hadn't been fully closed. Through the gap, I saw who was inside. "No..." I clamped my hands over my mouth. Someone stood up in disbelief. "Wait. "What was that look on her face just now?" The big screen flickered again. The next second. The face came fully into view. The arena erupted. And Leo's face changed completely.