After I Died, Everyone Regretted It

I was Sofia De Luca, the only biological daughter of Marco De Luca, the most powerful Don. Then my parents adopted Celeste De Luca as my younger sister, and everything changed. My birthday party could be cancelled because she threw a fit. My place at the elite academy went to her. Even the ruby brooch my grandmother left me was taken away because she said she liked it. On nothing but Celeste's word, my parents branded me a traitor to the De Luca family and personally handed me over to a rival family as a hostage. I endured every kind of torment there. They toured the world with their adopted daughter and lived in luxury. They forgot me completely. It was only when Celeste finally caused a disaster too big to bury that they remembered I existed. But once I was actually dead, the regret drove them out of their minds. If there really is another life, I have only one wish. I hope they learn how to be decent parents. But I do not want to be their daughter again. Chapter 1 In the seventh year after I cut myself loose from the De Luca family, I checked into Santa Maria Hospice under the name Nora Vale. My pancreatic cancer had already spread. The doctors said I had three months at most. When my parents, Marco and Isabella De Luca, found me, I had just finished signing my do-not-resuscitate order and my will. The last document renounced the De Luca name and barred my burial in the family cemetery. "Sofia, come back to the estate with us." Marco stood beside the hospital bed. "You will confess to the Council of the Five Families." I closed the folder. "You have the wrong person. My name is Nora Vale." Isabella stared at my hollowed-out face, and her lips moved. "Are you really this sick?" She reached out to touch me, saw the IV port on the back of my hand, and stopped. "That is not your concern." "I am your mother." "You stopped being that seven years ago, the day you handed me to the Bertini family yourself." Marco tapped the floor with his cane. "That decision was made for the whole family. Come back with us now and apologize to Celeste. I will not pursue what happened seven years ago." "I did nothing wrong, and I will not apologize to her." Marco's face darkened. A spasm tore through my stomach. I gripped the edge of the bed and waited it out. Isabella took a step forward without thinking, and Marco raised a hand to stop her. "The doctors will handle it," he said. I looked at them. "What has Celeste done this time?" Neither of them answered. "Go on. What am I supposed to take the blame for now?" Marco finally spoke. "Last night, Anthony Bertini, heir to the Bertini family, was shot dead at the docks. Whoever did it left behind the De Luca seal, your old cipher, and a gun registered in your name. The Council has given us seventy-two hours to turn over the killer." "Celeste says you planned the murder while you were in hiding," Isabella added. I pulled back the blanket, revealing legs wasted to skin and bone. "I need help to reach the bathroom. You think I could plan a murder at the docks?" Isabella looked away. "The evidence all points to you. Celeste would not lie about something like this." "Then why does she still have my old cipher? Why was that gun never taken off the register after I disappeared?" She had no answer. Marco had no intention of verifying any of it. "The Bertini family wants an answer," he said. "Sign a confession before the Council and this ends." "You did not look for me for seven years. You found me now because she needs me to die for her again?" Isabella's eyes reddened. "Celeste's parents died to save us. We promised to protect her." "That is a debt you took on. It is not mine." The room was quiet for a few seconds. Marco glanced at the chart at the foot of the bed. "The doctors say you have three months. Give up those three months to save Celeste's life and prevent a war between our families. It is the only reasonable choice." Isabella's head snapped toward him, and for the first time something in her face wavered. "Marco, she is still our daughter..." "Because she is a De Luca, she has a duty to this family." Isabella's fingers tightened around her purse, and in the end she said nothing. I used to believe that if they ever saw me this sick, they would at least ask whether it hurt. It turned out that even my life weighed less than family duty. "I refuse." Marco looked down at me. "You are in no position to refuse. Within seventy-two hours I will take you to the Council." He turned and left. Isabella reached the door and looked back at me. She seemed about to say something, then simply followed Marco out. Chapter 2 Long after they left, I still could not calm down. I kept thinking about the year Celeste first came to the De Luca family. That year she was six and I was eight. Celeste's parents, Victor and Elena Caruso, had taken the bullets meant for Marco and Isabella in an ambush. Afterward, my parents brought Celeste to the estate and told me she was my sister now. At first I was naive enough to think I had a little sister to protect. When Celeste had nightmares I slept beside her. When she was afraid to go to school alone I walked her to the classroom every day. The first time she called me her sister, I gave her every piece of candy my grandmother had sent me. Everything changed after that. My birthday party was cancelled because she dreamed about her parents. Isabella said she had just lost her family and I should be understanding. There was one place left at the church academy, and Marco gave it to her. He said I was their own daughter and I would get another chance later. She liked the ruby brooch my grandmother left me, so Isabella took it straight out of my jewelry box. She said Celeste had nothing and I should not be petty. I cried about it. I argued about it. Every argument made them a little more disappointed in me. "Why are you getting more difficult every year?" "Celeste has no parents left. Why do you always have to compete with her?" "She sees you as her sister, and all you do is target her." Over time, I became the jealous, spoiled, poisonous daughter in their eyes. All Celeste had to do was cry, and they assumed I had bullied her. The debt they owed for having their lives saved could never be repaid, so Marco and Isabella chose to pay it with me. Seven years ago, I had just turned twenty when a De Luca convoy carrying ledgers and cash was ambushed in the south district. Six of our people died, and every core route was exposed. That route existed in only one place: my encrypted notebook. At the family meeting, Celeste produced a page torn out of the cipher book. "I saw Sofia meeting members of the Bertini family at the docks. She said Mom and Dad play favorites and she was going to make the whole Family pay." I pointed out at once that the tear ran the wrong way. Celeste had also borrowed the family seal stamped on the route map three days earlier in the name of her charity foundation. I threw myself at Marco and Isabella's feet and begged them to pull the security footage, check the fingerprints on the cipher book, and believe me. No one was willing to believe me. My parents looked at me with nothing in their eyes but disgust and disappointment. "Celeste's parents gave their lives to protect this family. She would never sell us out," Isabella said. "And you still want to frame her?" Marco signed the hostage agreement on the spot and handed me to the Bertini family to settle the blood debt. "When the war is over, I'll bring you home." I believed him. They put me in a cellar, chained my ankle, and tried to force the rest of the harbor routes out of me. Every time I was ready to give up, I thought about Marco's promise. The war between the two families ended three months later. No one came for me. I learned afterward that they had taken Celeste to Europe and thrown her a lavish coming-of-age party. Not until my seven hundredth day in that cellar, when a warehouse at the docks caught fire, did I crawl out through the garbage duct in the confusion. That night I collapsed by the sea with my lungs full of smoke and half a chain still hanging from my ankle. A hospital run by Santa Maria Church saved me. I changed my name to Nora Vale and never went back to the De Luca family. I thought my heart had already died. I thought that if I hid far enough away, they could no longer hurt me. I was wrong. Now they were back. Chapter 3 After two more quiet days at Santa Maria Hospice, Celeste came to see me herself. The obsidian brooch of the De Luca heir was pinned to her chest, and my parents, Marco and Isabella, followed her in. "Sofia, come home with me." She walked up to my bed. "What are you talking about?" I sat up straighter and watched her put on the act. Celeste's voice broke with tears. "Dad, Mom, I did go to the docks that night. Sofia sent me a message using a code we had made up as children. She said she knew something about her escape seven years ago and wanted me to meet her at the docks. But by the time I got there, Anthony was already lying in a pool of blood!" She wiped her eyes. "Sofia has been on the run for seven years, and she has carried that hatred the whole time! She wanted revenge on both the De Luca and Bertini families, so she killed him with a gun registered in her own name and lured me there to take the fall..." "Enough!" I cut her off and turned to my parents. "This is absurd! Three things prove she is lying. Anyone with half a brain can see it. "First, when I fled seven years ago, I left with nothing but the clothes on my back. How could I have taken the old cipher book locked in the family vault? "Second, the pistol registered in my name has been locked in the most secure section of my father's armory for seven years. Who but someone with the highest clearance could take it out? "Third, at the exact hour Celeste says she received my message, I was undergoing chemotherapy at this hospice. There is security footage to prove it. I was in so much pain I could not get out of bed. How could I have reached the docks and set all of that up?" The room went dead silent. I thought those facts were enough to expose Celeste. I thought my parents would at least have doubts, that they would at least check the footage. Instead, Celeste broke down. "I am sorry... Dad, Mom, I lied!" She pulled out a few printed pages. "I found that cipher book in a false panel in Sofia's old room. I thought she had left it there so I could contact her... And the armory... I took Mom's spare key and went in without permission. Sofia said she was going to kill someone and I was so scared, I wanted to take the gun and stop her. But when I got there she grabbed it away from me... I faked the remote login records because I was terrified of being punished..." "You are lying!" I was shaking with rage. My mother rushed over and pulled Celeste into her arms. "Enough, sweetheart. Mom knows you have been wronged." She patted Celeste's back, then looked up at me with ice in her eyes. "Sofia, I am deeply disappointed in you. Your sister was only trying to stop you, and you are trying to pin everything on her! Unconscious from chemotherapy? Those drugs can cause hallucinations. Who is to say you did not slip out while the doctors were not watching?!" I stared at her, unable to believe it. "Mom... you would rather believe a story full of holes than even check the footage?" "Pulling the footage takes time! The Council gave us seventy-two hours!" My father came over and looked down at me. "Sofia, it does not matter whether questions remain. The Council will not wait while we investigate. The Bertini family wants an answer. Celeste is the future of the De Luca family. Do you understand?" "No, I do not! I will not confess! I will not admit to something I did not do, even if it costs me my life!" My mother's eyes went completely cold. She took out her phone and dialed. "Your Honor, regarding the emergency guardianship petition for my daughter Sofia... Yes, she has been on heavy sedatives and painkillers for a long time, she is severely unstable, and she is no longer competent to make medical or legal decisions for herself. Please sign the temporary guardianship order immediately." She hung up and looked at me without a trace of warmth. "As of now, I am your legal guardian. Every decision about you is mine to make." "This is kidnapping!" I shouted, and the bodyguards pinned me to the bed. There was noise outside. The hospice phone lines were cut and the signal was jammed. They loaded me into a transport van and drove me to the De Luca family's private clinic. In the sealed room at the clinic, there was nothing but the sound of machines. My father slid a document titled Blood Debt Confession Before the Five Families across to me. Tears ran down my face as I lay there. "You are forcing me to die." My father looked at me. "Sofia, the doctors say you have three months. Give up those final three months to secure your sister's future and spare the entire De Luca family a war. That is the last value you have as a De Luca daughter." I looked at this man, and the last scrap of warmth inside me went out. There was no hope. It was not that they failed to see the holes in her story or the evidence against her. They had decided to sacrifice me from the very beginning. "Fine. I will sign," I said, my voice shaking. "But I have three conditions." My father frowned. "Go on." "First, once I am dead, sever every tie between me and this family. The name De Luca must never appear on my headstone. "Second, my ashes must go to Santa Maria Church. Even if you scatter them at sea, they must never enter the De Luca cemetery. "Third, from this day forward, you may never handle anything I leave behind on the grounds that you are my family." My father was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Agreed. Once you accept the blood debt and the Council closes the matter, I will see it done." At midnight, they blindfolded me with black cloth and took me down into the underground chapel of the Council of the Five Families. The elders of every family sat on the high dais. The cloth came off, and candlelight stabbed at my eyes. The Blood Debt Confession lay in front of me. I picked up the pen and, with everything I had left, signed the De Luca name for the last time. The moment I finished signing, the Bertini representative drew his gun and aimed it at my heart. Blood for blood. The gun cocked. I turned for one last look at my father and mother in the corner. My father leaned on his cane, his face blank. My mother was crying, but she did not take a single step. They just stood there and watched. I closed my eyes and smiled. "Bang!" The shot cracked through the chapel. Chapter 4 The heavy round tore my chest open in an instant. The impact threw me backward onto the stone floor of the underground chapel. Blood bloomed across my chest, and the tearing pain lasted only a moment before giving way to boundless cold and emptiness. "The blood debt is paid!" The Bertini representative holstered his gun. "The Five Families stand witness. The threat of war between the Bertini and De Luca families is lifted." The instant the shot went off, my father was the first to move toward the dais. "Elders, now that Sofia has confessed and the blood debt has been paid, have all warrants and execution orders against Celeste been revoked effective immediately?" He never even looked at me lying in my own blood. The elder on the dais gave the ruling. "All kill orders against Celeste are withdrawn. Family order is restored." Only then did my mother Isabella scream and throw herself at me. "Sofia! Sofia!" She knelt in the blood, her hands shaking as she tried to press down on my chest. The guards pulled her back. A doctor came forward, checked my pulse and pupils, then shook his head and drew the sheet over me. "Time of death, twelve oh seven a.m. The bullet went through her heart. She cannot be resuscitated." The sheet settled over me, and my mother collapsed onto the floor, sobbing until her voice broke. She pounded the stone with both hands. Only then did it truly sink in: her biological daughter would never wake again. But my consciousness did not fade. I floated above them, watching with cold detachment. I looked at my own body and at the blood spread across the floor, and I felt nothing at all. The iron door opened again, and Celeste walked in escorted by bodyguards. When she saw the sheet and the blood, she flinched, fear flashing through her eyes. She concealed it almost at once. She ran to my mother, threw her arms around Isabella, and wailed. "Mom! I am so sorry... Sofia died because of me! I am so sorry!" My father came over and put an arm around Celeste's shoulders. His voice was hoarse, but it carried the relief of a man whose ordeal was finally over. "Stop crying, Celeste. Your sister took responsibility for everything. You are safe. The De Luca family is safe." "It is over," he repeated. "Over?" A strained, urgent voice rang out from the entrance. Vito Rossi, chief adviser to the De Luca family, rushed in, his suit covered in dust and scorch marks. In his arms was a black strongbox with charred edges and a lid that had been forced open. He was panting, his forehead slick with cold sweat. "Mr. De Luca! Mrs. De Luca! Wait! Something is wrong!" Vito's voice shook. My father frowned. "Vito! The execution is finished and the blood debt is settled. What could possibly have happened?" "No, listen!" Vito dropped to one knee and emptied the strongbox onto the floor: a box of badly damaged surveillance tapes and a newly recovered audio file. He raised his head and looked at my parents. "We got it wrong. Anthony's killer was not Sofia!" The room froze. My mother's sobbing cut off. She froze. "What did you say?" Celeste went white, her whole body shaking violently. "I followed the order you gave me earlier, sir, and quietly searched the blast-resistant safe on the lower level of the abandoned warehouse at the docks." Vito was still gasping. "This is the last surviving audio recovered from the wreckage of the dock surveillance server! It was recorded an hour before the murder!" My father snatched the player out of his hands and hit play. Static hissed through the chapel. Then a familiar voice came through the speaker, soft and delicate, yet edged with cold, vicious amusement, "...The gun is in the spare cabinet in the armory, registered under that madwoman's name." The voice went on, "Once she signs the confession, everyone will believe the traitor who ran seven years ago came back for revenge. My parents care so much about the family's reputation and mine that even if they suspect something, they will have no choice but to put Sofia in front of the firing squad themselves..." The air in the chapel seemed to solidify. It was Celeste's voice. There was no mistaking it. It was the voice of the adopted daughter they had loved for seven years and sworn to protect at any cost! "No... that is not me! Someone fabricated that recording! It is fake!" Celeste shrieked and scrambled backward on her hands and knees. My mother stood frozen, staring blankly at the player and then at Celeste, whose face had gone gray as ash. The player slipped from my father's hand and shattered on the floor. But that vicious confession struck like a hammer, smashing the last of his reason. At last, the truth was out, but it had come too late. The gun had already fired. I floated above them, watching my parents' faces crumble with despair and disbelief, and gave a quiet laugh.