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My Grandson’s Fiancée Called Me His Mistress
Novelix
Completed
I'm sixty-two. I built the Moretti empire from nothing with my bare hands and buried my husband with my own. So when my grandson's bride walked up to me at the airport and spat on my shoes, calling me his side piece—I said nothing. When she scratched my arm until it bled, shoved me down the stairs, and banned me from the wedding—I let it go. When my own grandson asked me to "keep my distance" for her sake—I walked away without a fight. But here's what none of them understood: every guest at that wedding came to see me. Every deal on the table existed because of my name. Every ounce of power that family held ran through my veins. The moment I stepped back, everything fell apart. Some lessons you can only learn the hard way.
Chapters (3)
第1章
At sixty-two, I am the donna of the most feared crime family in this city.
But when I finally met the fiancée my grandson had waited five years for, she walked straight up to me and spat on my shoes.
“Who the hell is this old bitch?Is she the side piece you’ve been hiding from me?”She demanded in front of Lucas, his parents, and the entire welcome party.
The private terminal went silent.
At my age, I should have been planning my own funeral, not getting accused of sleeping with my grandson.
My son and daughter-in-law froze. Even Lucas had gone white.
I looked down at the spit on my shoes, then turned to him.
“Well?” I asked. “Are you going to tell your fiancée whose shoes she just spat on?”
"Sera, sweetheart, what on earth are you saying? This is Victoria. She held you when you were a baby, remember?"
"You must be exhausted from that flight. Let's just eat first, you've been in the air fourteen hours, you're probably starving."
They speak quickly, trying to smooth things over. I follow them, light catching on the jade pendant at my throat and glinting against my tailored black suit. I remain calm. I've survived far worse than one rude young woman.
They've handed her an easy way out, but she refuses to take it. Instead, she loops her arm through Lucas's and forces a smile.
"Lucas, baby, I get it. Men separate sex from love sometimes. I understand you got lonely those five years I was gone."
"But I'm back now, so you need to end this. And if your parents have been covering for you, how am I supposed to trust this family?"
My jaw tightens. In more than sixty years, I've never met anyone so incapable of reading a room.
My son and his wife go pale.
"Sera. That's enough."
Their expressions harden, and Sera finally backpedals, her voice turning soft and false.
"I'm just joking! Don't be mad. I've been overseas so long, I forgot how things work back home. You'll have to remind me."
With an apology like that, my daughter-in-law relents and tells Sera to sit down, eat, and let it go.
Sera slides in next to Lucas. I catch the flash of impatience cross her face before she smooths it over.
I already know this girl isn't done.
Sure enough, the second I move toward the head of the table, a voice cuts across the room.
"That's not your seat! Get out of it!"
"You think you belong there? That's for the family elders. You don't get to sit there."
"And take off that gray coat. I hate gray. It makes you look ten years older, and it's hideous."
My daughter-in-law nearly comes up out of her chair to defend me. I pull her back down.
It's just a coat. Let her have this one. I'm more curious what she'll say next.
"There. Better?"
Sera nods, pleased with herself.
"Good. I'll give you credit for sticking around this family so long without a title. I'll write you a generous check for your trouble. After that, stay away from Lucas."
"Because now that I'm back, there's no room left in this family for you."
My son's expression hardens as my daughter-in-law grips her fork until her knuckles turn white. Inside me, something goes still and cold.
Sixty-plus years, and this is the first time a girl this young has dared to talk down to me in my own house.
I say nothing. She mistakes my silence for fear and leans closer to whisper.
"Scared now? Good. If I were you, I'd stay far away from this family."
"Look at yourself. Wrinkles deep enough to trap a fly. Quit while you can. Stop wanting things that were never yours."
I keep my face blank, my voice light. "Oh?"
"And if I don't?"
Her eyes narrow, and every trace of amusement disappears.
"Keep pushing, and you won't like what happens."
The door swings open before she can finish, and Sera's face lights up as if reinforcements have arrived.
"Dad! Tell them what she's doing to me!"
A heavyset man lurches in, belly first, unsteady enough to suggest he's already been drinking.
"So you're the shameless tramp trying to steal my daughter's man?"
第2章
Frank Vance doesn't recognize me. Half the newly rich men in this city wouldn't. Since my husband died, I've stayed out of sight. The players change every few years, but very few have ever seen my face.
I lift my gaze, let it land cold on his greasy face.
"Frank Vance. Three years ago you were on your knees begging Moretti Holdings for a bailout to keep your business from going under. Funny how confident you get in my house, now that you're selling your own daughter to buy that confidence back."
The color drains from his face, and his jowls tremble. "You... how do you know that?"
Unable to hold my stare, he turns on Lucas instead.
"Lucas! Is this how your family treats guests? You're just gonna stand there while my daughter gets insulted? You think the Vances don't have anyone in our corner?"
"Sera loves you. How am I supposed to let her marry into a family like this?"
Lucas's expression tightens. One glance at me tells me exactly where his loyalties lie.
My grandson is a good man, perhaps too good. Once he falls for someone, he gives her everything. When Sera vanished five years ago without a word, he never complained. He insisted she must have had her reasons and waited for her like a fool who refused to let go.
The Vances never had the money or the name to touch our family. The only reason they've got the nerve to strut in here tonight is because they know exactly how far gone Lucas is for that girl.
Sure enough, a second later he leans in and whispers.
"Nonna, please. Sera's family doesn't understand how things work here. You don't need to prove anything to them. Please let it go, for me."
I look at his face, almost an exact copy of my husband's, and for a second, it feels as if Vincent himself is asking me to yield for another woman.
But if it really were Vincent standing here, he'd never let anyone talk to me like this.
I close my eyes, then re-open them.
"Fine. For you."
He doesn't even meet my eyes, knowing full well what he just asked of me.
I leave shortly after. Within days, the two families lock down a wedding date.
A week later, a gold-embossed invitation arrives at my door.
"Nonna, this is yours. I had it custom-made, and there's only one like it in the world. You have to come, okay?"
He's careful with his words, still worried I'm holding a grudge.
I reach out to take it. Sera's voice cuts through the room behind me, sharp with rage.
"Lucas! Why would you give HER the invitation meant for your grandmother! Are you still not over her!"
She snatches it from my hand, raking her nails down my forearm.
Pain flares across my arm. When I look down, a thin red line is already welling with blood.
"Sera!" Lucas gasps.
I raise a hand before he can move, then lift my bleeding arm and look her directly in the eye. My voice is flat and cold.
"Miss Vance. You can tear up a Moretti invitation all you like. But you just drew Moretti blood. Are you sure you're ready to pay for that?"
The room goes dead silent.
Lucas stands frozen, caught between the two of us, unable to move toward either.
I shake my head, disappointed. Even now, watching his own grandmother bleed in front of him, he still can't decide who deserves his loyalty.
第3章
"Fine. Forget the wedding. Do whatever you want, I won't be there."
I press my fingers to my temple as a dull ache builds behind my eyes. Years of running this family beside Vincent left me with migraines, and this week has been more than enough to trigger one.
I head upstairs to lie down, but Sera barrels past and knocks me off my feet.
My back slams into the railing. Pain shoots up my spine, my vision flashes white, and my stomach heaves.
I slide down the railing to the floor, unable to make a sound.
When I open my eyes again, I'm in a hospital bed, and there's shouting outside the door.
"This is the woman you're marrying, Lucas? She knocked your grandmother unconscious!"
"You're still choosing her?"
It's my son's furious voice. If he hadn't come home early from work, God knows how long I would've been lying there before anyone noticed.
These two idiots had been arguing over which room in the family house to give Sera while I was passed out on the floor.
"This family only exists because of your grandmother! Lucas, you take that woman and you apologize to her, right now!"
"I'll apologize. Sera won't."
"Dad, I promised her that if she married me, no one would ever disrespect her again."
"Nonna can yell at me or hit me. I won't complain. But I won't let anyone disrespect Sera."
"You,"
My son raises a fist, ready to hit Lucas. I open the door and step between them, blocking him with my cane.
"Let's go home, sweetheart. I'm tired."
My son takes my arm immediately, turning his back on Lucas.
"Nonna. I'm sorry."
Lucas grabs my other arm, his voice thick with guilt. His resemblance to Vincent still catches me off guard, especially when worry twists his face exactly as it used to twist his grandfather's. That's why I've tolerated so much from him these past few weeks.
"Nonna, Sera didn't mean it. She just loves me too much."
"Everyone says you and Grandpa had the real thing. The whole city talked about it. Sera and I are going to have that too."
"Please, Nonna. Let us love each other the way you and Grandpa did."
I pull my arm free, voice flat.
"What you kids do with your lives isn't my business anymore. I don't want it to be."
"Do whatever you want. Just leave this old woman in peace. I'm past sixty. I don't know how much time I have left, and I'd like to spend it quietly."
Lucas's face crumples, and he shakes his head, begging me not to talk like that.
Despite myself, I soften and reach up to wipe a tear off his cheek.
He flinches away from my hand.
"Nonna. I think... we should keep some distance for a while."
