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After Ten Years as the Don’s Unwanted Mistress, I Faked My Death and Watched Him Lose His Mind
Novelix
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已完結
Everyone says I seduced my sister’s husband and killed her to take her place.For ten years, I was the Don’s mistress. I raised his son like my own and never once wore color.Then, at my own engagem...
章節（3）
第1章
I have the kind of body men stare at and women whisper about.
I’m also the bastard daughter of a small-time mafia Don, and nobody ever lets me forget it.
Ten years ago, I slept with my sister’s husband, and my sister died the next day.
At least, that’s the story everyone tells.
Her husband was Lorenzo Castellano, Don of the most powerful mafia family. After that night, he kept me. Not as his wife. As his mistress.
And everyone decided I’d seduced him on purpose. That I’d killed my own sister to get into his bed.
So I spent ten years trying to prove I wasn’t that kind of woman.
I stopped laughing out loud. I dressed dowdier than the old housekeeper. I raised Leo, the son my dead sister left behind, as if he were my own.
Ten years of that, and they finally let me in. Lorenzo announced he was going to marry me.
Then I showed up to my own engagement party in my dead sister’s wedding dress.
The man I’ve shared a bed with for a decade looks at me like he can’t stand the sight of me.
"Gianna’s dress? You think if you put on her dress, you get to be her? Still scheming, after all these years."
Leo, who called me Mom just last night, sticks his tongue out at me.
"Playing dress-up? You’re just Dad’s mistress. Did you really think you could take my mom’s place?"
The gift I spent six months carving for him is lying under his shoe.
Every eye in the ballroom is on me, and not one of them is kind.
A cold draft cuts in through the terrace doors. I look at the two of them, father and son, the same disgust on both their faces, and my voice comes out rough.
"If I’d had any choice, I never would have been your mistress."
Lorenzo’s face darkens.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Ava?"
Before I can answer, someone at one of the tables laughs.
"What do you think it means? Being his mistress isn’t enough anymore. She wants to be the Donna."
"A bastard in the Don’s bed should be grateful she got that far. And now she wants to be his wife?"
"Ten years ago she crawled into her own sister’s marriage bed. Tonight she shows up in her sister’s wedding dress. That girl doesn’t know when to stop."
Their eyes crawl over my body, like they could strip the satin right off me.
"Look at that waist. No good girl is built like that."
"I bet that night was no accident, either."
Ten years ago, I was engaged to Caleb Hayes.
He was a mechanic’s kid from Queens with nothing to his name. But he’d promised to marry me the right way. In a church, in white, like I actually mattered.
Then my older sister, Gianna, got sick.
She was dying and wanted to see her sisters one last time, so I went to the Castellano estate with the rest of them.
That night, a maid I’d never seen before came to tell me Gianna was waiting for me in the garden house.
The second I stepped inside, the door locked behind me.
Lorenzo was in there, out of his mind on whatever someone had slipped into his drink.
I screamed. I pounded on the door until my hands bled. No one came.
By morning, it was done, and there was no taking it back.
Gianna found out within the hour. She coughed up blood, and she was dead before nightfall.
And just like that, I became the girl who killed her own sister.
So for ten years, no matter how coldly Lorenzo treated me, no matter how Leo screamed at me, I told myself I deserved it. I owed them.
But looking back now, nothing about that night makes sense.
The maid who led me to the garden house was gone by the next morning. A week later, someone said she’d drowned in the river. Nobody ever asked why.
Gianna’s mother, my father’s wife, Carla, has wanted me dead for as long as I can remember.
If she really believed I’d killed her daughter, why am I still breathing? Why did she quietly clean up the mess herself, then talk Lorenzo into keeping me?
She even took my hand and said, "Leo has no mother now. You’ll raise him for Gianna."
So I did. For ten years.
Lorenzo sees my bowed head and reads it as guilt. His voice turns to ice.
"Take it off."
Two of his men step forward. In front of every guest, they rip the dress open down the back.
The satin tears. Cold air hits my bare skin. I’m left standing there in nothing but my slip.
I’m so numb inside I can’t even find the strength to fight back.
Leo crosses his arms and smirks. "Sorry yet?"
I look at his face. He’s still just a kid. The kid I raised with my own two hands.
"You’re the one who handed me this dress last night. Remember?"
The smirk freezes on Leo’s face.
第2章
Leo recovers fast and juts out his chin.
"So what if I did?"
"It was a test. I wanted to see if you’d try to take Mom’s place."
He jabs a finger at the torn satin, his face twisted with disgust.
"You always say you’d never replace her. But the second you got your hands on her dress, you couldn’t wait to put it on."
"If you really didn’t want her place, you would’ve said no."
So that’s what it was. I thought he’d finally let me in. It was just another test, and I failed it.
Lorenzo doesn’t say a word to him. He looks at me instead.
"Leo’s a kid. He was just messing around."
"You’re a grown woman. You can’t figure out what you’re allowed to wear?"
"Gianna was my wife. You’re not. What gives you the right to wear her dress?"
My throat closes up. I can’t get a single word out.
When Leo was five, he spiked a fever in the middle of the night. I carried him into the ER at three in the morning and begged the doctors to see him first.
When he was seven, his pony threw him. I threw myself underneath him to break his fall. My right leg still aches every time it rains.
Last night, he held that dress out to me with tears in his eyes and said, "Dad’s going to marry you. Wear Mom’s dress, and I’ll pretend she came back."
I was so happy he’d finally let me in, I didn’t sleep all night.
Leo takes my silence as a win. He kicks the dress aside.
"You promised I’d always be the only one you loved."
"So why’d you have Nico? Now you’ve got a real son. Bet you can’t wait for me to die."
Lorenzo frowns. "Leo. That’s enough."
But even as he says it, he pulls Leo behind him.
Like he thinks I’ll hurt the boy the second he turns his back.
I look at Leo and force a smile.
"After tonight, the whole city will know me as the mistress who tried to steal her dead sister’s place and got stripped in front of a ballroom full of people."
"I’ll never be anything more than that. You got what you wanted."
"Watch your mouth!" Lorenzo slams his hand down on the table.
"Have I been too easy on you? Is that why you’ve forgotten your place? Talking to a child like that?"
I’ve run this household for ten years. In all that time, I haven’t bought myself a single new dress.
The day I moved in, I wore pink. People pointed and said I had no shame.
My sister was barely cold in the ground, they said, and there I was in bright colors. A scheming little bastard who only knew how to seduce men.
After that, I wore nothing but black and gray. I kept out of Lorenzo’s way.
For ten years, I made almost everything Leo wore with my own hands.
Lorenzo thought it was a performance. Proof for the whole family that the scheming little mistress was playing the devoted mother.
But it was the only thing I had to give. Everything in this house belonged to the Castellanos. My time and my two hands were the only things that were mine.
So any time Leo turned his nose up at something I’d made for him, I stayed up all night taking it apart and starting over.
Lorenzo never once asked if I was tired. He said behaving myself was the least I could do.
When exactly was he ever easy on me?
I slide the Castellano ring off my finger and set it on the table. Whoever runs the household wears that ring.
For ten years, that was me.
"Then take it back."
His face darkens even more. "What kind of game is this?"
Leo snorts. "You don’t get to be the Donna, so now you’re quitting?"
"Dad, she just wants you to beg her."
Lorenzo is quiet for a moment.
"Fine. If you don’t want it, Mrs. Greer will run the household. Go back to the guest house and think about what you’ve done."
I don’t argue. I lower my head, polite as ever, and walk out.
I figure that’s it. After tonight, neither of them will want anything to do with me.
But that evening, Lorenzo shows up at the guest house.
He sets the ring down in front of me, his face stiff.
"Tonight... having them strip you in front of everyone. That was too far."
"But you’re not innocent either. Don’t take it out on Leo. Nobody forced you to wear it."
I stare at him, numb. I don’t touch the ring.
His brows pull together. "If you drop this, I’ll let Nico come stay for a few days."
At my son’s name, my heart lurches.
When I first moved into this house, my father’s wife, Carla, wanted a leash on me. She’d never forgiven me for what happened to her daughter.
And she knew exactly where to pull.
My mother never chose to be my father’s mistress. She was nineteen, sewing hems in a shop he owned. One night he locked the door behind him, and that was that.
She’d been sick for years, still living under the DeLuca roof, which meant she lived at Carla’s mercy. Her doctors. Her medicine. Carla controlled all of it.
So little by little, Carla started cutting it off.
I begged Lorenzo for help. He didn’t even look up.
I had nothing he wanted. Nothing to bargain with.
So I quietly stopped taking my birth control.
When I found out I was pregnant, I got down on my knees in front of him.
A Don’s blood is a Don’s blood, even in a mistress’s belly. For the first time, he couldn’t just look through me.
"I’m not asking for anything. Not a wedding. Not your last name for the baby."
"Just get my mother out of that house. Please.”
He stared at me for a long time. Then he said, "Fine. You’ll get what you want. After the baby’s born."
He wanted to be sure I’d carry his child to term. Until then, my mother was his leverage.
So my mother waited out my whole pregnancy, while Carla cut her medicine a little more every week.
She moved in here the week Nico was born. But it was too late. She was gone two months later.
And Nico, the baby I nearly died giving birth to, was shipped off to the family’s lake house upstate before his first birthday.
Lorenzo said the Castellano family could only have one heir.
He said I’d only had Nico to save my mother. I’d gotten what I wanted, so how much could I really love the kid?
He told me to focus on raising Leo.
I didn’t dare say no.
Now, hearing I might finally get to see Nico, I can’t hold it back.
"Really?"
The door bangs open. Leo storms in, eyes red.
"I knew it!"
"All you care about is your real son. You never cared about me!"
第3章
Leo lunges at the table and knocks the ring onto the floor.
"Liar! You said I was your only kid!"
I reach for him without thinking.
He shoves my hand away. "Stop pretending. The second you heard that sickly little brat was coming, your whole face lit up."
"I called you Mom last night. Were you laughing at me the whole time? Liar!"
My hand freezes in midair.
Lorenzo pulls Leo against his side and sighs.
"He actually cares about you. And all you care about is money, power, and being the Donna of this family."
"Now you’re practically drooling over Nico right in front of him. Of course he’s upset."
Leo clutches his father’s sleeve.
"Dad, I don’t want him here. This is my house. Mine and my mom’s. And you’re my dad."
"Why does that little bastard get to take it all?"
His house. His mom. His dad. Ten years of raising him, and I’m not even on the list.
To him, I’m just the scheming snake who slithered into his mother’s place.
Lorenzo strokes his hair. "Nobody’s taking anything from you. Nico’s only staying a few days."
I bend down, pick up the ring, and set it next to Lorenzo’s hand.
"You’re right. There’s no place for Nico in this house."
"A few days is already more than we deserve. We should be grateful."
Lorenzo’s jaw tightens. He hears the edge in my voice.
But one look at my gaunt face, and his anger drains away.
Leo realizes Nico is still coming and cries even harder.
"I don’t care! It’s him or me!"
Lorenzo frowns. "Leo, stop it. She promised she’d never put her own kid ahead of you."
That finally settles Leo down a little.
He looks at me, smug. "So when the sick kid’s here, are you still throwing my birthday party? Still baking for me?"
In this house, Leo comes second only to Lorenzo. I wouldn’t dare say no to him.
I nod.
He smirks. "Then he doesn’t get to eat anything I eat."
I’m quiet for a long moment. Then I nod again.
At the door, Lorenzo turns back.
"Ava, bringing Nico here is me making it up to you. Don’t push your luck."
I watch him go. "Don’t worry. I’ve learned not to hope for anything."
The next day, I scrub the guest house from top to bottom.
I don’t even know what Nico likes. So I pull out every piece of clothing I’ve secretly sewn for him over the past seven years.
One for every birthday I missed, from his first to his seventh. Every piece folded neatly.
Most of them won’t fit him anymore. I still can’t bring myself to throw a single one away.
Rosa, my maid, blinks back tears. "Seven years. You finally get to see him."
A cold laugh comes from the doorway.
Leo is standing there, staring at the bed covered in little clothes.
"And you say you don’t play favorites? You’ve been making all this for him behind my back."
He snatches the jacket off the top of the pile. "This is my favorite color. That bastard doesn’t deserve it."
I don’t have the strength to fight him. I just stand there and let him trash the room until he storms out.
The day Nico arrives, he stops outside the door, too scared to come in.
He asks, so carefully, "The nanny said I’m not allowed to call you Mom. But when nobody’s around... can I say it just once?"
The tears I’ve been holding back nearly spill over. "Yes, baby. You can."
He leans in close and whispers it in my ear. "Mom."
I’ve waited seven years to hear that word.
Nico’s health is fragile. He hasn’t been standing long before he starts to wheeze.
I help him change into new clothes. Then I take out a little silver locket with a photo of the two of us inside, and a hard case with his name engraved on it.
Inside is his rescue inhaler.
If his chest ever tightens up at night, two puffs and he’ll be okay.
Nico runs his fingers over the locket, his eyes shining.
"You got this for me, Mom? I’m gonna wear it forever!"
The words are barely out of his mouth when the front door is kicked open.
Leo walks in with two of the younger guards behind him.
He takes one look at what Nico’s wearing, and his face changes.
"Take it off."
Nico shrinks behind me.
Leo grabs him by the collar. "That’s made from the fabric I threw out last year. You think you get to wear my trash?"