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The Mafia Heir He Mocked Cost Him Everything
Novelix
Completed
"I seduced that cold, untouchable Mafia heir ninety-nine times before he finally cracked. By day, I was the ""assistant housekeeper"" at the Castellani estate. By night, I was the woman who warmed Vittorio Castellani's bed. Until the night I overheard him joking with his brothers outside the study. ""Vittorio, word is you finally took the little maid to bed. Does that mean you're done waiting for Isabella? You've really let her go?"" He tilted his head back, swallowed a mouthful of red wine, and laughed softly. ""A little maid. A warm body. You think she qualifies for anything more? The second Isabella's back from Europe, I'm putting a ring on her finger."" The study erupted in laughter. ""So, Vittorio—when you're done with her, mind letting the rest of us have a taste? I hear the little maid's got quite the tricks. A real appetite on her."" The corner of his mouth lifted in a cold smile. ""Help yourselves."" I pressed a hand to my stomach—still flat, no sign of what was growing inside—and that same night, I took my child and vanished from the entire East Coast. Five years later. Vittorio Castellani, now the man at the head of the family, was about to bid on a ten-carat pink diamond. A welcome-home gift. For Isabella. Then a small voice cut him off. ""I want that diamond for my mom. Whatever he bids, I'll bid ten million more."""
Chapters (3)
第1章
I seduced that cold, untouchable Mafia heir ninety-nine times before he finally cracked.
By day, I was the "assistant housekeeper" at the Castellani estate. By night, I was the woman who warmed Vittorio Castellani's bed.
Until the night I overheard him joking with his brothers outside the study.
"Vittorio, word is you finally took the little maid to bed. Does that mean you're done waiting for Isabella? You've really let her go?"
He tilted his head back, swallowed a mouthful of red wine, and laughed softly.
"A little maid. A warm body. You think she qualifies for anything more? The second Isabella's back from Europe, I'm putting a ring on her finger."
The study erupted in laughter.
"So, Vittorio—when you're done with her, mind letting the rest of us have a taste? I hear the little maid's got quite the tricks. A real appetite on her."
The corner of his mouth lifted in a cold smile.
"Help yourselves."
I pressed a hand to my stomach—still flat, no sign of what was growing inside—and that same night, I took my child and vanished from the entire East Coast.
Five years later.
Vittorio Castellani, now the man at the head of the family, was about to bid on a ten-carat pink diamond. A welcome-home gift. For Isabella.
Then a small voice cut him off.
"I want that diamond for my mom. Whatever he bids, I'll bid ten million more."
The entire auction hall went silent.
Vittorio looked down at the tiny figure in front of him, his voice flat.
"Little boy. Do you have any idea how much that diamond costs? Where are your parents?"
The kid was standing on a chair, chin tilted up, utterly unimpressed.
"Don't mention that big fat liar in front of me. He's bad luck."
The auctioneer's gavel froze mid-air.
"Young man, this is a two-hundred-million-dollar pink diamond. Can you afford that?"
Laughter rippled through the room.
"The kid can barely hold his own bladder and he's playing high roller. His father's gonna have a heart attack when he hears about this."
Vittorio's nose twitched. He sneezed.
Isabella frowned, reached out, and yanked the boy off the chair.
"Whose brat is this? No manners. This is an auction house, not a playground."
The child stumbled, lost his footing, and started falling backward. He let out a terrified scream.
"Mom! Help!"
I was already shoving through the crowd when he hit the air.
My heel twisted mid-step. My elbow slammed into the marble floor hard enough to make my vision white out.
But I caught him. I had him. He was safe.
I stood up with him in my arms.
Vittorio got a clear look at my face, and something behind his eyes shifted.
"Serena. What the hell are you doing here?"
Before I could answer, his pack of hangers-on was already laughing.
"Vittorio—isn't that the little maid?"
"Been a while. Whose bed did she climb into this time? Some bald old sugar daddy, probably."
Isabella's eyes raked over me, sharp with hostility. She slid her arm through Vittorio's, staking her claim.
"So you're the maid who threw herself at Vittorio and got kicked out of the house?"
"Apple doesn't fall far, does it. Kid's already learned to lie, pretending he can bid on diamonds. Pathetic."
Leo shrank into my chest, lip trembling.
"Mama, I wasn't lying. Grandpa gave me his card. He said today's your birthday and I could pick out a present for you."
He dug frantically through his pockets.
"Grandpa said this card can buy anything. Anything at all."
Every eye in the room was fixed on his tiny pocket, waiting for the punchline.
He pulled out a Superman trading card.
The hall exploded with laughter.
"A Superman card? What, is that your payment method? You think this is a toy store?"
"These people are out of their minds."
The grandson of Alessandro Suardi—heir to the largest shipping and energy empire in North America. The future of the Suardi dynasty. When had this child ever been humiliated like this?
Leo burst into tears and buried his face in my shoulder.
"Mama, I wasn't lying, the card must be in the car, it has to be—"
I smoothed his hair, kept my voice soft.
"It's okay, baby. Just tell Mama which one you wanted."
He pointed up at the pink diamond.
I raised my paddle. My voice carried clean across the hall.
"He said he'd top it. Two hundred ten million dollars."
第2章
The jeers rolled over me like a tide.
"A maid, bidding at auction? The nerve."
Isabella's face twisted with contempt.
"You sure you can cover that? This isn't a flea market, sweetheart. You don't just wave the paddle."
Vittorio's brow drew tight.
"Serena. How much longer are you going to drag this kid along for the show? I don't know where he came from, but one look tells me you've ruined him."
I looked at him. There was nothing left in me for him. Not even anger.
What right did he have to pass judgment on my son?
When I didn't answer, Isabella leaned in for the kill.
"If your sugar daddy finds out his little mistress is parading her bastard around pretending to bid on diamonds—"
"Think he'll still send you an allowance next month?"
The pack of hangers-on jumped in behind her.
"Yeah. You crossed Vittorio. Your old man can't afford that kind of enemy."
"He'll kick you and the kid to the curb. You'll be on your knees licking Vittorio and Miss Isabella's shoes to make it up."
Vittorio's gaze locked on me again.
"Serena. You walked out on me five years ago because you had the next one already lined up, didn't you?"
His eyes dropped to the boy in my arms. The disgust was unmistakable.
"And this—whose bastard is this exactly?"
I pulled Leo closer.
Bastard.
Of course. In the eyes of the great Vittorio Castellani, I had always been nothing. A speck of dust. The maid.
Five years ago, if I hadn't made that bet with my father—that if I could bring the untouchable Castellani heir to his knees, I'd inherit full control of Suardi Group—
Do you think I'd have ever played that twisted little game of master and maid with him?
But I never, not once, regretted having Leo.
If my father knew his only daughter and his only grandson were being cornered like this—every family in this room would be bankrupt by morning. One phone call.
The auctioneer cleared his throat.
"Ma'am. You're confirming a bid of two hundred ten million dollars?"
"Yes."
I started to raise my paddle again—and one of Vittorio's lackeys snatched it out of my hand.
"She can afford that?"
"A maid. Even if she sold herself to that old man for three lifetimes, she wouldn't scrape together two hundred million."
"Please. On her wages? Starve from birth, don't spend a cent, she still couldn't cover it."
I bit down on the inside of my cheek.
Normally I never left the estate without a full detail. But Leo always begged me not to bring so many men. Said they scared the other kids.
So today, I'd left every last one of them home.
Stupid.
I pulled out my phone to make a call. Someone ripped it out of my hand and slammed it against the floor.
"Running for help? Calling your bald benefactor to rescue you?"
第3章
The screen shattered on impact.
Leo clutched me and started screaming.
"You can't do this to my mom! My grandpa will destroy you!"
"My grandpa is Alessandro Suardi!"
The room went off like a firecracker.
"Alessandro Suardi? Why not say the Pope while you're at it, kid?"
The jeers came from every direction.
"Listen to this kid. Lying through his teeth. The mother clearly didn't raise him right."
"Right? Playing dress-up with the paddle like he knows what he's doing."
"She's filling his head with nonsense. Turned a perfectly good kid into a little con artist."
Leo looked around at the sneering faces, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"I'm not a liar! I'm not!"
Since the day he was born, my father and I had wrapped him in cotton wool. He had never, in his entire short life, seen what people like this looked like up close.
He pressed his face into my shoulder and shook.
"Mama, I didn't lie, I didn't make it up—why are they saying those things—"
I could feel the situation sliding out of control. For Leo's sake, I swallowed it.
"I'm sorry, everyone. He's just a child. He doesn't understand."
"Forget the diamond. We don't want it."
I turned to leave—and Vittorio's friends closed in around us.
"Oh, now she's being reasonable? Little late for that."
"You were pretty mouthy a minute ago. Two-hundred-million bid, remember? What happened to that?"
"You really want the diamond? Fine. One night each. Take turns with every one of us."
"Ten years of rotation, and maybe we'll pitch in and get you a chip of it. For old times' sake."
Hands started reaching for me.
Vittorio shoved up from his seat. The chair scraped across the marble with a sound like a knife.
"Serena. Five years, and this is what you've become?"
"Selling yourself for cash? Birthing some old man's bastard?"
He knew those were lies. Every word of them.
He believed them anyway.
Our eyes met, and there was nothing in his but disgust.
The man who had held me every night for months on end, five years ago, was now looking at me like I was something scraped off his shoe.
If Leo ever learned that this man—this twisted-up, cruel-mouthed stranger—was his father, it would scar him for the rest of his life.
So I smiled. Cold.
"Yeah. He's a bastard. What of it?"
Vittorio's eyes dragged across my son with open revulsion. He took a step closer.
"You disappeared because of him, didn't you? Ran out of New York for him."
"You were already cheating on me."
I saw it in his eyes—regret, grief, a flash of something unspoken.
I never got the chance to answer. Isabella jumped in.
"Vittorio. Men in your position—every woman who comes near has a motive. Every single one."
"A maid who'd sell her body for a paycheck? There's nothing she wouldn't do."
I didn't answer. Vittorio shoved through the crowd and caught my wrist.
His eyes had gone past anger into something unhinged.
"Say something. Why did you come after me in the first place?"
"How many men have been in that bed of yours? How dirty are you?"
Something inside my chest locked up.
His grip tightened until my wrist bloomed with bruises.
I was trying to pull free when Leo launched himself at him.
"Don't you hurt my mom! I hate you!"
"You're the bad guy!"
The kid headbutted him. Vittorio staggered back a step, caught off guard.
Isabella steadied him and whipped around on Leo.
"A maid's son. Figures. No one taught you manners."
"Your mother won't—so I will."
My stomach dropped. I shouted before I could think.
"Leo! Run, baby, run—"
Too late. One of them had already grabbed Leo by the collar.
My son's feet left the floor. He kicked and thrashed in the air.
"Let me go! You're bad people!"
"My grandpa's gonna find out and he's gonna hurt you!"
The louder Leo screamed, the more they laughed. One of them spun him around in the air like he was a toy.
Leo's face started to go white. Foam at the corner of his mouth. His eyes rolled.
I lost my mind. I shoved through the crowd. I didn't care anymore.
I screamed at Vittorio.
"Leo isn't a bastard! He's your son!"