Chapter 268
He flinches when it hits the ground. Slowly kneels. Picks it up.!!
“No guards,” I say. “No witnesses. Just us. You already killed everything around you. Might as well finish the set.”
He looks at me.
“You hate me,” he says quietly.
“I did,” I answer. “But not as much as you hated yourself.”
He lifts the gun. Hands trembling. Aimed right at my chest. And for a second, I see him.”
Not the man.
The boy.
The boy I held when he had nightmares. The boy who used to leave flowers by my bedroom door. The boy who said “I’ll make you proud, Ma,” after his first day learning to shoot.
And now he’s shaking, eyes wide, like he’s seeing everything for the first time and finally can’t look away. “I’m sorry,” he chokes out. My heart cracks.
“I’m sorry for everything, Ma. I was too proud. Too stupid. I let them poison me. I thought power made me a man. But I wasn’t a man. I was a shadow.”
His voice is breaking.
“You did everything for me. And I saw it too late. I don’t deserve forgiveness. But if there’s anything in you left for me… anything at all…” He pauses.
Looks at the sky.
“I just hope you remember me once. Not as what I became. But what I tried to be for you. Before I lost myself.” He closes his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Then he turns the gun on himself.
nd pulls the trigger.
e sound splits the garden like thunder.
don’t move. Not right away. But my legs buckle.
The rain starts falling again.”
And I cry.
Not with regret.S
But with release. Because maybe, just maybe… my son finally found peace.
They thought I’d burn the body.
They assumed I’d leave him in the dirt with the rest of the traitors. Toss him in some nameless pit and call it done. But Lester was still my
son.
He was my greatest mistake. My deepest wound. My beloved child who went so far into the dark, he couldn’t find his way back. But in the end, when everything was stripped from him, when all the noise had gone quiet–he chose silence over destruction.”
That counted for something.
So I gave him a funeral. Not a mafia send–off. No mafia flags. No Rossini guards in black. No guns fired in salute. Just a beautiful oak casket, real silk lining, and a small white bouquet placed where his chest would be. Peonies. His mother’s favorite. He used to pick them when he was little.
We buried him in the private Rossini cemetery, near the orchard. No name on the stone. Just one word carved deep into marble:
“Forgiven.”
***2
Loisa found out two days later. Matteo told her, quietly. She didn’t speak for three days.
Didn’t scream. Didn’t rage. Just… stopped.!!
She curled up on the corner of her cot like a child. No words. No appetite. And then, on the fourth morning, I heard her.
Whispering.
Hands together. Knees on the stone floor. She was praying. For his soul, maybe.”
Or for her own.
Edmund, meanwhile, just watched.
Still paralyzed. Still alive. Doctors say he’ll live for a long, long time.
Eyes wide open. Never blinking fast. Just watching the ceiling like he’s bargaining with the devil above him. But the devil already cashed his soul. He’s just breathing out the remainder of his debt now. I made sure his care was personal.
Elizabeth bathes him twice a day. Stripped of silk, jewels, and her glossy pride. She rolls up her sleeves and sponges his cold skin while
his useless fingers twitch.
$16 PM
Elizabeth bathes him twice a day Stripped of silk, jewels, and her glossy pode She rolls up her sleeves and sponges the cold skin white
his useless fingers twitch.
She doesn’t speak anymore. Doesn’t cry either. That ship sailed. The Rossini orest is embroidered on her new maid apron Red thread. Thick enough for her to feel it bum:
The night after Lester’s burial, we all sat in the study.%
Fire roaning.
Enzo poured two glasses of Don Roberto’s 1986 vintage. Matteo took his, nodded once, and lifted it in silence. A quiet toest to the end of bloodline betrayal
I didn’t drink
Just watched the fire curl and snap in the hearth like it was eating the past whole.
So many ghosts.
So much ash
The next morning, before dawn, I visited Angelo X
My father Sull in that coma Still breathing on machines. No one knows if he’s aware–if he hears us when we talk. But I visit Every week. No matter how cold the day or black the night.
Usat beside him.
Held his hand.
“It’s done,” I whispered. “Lester’s gone. The twins are safe. The dynasty holds
His eyes didn’t flicker. But something in his palm twitched. Maybe it was nothing
Maybe it was everything.
“You would’ve been proud. Or maybe furious. I can’t tell anymore. But I kept your legacy Even when it cost me everything.”
I stayed for a while longer. Then left as quietly as I came.
***%
Next, I went to see Lucien. He was finally awake!
The doctors say the bullet missed his heart by half an inch. That he’s lucky. That it’s a miracle. But I know better, it was fate playing its favorite game–cruel timing and second chances.%
Lucien was sitting up, shirtless under a blanket, bruises still painting his ribs like war art. A nurse left as I entered. He turned to me. No smile Just that sharp, tired gaze I hadn’t seen in weeks.%
“You look older,” he said.
I smirked.
“You look like you died and crawled out just to insult me,“%
“I did.“%
I pulled up a chair?
Sat across from him.
We were quiet for a moment. Just breathing the same air again.%
“It’s over,” I said eventually
He tilted his head. “Is it?“%
“Lester’s dead. Loisa’s broken. Edmund’s rotting in his own body. Elizabeth is polishing marble tiles on her knees. The twins are studying ancient literature in three languages. And me? I sleep at night again.”
Lucien nodded slowly.%
“And what did it cost you?“%
That question hit harder than a bullet.
“Everything,” I whispered.
He stared at me. Then reached out, touched my wrist lightly. “You still have me.“%
That undid me more than anything else.
Because somehow, after all the carnage and silence and burning- he stayed.
And I let myself breathe for the first time in years.
In the ashes of dynasty, blood, and fire…
I rebuilt. Brick by brick. Soul by soul
Name by name. And when the world looked at the Rossini empire, they didn’t see fear anymore.
They saw me. The woman who buried her past.
And crowned herself with its bones.
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