Chapter 1

I was the Chicago Outfit's princess, and Luca and Matteo were my sworn protectors. We had mixed our blood at ten years old, promising that nothing would ever touch me.

But that oath turned to ash the night Sofia Ricci aimed a Roman candle at my chest.

The firework slammed into my shoulder, igniting my silk dress instantly. As I rolled on the concrete, screaming while the flames ate into my skin, I waited for my boys to save me.

They didn't.

Instead, I watched through the smoke as they rushed to Sofia. They wrapped their jackets-the ones meant to shield me-around the girl who had just set me on fire, comforting her because the "kickback" had scared her.

They let me burn to keep her warm.

When I woke up in the hospital with permanent scars, they brought me a letter of apology from her and defended her "accident." They even cut their palms to pay her debt, ignoring the fact that I was the one in bandages.

That was the moment Elena Vitiello died.

I didn't scream. I didn't beg. I simply packed my bags and defected to the one place they couldn't follow: the arms of Dante Moretti, the lethal Capo of New York.

By the time they realized their mistake and came crawling back to beg in the rain, I was already wearing another man's ring.

"You want forgiveness?" I asked, looking down at them.

"Burn for it."

Chapter 1

I pressed the cursor down on the 'Confirm' button on the university portal, and just like that, my life in Chicago was over before my heart even had a chance to stutter.

The screen flashed a sterile green confirmation banner: Enrollment Finalized: Columbia University, New York.

My hands didn't shake.

They should have.

I was Elena Vitiello, the only daughter of the Chicago Outfit's Underboss, raised in a gilded cage where loyalty was the only currency that mattered, and betrayal was a debt paid in blood.

Moving to New York wasn't just a transfer.

It was a defection.

New York belonged to the Famiglia.

It belonged to Dante Moretti.

Even here, a thousand miles away, the name Moretti tasted like gunpowder and aged scotch.

Rumor had it he was the youngest Capo in Famiglia history, a man who had seized control of the entire Eastern seaboard's heroin trade by the time he was twenty-two.

He was lethal, clinical, and if the stories were true, he didn't toy with his food before he killed it.

And I was voluntarily walking into his lion's den because the wolves in my own house had already started eating me alive.

I looked down at my phone as it vibrated against the mahogany desk.

A new notification from Instagram popped up.

It was Sofia.

The caption read: VIP treatment at the Gala. So grateful for my boys.

I tapped the photo.

There she was, standing between Luca Rossi and Matteo Bianchi.

My Luca.

My Matteo.

They were my sworn protectors, the soldiers who had cut their palms and mixed their blood with mine when we were ten years old, promising that nothing would ever touch me.

In the photo, Sofia was wearing a white silk gown.

My custom-made gown.

Around her neck hung a string of rare pink pearls.

My mother's pearls.

The ones kept in the biometric vault in my wing of the estate.

The vault only three people had access to: Me, Luca, and Matteo.

I felt a cold sensation spread through my chest, like someone had replaced my blood with liquid nitrogen.

It wasn't just theft.

It was a usurpation.

They had given an outsider, a low-level associate's daughter, the keys to my kingdom.

My phone buzzed again.

A group chat named The Trio.

Sofia: Guys, look! The lighting in here is amazing. Also, thank you for the new MacBook and the iPhone 15 Pro! You really didn't have to.

She tagged them.

Luca: Only the best for you, Sof. You need it for school.

Matteo: You looked like a queen tonight.

A queen.

I stared at the words until they blurred.

I was the Vitiello Princess.

But they were crowning a rat.

I typed a message, my fingers moving with mechanical precision.

Who opened the vault for her?

The typing bubbles appeared instantly.

Then stopped.

Then appeared again.

Sofia: Oh, Elena! I didn't know you were awake. The boys just let me borrow a few things. I wanted to fit in. You have so much, I didn't think you'd mind sharing.

Luca: Don't start, Elena. She needed a dress. You weren't using it.

Matteo: We'll buy you a new one. Stop being a brat.

A brat.

I closed my eyes and let out a breath that shuddered in my lungs.

Ten years of friendship.

Ten years of secrets.

Ten years of me patching up their wounds after training, of them scaring away boys who looked at me wrong, of us against the world.

Erased for a girl who knew how to cry on cue.

A notification from Venmo pinged.

Luca Rossi sent you $5,000 - For the dress. Chill out.

He had put a price tag on my dignity.

He thought cash could cover the stain of treason.

I didn't reply.

I walked over to the full-length mirror in my room.

Taped to the glass was a polaroid from three years ago.

Me in the middle, Luca and Matteo kissing my cheeks.

Written in Sharpie at the bottom: Blood Brothers & Their Queen.

I ripped the photo off the glass.

The tape made a tearing sound that seemed too loud in the silent room.

I walked to the shredder by my desk.

I fed the photo into the teeth of the machine.

I watched their smiling faces turn into confetti.

"You can have the scraps, Sofia," I whispered to the empty room.

I picked up my phone and blocked the group chat.

Then I opened my banking app and transferred the five thousand dollars to a charity for retired racehorses.

I didn't need their money.

I needed out.