I Stopped Waiting for the Don, and He Begged on His Knees Chapter 2

"Elena, you will always be the princess of the Cesari family."

My father's voice came through the phone. A car would arrive in a week to pick me up.

He was the Don of Sicily's most powerful and secretive mafia family, and he had never approved of my decision to hide my identity so I could date Antonio.

He had given me five years. If Antonio still loved me at the end, I could tell him who I was. If not, I would return to the Cesari family.

But the five years weren't up, and Antonio had already changed.

I put the phone away, looked around the room, and started deciding, item by item, what I would take with me.

The next morning the Renzetti family held its internal audit meeting in the top-floor conference room.

I put on a sharp suit and pushed the doors open.

Antonio sat at the head of the table. Franca was in the seat beside him, the one that had always been mine.

I stopped and looked at her in silence. Antonio seemed to sense my gaze and looked up at me.

"Franca may be a bartender, but she has a head for numbers.

"As my informant, she needs a chance to get close to family business. Take the seat on the opposite side today, if you don't mind."

A dozen or so senior members of the Renzetti family were watching me. Some of them frowned. Some of them were enjoying it.

I didn't say anything. I pulled out a chair at the far end of the long table and sat down.

I was leaving anyway. Soon the Renzetti family would have nothing to do with me. Why would I fight over any of it?

Once the meeting started, Franca stood up with a file in her hand.

"Don, I've found major discrepancies in the books of the charity foundation Elena runs.

"Three transfers totaling fifty million dollars are unaccounted for, and there are no invoices to support them."

A murmur ran through the room. Inwardly, I laughed at them all.

The foundation was the Renzetti family's most closely guarded money-laundering channel, so where every dollar went mattered.

Franca is an idiot. Not understanding something complicated is one thing. Having the nerve to question me about it is another.

Antonio turned to me, tapping a rhythm on the table. "Elena. Explain."

I met his gaze calmly. "I don't know what there is to explain. Those are special disbursements made by the Renzetti family. Each one bears your signature."

"Even the Don's signature can be forged," Franca shot back, meeting my gaze defiantly.

"Elena, do you think the Don has been so lenient with you that you dared to touch records this important?"

"That's enough." Antonio raised a hand to cut her off. He hesitated for a while, but then looked at me anyway.

"Elena, hand over the foundation seal. If even Franca can spot problems in the accounts, this project will be good practice for her."

I sat there, staring at the man I had supported and loved for five years.

To protect his new favorite informant, he didn't even defend me.

"All right." I opened my bag, took a black seal engraved with the Renzetti crest out of the inner pocket, and handed it to Franca.

Antonio's expression relaxed. He gave me a satisfied look and ended the meeting.

As the others filed out, Antonio came over, rested a hand on my shoulder, bent down, and kissed my forehead.

"Elena, I was wrong. Once things are settled with Franca, I'll make it up to you."

He didn't wait for an answer. He walked out with Franca, who deliberately bumped my shoulder as she passed and let out a soft laugh.

I stood alone in the empty room and scrubbed my forehead with a handkerchief.

You really do make me sick, Antonio.

I sat down, logged in to the encrypted system on my laptop, and froze all the secret funding I had asked my father to channel into the Renzetti family over the past five years.

If Antonio didn't need me, then he didn't need anything I had brought with me either.