Chapter 1
On the day I was trying out my wedding gown, a stranger dashed into the VIP room and pushed me hard onto the ground.
"I'm the real Mrs. John Curtis. Someone like you, with no money or a strong family behind you, should serve me instead."
She looked down on me before kicking my pregnant belly with her sharp heels. The pain blurred my vision and made me break out in a cold sweat.
Jolene Nostra crouched next to me and slapped me with the back of her hand.
"You were only a jilted lover without wealth or influence, trying to wed into a rich family by getting pregnant."
As blood flowed heavily from between my legs, a realization hit me.
My fiancé, the person I'd been with for four years, was seeing another woman.
"What's this? How dare you give me that look? I could kill you, and nothing would happen to me because I'm Mrs. John Curtis!"
As she lunged towards me, I pulled out my phone with trembling hands to call my brother.
"Come get me, Anthony. And tell our guys I want the Curtis family gone from South City."
(Annie's Perspective)
Jolene Nostra acted like she heard the funniest joke in the world when she heard my words. She stepped hard on my hand, which was holding my phone, with her rhinestone-covered heels.
There was a crisp, loud crack. My phone screen had broken, and all I felt was intense pain from her heel on my hand, but I clenched my teeth hard to stop myself from screaming.
"Trying to call for help?" Jolene was smiling widely as she looked at me like a dying insect. "Who else can an orphan like you call for help?" She slapped me so hard that all I could hear was a sharp ringing in my ear. My mouth was filled with the taste of blood.
I struggled as I tried hard to protect my belly. Warm liquid was flowing out of me, and my white wedding gown was soon covered in red. That was my child. The child John and I finally had after four years together.
"My name is… Annie Corleone…" I said weakly, trying to get her to understand what she was doing.
"Who cares what your name is?!" Jolene did not even give me the chance to speak as she grabbed a pair of scissors from the table.
Snip!
Jolene started to cut up my expensive, haute couture wedding gown. It felt like she was tearing up my skin as I listened to her crazy cutting. "You aren't good enough for this wedding gown. You're just an orphan who uses her pretty face to seduce men. Do you really think you'll become a rich wife just because you're pregnant with a little bastard in your belly?" She cursed viciously as she tore the gown apart. "I'm the one who should be Mrs. John Curtis, and that thing in your belly is nothing but an unwanted bastard!"
I stared at her with hate in my eyes. "This is Don Andre Corleone's first grandchild. If anything happens to the baby, he won't let you get away with it…"
Jolene paused for a moment before bursting with wild laughter. "Hahahaha! That little bastard?" She leaned close to my ear and spoke in a voice that sounded like the devil, "John told me before that you're an orphan, and how disgusted he is to have a child with a woman who has inferior genes!"
Her words hit me like a hammer, shattering my last defenses. In our four years together, John would whisper sweet nothings in my ear, but it turned out that all he felt for me was disgust.
Before I could snap out of it, Jolene suddenly threw me a vicious look, and she flung the scissors to the side. "Since he finds you disgusting, I'll help him clean house!"
Pow!
Jolene punched me right in the belly.
"Argh…!" I screamed from the pain. The life inside of me slowly diminished along with the blood flowing out of me. I felt cold. So cold. My body felt gradually lighter as I started to lose consciousness.
"Is that all you have?" Jolene wiped off the blood from her face with disdain while taking out her phone to live-stream everything blatantly. She made it a point to avoid any angle that made me look like a mess and only directed the camera to where I looked best.
The headline of the stream was, "What a great feeling to be taking down the third-party slut!"
As more and more people clicked into the live-stream, Jolene looked pitifully into the camera. "Everyone, that's the woman who tried to get my man by getting herself pregnant. She even tried to hit me. Fortunately, my bodyguards were quick to react."
The live-stream comments exploded with vulgarities.
"What a shameless slut! Beat her to death!"
"Something doesn't look right with that woman. Did she get beaten by the streamer…?"
"What do you mean? Stop maligning good people. That slut must be putting up an act."
"She did the right thing! Sluts like her don't deserve to be pitied!"
Jolene watched the comments with a satisfied smile. She enjoyed the feeling of this pointless victory and loved how it felt to humiliate another. "That's enough." Jolene put away her phone and waved her bodyguards over from outside. "Take her away. This place is too small. We need to take her somewhere else for some fun."
Two large men approached and grabbed me by the hair, which hurt terribly. I was dragged across the floor roughly, leaving behind a horrifying trail of blood. I was in and out of consciousness, but all I could think of was how much I had let my baby down, and how much I hated that adulterous pair, John and Jolene.
As long as I, Annie Corleone, was alive, I would make them pay with blood!
Chapter 2
(Third Person Perspective)
Anthony Corleone was in a meeting at Innova with the family's elders. When he heard his younger sister calling out weakly to him, "Anthony, please come get me." He lost it completely.
"What's going on, boss?" One of his subordinates looked at him with terror. The man who always remained calm in all situations was now in a rage as his eyes turned red with anger.
"Get the car! We're going to South City!" Anthony pushed the meeting table away and strode right out the door. "Tell everyone to bring along their weapons! I'll kill the entire family of anyone who touches a hair on my sister!"
However, when Anthony rushed inside the bridal boutique, there was no one left. The place was left in a mess, along with a horrifying trail of blood on the floor. Anthony's hand trembled as he touched the bloodstain on the floor. It could be Annie's, the apple of his eyes, the sister he had pampered his entire life.
"Find her! Find her even if you have to turn this place upside down!"
(Annie's Perspective)
The ski resort was covered in snow as the chilling wind gushed in the air. Several off-road vehicles were parked in the middle of the resort.
Jolene was sitting on a folding chair, holding a cup of hot coffee, and leisurely watching me in the snow.
Jolene had gotten a doctor from her posse to check my condition on our way here, as she wanted to prevent me from dying. The doctor said I would not die anytime soon, and he stopped my bleeding offhandedly, but I was too numb to feel any pain.
Vroom!
A vehicle could be heard coming toward us, and a car sped crazily toward the gates of the ski resort before screeching to a stop.
"Annie!" Anthony could feel his heart being torn apart when he saw the bloody figure on the snowy ground. He took off his coat as he dashed toward me.
"Stop him!" Jolene sneered as she waved her hand. Dozens of burly men appeared with clubs in their hands to surround him. These men were outlaws secretly hired by the Curtis family, and all of them were ruthless in their ways.
A sharp look flashed in Anthony's eyes.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The first three men at the front fell as the crisp sound of their bones cracking echoed in the air.
"Let my sister go!" Anthony looked like a killing machine as he grabbed a steel bar in his hand. However, he was all alone, and he had to take care of me, who was wounded.
"Not bad." Jolene put her cup of coffee down with a playful look in her eye. She approached me slowly and gently pushed a dagger against a vein in my neck. "Take another step, and you'll soon see blood."
Anthony stopped in his tracks right away. "Don't hurt her! I'll give you anything you want! You can have money or even power. Just let go of her!"
"Money? Power?" Jolene sounded like she had just heard a joke. "A nobody like you can't give me anything like that." The look in her eyes turned cold as she pointed at the snowy ground in front of her. "I want you to kneel in front of me!"
Anthony was taken aback. "Is this really what you want? I'm warning you, my men are on their way here." Anthony was the eldest son of the Corleone family and the Capo of the Hoover District. He would only kneel to the Don and God.
That was until Jolene had her dagger against my neck, leaving a small cut on it. Anthony did not even hesitate. "I'll kneel. Just let her go."
Jolene laughed with great delight, and it echoed in the vast space of the ski resort. "Beat him! Beat him up real good!" The bats fell hard on Anthony's back, head, and legs. He grunted and fell limply onto the snowy ground.
I forced myself to look up to stare at Jolene. "Touch us… And the Don will… Tear you apart!"
Jolene laughed even louder at my words. She stepped hard on me. "Don? Which Don are you talking about? What a joke. I've never even heard of either of you before, and you're using some random Don to threaten me?"
She leaned down toward me to pat me hard and arrogantly on the cheek. "Open your eyes and look hard! I'm the daughter of Casey Nostra, the Capo of South City! I'm the real Mafia Principessa! You're nothing but an orphan who's left with a brother. What's with all the pretences?"
That was when a luxurious car sped into the area. A slender figure in a suit got out of the car. It was my fiancé, John. I shouted at him, "John! Get your men to stop! I'm the Principessa of the Don! I'm Don Corleone's daughter! If you don't stop what you're doing, the Corleones will make sure your entire families die a horrible death!"
Chapter 3
John stopped and frowned slightly. He did not look at me but walked straight toward Jolene. "How did you get yourself so dirty?" His voice was magnetic and gentle, but he was not talking to me. He reached out to pull Jolene away from me while carefully smoothing down her dress. "Let the bodyguards do the work next time."
My heart felt like it was crushed into pieces. "John… She was the one who hurt our baby…" I looked at him in disbelief.
John finally turned to look at me with a frighteningly calm look in his eye. He crouched next to me but did not help me up. He used his clean, white handkerchief to wipe the bloodstains off my fingers carefully. He was very gentle with me as he cleaned my fingers as if they were an expensive porcelain vase with dirt on it.
"You've always been a good girl, Annie," John said with a sigh. His fingers brushed my cheek gently. "But Jolene's father is giving the Curtis family three shipping routes, while you… All you have is this face, and nothing else."
"All it took was three shipping routes for you to kill your own child?"
"Shh…." John placed a finger to my lips as he smiled sadly but cruelly. "Don't make it sound so bad. Survival of the fittest is the law of nature. Don't be mad at me about this. If you want to be mad, be mad that you were not born to a better father."
I watched as he stood up, and I burst out with a laugh. "Let me tell you once more, I'm the daughter of a Don! I'm Don Corleone's Principessa! You should…"
John laughed coldly. "Do you really want to forgo your dignity just to win me back and marry into the Curtis family?" He went to Jolene and put his hand around her waist. "Don Corleone doesn't have a daughter. You shouldn't make up such a ridiculous lie!"
He looked adoringly at Jolene and said in a sickly-sweet tone, "Look at her carefully. Jolene is the daughter of a Capo. She's the only one who can take me to greater heights and help me reach the core of the family, so I can one day inherit the position of Don. As for you, you're nothing but a materialistic, lying orphan."
I stared at the man I loved for four years as my heart turned cold. Once upon a time, I had begged my father to keep my identity a secret because I wanted to live an ordinary life, but John treated my sacrifice as garbage.
"You came at the right time, Honey." Jolene leaned into John's arms daintily while pointing at my brother and me on the ground. "These two lowlifes tried to hit me just now. I was so scared."
"Don't be scared. No one will dare put a hand on you with me around."
Jolene took out some thick ropes from the trunk of the car as her eyes glinted with excitement. "How about playing a game, Honey? Wouldn't it be exciting to walk a dog in the snow?"
John glanced at the rope and turned to look at me, who was seriously wounded. He hesitated but did not do anything to stop Jolene. John lit up a cigarette, took a deep swig, and exhaled the smoke. "You can do whatever you want as long as you're happy."
Jolene smiled maliciously as she came over to me. She tied one end of the rope onto a hook on an off-road vehicle and tied the other end around my neck. I was instantly suffocated by the thick rope rubbing into my skin.
"Run, you homeless wild dog!" Jolene got into the driver's seat and stepped hard on the gas pedal.
Vroom!
The vehicle flew in the air due to the speed, and I could feel the strong tug as I fell hard onto the ground.
"Annie!" Anthony did not even care about the sharp pain in his leg when he saw me being dragged along like a raggedy doll as he struggled from the grips of the burly men holding him down to run toward his car.
A black car sped toward the off-road vehicle like a wild beast sprinting through the snow.
Screech!
It was the shrill sound of the tires against the snowy ground. Anthony's car stopped Jolene from speeding forward.
Jolene was not hurt, but Anthony crashed into a big tree because he was worried about accidentally hurting me. I gasped for air as I laid in the snow. A dark bruise could be seen around my neck.
Not far away from us, Anthony got out of his car and fell as a pool of blood formed under him. He tried hard to look up at me to smile. "Don't be afraid…. Annie… I'm… Here…"
Tears streamed down my face as I crawled toward my brother despite being seriously injured. John approached Anthony with a cold look on his face. He flicked away his cigarette and said, "Not bad." He tugged on his shirt sleeve to straighten it before looking down on Anthony. "Too bad you're just another boorish character.
"Annie, I hope you get reborn into a better family in your next lifetime." John exhaled some smoke as he looked at me with hypocritical pity. "I like you a lot. Too bad there's no monetary gain to it."
Jolene got out of the vehicle. "What a letdown, but it's fine. It would take a lot of trouble to clean them up if I got them killed. Let's go, Honey."
John turned away from us to hold her in his arms. "I wanted to give you both an easy death, but you just had to name-drop Don Corleone to threaten me. That's my idol, and none of you are good enough to even mention his name.”
"Lock them up in the basement."
Dark shadow suddenly loomed over everyone as a loud whirring was heard in the air. There was a strong gust of wind, and everyone was forced to shield their eyes from it. John looked up, and his eyes widened.
Dozens of black weapon-grade helicopters were seen above his head. Each helicopter had the crest of the Black Eagle, which also had an image of a blade on it. It looked intimidating under the light.
"What's that?!" Jolene screamed in fear. Before she could process the situation, dozens of red lights were pointed between the eyes and chests of John and her. The light was from snipers aiming at them.
"Where did you get these actors?" Jolene was still cursing out loud, stupidly, despite everything that was happening, but her voice was trembling. "Who are you trying to scare? Do you know my father is…"
Before she could finish her sentence, the doors of a helicopter opened, and a group of men in black exited to quickly take control of the scene. All of the Curtis family's men who had been acting arrogantly were now kneeling on the ground with their hands over their heads and quivering.
When the largest helicopter landed, a man in a black fur coat walked out. It was my father, the man who controlled the Corleone family of Segona, Don Andre Corleone.