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- 1 week ago
[AI GL] The Mafia Daughter They Forgot to Love [Telegram -@secretroom012]
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00:08the engagement is off my fiance dumped me in front of 400 guests my father didn't say a word
00:15my mother looked at the floor and the parents expressions seem more like they're hiding some
00:20truth my five brothers let him walk out alive
00:25then my whole family erased me for a year tonight i'm erasing myself back i rolled my old mustang
00:32down the drive with the headlights off past the gatehouse past the cameras my brother marco
00:36installed and never once checked at the iron gates i stopped and looked back at the house i
00:41was born in 22 windows every single one lit not one of them looking for me goodbye you won't miss
00:47me i'll miss you anyway that's the part that makes me pathetic my name is lucia valenti
00:55only daughter of don salvador valenti the man who runs chicago from a leather chair and never raises
01:01her voice five older brothers a mother who used to call me her miracle used to one year ago tonight
01:08was my 21st birthday it was also my engagement party my mother spent four months planning it
01:13midnight blue and gold because i hate pink white roses flown in from italy my grandmother's silver
01:18on every table she got every single detail right then mateo ricci picked up the microphone
01:23heir to the ricci family the boy i'd loved since i was 16 the man who'd put a diamond on
01:29my finger
01:30six weeks earlier and told me i was the only thing he'd ever been sure of he smiled at me
01:35across the
01:36ballroom and said it loud enough for 400 people to hear i'm not marrying lucia valentine
01:42the engagement is off i found someone worth more i stood there in my blue dress with a champagne glass
01:50in my hand and the ball helm went so quiet i could hear the candles burning then he set the
01:56microphone
01:57down and walked out here's the part i still can't explain nobody moved not my brothers who once broke
02:04a boy's arm for touching my hair at prom not my father who has stared down federal agents and rival
02:08families and never blink not my mother 400 people watched a don's daughter get thrown away like
02:14trash and my family stood there like statues
02:19mom why
02:30the next morning i woke up and my family had stopped speaking to me not angry angry would have
02:35meant i mattered i walked into the kitchen and my mother looked straight through me like i was a
02:39window morning mom nothing dad do you want me at the nine o'clock his office door closed
02:46then i picked up my phone and opened the family group chat the one we'd had since i was 14
02:50valenti
02:51family with a little red heart 5 000 messages of bad jokes and birthday photos and my mother's
02:56goodnight texts a gray line at the bottom of the screen i stared at it until my eyes burned
03:03then i walked to the front gate and punched in the code i'd used my whole life
03:09they changed it overnight everyone got the new one everyone except me i told myself it was a bad
03:16week then it was a bad month then it was 200 breakfast alone at a table set for eight once
03:22i dropped a coffee mug at my father's feet on purpose just to see if he'd look up he stepped
03:27over the pieces and kept walking that was the night i stopped being their daughter and started
03:32being a ghost in their house and a ghost sees everything i know which hallway has no camera
03:39i know every guard shift on this property i know exactly which minute the gate man takes his cigarette
03:44break which is how i'm getting out right now with one suitcase in the trunk and everything i own
03:49inside it i'm not running away i'm reporting for work
03:5911 days ago a black envelope arrived at a p.o. box my family doesn't know exists
04:04inside was one card a silver letter c stamped at the top three lines applicant l pharaoh accepted
04:11report to castelline tower new york tell no one i pressed the gas and didn't look in the mirror
04:17by sunrise my family would have a house with one empty room in it it would take them 11 days
04:22to notice
04:29let me tell you how a girl disappears inside a house with 40 people in it slowly then all at
04:35once month one i still fought i caught my mother outside her study and made my voice light and easy
04:39the way she likes it mom can we do our sunday just us pedicures terrible movies that greasy diner you
04:45pretend you hate since i was nine sundays had been ours she used to write down everything i said in
04:50little notebooks every color i liked every song every stupid opinion that's how she knew about the
04:54midnight blue i'm busy she said already walking away i asked her 12 times in three months i have
05:02the count saved in my phone because i'm the kind of broken that keeps receipts then she stopped
05:07answering it all month two i gave up on my brothers not now marco said swamped kid luca said
05:14geo didn't even lift his eyes from his laptop rocco rocco who taught me to throw a punch who let
05:21me
05:21sleep on his floor after nightmares until i was 12 put both hands on my shoulders moved me out of
05:26a
05:27doorway like a lamp and kept walking month three our head of security stopped training me when i asked
05:32why orders miss valenti miss valeri he called me lulu since i was six
05:42month four i moved out of the main house there's an old gardener's cottage at the far edge of the
05:48property one room a wood stove a window that looks at nothing but the lake i swept it out dragged
05:55in a
05:55mattress and stole a kettle from a pantry nobody counts let's see how long it takes them to notice
06:02spoiler i lived there eight months nobody knocked on my bedroom door in the big house nobody noticed
06:06my closet emptying one hanker at a time i'd sneak into my own bathroom to shower wipe down the counter
06:11and leave like a burglar in my own home i got very good at being invisible nobody warns you it's
06:17also a
06:17wound the night i finally broke was the night of my father's birthday dinner i wore my best dress i
06:24sat
06:24down at the table to my children my father raised his glass of barolo and said and then he named
06:29five
06:29marco luca geo tomaneo rocco the sixth chair was full the sixth child was holding a fork
06:36i stood up walked outside and threw up in my mother's rose bushes in a two thousand dollar dress
06:41that was the night i opened on keeps a family book leather older than the house births baptisms
06:46marriages deaths every child's whole life written in the dawn's own hand i've known the combination
06:50since i was 10 it's my mother's birthday of course it is i opened it at two in the morning
06:55under a single
06:55desk lamp last entry my father's handwriting and date of my engagement party l turned 21 dated the
07:00night of byriki no further action that was it not she's brilliant not she graduated first in her
07:06class not our daughter was humiliated in front of 400 people and we did nothing no further action i sat
07:11on my father's carpet holding 11 words and finally understood that i wasn't a daughter anymore
07:15i was a line in a ledger do i really mean that little to you nobody answered nobody had in
07:22months
07:27so i went back to my cottage opened my laptop and typed a name people in my world only ever
07:33say quietly
07:34every crime family in america answers to one table and the commission answers to one man
07:40nico castellani 32 years old runs it from a glass tower in manhattan when two families are about to go
07:50to war his people walk in and walk out with a handshake instead of a funeral so i applied under
07:58my
07:58grandmother's maiden name l pharaoh i stayed up 11 nights straight taking their tests logic memory
08:05family law nobody writes down impossible scenarios where you choose which stranger dies then i hit
08:11submit and waited to be rejected again 11 days later the black envelope tell no one
08:20i laughed out loud in an empty cottage who exactly did they think i had left to tell
08:33i gave them one last chance i don't know why maybe because my grandmother used to say you don't
08:39close a door until you've knocked on it one more time so on my last night i put on a
08:44clean white shirt
08:45and walked into my family's dining room for the first time in four months here's the part that finished
08:50me our housekeeper rosalia set a plate down in front of me and she wasn't surprised
08:56not a blink not a single oh it's lovely to see you miss lucia like a ghost showing up to
09:01dinner
09:02was just a normal tuesday in this house my father walked in on a phone call my mother walked in
09:06carrying three fat binders my brothers came in arguing about flowers of all the stupid things
09:10pennies versus roses and then all five of them went suddenly a strangely quiet and pulled out their
09:16phones five grown men at one table texting each other because they'd kicked me out of the group chat
09:23and now they didn't even speak out loud when i was in the room talking around me over me about
09:29me
09:29maybe never to me i ate every bite on my plate i don't know why maybe i wanted to be
09:36able to say
09:36i gave them the whole hour at minute 58 my mother looked up right at me one full second her
09:46eyes on my
09:47face my whole stupid starving heart lifted off the ground geo tell marco the lake house is booked and
09:54looked back down at her bonder i stood up before dessert nobody asked where i was going
10:04i packed in nine minutes everything i own fits in one suitcase because a girl who's been erased learns
10:10to travel light i left three things behind my grandmother's pearl necklace on my mother's vamity
10:16my family crest ring on my father's desk right on top of his leather book and a note on my
10:21mother's
10:21pillow i waited a year don't come looking l then i got in my car and drove east i crossed
10:27the indiana
10:27line at 12 14 a.m on my 22nd birthday and i did not cry 300 miles later i pulled
10:34into a gas station
10:35in ohio under a buzzing yellow light and i did the one thing i promised myself i wouldn't do
10:39i checked my phone five hours gone surely by now surely someone went to the cottage surely someone saw
10:48the ring no texts no voicemails zero missed calls i laughed until my ribs hurt then i laughed until i
10:59was
10:59crying great ugly sows my forehead pressed against the steering wheel trucker tapped on my window and asked
11:03if i was okay and i told him i'd never been better in my life then i pulled the sim
11:06card out of my
11:07phone and threw the phone in the trash i kept the sim card though i slid it into my wallet
11:13behind my
11:14driver's license don't ask me why you already know why because some pathetic part of me still wanted to
11:21know the day they noticed i drove through the night i watched the sun come up over pennsylvania with my
11:31mother's voice in my head from when i was little lucilia you are the best thing i ever made liar
11:37i
11:38thought liar liar liar at a diner outside harrisburg i ordered pancakes for my birthday and the waitress
11:45stuck a candle in them without being asked because i guess i looked like i needed it make a wish
11:50honey
11:50i closed my eyes i wish somebody would look for me then i opened them and blew it out because
11:56i was 22
11:57years old and i knew better now somewhere behind me in a house with 22 lit windows my family went
12:03to
12:03bed without saying good night the next morning they didn't notice the empty chair or the morning after
12:09that it took 11 days on the 11th day my mother walked across the lawn to my cottage carrying a
12:14shoebox
12:15opened the door and found a stripped mattress and a cold stove the groundskeeper told me later that
12:21the sound she made brought every guard on the property running she was screaming my name
12:26i was already 400 miles away standing outside a glass tower in manhattan with no idea that the reason
12:33my family had destroyed me was the only thing that had kept me alive is what we are doing really
12:39right
12:40maybe right was never theirs to define
12:4763 missed calls in 11 minutes mom dad marco rocco mom mom mom i'd slid my old sim card into
12:55a cheap
12:55burner outside gasoline tower just to prove to myself nobody cared now the phone wouldn't stop shaking in
13:01my hand then a text came through from my mother whatever you do don't come home a year of silence
13:07silence and the first thing my mother said to me was a warning my blood went cold i stared at
13:13those
13:13words until the screen went dark then i turned the phone face down in my pocket she had a year
13:20i told
13:21myself out loud she can have a year back because here's the thing about 63 calls that isn't love
13:28that's panic love shows up on day two panic shows up when somebody realizes there's going to be a
13:33scandal i walked up to the lobby doors black glass a silver sea set into the marble floor
13:39the doorman took one look at me and laughed
13:44deliveries around the back sweetheart i'm five foot four with black hair to my way and a face that
13:48still gets me carded buying wine i've made peace with it mostly i handed him the black envelope
13:53without a word he read it read it twice read it a third time then he lifted his radio and
14:00spoke in a
14:00completely different voice mr castilian's office l pharaoh is in the lobby a pause l pharaoh is a
14:05woman behind me 11 other recruits stepped out of a black van and went dead silent the fixer program
14:15is 12 people two weeks of trials at the end four are sent home and blacklisted by every family in
14:21the country forever a man in a gray suit met me at the elevator holding my file like it might
14:26explode
14:27miss pharaoh you'll be skipping the trials 11 heads snapped toward me your test scores are the
14:33highest this program has ever recorded not this year ever he said it loudly on purpose i think
14:41the other recruits looked at me like i'd stolen something from them the worst was vinnie russo
14:46son of a philadelphia family jaw like a shovel ego like a landfill by day three he told the whole
14:55break room that the little brunette only got in because she was sleeping with someone upstairs
15:00his girlfriend gina laughed the loudest i didn't say anything i just watched a year of being invisible
15:06tend to you to watch everything who lies who flinches who covers for someone else's mistake
15:12who eats alone vinnie lied every time he touched his collar i wrote it down on the last morning they
15:18sent us to a conference room on the 60th floor the door opened and the whole room forgot how to
15:23breathe
15:23nico castellani i'd seen photos photos didn't cover it six foot three dark hair a thin scar through
15:31one eyebrow and a stillness so complete it made the air feel heavy the man every don in america answers
15:37to the man my father has only ever spoken about in a lowered voice his eyes moved across the room
15:43once and landed on me they stayed there one second too long
15:49four of you go home today the rest of you will serve at my table and one of you will
15:54lead them
15:55he read the names of the four the last one was russo
16:03gina screamed an actual unhinged scream vinnie grabbed her arm and dragged her out and on his way
16:08past he looked at me with pure murder in his eyes i should have paid more attention to that look
16:13i didn't because nico castellan was still talking he said head fixer is the highest seat at the
16:18commission that isn't mine i've watched all of you for 14 days he looked at me furrow it's yours
16:25silence nobody clapped the room emptied i stood up to follow them legs shaking stay i stayed he walked
16:35around the long table slowly hands in his pockets until he stood right in front of me close enough that
16:39i could smell cedar in cold air enjoy your promotion miss valenti every drop of blood left
16:45my face you applied under your grandmother's maiden name you wrote your essay about a family ledger with
16:51one line in it i've known who you were since page one are you gonna call my father his gray
16:58eyes
16:59didn't blink your father hasn't called me you did
17:09why did you let me in nico castellan a looked out the window at 40 million lights like they
17:15personally disappointed him because you were the best and because nobody at my table has ever been
17:21underestimated as badly as you that's useful that's it that's it don't make me regret it
17:30miss farrell he used my fake name on purpose i understood what that was a secret kept a door
17:35he decided not to open nobody had kept anything for me in a year i didn't cry until the elevator
17:40doors closed they gave me eight fixers and an office on the 58th floor i read their files until
17:46three in the morning but honestly i didn't need the files i'd watch them for two weeks at 8 a
17:52.m i
17:53stood in front of them bianca you already picked your partner say it out loud and i'll put you on
17:59filing for a month bianca shut her mouth you're not choosing friends you're choosing the person who
18:06keeps you alive every one of you has a weakness i paired you with the person who covers it nobody
18:12argued once i explained why there's nothing that shuts people up faster than being seen clearly for
18:17the first time in their lives bianca found me afterward 24 sharp as a blade from a boston family
18:26that had written her off for choosing a career over a husband you put me with theo because you trust
18:30me
18:33i put you with theo because you're the only one who notices when he's lying to himself
18:38we won't let you down boss i keep that sentence in my pocket on bad days
18:48six months went by like a thrown knife we learned every family's history every old grudge every debt
18:53nobody writes down we settled a restaurant dispute in queens a gambling debt in atlantic city a stolen
18:57shipment in jersey quietly no bodies and i learned something about myself a year of being ignored had
19:03made me the most dangerous person in any room i could read a man's face like a menu i knew
19:07when a
19:07don was bluffing because his thumb moved i knew when a bodyguard was scared because he stopped
19:11blinking i remembered every word anyone said to me forever my family had spent a year teaching me to
19:16disappear it turned out to be the perfect training nico watched me work from across rooms never said
19:23much but once after i closed a case in newark in under an hour he left a coffee on my
19:28desk with too
19:28much sugar in it exactly how i take it i never told him how i take it you're staring at
19:35the cup
19:36i'm not you're staring at it like it proposed
19:41i threw a pen at her every other commission member still thought el fermo was a man nico never corrected
19:47them all my reports went out signed el fermo and the dons at his table called him him and the
19:52kid
19:52and castellani's new boy genius i let them it was funny
20:00until the friday bianca came back from the kitchens shaking so hard she dropped her takeout
20:04bianca doesn't shake bianca once talked a man out of pulling a trigger by insulting his shoes
20:13theo was on his feet in half a second between her breathing and her swearing i got the story in
20:18pieces carlo brandy senior fixer 12 years at the table his uncle runs half of staten island he'd
20:23locked her in the hallway outside the kitchens with two of his men behind him told her exactly
20:27what he wanted from her which room which hour when she said no he smiled then i'll file a report
20:33on monday saying you leave the case you'll be blacklisted by lunch and your little boy genius
20:36boss won't be able to save you the room went very very quiet i set down my coffee
20:45how many women have left this program in the last 10 years theo was already typing his face went gray
20:5111 nine of them after report from carlo brandare nine women nine careers nine families that probably
21:00stopped speaking to them afterwards the way mine stopped speaking to me i stood up
21:09monday is my first seat at the commission table boss what are you going to do
21:17i thought about 400 people watching me get thrown away while nobody moved something i'm going to do
21:25something
21:35ask bianca to cut my hair two men who grabbed it during training and put me on the mat with
21:39it
21:39and i have exactly enough ego to hate losing it came off just above my shoulders sharp and clean
21:45when i walked out my whole team whistled and pounded the table like animals
21:52you look like a woman about to ruin a man's entire year
21:56that's the idea monday morning i put on black black suit black heels a silver c pinned at my collar
22:02the pin only nico's head fixer wears theo handed me coffee without looking up you know they all still
22:08think you're a man right last time i checked i lacked the equipment you've got the balls though
22:13boss bianca said into her cereal i was still laughing when i ran up to the 60th floor nine minutes
22:19late
22:20i opened the double doors eight dons around a long black table old men in expensive suits who control
22:27ports unions casinos and a frightening number of judges nico castellane at the head leaning back
22:32in his chair and carlo brande smirking halfway through a story every head turned my apologies
22:39for being late mr castellan one of my people had to remind me i lacked the equipment to qualify as
22:44a
22:44man and and i lost track of time somebody choked on their espresso i'm el faro head fixer eight grown
22:52men rearranged their entire understanding of the last six months nico's face didn't move at all
22:56his eyes were absolutely dancing miss faro congratulations on the newark file 47 minutes
23:03a new record thank you sir would you excuse me one moment there's something i have to do i walked
23:08the
23:08length of the table carlo brandy leaned back in his chair and opened his mouth to say something clever
23:13about my height i hit him once everything i had right on the hinge of the jaw he went off
23:25the chair
23:25like a sack of laundry nobody moved not one don not nico i crouched beside him bianca morelli
23:34friday the hallway outside the kitchens you told her if she didn't come to your room you'd file a report
23:39and end her career his face went the color of wet cement if you ever threaten a woman's job to
23:45get
23:45her into your bed again mr castellan will be the least of your problems are we clear he tried to
23:51get
23:51up i shifted my weight forward about two inches he stayed down miss faro explain so i did all of
23:59it
23:59then i asked the question that stopped every man in that room from breathing 11 women have left your
24:04program in years sir nine of them after a report from this man how many of those reports were filed
24:08after
24:08they told them no nico didn't answer me he just lifted two fingers the door opened two of his men
24:15walked in picked carlo brandy up by the arms and carried him out through the door at the back the
24:19one that doesn't lead to the elevators after this meeting i'll be speaking to each of you one at a
24:24time if anyone at this table has ever used those tactics think very carefully about what you'd like
24:28your last honest sentence to be seven old men went pale nico didn't look at them he was looking at
24:34me
24:34not like a boss looks at an employee like a man who just found something she'd stopped believing
24:39existed my heart did something stupid i ignored it i was working then his assistant put her head
24:45through the door mr castellan i'm sorry the ricky delegation from chicago is here they're early and in
24:50walked the man who dumped me in front of 400 people mateo ricky still looked like a magazine cover
24:56dark suit perfect hair that smile that used to make me forget my own name he was halfway through a
25:02reading when he saw my face lucia every dawn at the table turned to look at me lucia not pharaoh
25:12six months of secrets gone in one word lucia the valenti girl salvatore valenti's daughter is
25:20missing it's all over chicago nico said loud and cold is there a problem he gave me my fake name
25:32back in front of eight dons on purpose like a hand on my back no sir just an old acquaintance
25:41mateo took a step toward me lucia you look careful you're about to compliment the commission's head
25:47fixer in front of nico castillo while your father's men watch it's going to sound like begging
25:52somebody coughed to hide a laugh
25:56metello's jaw tightened i watched his eyes once to his father's lawyer once to the floor then back
26:02to me soft and wet and practiced i knew that look i'd seen it at every dinner where he wanted
26:07something
26:08i made a mistake he said low and urgent and behind him his father's lawyer leaned toward another man and
26:14whispered just loud enough for someone who'd spent a year listening at doors valenti lost the port
26:19contract if the boy gets her back chicago's ours a year of silence and he was doing math you didn't
26:29make a mistake you made a trade it's not the same thing and it isn't my problem i turned to
26:35nico
26:36sir could someone show the ricky delegation to the east room they're blocking my morning
26:45nico didn't even hesitate east room i walked past mateo without looking at him
26:53it was the best three seconds of my entire life when the door closed nico slid a thick file across
27:00the
27:00table since you're in a productive mood he said the grego and marcelli families pier nine red hook
27:06waterfront one warehouse two years of fighting four failed sit downs three men shot last month next
27:12month it'll be 30. old don marchetti's grandson sitting at the table looked at his hands we sent
27:18our best people twice someone said neither side will talk how long has the warehouse been empty
27:24silence empty unused no shipments no storage nothing how long nobody answered second question
27:32i turned my palm up what reason did either family give for wanting it eight men looked at each other
27:40nico flipped through the file slowly page after page there's no reason recorded in two years nobody asked
27:49may i take a swing at it sir he slid the file into my hands without a single question
27:55and i watched eight dons understand exactly what that meant nico caught me in the hallway afterwards
28:11up close he is honestly unfair the scar through his eyebrow the gray eyes the way he never needs to
28:18raise his voice because the whole world lowers its own you hit a senior fixer in front of my entire
28:24table
28:24he said are you writing me up i'm asking if your hand is okay i looked down my knuckles were
28:33split
28:33and bleeding i hadn't noticed he took a handkerchief out of his pocket took my hand and wrapped it
28:40himself slowly carefully like i was something that could break nobody had touched me gently in a year
28:47i had to look at the wall so he wouldn't see my face lucia he said for the first time
28:53my real name
28:55whoever taught you to stop noticing when you're hurt they did a very good job
29:00my family they're very thorough his hand stayed on mine one second longer than it needed to then he let
29:07we drove to red hook that afternoon me bianca theo and four more of my fixers
29:18in the car theo looked up from his laptop boss pier nine's been sealed since 1983 both families own
29:25it together neither has opened the back room in 40 years 1983 i repeated something cold walked down the
29:33back of my neck what happened in 1983 that's the weird part nothing both families records for that entire
29:41year are missing like someone tore the pages out we pulled up to the pier at sunset 60 armed men
29:4830 on
29:49each side of a rusted warehouse hands inside their jackets two old dons in the middle glaring at each
29:55other across 40 feet of broken crete not on my watch i got out of the car walked straight
30:02into the middle of it alone and watched 60 trigger fingers switch gentlemen two questions
30:11then you can all go home to dinner
30:22don aurelio greco is 78 and built like a bull that's been dying angrily for 10 years
30:28don benedicto marchetti is 81 thin as wire with a cane he doesn't need
30:35they sent the little girl they sent the commission's head fixer first question why do you want this
30:42warehouse he opened his mouth to bark something about his father's honor but i wasn't listening to his
30:49mouth i was watching his eyes they flicked once just once to the rusted steel door at the back of
30:55the
30:55warehouse and stayed there i turned to marchetti second question what's behind that door the old
31:03man's cane hit the concrete nobody's used this place in 40 years you've spent two years and millions
31:14of dollars making sure the other one never gets the key you don't want this warehouse you want it closed
31:21there's nothing in there greco snapped then you won't mind if i open it marchetti sat down slowly
31:28on an old crate and put his face in his hands it took 40 minutes