Prologue
Graziana’s POV
I can’t believe it’s been two years since I killed Lorenzo Vinci and took my rightful place as the future donna of the Nero Family. It has been two years since Alessandro left and moved to California. Three years since I moved from Barcelona to New York, and one year since Sean O’Connell and I decided to go our separate ways.
A lot has happened during my time here in New York; it’s been one hell of a ride, and it looks like it’s not going to stop anytime soon. I feel like a lot of defining moments have been happening around my birthday in my short time as an adult. On my eighteenth birthday, I was presented as La Negra Corazón royalty, a possible heir to the Spanish crime organization.
Then, on my nineteenth birthday, or should I say the night before, I gave my tightly held virginity to a man that I was head over heels in love with and still am, without regret even now. Also, on my nineteenth birthday, I learned that I had a bounty put on my head. Well, the Black Angel and Volkov’s younger sister's kidnapping was a ploy to draw me out. My need to act on vengeance for the young girls who were kidnapped, sold into the sex trade, or killed made some high-ranking perverts upset. It took three months of planning to figure out a way to get Anastasia back without getting me kidnapped and a way to kill the men who put a bounty on my head. A month before, we located Anastasia, rescued her, and destroyed the so-called White Rose gang that was hired to kidnap her. The best part was a week later, when José was able to track the three men who started it all. Sean’s men raided a warehouse near the docks by the Boston Harbor and rounded them up with their men. They found dozens of shipping containers full of young girls that were about to be shipped off to who knows where and released them. I feel a smile creep up as the memory of that day comes forth. Sean had the three men line up next to each other with their hands and feet bound, ready to face the firing squad. I walked out with my favorite gun and let them get a good look at me before I aimed for their lower regions and shot them before leaving them there. Later, after I had left, Volkov arrived and finished them all off for touching his sister.
Last year, on my twentieth birthday, Sean and I broke up. You would think breaking up with your boyfriend of almost two years on your birthday would suck balls and send you on a downward spiral of depression, but it didn’t. The truth is, we didn’t want to end our relationship, and I’m still head over heels for him, but we both realized it just wasn’t going to work out. He heads the Irish Mob out of Boston, and I will soon be heading the Nero Family mafia out of New York. We couldn’t see a significant benefit to either of us in moving our operations from our respective cities. It wasn’t a bad breakup; we didn’t get angry at each other, and it was just a coincidence that things ended on my birthday. We had planned to go out to dinner and enjoy a night out on the town, but Sean got caught up in a skirmish with a gang trying to make a name for themselves in Boston, and I was called into an emergency meeting with Il Consiglio dei Cinque (The Council of Five). Matteo Rosso’s father, Giovanni, had a heart attack and died before getting to the hospital. I rushed to the hospital to meet with all the council members to give our condolences to Matteo and his family. I got back to my penthouse late that night to find Sean asleep in my bed. I was surprised to see him there; I didn't think he'd make it here tonight. I was staring at his beautiful, muscular body sleeping in my bed, clearly exhausted from the day's events, and I realized that, as much as we wanted to, it just wasn’t going to work without one of us sacrificing one of the family businesses.
Another smile makes its way onto my face as I remember that night. I crawled into bed with him, snuggling close to his chiseled, tattooed chest, letting his strong, muscular arms wrap around me. I kissed his collarbone, slowly moving up to his neck and jawline, making my way to his luscious lips. I felt his smile against my lips before he kissed me passionately. We made love one last time before parting ways. We see each other from time to time; after all, we are allies, and that hasn’t changed, and we have settled into a comfortable friendship with the occasional flirting. I don't have a single regret about my relationship with Sean, and I'm glad that he is still in my life.
I called my mom the next day to tell her about our decision to break up and how I felt about the whole situation. She told me that breakups will happen; it's part of being young and learning to navigate the complexities of love and relationships. What stuck with me the most was when she said that even though Sean felt like he could have been my forever, he's not the forever I need right now. Maybe down the road, if that's what fate has destined for me, but for now, he was put in my life for the season I needed him to be, and to cherish that. Then my mom dropped the bomb of motherly wisdom on me before she ended the phone call.
"Graziana, the one who claims your heart will be someone you least expect. That's what happened with me and your father. I know you know the story of how we fell in love, but what I didn't tell you was that he was the last person I thought I would fall in love with and marry. Anyway, I've got to go; your brother just woke up from his nap. I love you."
Why reminisce about past birthdays? Well, today is my twenty-first birthday, and once again, it is chock-full of defining, life-changing moments. For one, I’m graduating from NYU today. A year early and with honors, which I worked hard for. Secondly, tonight is my birthday, graduation, and confirmation party, where I will be introduced to the entire Nero Family Organization as their next leader. No pressure.
The graduation ceremony is about to start, so we are lined up alphabetically and told which row we will be sitting in before we make our way to the reserved seating area. As I walk down the aisle to where I'll be sitting during the ceremony, everyone is here to see me walk across the stage, including Alessandro. I can see Antonio, Sean, Ramón, my mom, and my two-year-old half-brother, Salvatore, who is sitting on her lap playing with a toy as I walk to my seat. Next to them are Pablo, Leonardo, and Alessandro. In the row behind them, I see Luca and Matteo with their beautiful wives, Raul and Mia, and finally, Romeo. My heart warms at seeing all of them here to support me because I know I will need all of the support I can get in the coming weeks as Antonio steps down and I take over the Nero Family.
I'm nervous but excited to embark on this next adventure in my life. I was once a lost and forgotten mafia princess, but now I will emerge as a badass mafia queen, and I won't let anyone get in my way of being who I was meant to be.
