The Real Mafia Heiress Chapter 07
Mrs. Bennett stumbled breathlessly into the villa. The second she spotted me, Torres, and the rest of the
team scattered across the living room, the blood drained from her face.
The students swarmed forward to curry favor immediately.
“Mrs. Bennett, thank goodness you’re here! That
conniving bitch Sophia hired a bunch of actors to put on a fake show and scare all of us.
“Yeah, they’re claiming Sophia owns the Moretti
Group, this villa, and that you’re just her housekeeper!”
“They said they’re detaining us and making us pay for what happened today.”
“They’ve been badmouthing you nonstop in front of Lilith this whole time. You can’t let them get away with this!”
“Right! Show these delusional fake tough guys what a real mafia matriarch is capable of!”
Mrs. Bennett stood frozen in place.
Her pale eyes swept across the trashed living room, lingered on the blood crusted on my lip and my disheveled hair, then locked onto the shattered antique necklace scattered across the stone floor. Her pupils blew wide with shock.
She knew that necklace. She’d tended to my mother for over a decade, watching her wear it every single day.
She’d been there the day my mother passed away, watched her press the pendant into my palms, and heard her repeat her desperate plea for me to guard it with my life.
She knew it was my mother’s most precious legacy, the treasure I’d protected above all else. Now it lay broken into jagged fragments.
Mrs. Bennett’s lips trembled. She tried to speak, but no sound came out.
Lilith hurried over and looped her arm through her mother’s, voice thick with fake tears. “Mom, you’re finally here! These people have been bullying me. Order your men to arrest all of them right now!”
She jabbed a finger toward me and Torres, jaw tight with rage. “Especially those two. They keep insisting you’re just a housekeeper, that all our houses and the company belong to that bitch–even this villa is supposed to be hers! Tell them it’s all yours, won’t you?”
Mrs. Bennett didn’t move an inch.
“Mom?” Lilith tugged her arm, sensing something horribly wrong. “What’s wrong? Say something!”
Slowly, Mrs. Bennett lifted her head and looked straight at me. Her eyes swam with raw panic and desperate pleading.
She pulled her arm free from Lilith’s grip, rushed over to my side, and lowered her voice to a whisper only I could hear, just like she had the first time she begged for mercy. “Miss, I’m begging you–please help me.
I leaned back against the chair, watching her coldly.
She begged harder, voice trembling. “Just play along with my lie for Lilith. Pretend this villa belongs to me, that all the Moretti properties and the company are mine, and that you’re just a poor orphan boarding with our family.
“Just this once, I’m begging you. You know Lilith’s father passed away years ago. Raising her alone has been unimaginably hard for me. She’s always been prideful and high–strung–if she learns I’m merely the Morettis‘ housekeeper, it’ll break her completely.‘
“Miss, think of the twelve years I spent caring for Don and Donna Moretti. Grant me this one last favor. Just this once. I swear I’ll devote myself to my work from now on, never let her bother you again, and obey every single order you give me.”
Her voice was so faint only I could catch each word, yet every sentence she spoke struck me as utterly absurd.
I stared at her for several beats, then let out a quiet laugh. “Mrs. Bennett. How do you possibly have the nerve to ask me for this?”
Mrs. Bennett’s face stiffened, panic flickering across her features as she glanced back over her shoulder at Lilith.
“Miss,” she hissed, growing more frantic, “keep your voice down-”
I cut her off, ignoring her plea for silence. “I showed you leniency out of respect for my parents. I kept you employed in this estate, raised your salary, covered every cent of your daughter’s college tuition, and showed both of you endless mercy, turning a blind eye time and again.”
“And what did you do in return? You let your daughter move into my private residence, parade around acting like she owned the place, tape hateful insults calling me a moocher to my front door, bring her friends to wreck my parents‘ lifelong villa, assault me, destroy my mother’s irreplaceable heirloom-
“Mrs. Bennett. Do you realize the gravity of your actions? It’s theft, fraud. And by the Moretti family’s code, it’s treason against your employer.”
Mrs. Bennett nerve completely shattered. Her legs buckled, and she nearly collapsed to her knees. “Miss, I truly know I’ve done wrong. I just wanted Lilith to grow up with a better life, I
“You wanted her to have a good life? So you stole my belongings just so the two of you could put on a fancy front?”
I held her gaze steady, speaking each word slowly and sharply. “After all the disgusting, ungrateful things
you and your daughter have done, what possible right
do you have to beg me to cover up your lies?”