Eight Years as the Invisible Mafia Princess of the Family Chapter 03
I called my own ride to Ochsner Medical Center.
The ER doctor peeled away the temporary bandage and took one look at my palm. “It’s deep. Needs stitches. The cut above your brow too—and you’l need a tetanus shot.”
He glanced over my shoulder. “Stitches are gonna hurt. No family with you?”
I gave a small smile. “They’re busy.”
By the time I got back to the Garden District estate, it was nearly eight in the evening. The living room was packed with men in dark suits. All of them came from the underworld, and a few were longtime partners in the Rossetti family’s legal medical ventures. They were here tonight to celebrate my Columbia acceptance.
The moment my mom saw me, she rushed over and grabbed my hand. “Where have you been? You didn’t answer your phone, didn’t reply to a single message! All these guests are waiting, and you just vanish for a whole afternoon?”
Her grip landed right on my stitches. I sucked in a sharp breath. Only then did she look down and notice the dressing above my brow and the bandage wrapped tight around my palm.
A man with pale gray eyes spoke first. “Vesper, you’re hurt.”
Before I could answer, my mom hooked an arm around my shoulder and smiled at him. “Just a little accident during training. Nothing serious. A Rossetti doesn’t flinch at a scratch.”
When she leaned in, I caught that familiar citrus scent. I used to love that smell when I was little. Every time she held Katerina, I’d inch closer just so I could pretend she was holding me too.
Now, that scent only made me pull away. I gently slipped free of her hand. Her smile flickered, then froze.
The gray-eyed man handed me a deep-red envelope. “Vesper, we’re here to congratulate you on Columbia.”
“A degree alone won’t secure your place in this family, but over the years you’ve flagged pharmaceutical risks for the clinic and kept our supply data clean. You’ve saved us from some serious losses. Talent like that deserves real opportunity.”
He tipped me a wink. “Nothing ordinary felt right for a Rossetti princess. So—lab property in Long Island City. You’ll have an ownership stake. No scrambling for housing in New York.”
My mom’s smile turned proud and glowing. “Vesper’s been easy since she was little. School, family business—she’s never once been a headache.”
Yeah, I was never a headache because no one ever worried about me at all. I started sitting in on family meetings way too young. When capos questioned what business an eighteen-year-old girl had reviewing medical procurement, I couldn’t afford a single mistake.
I had to be colder, sharper, more precise than everyone else. Meanwhile, every time Katerina showed up at a family function, both my parents and Silas hovered around her. After a while, some of the newer guys genuinely believed she was the Rossettis’ real daughter.
Silas went to med school and knew the family clinics inside and out. But whenever I asked him for guidance, all he said was, “Can’t you look it up yourself? You seriously need me for this?”
With Katerina, he’d patiently walk her through the whole web between medical logistics and the family’s money—again and again and again. Later, I asked him, “Why won’t you ever teach me too?”
He answered, perfectly righteous, “You’ve been around this stuff since you were a kid. Your thinking’s already set. Nothing I say makes a difference.”
“Katerina doesn’t have that foundation. She needs more support and she needs to understand the family early so she can stand on her own out there.”
I was stupid enough to believe that if I just got good enough, my parents would finally see me again. When the acceptances came from Columbia, Duke, and Johns Hopkins, all they said was, “Good job. Go wherever. It’s your call.” No discussion. No plans. Not one extra word of praise.
When Katerina applied to Montana State, they spent three straight days dissecting her course list, her housing, her security setup—absolutely terrified she’d hit a single bump in the road.
The gray-eyed man pressed the deed into my hand. “Keep it safe. If you need anything in New York, reach out.”
I was about to slip the document into my bag when my mom pressed her hand over mine. “Don’t worry. The Rossetti family will manage these assets properly for her.”
The second the guests were gone, she extended her hand toward me. “Give me the contract. “You’re not on the family council yet. Something this valuable shouldn’t sit in your hands alone.”
I tightened my grip on my bag. “It’s fine. I’ll manage it myself.”
Silas frowned. “You actually think your own family is going to cheat you out of this?”
My mom’s face tightened. “I’m just trying to make sure it’s handled properly.”
I looked straight at Katerina. “Is handing her half the family’s resources your idea of ‘handled properly’?”