After My Father Was Murdered, I Thought He Was My Savior Chapter 03
The satellite phone inlaid with a golden lion emblem slipped out of the inner pocket of his tailored suit.
When I bent down to pick it up, an encrypted message happened to appear on the screen.
[Don Rinaldo, thank you for stepping in tonight and settling the dispute among the three families. But I cannot accept the piece of Sicily’s underground map you promised me. It is too valuable.]
Right after that came Noemi Ricci’s private post.
[Only a true queen deserves to wear a crown.]
The picture showed an ancient ruby ring.
It was the token of Sicily’s oldest mafia family, a symbol of the highest underground power.
I knew Noemi had meant for me to see it.
This week, Rinaldo had been badly wounded in a family shootout.
A bullet had pierced through his chest.
Yet the moment he could stand, he flew overseas.
I had been both heartbroken and angry, thinking he had risked his life for the dignity of the family.
It turned out he had gone to attend that family’s succession ceremony.
Even while carrying a gunshot wound, he had to seize the ring that represented supreme power and offer it to the woman he truly loved in his heart.
On impulse, I entered the password to his phone.
When I pressed the final digit, the screen lit up.
The password was Noemi’s birthday.
Rinaldo had never allowed me to touch his private phone.
He said it was a rule of the Don.
After the phone unlocked, Noemi’s smiling face appeared on the screen, dressed in a couture gown.
No wonder every time he turned on his phone, his eyes softened without him realizing it.
I opened the photo albums.
Every album was named after her.
[Noemi – Opera House]
[Noemi – Vineyard]
[Noemi – Coronation]
The densely packed photos were all of Noemi at various family banquets.
Thousands of pictures.
Not a single one was of me.
He himself barely appeared in them.
There was only Noemi.
Just like his heart.
From beginning to end, it had belonged only to Noemi.
The car drove into the family estate.
I looked at the empty basement and felt cold all over.
My father’s police badge and all the evidence from his years undercover used to be kept there.
They were proof that he had spent twenty years infiltrating the mafia.
Every time I saw those things, it felt as if my father was still continuing his unfinished mission.
But one morning, the evidence strong enough to bring down the entire mafia suddenly disappeared.
The police said it had been anonymously destroyed.
Rinaldo held me while I broke down and did not sleep for three straight days.
Now I understood.
He had done that too.
He had personally destroyed the last thing my father had left me.
Another encrypted message appeared.
[Don Rinaldo, as requested, the will has been drafted. All of Sicily’s underground forces under your name, along with family inheritance rights, will be transferred to Signora Noemi Ricci.]
[We only need your final confirmation and signature.]
Tears blurred my vision.
I suddenly remembered that year at my father’s funeral.
He had worn a solemn black suit and sworn to me.
“Valentina, I swear on my honor as a Don. I will give you a home. Everything I have is yours.”
I placed Rinaldo on the bed.
Unlike usual, I did not take off his shoes or socks for him.
I went straight to the guest room.
Before closing my eyes, all I could see were the images of him spoiling me over the years.
