Page 33 of Capuleto

"His daughter?" I asked, incredulous. "And why would her father be looking for her?"

"Maybe because she's avoiding and disobeying him a bit."

"In what sense?"

"Let's say Cheng's mission was to open the market in Spain, stay here for a few years until she found someone extremely trustworthy to delegate the area to. The positions designated for Jing's relatives were already filled, so her father's idea was for her to pave the way and then return to China to marry her fiancé."

"The Chinese woman is engaged?"

"Almost since birth, with a man chosen by her father."

"This obsession with choosing husbands for their daughters!" I couldn't contain myself.

"Customs and traditions. If you're talking about yourself, don't worry, you don't have much longer beside that Capulleto, as you call him." I bit my cheek again.

"So, do you think it could have been her father's doing?"

"I wouldn't bet on it, but it's a possibility. The first time you took her, he went crazy. So it's not surprising he thought her disappearance was your doing."

"And why didn't her men tell Jing that we didn't have her?"

"Maybe they received orders from her. Cheng has earned their respect through hard work, giving them privileges her father never would have considered, achieving a loyalty that's rare these days."

"And what does Cheng intend to do?"

"To prove to daddy Jing that she's fully capable of maintaining one of the main drug routes and making it flourish, so he spares her from the torment of marriage."

"I see her point."

"It would be valid if she wasn't going to die." Yuri glanced at his watch. "You're running late for your alibi. I'll find out what you asked and get the information to you. Let's meet here in a few days. Does that work?"

"Of course, bratishka," I replied with tight lips.

I accompanied Yuri to the door and waited a few minutes before leaving.

I was fed up with men dominating our world while we had to settle for crumbs. Perhaps, at this moment, I was the person who understood Cheng the most.

I detested the patriarchy that surrounded the mafia with all my might.

I hated my husband for deceiving me, I hated my father and brother for using me. I hated Massimo for thinking I was harmless to his son, and I even hated my mother for manipulating me.

Alone, that's how I came into this shitty world, and that's how I felt at that moment.

15

Kiss, truth, or Mentium

When I arrived at the bar, Dante was waiting for me.

I didn't want to wake Nikita to let her know; she needed to rest as much as possible, so I told Ana María to be the one to tell my wife that I was going out to meet with my manager.

At that hour, the bar was closed. Dante usually came early to take inventory, resolve incidents, or supervise the work of our runners.

That he had called me meant it could be a problem. In a work sector like mine, that was an everyday occurrence. Sometimes, I felt more like a fixer than a gangster.

When I went to shake his hand, he rewarded me with a tight hug.

"First of all, congratulations."

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