There aren’t any glass slippers at the end of the story.

I told her to enjoy being with a hot, powerful man who was amazing in bed –

But I also told her not to get attached.

To guard her heart.

To not expect too much.

What I didn’ttell her was that I was actually preaching tomyself.

Valentino was the best thing that had ever happened to me…

But I knew it was never going to go anywhere.

Even though he was a shameless flirt with other women (which made my blood boil – although it alsomade me want himall the more), I was 99% sure he didn’t sleep with anyone else after we started hooking up.

But he was a mafia prince.

And I was the girl who worked in the kitchen.

When Valentino smiled at me, it was like the sun coming out of the clouds.

When he held me, it was like I was completely safe.

And every time he fucked me, it was like going to heaven without having to die.

But I had to keep reminding myself:

You’re not Cinderella.

This isn’t a fairy tale.

There’s not going to be a happily ever after.

I just enjoyed it for what it was:

Banging a really hot guy who was the best I’d ever had.

What I wouldn’t admit, not even to myself…

Was that I fell in love with him.

And then…

Alessandra married Dario.

I was ecstatic for her! She was my best friend, after all –

And, I’m not gonna lie, the idea that she’d bagged a Rosolini gave me hope.

But somecrazythings came out in the weeks before her marriage.

Like she was actually the long-lost granddaughter of another ‘family’ up north.

A mafia princess. She just never knew it.

She kind of proved it, though, when she shot Filomena.