Page 2 of Snowed in with the Mafia

“No, you don’t have to help Gianna do anything because she isn’t going anywhere.” I stand in front of my sister, blocking her from Bianca’s claws.

“Mamma, see, this is what we have to put up with. I should be the one going. They won’t even know—” Bianca says, stamping her feet like a freaking two-year-old. We’re both twenty-three years old.

“Ah, Bella, we can’t take the risk. These are powerful men, and they’ll know you’re not a virgin at once. We can’t jeopardize the plan, you know this. Perhaps if you’d had the foresight to keep your legs closed a little longer,” Aunt Martina says under her breath before she carries on.

“Alessia, this is a good thing.” Her tone changes from her previous grandiose bravado to a more placating lilt. Her daughter might be openly hostile, but she and my uncle are worse by far.

Aunt Martina sweetens her voice as if she cares, but I can taste the snake oil in the air around her. It isn’t fair that I’m stuck with them now.

“It’s what we’ve been waiting for, and now it’s finally here. You will benefit from this too,” she says.

Correction. There’s no we. There’s me and Gianna, and there’s my uncle, his wife, and daughter. There’s no love lost between us.

“I don’t see why she has to benefit from this, too. The whole plan with the virgin registry is ours. We came up with it. She’s been nothing but a bitch to me, and as soon as Papa is head of the Passero, I will strip her of her name and throw her out on the street.”

I’m so used to Bianca’s tirades now that I don’t even register her words. Also, the virgin registry? The place where affluent mafia men get to choose from a selection of virgins to bear their children because of some stupid made-up belief that only a virgin can produce a true heir? They’re talking about that virgin registry?

The Virgin Registry has been in existence since forever and is used by powerful families with nefarious ties to the underground world across the globe. Before it was a list of names on a scroll; now it’s a website online, and the money offered to the virgin can buy a small island and allow her to live happily ever after.

I can safely say Gianna wasn’t aware of this before, or she would have told me. Did they put my sister on the virgin registry without her knowledge or permission?

“Wait, so you knew about this before?” I ask my aunt. This kind of thing doesn’t happen overnight.

“Of course we did, Alessia,” Bianca answers, stressing my name as if I were a petulant child, driving her to her wits’ end. I don’t mind my power over her at all. It’s fun watching her get all red in the face, with murder in her eyes when I don’t offer her the response she so deeply craves.

“How else were we able to be this prepared?” Bianca sighs and shakes her head, then dismisses me.

“Gianna, sweetie. All your clothes have been picked out for you. They’re designer clothes I got from a friend of mine and in your size. Really beautiful stuff. You are going to dazzle the Falchi.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say dazzle,” Bianca says, a greenish hue seeping into her complexion. “The Falchi will accept any virgin sent to them from the registry, so Gianna could go with a brown bag over her head, and it wouldn’t make a difference.”

“How is all this going to work?”

“Alessia,” Bianca rolls her eyes. “You know nothing about our world. You’re such a disgrace to the Moreno name. Obviously, we’re blackmailing theVergine Selettore. She's the one who runs the registry, in case you didn’t know that basic fact.”

“Oh Bianca, no need to be so crass,” Aunt Martina admonishes her daughter. And now she’ll just sugarcoat everything Bianca already said. “We happen to have come across some delicate information regarding theVergine Selettore, and we are using it to our advantage.

“As you know, every family of renown in our world trusts theVergine Selettoreto send them a beautiful virgin worthy of their status and sovereignty, without doubt or question and sight unseen. It’s her gift to select the perfect virgin. We’ve managed to persuade theVergine Selettoreto send the Falchi our lovely Gianna. You see, theselettoreherself has to be a virgin, but we’ve discovered she is not as chaste as she claims. She has a daughter. If that information were to be released, it would mar her family name going down generations and generations. How can you be a virgin whisperer if you yourself are not one, right?” A wicked, sinister smile spreads over Aunt Martina's face and is mirrored by Bianca.

I swear I need a shower from being around these two.

“She’s in a very tight spot,” Aunt Martina continues. “So she’s chosen wisely to work with us. Of course, Gianna can’t present herself as Gianna Moreno; that would defeat the whole purpose of this expedition, so she’ll go as Gianna Conti. And—”

I shake my head and fold my arms over my chest. “Let me get this straight. You’re changing my sister’s surname, putting her into some virgin registry, which is not creepy at all...” I pause and reconsider my level of sarcasm and where my aunt and cousin stand, knowing it’ll go right over their heads. “No, it is creepy. It’s as creepy as hell.” It’s my turn to sigh. Gosh, I just wanted to drink hot chocolate and eat a blueberry muffin. Now I’m fighting for my sister’s virginity against three advanced-aged heads of the mafia who are running out of time to sire their offspring.

Chapter Three

Alessia

I can’t believe what I’m hearing, but Aunt Martina carries on full steam ahead.

“The Falchi has put up a phenomenal, unheard-of sum of fifty million dollars, payable as soon as they have proof that Gianna is a virgin. Fifty million dollars,” Aunt Martina squeals, and Bianca joins her, bouncing up and down. “And since we are your sister’s guardians, the money comes to us.”

Right.

My stomach knots, and fury starts to build up inside me. I want to scream at them to get out of our house. But I can’t. It’s not ours anymore.

But I won’t let them do this to my sister.

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