Sold To The Mafia Don

Chapter 237: 47 ~ Jace

The drive from JFK to the estate felt like the longest of my life.

City lights dragged past the window in blurred streaks, each one swallowing another second I couldn’t afford to lose.

Tomas had briefed me on the plane.

Donna was locked in her bedroom.

Alejandro was subdued by security after attempting to force entry.

A gun found in his coat.

I didn’t remember getting off the jet.

Didn’t remember the cold slap of air on the tarmac or the guards opening the car door.

Didn’t remember walking through the estate gates that had always felt too big, too polished, too safe.

I only remembered the sound of my mother’s voice echoing down the hall as I climbed the stairs—

raw, trembling, cracked open in a way I had never heard in my life.

"Jace? Jace, don’t—please—don’t do something you can’t take back—"

Her bedroom door was locked from inside.

Her silhouette shook behind the frosted glass, shoulders hunched, hands gripping herself like she was bracing for impact.

"I’m fine," she cried, but her voice was thin. "Please, don’t go down there. Please, my son—please—"

Her words hit something deep, but the decision was already set.

A tight, cold thing inside me had clicked into place the moment Tomas said Alejandro had touched her door.

I turned away.

Because a man who tried to harm my mother in her own home?

A man who had played house with her while plotting the destruction of my family?

A man who had laid a finger on Mira?

He wasn’t walking out alive.

Security waited at the basement entrance—four men, stiff-backed and silent. The smell of disinfectant and cold air from below drifted up, mixing with the coppery edge of fear.

"He’s restrained," Mateo said. His jaw was locked, eyes avoiding mine. "Hasn’t stopped talking."

"Good," I muttered. "Let him speak while he still has breath."

One of the guards opened the reinforced door. It creaked like it didn’t want to.

The basement wasn’t a dungeon, but it might as well have been—concrete walls, exposed pipes, a single industrial light humming overhead. The air was damp and metallic. Familiar. Unforgiving.

Alejandro sat tied to a steel chair, wrists bound, ankles chained, face bloodied from his earlier struggle. Sweat slicked his forehead. His lip was split. One eye was swelling shut.

He lifted his head when he heard my steps.

And smiled.

A slow, arrogant curve that made the air around us drop ten degrees.

"There he is," he rasped. "The prince himself."

I didn’t speak.

Didn’t blink.

I just walked a slow circle around him, steps steady, taking stock of every bruise, every shallow breath, every twitch.

He chuckled. "Trying to intimidate me? Cute."

"What did you do to Donna?" I asked.

"Oh please." He rolled his eyes, like the question bored him. "I only wanted her to stop meddling. Always protecting you. Always keeping you on that pedestal."

"You threatened her."

"I warned her," he snapped, temper flaring through the cracks. "Because she ruined everything. Every. Single. Thing. If she’d stayed out of my way, maybe I wouldn’t have needed to put her in her place."

Every muscle in my body went taut.

The room felt smaller.

Hotter.

"You planned this," I said quietly. "You were behind all of it."

His grin widened. "Finally catching on."

"You hurt Mira." I said through gritted teeth as the reminder of my wife still recuperating in the hospital, flashed through my mind.

"I touched your soft spot." He shrugged. "That’s what you get for falling in love like an idiot."

Blood roared in my ears, but I kept my voice steady.

"And why go after my mother?"

His eyes darkened.

The showmanship slipped. free𝑤ebnovel.com

The real man surfaced—bitter, small, venomous.

"Because she loved you despite all the damage you have caused. Your treacherous family doesn’t deserve to live." he hissed. "She looked at you like you were the sun. Every time she smiled at you, it felt like she was stabbing me. You don’t deserve love from anyone."

I stilled.

So that was it.

Not just power.

Not money.

Not strategy.

Envy.

Rotten, festering envy that despite my fucked up way of living, I still got the love I never deserved. Not just from my mother but the woman that made me feel complete.

"She took me in," he went on. "She helped me. Fed me. Loved me. But never like she loved you. You, the golden heir. You, the perfect son. You, the one who didn’t even want her world."

He spat blood onto the floor. It landed with a wet click.

"And then you made her proud. And I—" His voice cracked with something twisted, something almost childlike. "I was the accessory. The warm body. The distraction. They whispered behind her back that she was losing her mind. That she needed a toy. And I..." He laughed, raw. "I let myself believe she loved me."

My fists curled so tight my nails dug into my palms.

"You used her," I said.

He smiled again. "Of course I did."

A soft cry echoed from the stairwell above.

Donna.

She was listening.

Of course she was.

The house carried sound like gossip.

I swallowed hard, hating that she was hearing this, hating that she had ever let this man near her heart.

Alejandro leaned back as far as his restraints allowed, drunk on his own poison.

"And then Mira came along," he sneered. "Pretty little thing. Soft. Sweet. Oblivious. You would burn the world for her—don’t deny it. The moment I realized she was your weak spot, I knew exactly where to strike."

"She survived," I told him.

"For now," he sing-songed.

Instinct took over. It wasn’t rage or anger. Just instinct. .

My hand wrapped around my gun before the thought even formed. Metal against skin. Weight I knew better than my own reflection.

Alejandro’s grin stretched as if he’d been waiting for this.

"Ohhh, there it is," he whispered. "The real Jace Romano."

"You don’t get to say my name."

He leaned forward. I felt his breath against my wrist.

"Then kill me," he whispered. "Go on. Do it. Be who you really are."

I pressed the barrel to his forehead.

His eyes fluttered shut, almost peaceful.

"Jace—"

Donna’s voice floated down the stairs, thin and breaking.

"Jace, stop—please—just bring him to the police—please—"

Alejandro exhaled a shaky laugh. "Listen to Mommy, Jace."

That aggravated me even more.

Bang.

The shot cracked through the basement.

Concrete walls swallowed the echo.

Something warm splattered across my arm.

Donna screamed.

Alejandro slumped forward, chains rattling as his dead weight shifted.

I didn’t stop.

I fired again.

And again.

Every round landing with a dull, final thud.

The metal clicked empty long before my breathing steadied.

When silence finally settled, the only sounds were the trembling breaths from upstairs and the faint hum of the overhead light.

The room smelled like gunpowder, copper, and the end of something that had lived too long.

I holstered the empty gun.

Looked at what was left of the man who had tried to tear my family apart.

I felt nothing. Not even the guilt I thought I would feel for staining my hands with blood again.

Then I lifted my head toward the stairs.

"Call medical for Donna," I said quietly. "And clean this up."

Because this Chapter of hell was done.

And I was going back to my wife.