The Monster's Nemesis | ✔️

Chapter 1

L I L L I A N A

Everyone on this face of the earth is born with a purpose-some greater aim or ambition or, what some people liked to say-a dream.

I, Lilliana Moretti, was bred for revenge. A vengeance that ran so deep in my veins that it became my identity now. I lived, breathed, and existed for retribution.

The downfall of the Romanos.

The rivalry between the Crime Families in this Windy City, Chicago, was like bedtime stories for the children. We were so used to the blood that it hardly bothered anyone, anymore. It was the city of chaos, blood, and madness. No one cared to bat an eyelid whenever shit got real.

Maybe my family-the Moretti family-did the same until the war was brought to our doorstep, leaving a trail of dead people including our own blood.

The Romano Family was the most powerful Crime Family ruling the city then and still now. Every family, every boss and every man-whoever went against them were taken down so mercilessly that even the Gods questioned the sanity of these men-Alessandro and his sons, Viktor and Dominic. Vice ran in their veins like warm blood.

A generation ago, my father, Dante Moretti made the very mistake of overthrowing the then boss, Alessandro Romano and the war had costed us everything. My father was brought to his knees and fled from the city.

That very day every Moretti vowed vengeance. And my destiny was sealed even before I drew my first breath.

I was to be the pawn in this game of vengeance, bloodbath, and retaliation.

Sheltered and secluded since my birth, I never existed on any document-like a ghost, I had no identity or existence. I was homeschooled, tutored and trained for twenty-one years for the one and only purpose-for vengeance.

To avenge my blood.

"So this is...her?" I looked up and arched a brow at my father sitting in front me with an expensive bloody cigar on his lips.

The photo was of a girl, barely eighteen-year-old who was abducted, raped and abused by the Vittelo, another crime family, who extensively dealt with illegal prostitution and human trafficking.

"What's her name?" I asked, going through some of her degrading pictures from what looked like a brothel.

"Amelia Parker," the man standing beside my father answered. "She was given to Antonio before Viktor took her away." Viktor Romano-they called him the 'devil incarnate', was now the Boss of the Romano family and the bona fide mafia of the God-forsaken city, Chicago. Surely the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

If I had to map out the criminal activities of Viktor Romano or his family so far, stealing a slave girl would be at the bottom of the list of his transgressions.

"And here I thought Romano men didn't prefer slave girls," I mumbled. The Romanos never dealt in human trafficking. But that doesn't mean they were saints. Their empire was built on countless dead bodies. They have had enough blood on their hands to earn a one-way ticket to hell anyway.

Drugs, illegal weapons, racketeering, and every other organized crime were their arena. But the one thing that set them apart from others was-power. It wasn't filthy money or influential connections that made them rule the city for almost three generations now. It was power-raw, untamed power. And with every generation, they redefined the meaning of power with a new flair of brutality. Every club, underground fighting ring, and black market was under their thumbs. And so was this city.

They knew they could not have been outnumbered or crushed so easily. Yet.

But they also forgot one universal rule that history taught us... every reign, every empire, every greatness came to an end. Nothing lasted forever. And Romanos weren't Gods to rewrite the history.