Chapter 1

Seven years after my marriage to Don Aiden Moretti ended, I ran into him by chance at a florist tucked between two old buildings in Little Italy.

He was there to buy flowers for his pregnant wife.

I had only stepped inside to get out of the rain.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Seven years was a long time, even in our world. Long enough for old alliances to shift, for names once whispered across New York to fade, and for two people who had once shared the same bed to become strangers.

Eventually, we exchanged a polite greeting.

Aiden asked how I had been all these years.

I told him I was doing well.

Nothing more.

When the rain began to ease, I turned to leave. But just before I reached the door, his voice stopped me.

"Nina."

I looked back.

He studied me for a moment, as though trying to find something familiar in my face.

"You seem... different from the woman I remember."

I smiled but didn't answer.

The truth was, I hadn't changed that much.

I simply didn't love him anymore.

……

A damp breeze slipped through the crack beneath the door. For a while, the only sound in the shop was the rain tapping against the windows.

The silence between us was finally broken when the florist returned with a bouquet of irises.

"Don Moretti, you and your wife must be very happy together. Even in weather like this, you still came out to buy flowers for her."

Aiden took the bouquet and glanced at me almost instinctively. Then, as if some old habit had survived the seven years between us, he explained, "Eryn's been emotional lately because of the pregnancy. I thought the flowers might cheer her up."

I nodded and offered a few polite words.

The rain outside was beginning to ease, so I picked up my bag and headed for the door.

Before I could step outside, Aiden caught my wrist.

"Where are you staying? I'll have someone take you home."

"No need."

I gently pulled my hand free and took a step back, putting a deliberate distance between us.

"Your wife might misunderstand."

I turned to leave.

Behind me, Aiden seemed to say something else, but a sudden gust of wind swallowed his words before I could make them out.

Unfortunately, the breakfast I'd been carrying hadn't survived the rain. The paper bag was soaked through, the food inside completely ruined.

What a waste.

I dropped it into the nearest trash can.

As I lifted my arm, the wind caught my sleeve and pushed it back, exposing the pale scars along my wrist.

I stopped.

For a moment, I simply stared at them.

Then I remembered.

It had been seven years since my marriage to Aiden Moretti ended.

And three years since I had finally stopped loving him.

There was none of the pain I'd once imagined I would feel if I ever saw him again. None of the hysteria that had consumed me after our divorce.

There was only calm.

Looking at him now felt no different from looking at a stranger.

The rain had stopped completely, leaving the sky unusually clear. I pulled my sleeve back into place and walked toward the bakery a few doors down.

Sabrina Sherman was helping behind the counter that morning. The moment she saw me, she smiled.

"Nina, perfect timing. I was clearing out the storage room and found this."

She pushed an old box toward me.

"Can you see if you still want it? If not, I'm throwing it out. We need the space for the new bread slicer."

I brushed the dust from the lid.

The first thing I saw was the handwriting.

Bold. Controlled. Unmistakable.

To Nina Jones.

Sabrina immediately leaned closer.

"Okay, now I'm curious. What man gave you something this fancy? Look at the packaging. He must've put some serious thought into it."

Her eyes moved eagerly toward the signature.

Then she froze.

Her expression changed so quickly that I almost laughed.

"Aiden Moretti?"

She looked from the box to me, then back again.

"You mean Aiden Moretti? The man who took control of the Moretti Family before he was thirty? The Don every crew from Manhattan to Brooklyn knows better than to cross?"

Her eyes widened.

"Nina, who exactly are you?"

I opened the box without looking at her.

"I'm Aiden Moretti's ex-wife."

The paranoid one.

The unstable one.

The woman everyone said had lost her mind.

The wife who had eventually been committed to a private psychiatric hospital because of her supposed delusions.

The ex-wife Aiden himself considered the greatest disgrace of his life.

Sabrina stared at me, speechless.

After several minutes of relentless questions, I finally sat down and began telling her the story of Aiden and me.

When I first met Aiden Moretti, he wasn't yet the Don whose name could silence an entire room.