Chapter 3

I walked in wearing my mud-stained wedding gown.

The moment I stepped into the clinic the Family used for its own, one of the nurses asked if I needed help.

Calmly, I told her I was here to end a pregnancy.

She froze for a second, and then her eyes filled with sympathy before she led me up to the third floor.

The moment I lay down on the table, listening to the strong heartbeat of the baby on the monitor, I still called Dominic.

Bianca's voice came on the instant the call connected, sobbing an apology to me.

Dominic snatched the phone away almost at once and gave a cold snort. "Adriana, it's too late to admit you were wrong now. You've put Bianca through so much. Unless you get over here this second and kneel and apologize to her, I will never forgive you."

The words I'd been about to say went back down my throat. I looked at the doctor. "Please begin."

"The baby is perfectly healthy. Do you want to discuss it once more with the Vale?"

"That won't be necessary."

……

When I got back to the apartment, nothing had been touched.

So it turned out Dominic had been staying at Bianca's side all these days.

I opened Bianca's feed.

She'd posted a lot of new updates.

The lofty young Don of the Moretti Family, rolling up his sleeves to cook out of love, drawing envy from everyone who saw it.

I saved every single one, then pressed the screen dark.

I packed a few things and moved straight into one of the Family's hotels downtown.

I ran a hot bath, and only then did the cold slowly leave my body.

I took a few days off from the front offices, and once my body had mostly recovered, I went back in.

The whole time, my Ashford kept calling, asking whether I'd smoothed things over with Dominic.

I told her I would never be with Dominic again.

She cried and wailed until my nerves were frayed raw, so I simply stopped answering her calls.

The moment I walked into the office, everyone looked at me strangely.

My fellow associate Gemma Fontana dragged me to my desk. She pressed her phone face-down against her chest for a moment before she spoke, and only then did I notice the whole thing had already exploded across every site.

She gripped my hand, astonished and envious. "I never would've guessed there was a Don's wife sitting right next to me! And here I thought Bianca Gallo was married to the young Don. Turns out it's you, Adriana."

I gave an awkward smile and skimmed through the posts.

Someone had filmed the gathering that day and put it online.

They'd written it up as the most lurid kind of story: a powerful family favoring the mistress over the wife.

Because of Dominic's bizarre behavior in front of the Capos, even the Moretti fronts had taken a hit, and men who understood these things knew a crack in the armor was exactly what drew the Feds.

Before, I would have been desperate to help Dominic bury the leak, but now that I'd decided to sever the alliance, I couldn't be bothered.

By the time the day ended.

Dominic, for once in his life, was waiting outside.

I turned to slip away.

But he caught up in a few strides and forced me into the car, two soldiers stepping back from the curb the instant they saw whose hand was on my arm.

"Still angry? Can't you tell the difference between a ceremony and a person's life?"

"You're a grown woman, and you're still throwing fits about severing the alliance and running away from home. Aren't you being childish?"

"All right, haven't you always wanted to go to that Starlight Rooftop up in the north end? I'll take you now."

Dominic finished speaking and pulled a box out of the console, tossing it to me.

The thing inside rolled out. A diamond ring.

It looked a good deal more expensive than the one from the ceremony.

Dominic watched me with a look that said, surely now you're satisfied. "Bianca has a bad heart, and since that ring is already on her hand, I'm giving it to her. This one costs a lot more than that one, so stop holding a grudge."

I turned the diamond ring over in my hand. The price tag, 999,999, hadn't even been removed.

He'd probably just bought it off the shelf, laundered cash for a woman's silence.

Before, whenever I was upset, he would cook for me with his own hands, sit patiently through a whole picture to comfort and reassure me, spend a whole day walking the shops with me to pick out the gift that suited me best.

Now he'd become just like the rest of that household, putting a price tag on my real feelings and expecting me to accept it with gratitude.

I put the ring back in the console and shook my head. "This is far too expensive. Better keep it for Bianca."

"And I'm not throwing a fit. Since you and Bianca can't let go of each other, why don't I give her the place of the Don's wife? Let's find some time and sever the alliance."

Before the gathering, Dominic and I had already been bound by blood between our households.

To split now, we'd have to go through the whole shameful business of undoing it before both families.

I'd overheard it once, at a dinner with Bianca and a crowd of his men, someone asking why a Don like him would ever fall for an ordinary woman like me.

He'd fed a peeled grape into Bianca's mouth and laughed like it was nothing. "I wouldn't call it love, but Adriana's stuck by me for ten years, kept the books clean, and now she's carrying my child. It'd be a little pathetic not to marry her. It's just the title. If she wants it, she can have it."

Our marriage, to him, was charity and pity handed down to me.

But to me it had been a whole heart's worth of love and sincerity.

Now that I no longer loved him, I had no use for the title either.

I thought that by stepping aside for him and Bianca of my own accord, he'd be happy.

I didn't expect him to suddenly flush red around the eyes, his right hand slamming down on the wheel.

"Adriana! What's the point of saying all this? You spent all these years fawning over my family like a dog, went to all that trouble to get pregnant, all so you could become the Don's wife, and now you're telling me you're stepping aside? Do you hear how ridiculous you sound?"

"So the ceremony didn't happen. I'll just hold another one for you next time, and that settles it, doesn't it? And whose fault is this anyway? I already agreed to marry you. I only offered Bianca my word, and you had to carry on like some shrew who wouldn't let it go."

He always said I'd schemed to get pregnant.

But it was him who'd said he wanted his family to accept me, that he wanted a child of our own.

It was only after Bianca came back into Family life that he regretted it, and dumped all the blame on me.

He leaned on the horn until it shrieked.

Before, if he'd gotten this angry, I'd have been crying and apologizing and explaining long ago.

But now I didn't want to argue a single word.

I turned my head and looked at the scenery outside.

After a long while, as if he'd waited in vain for me to grovel my way back to him, he turned to look at me and called out, "Adriana."

I closed my eyes and didn't answer.

The navigation announced the road now and then.

When we were 0.2 kilometers from the place, his phone suddenly rang.

On the line, Bianca sobbed that her heart was acting up again, asking whether she was going to die.

Honestly, she could have kept saying it and I'd still be sick of hearing it before she was sick of saying it.

Ever since she came back, on every day that carried any weight in this Family, her heart would act up.

Anyone who wasn't blind could see she was faking it. Too bad Dominic couldn't.

I spoke first. "Just drop me at that intersection up ahead."

Dominic looked at me, stunned. "You're not angry? You're not fighting to come with me?"

I shook my head.

Before, I hadn't liked him being alone with Bianca, so I'd offered to come along and help take care of her.

Back then he'd cursed me for having a filthy, petty little mind, and told me to learn to be as pure and kind as Bianca.

He pressed his thin lips together, the phone still buzzing without stop.

The car reached the intersection soon enough.

I'd just gathered my bag and was about to get out when he grabbed my wrist, studying me with a complicated look. "I'll go check on her, and I'll come back later to take you to dinner. Don't worry, the place of the Don's wife is yours for certain. Don't be angry."

"Sure, I'm not angry." I brushed him off and tried to push him away.

But he only gripped tighter. "Adriana, why are you so different from before? Why aren't you…"

"Not jealous anymore? What's there to be jealous about? A young girl sees you as a big brother, so of course you're the first person she turns to when something's wrong. Go on, hurry."

I smiled, pried his hand loose, and got out of the car.

Then I took a cab back to the hotel, ate downstairs, and dropped into bed to sleep.

Half asleep, I got a call from Dominic. He explained that Bianca couldn't be left alone right now, said he couldn't take me to dinner after all, and told me not to wait up for him.

I only replied, "I've already eaten."

He went silent at once, then asked me through gritted teeth, "Do you really have to be like this?"

I gave a single "Mm," hung up, and went right back to sleep.

It wasn't until the next day that I saw the text he'd sent, warning me not to play with fire and get myself burned.