Chapter 1

After eight suicide attempts, everyone calls me the crazy wife who finally put the future Don on a leash, and for three months, Damian Moretti really does give up every other woman.

I think I've finally won.

Then I come home a day early and learn his sudden loyalty was never meant for me.

After my eighth suicide attempt, Damian Moretti finally settles down.

He stops going to clubs, skips the all-night private parties, and no longer pays for apartments, jewelry, or vacations for other women. Even one of the Moretti family's rivals jokes that the future Don has finally been put on a leash by his wife.

Damian only laughs.

Some of his own men aren't as kind. They say a woman who keeps threatening to die is too unstable to stand beside the future head of the family.

Damian's face turns cold the moment he hears it.

Then he looks at me and says, “Claire, don't listen to that bullshit.”

“We survived worse than this together. If a few comments can break you now, what was the point of me changing?”

I believe him.

Until the day I come home early.

When I open our bedroom door, Damian lifts his head from a young woman in our bed.

The sheets are a mess.

He looks at me and gives me an almost regretful smile.

“I wasn't planning to let you see this.”

“We had it hidden just fine. Why did you have to come back a day early?”

I stare at them for a few seconds, walk to the bar, and pour myself a glass of water.

Damian's first reaction is to pull the sheet higher and wrap an arm around the girl.

“Lily isn't like the others,” he says calmly. “She's the reason I finally decided to stop sleeping around.”

He sounds like he's discussing a business arrangement.

“You can pretend you never saw this, or I can make her official. Your choice. I'll give you whichever one you want.”

And just like that, I understand.

I nearly died eight times. Everyone in our world knows how hard I fought to make Damian stop.

But when he finally changed, it still wasn't for me.

I set the glass down.

“Either is fine.”

Damian goes still.

I look at Lily in his arms and add, “I'll make room for her.”

A cigarette is still between his lips. He slowly turns his head toward me.

“Either is fine?”

He takes the cigarette out and laughs once.

“Claire, say that again.”

My hand is still around the glass.

“You want to make Lily official? Fine. You want me to pretend I saw nothing? That's fine too.”

“You choose.”

I give him his own words back.

Damian studies me for several seconds before suddenly pushing Lily away.

“Lily, go outside.”

She bites her lip, her eyes already filling with tears as she glances at me.

Damian has never had much patience, especially with his men, but when she doesn't move right away, he only frowns before lowering his voice.

“Come on, sweetheart. Just give us a minute.”

Lily finally leaves.

Once the door closes, Damian walks over and looks down at the glass in my hand.

“You're really not angry?”

I raise my eyes to him.

“Do you want me to be?”

He takes the glass from me, drinks from it, and puts it back in my hand. His thumb brushes over my knuckles.

“You can be angry. Just don't start doing something crazy again. I don't have the energy to guess what version of you I'm getting next.”

I look at the mark his mouth left on the rim and say nothing.

He catches my chin between his fingers.

“When you used to lose it, at least I knew what to do. You slammed your head into a wall, I stopped you. You cut your wrist, I took the blade. You climbed onto a roof, I dragged you back.”

“As long as you reacted, I could handle you.”

“But now you're standing here telling me everything is fine. What exactly am I supposed to do with that?”

I turn my face away from his hand.

“Nothing. Do whatever you want.”

“In public, you're still my husband. In private, sleep in whichever house and whichever bed you like.”

The smile on Damian's mouth fades slightly.

“And you? What do you want?”

I finally look at him.

“Whatever version of me you like, that's what I'll be.”

For a second, he looks surprised.

Then something almost amused enters his eyes.

“Good. You're finally learning.”

He brushes a strand of hair away from my face.

“I married you even though it hurt Lily back then. At least you're finally acting like Mrs. Moretti.”

“If you really don't care, I'll move her into the house on the east side. She won't be in your way.”

For years, I begged him not to touch every woman who threw herself at him.

He never listened once.

Now that I tell him I don't care, he's suddenly willing to listen.

I turn toward the door.

“One condition,” he says.

I stop.

Damian leans against the edge of the bed.

“Have dinner with me once a week. Just the two of us.”

“I haven't forgotten what I promised you. There will only ever be one Mrs. Moretti.”

I glance back.

“Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds?”

In Damian's world, one dinner a week is apparently everything a husband owes his wife.

He gives me a small smile.

“Yeah, it's ridiculous. But I know what you're like when you're upset. You stop eating.”

“There are plenty of women in this world. I only have one wife. Of course I have to look after you.”

So this is what he calls looking after me.

I have nothing left to say.

I go downstairs to the guest room and close the door before checking my phone.

My attorney sent me a message half an hour ago.

Claire, I found what you asked for.

Three properties and Damian's controlling interests in two legitimate companies were transferred out of his name three months ago.

The new owner is Lily Hayes.

I stare at the date.

Three months ago.

The same week as my eighth suicide attempt.

For a long time, I don't move.

Then I call my attorney.

“Rachel, don't wait on the divorce plan anymore.”

She goes quiet for two seconds.

“Are you sure? With the way Damian has moved his assets, the financial settlement could be very unfavorable to you.”

“I don't care.”

I switch off the light and lie down in the dark.

“I don't want any of it.”

“If Lily is what he wants, he can have her.”