The day I discovered I was pregnant again, a fragile ember of hope flickered to life in my chest. Perhaps this time, fate would show mercy. Perhaps this child would survive.

I went to find my husband, Don Salvatore Pini, to share the news.

Instead, I found myself frozen in the shadows of his study, listening to words that would shatter everything I thought I knew.

"Bianca remains oblivious," Salvatore said, his voice carrying the casual indifference of a man discussing livestock inventory. "She believes the miscarriages were tragic accidents—acts of fate. She has no idea I've been slipping compounds into her evening tea, inducing the losses so we could harvest the fetal tissue for Adriana's treatments."

Three children. Three lives extinguished before they could draw breath—all sacrificed to restore the womb of the woman he truly loved.

The same woman he had sworn to me was merely a distant cousin, a childhood companion from the old neighborhood.

The same woman who now carried his heir.

That evening, I made three phone calls.

The first, to the clinic on Mulberry Street, where I scheduled a termination.

The second, to my attorney, requesting divorce papers be drafted with immediate discretion.

The third, to my father.

"Father." My voice emerged steady, though my hands trembled against the cold receiver. "I'm ready to accept Don Lorenzo Moretti's proposal. Send someone to collect me in three days—after the annulment is finalized."

A pause stretched across the line, heavy with decades of unspoken warnings finally vindicated.

"Good," Don Vittorio Valente replied, his tone carrying no surprise, only grim satisfaction. "I have always told you, figlia mia, that you were too valuable to waste on that stronzo."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips—a sound I barely recognized as my own. "I believe I've finally come to understand what you meant."

I used to plead for his affection. I would craft elaborate dinners he never attended, wear gowns he never noticed, warm a bed he rarely occupied. I begged with my silence, my patience, my unwavering loyalty.

But now? I was finished begging.

——

The grandfather clock in the corner of my private sitting room struck midnight as I ended the call with my father. I gripped the phone until my knuckles blanched white, the ache in my chest spreading like poison through my veins.

Six years.

Six years surrendered to a man who had never wanted me.

Don Salvatore Pini had never loved me—this I had always known, though I'd buried the truth beneath layers of desperate hope. He married me because the Commission required it, because an alliance between the Pini and Valente families served territorial interests. I stayed because I was young and foolish, convinced that devotion could eventually kindle something resembling love.

I believed that if I gave enough—if I waited long enough—he would finally see me.

Until I overheard his conversation with Marco Russo, his Underboss, mere hours ago.

I had gone searching for Salvatore because I carried news I thought might change everything between us. The hallway leading to his private study was lined with portraits of Pini patriarchs, their painted eyes following my every step. The door stood slightly ajar, cigar smoke curling through the gap like a warning I failed to heed.

"Bianca remains ignorant of how her losses have benefited Adriana." Salvatore's voice sliced through the tobacco-thick air with surgical precision.

I froze mid-step, my heart slamming against my ribs.

"Salvatore." Marco's voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "You've used three of her pregnancies. You're certain she won't discover the truth?"

A dismissive scoff. The clink of crystal as liquor was poured. "She's too naive, too desperate to please. She believes they were natural tragedies—that her body simply couldn't sustain the pregnancies. She has no idea I've been administering those compounds, inducing the miscarriages so we could harvest stem cells from the fetuses."

The blood drained from my face. The walls of the corridor seemed to contract around me.

My stomach twisted violently. My heart ceased its rhythm. I could not draw breath.

"Stem cells?" Marco's question hung in the smoky air.

Salvatore's voice lowered, taking on the clinical detachment of a man discussing a business transaction. "Adriana's womb was damaged—scarred beyond natural repair. She couldn't carry a child to term. But the physicians at our clinic discovered that stem cells harvested from fetuses carrying the Pini bloodline could regenerate the tissue. Bianca's losses have provided... perfect specimens."

I couldn't breathe. My hands trembled against the damask wallpaper, nails digging into the silk.

He had always assured me Adriana DeAngelis was merely a distant relation, a cousin twice removed whom he'd known since childhood. And I, fool that I was, had believed every honeyed lie.

Marco released a low whistle, the sound carrying equal parts shock and reluctant admiration. "That's cold, Salvatore. Using your own unborn children like... laboratory samples."

"Sentiment is a luxury I cannot afford." Salvatore's voice hardened to obsidian. "I require an heir. A legitimate heir. And Adriana is the only woman I will permit to carry my legacy. She's finally pregnant, thanks to those treatments. The physicians confirmed it this morning."

My breath caught. A wave of nausea crashed through me with such force I nearly doubled over.

"This is insane," Marco muttered.

Another scoff from Salvatore, followed by the soft thud of his glass meeting mahogany. "You think I maintained this marriage to Bianca out of affection? I kept her around precisely long enough to repair Adriana's womb. She served her purpose."

The ringing in my ears drowned out whatever came next. My throat constricted. My vision blurred at the edges, the world narrowing to a single, devastating point of clarity.

It couldn't be true. It couldn't.

Yet even as denial clawed at my mind, the pieces fell into place with sickening precision. Every cup of tea he'd personally prepared. Every "tonic" he'd insisted I drink for my health. Every sympathetic word after each loss, delivered with eyes that held no grief.

"And now that Adriana carries your heir?" Marco pressed. "What becomes of your wife?"

Salvatore's laugh was ice scraping against glass. "Simple. Once Adriana's next examination confirms her womb has fully healed, I'll have the annulment papers drawn. Bianca's usefulness will have expired."

My knees buckled. I caught myself against the wall, barely suppressing the cry that rose in my throat.

I had believed the miscarriages were cruel twists of fate. I had blamed myself countless times—my stress, my inadequacy, some fundamental flaw in my body that rendered me incapable of giving my husband what he desired.

All that grief. All that guilt. All those nights spent weeping into pillows that smelled of his cologne, mourning children I thought I had failed.

Salvatore had orchestrated every loss. He had weaponized my body to heal another woman—so she could carry the legacy he deemed me unworthy of bearing.

I had given him everything. My loyalty, sworn before the Commission. My body, offered without reservation. My heart, laid bare and bleeding at his feet.

And he was planning to discard me like a spent cartridge.

I don't remember walking back to my chambers. I only remember the cold marble floor rising to meet my knees as I collapsed inside the door. My legs had simply... stopped working. My heart raced at a pace that should have killed me. I couldn't stop shaking.

I had been nothing but faithful. I had defended his name against whispered doubts. I had managed his household with precision. I had stood beside him at every Commission gathering while he looked through me as though I were made of glass.

I blinked, suddenly aware that I had been sitting on the floor for hours, replaying every moment, every lie, every calculated cruelty.

That's when I remembered why I had sought him out in the first place.

My fingers trembled as I reached into the pocket of my dress, withdrawing the small white indicator I had hidden there since morning.

Two pink lines.

Positive.

I was carrying his child.

I had gone to share news I believed might finally bridge the chasm between us—proof that perhaps I could give him what he wanted, that perhaps our marriage could become something more than a transaction.

But now?

I stared at those two lines, tears carving silent paths down my cheeks.

This child would not be born into love. It would not be protected. It would not be wanted.

It would be harvested. Another sacrifice on the altar of Salvatore's obsession with a woman who was never supposed to exist in our marriage.

My hand moved instinctively to my belly, fingers splaying protectively over the barely-there curve.

"Forgive me," I whispered, my voice fracturing on the words. "But I will not allow you to become another offering for his ambition."

I wiped the tears from my face with trembling fingers and rose slowly to my feet. The phone felt impossibly heavy as I lifted it from the cradle.

"This is the clinic on Mulberry. How may I assist you?"

"I need... an appointment." My voice emerged barely above a whisper. "A termination."

The woman on the other end maintained professional discretion. "Of course. May I ask how far along you are?"

"A few weeks. Perhaps four."

"And your name?"

"Bianca Valente." I used my maiden name without hesitation—the name I should never have surrendered.

"Very well, Miss Valente. We have an opening in two days. Thursday afternoon, three o'clock."

I nodded, though she couldn't see me. Tears continued their relentless descent. "I'll be there."

"Bianca." Salvatore's voice cut through the room like a blade drawn from its sheath. "What's happening in two days?"

I turned slowly to find him standing in the doorway of my sitting room, his tall frame silhouetted against the dim light of the corridor. His dark eyes—eyes I had once found captivating—now seemed as cold and empty as a mausoleum.

Chapter 2

Bianca's POV

I stiffened at the sound of his voice.

There was a time when just hearing Salvatore say my name made my heart flutter—when I was young and foolish enough to believe that a man who commanded death could also command tenderness. Now? The sound of it crawled across my skin like the cold touch of a mortician preparing a body.

I didn't turn around. My eyes were probably red and swollen, the evidence of weakness I refused to display. In this world, tears were currency you paid to your enemies.

"Nothing important," I said, wiping at my cheeks with the silk sleeve of my blouse. My voice cracked, so I cleared my throat and added, "Just making a call."

Salvatore stepped farther into the study. The floorboards muttered beneath his polished Ferragamos, and I could feel his eyes on me—studying me the way a butcher studies a carcass, calculating where to make the next cut.

"You look like a mess. Have you been crying?"

A lump formed in my throat, hard as a bullet casing.

"Something got into my eyes," I mumbled, rubbing at them with deliberate carelessness. "Probably dust. This house hasn't been cleaned properly in weeks."

He didn't believe me. I could tell by the weighted silence, by the way he stared without blinking. But he didn't press, because he didn't care. My suffering had never been anything more to him than background noise—the static between the stations of his real life.

His phone rang.

I didn't need to look. I already knew who it was.

Adriana.

Because of that stupid, soft ringtone he only used for her. It was a gentle tune, like a lullaby sung over a cradle—or a grave. He never had a special ringtone for me. For me, there was only the default tone. The sound of obligation.

Salvatore glanced at the screen, and his whole face changed. The granite hardness in his jaw melted into something warm, something human. It was like watching a snake shed its scales to reveal the man it had devoured.

He stepped into the hallway, his voice dropping to a register I had never heard directed at me—gentle, tender, almost reverent. It sounded like he had switched personalities, like the Don had stepped aside to let someone else wear his skin.

"Hey, Ana… yeah, I just got back."

I turned away, pretending not to hear anything, pretending the words didn't slice through me like a stiletto between the ribs.

He laughed at something she said. The kind of laugh that came from somewhere deep and real—the kind of laugh he had never shared with me. Not once in six years. I stood there, frozen in place beside the mahogany desk, wondering how I had been so blind. How I had mistaken ownership for love, possession for protection.

The man I had spent six years loving blindly was already in love with someone else. Someone he had introduced to the Family as his cousin. Someone who sat at our table during Sunday dinners, who kissed my cheek at the annual gala, who called me sister while she warmed his bed.

Salvatore glanced back at me briefly, his eyes flat and dismissive, as he continued speaking to her. "Yeah, I'll be there soon. I just need to take care of something here."

Something. That's what I was now. Not someone. Something.

He hung up and slid his phone into the inner pocket of his jacket—a custom-tailored piece that cost more than most men earned in a month. The fabric whispered against his silk shirt as he turned to face me.

"I need to head out for a bit. I want grilled lamb and mashed potatoes for dinner, with that rosemary sauce you make." His tone was the same one he used when ordering his soldiers to dispose of a body—flat, expectant, already moving on to the next thought.

That was it. No how are you? No what were you crying about?

He had only just walked through the door, and he was already leaving. Already running back to her.

As he turned toward the hallway, I called out to him.

"Hold on, before I forget," I said, pulling a manila folder from the drawer beside me. The paper was heavy, expensive—the kind used for documents that changed lives. Or ended marriages. "The Commission sent these over earlier. They've been asking for your signature all week."

He muttered impatiently, already checking his watch. "More damn paperwork?"

"Just a couple of pages," I said, handing him a Montblanc pen. "It won't take long."

Without even glancing at the contents, without reading a single word of what he was signing, Salvatore scrawled his name on the marked lines and thrust the folder back into my hands. His signature was sharp and careless—the signature of a man who believed his name alone was enough to make anything legal.

"Tell the Commission I handled it."

"I will," I said quietly, placing the annulment papers back into the drawer with steady hands.

"Have dinner ready by the time I get back."

Salvatore didn't wait for a response. He was already through the door, his footsteps echoing down the marble corridor like the countdown to an execution.

I clenched my fists so tightly my nails bit crescents into my palms. I stared at the door—at the space where he had stood—and I couldn't help it. A bitter laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep in my chest, scraping against my throat like broken glass.

How hadn't I noticed all this time?

As I turned, my shoulder bumped the edge of the bookshelf, and a wooden box fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

I crouched and picked it up, my fingers tracing the familiar grain of the walnut wood. I recognized that box.

Salvatore had warned me once, months ago, to never touch it. He had claimed it contained sensitive Family documents—business records that were none of my concern. He had snapped at me the day I merely brushed my fingers against its surface, his eyes going cold and dangerous, like I had tried to steal from the vault itself.

Back then, I had apologized and backed away like the obedient wife I was trained to be. But now? Now I unlocked the box without hesitation, using the key Salvatore thought he had so cleverly hidden under a false bottom in his desk drawer.

Inside, documents and photographs were arranged with military precision.

The first thing I noticed was a folded sheet bearing an official stamp—the official seal of the Commission and its notary. I opened it, and my blood turned to ice water in my veins.

Marriage Registration for Don Salvatore Pini and Adriana DeAngelis.

I froze.

Salvatore had already been planning a future with her. A legitimate future. A formally recognized union. While he was still married to me.

My hands shook as I set the paper aside and picked up the next document.

My stomach twisted violently as I stared at the contents. Medical records. Clinical notes. Dates and dosages written in the cold, precise hand of someone who viewed human beings as inventory.

It contained everything about the miscarriages.

Every single one.

The dates of my "complications." The medications slipped into my evening tea. The samples harvested from my body while I lay unconscious in the back clinic, believing I had simply lost another child to fate's cruelty.

My name was listed as the donor. Adriana's name as the recipient.

"Termination successful… stem cells harvested… womb responding to treatment."

My hand covered my mouth.

I felt sick. The room spun around me, the walls closing in like the sides of a coffin. Every miscarriage. Every time I had wept in the darkness, blaming my own body, wondering what was wrong with me—it had been orchestrated. Calculated. Harvested.

My children had been murdered before they could draw breath, their cells extracted to repair the damaged womb of my husband's mistress.

This was evidence of everything Salvatore had done to me. Everything the Family's black clinic had helped him accomplish. A paper trail of horrors, filed away like receipts.

I clenched my fists so tightly my knuckles went white, and I stared at the documents before me as my eyes blurred with tears that I refused to let fall.

After staring at everything for several minutes—memorizing every date, every signature, every damning word—I calmly stood and returned everything exactly as I had found it. The box went back on the shelf. The key went back beneath the false bottom.

Then I walked to the closet, pulled out a leather suitcase, and I started packing.

I packed my clothes first. I folded them neatly—the way my mother had taught me, the way a Valente woman always conducted herself—and placed them in the bag with deliberate precision. I picked up the things we had collected over the years, the gifts, the decorations, the photographs in their silver frames, and I tossed them all into a cardboard box destined for the trash.

The diamond necklace he gave me on our first anniversary? Into the box.

The framed photograph from our alliance wedding, recognized by the Commission itself? Gone.

The candle he once said smelled like me—like jasmine and honey? Gone.

I lost track of time. The afternoon light shifted from gold to amber to the deep purple of approaching dusk, and still I packed. Still I purged.

Until I heard the door open again.

"What are you doing?"

Salvatore stood in the doorway, his brow furrowed as he surveyed the chaos of the bedroom. Clothes scattered across the bed. Boxes stacked against the wall. The closet doors thrown wide open like the gates of a prison.

I didn't even look up as I replied. "I'm reorganizing my closet."

He stepped inside slowly, his shoes silent on the Persian rug. "What about these ones here?" He gestured toward the box I was using to discard the remnants of our marriage.

I shrugged casually, folding another blouse. "I'm getting rid of old things."

"You're throwing all this out?" His voice held genuine surprise—as if he couldn't comprehend why I would want to erase the evidence of our life together.

I nodded. "Yeah. I don't need them anymore."

He reached into the donation box and pulled out a small stuffed wolf—a ridiculous, sentimental thing I used to keep by the bed. He had given it to me during our first year of marriage, back when I still believed his rare moments of softness meant something. "Even this?"

I nodded without hesitation. "It's old."

He looked at it like he was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. "You loved this so much."

He was right. I had cherished it like a fool cherishes a lie. I shrugged, my face a mask of indifference. "Things change. People change. Love fades."

He frowned, his jaw tightening like he wanted to say something else—like some dormant instinct was warning him that the ground beneath his feet had shifted. But before he could speak, a voice called from the hallway.

"Salvatore? Where are you?"

His body tensed. Just slightly—just enough for me to notice. The tension of a man caught between two worlds, two women, two lies.

A second later, Adriana stepped into the room like she already owned it.

She was beautiful, I had to admit. The kind of beauty that men started wars over, that made other women feel like shadows. Her dark hair fell in perfect waves over her shoulders, and her dress—designer, of course—clung to curves that had never known the violence of forced terminations.

She rested a hand on Salvatore's arm, casual and possessive, her manicured nails pressing into the fabric of his jacket like claws marking territory. Her lips curled into a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she stared at me.

"Oh. Am I interrupting something?"

Salvatore didn't even hesitate.

"No," he said smoothly, as if nothing about this scene was strange. As if his wife packing her belongings while his mistress draped herself over his arm was perfectly normal. "You're not interrupting anything."

I didn't react. I simply turned away and continued folding a shirt, pressing it down into the suitcase like I couldn't hear them. Like they were ghosts. Like they were already dead to me.

Salvatore cleared his throat, trying to command my attention the way he commanded his soldiers. "Actually, Bianca… I meant to talk to you about something."

I continued folding. The silk whispered against my fingers. I counted the threads. I breathed.

He continued anyway, his voice carrying the casual authority of a man who had never been denied anything in his life.

"Adriana will be staying here with us for the time being."

Chapter 3

Bianca's POV

I let his words settle in the air between us like smoke from a dying cigarette. Then, without acknowledgment, I reached for another silk blouse and folded it with deliberate precision, smoothing the fabric as though it were the only thing in this room that mattered.

"Adriana needs support," Salvatore continued, his voice carrying that practiced tone of reasonableness he used when he wanted something. "It's better for her child if she's somewhere stable. You know how difficult things have been for her."

A soft, bitter sound escaped my throat before I could stop it.

Salvatore fell silent.

"Bianca." The warmth drained from his voice, replaced by something harder, colder. He was growing impatient. "Are you even listening to me?"

I turned slowly, letting my gaze meet his without flinching.

"I'm listening, Salvatore," I said, my voice flat as marble. "Do whatever you want. It's your house, after all."

His mouth fell open for a fraction of a second before his expression darkened, shadows pooling beneath his cheekbones in the dim lamplight.

"I don't like your tone, Bianca." The words came out low, a warning growl from a man unaccustomed to defiance.

I arched one eyebrow. "What tone?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm trying to be civil here, and you're making this harder than it needs to be." His voice cracked like a whip against the silence of the bedroom.

I lifted another blouse—champagne-colored silk, a gift from my father's house that now felt like a relic from another life—and folded it with care that bordered on reverence. Only when it lay perfectly in the suitcase did I turn to face him again. My expression revealed nothing. A mask carved from years of survival.

"She needs support," he pressed on, his jaw tight. "She's pregnant and alone. I'm only trying to help."

"Why, Salvatore?" The question left my lips quietly, almost gently. "Is she carrying your child?"

Salvatore went rigid.

His jaw worked silently, muscles tensing beneath the tailored fabric of his shirt. His mouth opened, then closed. For a moment, the great Don of the Pini Family had no words.

His eyes flickered toward Adriana, who stood in the doorway like a specter draped in designer mourning clothes, then back to me. "She's my cousin, Bianca." His voice pitched higher, defensive, as though I had accused him of breaking Omertà itself. "Does it have to be my child before I offer her protection?"

I allowed myself a smile—thin, bitter, sharp enough to cut. "No. But it would explain a great deal."

Salvatore's eyes turned to flint. "Why must you be so cold, Bianca?" he snapped, his composure fracturing. "I've told you countless times—there's nothing between us. Adriana is family. She has no one else but me."

I turned away from him, my hands steady as I placed the last of my garments into the leather suitcase. "You don't owe me explanations, Salvatore," I said softly, my voice barely above a whisper. "It's your house. You're the Don. Do as you please."

Salvatore's breathing grew heavy, filling the space between us with barely contained fury.

"Salvatore..." Adriana stepped forward, her voice dripping with carefully manufactured concern. "Perhaps I should go. I don't want to cause any more tension. It's clear I'm not welcome here." She paused, casting a demure glance at him through lowered lashes. "Besides... she's your wife. Your Donna."

Salvatore's arm shot out, catching her elbow with possessive certainty. "You're not going anywhere," he said, his voice brooking no argument. "This is my house. You're family. I don't give a damn if she wears my ring and carries my name. If anyone doesn't belong under this roof, it's her."

The words struck like a blade between my ribs.

I flinched—just barely, just enough—before I could steel myself against the blow. But I recovered quickly, smoothing my features into the blank canvas I had perfected over three years of this marriage. They would not see me break. They would not have that satisfaction.

Then, as though he hadn't just gutted me with his words, Salvatore turned to me with a frown creasing his brow. "Where's dinner?"

I blinked. "Dinner?"

"Yes," he said slowly, as though speaking to a child. "Grilled lamb, mashed potatoes, rosemary sauce. I told you before I left for the sit-down."

"Oh, Salvatore," Adriana breathed, her hand fluttering to her chest in theatrical delight. "That's my favorite meal. You remembered."

Something twisted in my chest—a knot pulling tighter, cutting off air. My eyes burned with moisture I refused to shed.

Salvatore's face transformed, softening into a smile I hadn't seen directed at me in years. Perhaps ever. "Yes, I did. How could I forget?"

Then his attention snapped back to me, the warmth vanishing like it had never existed. "So? Where is it?"

"Oh." My voice came out hollow. "No. I didn't make it."

His eyes flashed with barely contained rage, his nostrils flaring. "Why not?"

"I was occupied today," I said, my tone deliberately flat. "Perhaps Adriana can prepare something instead. Since she'll be living here now and all."

Adriana's smug expression faltered, her painted lips pressing into a thin line.

Salvatore's face flushed crimson, his eyes blazing with the kind of fury that had made lesser men disappear into the foundations of new construction projects.

"You ungrateful, bitter little—" The words came out like venom. "Is this how pathetic you've become? You can't even manage the one thing you're good for."

I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached. My nails bit crescents into my palms. But I didn't react. I didn't give him the satisfaction.

They weren't worth my pain anymore.

Salvatore shot a glance at Adriana, then turned back to me with a sneer that twisted his handsome features into something ugly. "Forget it. Adriana, we're going out. I won't stay in this house while she's being like this. Let her figure herself out."

Adriana nodded with saccharine sweetness, slipping her manicured hand into his arm. "Perhaps it's best to give her some space, amore."

The door slammed behind them with a finality that echoed through the empty penthouse.

I stood motionless in the silence they left behind, staring at nothing as tears carved slow, silent paths down my cheeks. It was only a matter of time now. I was leaving soon. Then all of this—the humiliation, the betrayal, the slow death of everything I had once hoped for—would end.

I woke deep in the night, my throat parched and my mind restless. The digital clock on the nightstand glowed an accusatory red: 12:43 AM.

I slipped from the bed, my bare feet silent against the cold marble floors as I made my way toward the kitchen. The penthouse was dark, the city lights of the skyline casting long shadows through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Then I heard it.

Intimate voices drifting from the guest suite. The one Salvatore had insisted Adriana would occupy "temporarily."

I froze in the hallway, my hand pressed against the wall for support.

I knew those sounds. The rhythm of them. The meaning behind them.

Every instinct screamed at me to turn back, to return to my room and pretend I had heard nothing. But something deeper—something wounded and desperate—drove me forward. I needed to see it. I needed to watch the last ember of hope I had foolishly harbored turn to ash.

I moved like a ghost through the corridor, my footsteps making no sound on the Persian runner. The door to the guest suite wasn't fully closed. A sliver of golden light spilled into the darkness.

I leaned forward, peering through the narrow opening.

And immediately wished I hadn't.

Salvatore was on top of Adriana, they were together behind closed doors that probably cost more than most families earned in a month. Her nails raked down his back. his face close to hers.

In his own house. While his wife slept down the hall.

I pulled back from the door, pressing my spine against the wall as the world tilted beneath my feet. My hand found my mouth, stifling the sound that threatened to escape—something between a sob and a scream.

This was the man I had married. The Don I had bound myself to in a church ceremony recognized by the Commission itself.

And this was how little I had ever meant to him.

Chapter 4

Bianca's POV

Don Salvatore's mouth traced the column of her throat, and his hands moved across her body with the desperation of a man who had never known restraint.

"Damn it, Adriana..." He muttered against her skin. "I've always loved your body. You feel so good. No one else could ever feel like this. No one else makes me feel this way."

That was enough.

My heart didn't break—it shattered completely, each fragment cutting deeper than any blade the Family had ever wielded. But I didn't scream. I didn't confront them. Instead, I simply closed the door, softly, slowly, as though I were merely a servant who had stumbled upon something she shouldn't have seen.

I turned away.

My heart pounded against my ribs like a caged animal as I stumbled back toward my room. I barely reached the marble bathroom before I dropped to my knees and retched until there was nothing left.

I sat on the cold floor, trembling.

They hadn't just betrayed me. They had done it in this house—under this roof—without shame, without discretion, as though I were nothing more than a piece of furniture to be ignored.

I leaned back against the wall, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

My mind drifted to the last miscarriage I had endured.

It had started early that morning. I woke to searing pain in my lower abdomen, and when I pulled back the silk sheets, they were soaked crimson.

I called for Salvatore, but he never came. He was too busy celebrating Adriana's birthday at the family's private club downtown.

One of the household staff finally drove me to the black clinic—the one the Family kept for matters that couldn't involve hospitals or questions.

Hours later, when he finally appeared, he didn't ask if I was all right. He didn't take my hand. He simply stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his tailored chest, his expression carved from granite.

"Again?" he said coldly.

As if it were my fault. As if I were the defect in his bloodline.

He didn't comfort me. He barely looked at me.

When the doctor pronounced it another unexplained loss, Salvatore merely nodded and walked out of the room without a backward glance.

I had thought he was disappointed in me. I had blamed myself for failing him.

But now I understood the truth.

He wasn't disappointed. He was satisfied.

Because that child—like the ones before—had served its purpose.

He had gotten me pregnant, had me drugged, waited for the miscarriage, and harvested what he needed for Adriana's treatments. And I had apologized to him. I had actually whispered that I was sorry through my tears.

The memory made bile rise in my throat again.

~

I didn't sleep after that.

I spent the remaining hours before dawn arranging everything for my departure—documents, photographs, the few possessions that were truly mine and not bought with Pini money.

Eventually, when hunger became impossible to ignore, I made my way to the kitchen.

The house was silent. The staff wouldn't arrive for another hour.

I made a simple breakfast—scrambled eggs, toast, and tea—just for myself. I sat at the long mahogany dining table alone, eating in the heavy silence that filled these rooms like smoke.

My phone buzzed against the polished wood.

A message from my father.

Don Vittorio: I hope you haven't changed your mind again. The arrangements are already in motion.

Me: Never.

Footsteps descended the curved staircase, but I didn't look up.

"Mm, something smells good," Adriana's voice floated through the air, light and poisonous as arsenic in wine.

I gave no reaction. They walked in together, bold as brass, without an ounce of shame between them.

"I hope you slept well, Donna," Adriana continued, the title dripping with barely concealed mockery. "I had a wonderful night, thanks to Salvatore here."

Salvatore cleared his throat, shifting his weight. "Bianca," he muttered, clearly uncomfortable with the transparency of her taunt. "What Adriana means is that she couldn't sleep alone last night. Nightmares. I stayed with her until she could rest."

A small smirk curved Adriana's painted lips, her dark eyes gleaming with triumph.

I continued eating, completely unfazed.

Adriana's gaze swept across the table. There was only one place setting. Her brows lifted in false surprise.

"Oh. No breakfast for us?" she asked, her voice sugary sweet, like honey laced with cyanide. "I suppose we're on our own now."

I kept chewing. I didn't say a word.

Salvatore's attention fixed on me now, irritation bleeding into his aristocratic features. "Bianca. Where's our breakfast?"

I took a slow sip of my tea. "I didn't make it," I said flatly.

There was a pause—heavy, dangerous.

"What do you mean, you didn't make it?" His voice hardened, each word precise as a bullet leaving a chamber.

I shrugged.

Salvatore stepped closer, his presence filling the space between us like a gathering storm. "You are the Donna of this house. Your duty is to support your husband and this Family—and that includes maintaining this household. Or has that become too difficult for you?"

I stood and rinsed my plate quietly, my back to him.

"I asked you a question." His voice rose, cold fury threading through each syllable. "Has it become too difficult?"

I turned around slowly, meeting his gaze without flinching. "You can always eat out. Like last night."

He stepped forward, eyes narrowing to slits. "What the hell is wrong with you lately? You've been acting like a spoiled brat, and it's becoming very tiresome."

I didn't respond.

I reached for the glass teapot filled with hot water, but Salvatore's composure finally snapped.

He snatched the teapot from my hands and slammed it down on the marble counter with enough force to crack the base. The scalding water splashed across my hand and wrist in a burning wave.

I hissed and stumbled backward.

The teapot shattered on impact, and a large shard of glass flew into my forearm, embedding itself in the flesh. Blood welled up instantly, running down my arm in crimson rivulets. I cried out before I could stop myself.

Salvatore blinked. He hadn't meant to do it—not quite like that.

When he saw the blood, his expression softened. For one brief, stupid second.

For one pathetic moment, I thought maybe he would care.

But it didn't last.

Because immediately, Adriana's voice whined from behind him.

"There's no breakfast, and I'm starving, Salvatore. I think I'm feeling faint."

Salvatore gave me a cold, dismissive look—silently blaming me for the entire scene. He glanced at my injured hand with a scowl carved deep into his handsome face.

"You're a Pini wife. You'll survive." He said it like it was nothing. Like I was nothing.

"Remember that the Family Gala is this evening at eight. Get dressed appropriately. I'll send someone to collect you." He adjusted his cufflinks without meeting my eyes.

I pressed a kitchen towel to my arm without a word.

Salvatore didn't apologize. He didn't even have the decency to look guilty as he walked out with Adriana on his arm, her laughter echoing through the marble halls.

~

An hour later, the moving truck arrived.

The men my father had sent were quick and professional—they knew better than to ask questions when a Don's daughter needed something handled quietly.

I stood by the window as they carried out box after box—everything that belonged to me, everything that proved I had ever existed in this gilded prison.

What remained was thrown into the trash.

When they finished, the house looked as though I had never lived here at all. As though Bianca Valente had been nothing more than a ghost passing through these halls.

When Salvatore returned to prepare for the gala, he barely noticed that anything was missing.

I preferred it that way.

Before we left, I glanced around the bedroom one final time—at the silk drapes, the crystal chandelier, the bed where I had lost three children to his greed.

I had already made my decision.

Tonight was the last night I would spend under the Pini name.

After the gala, I would leave. For good.

He wouldn't even realize I was gone until it was far too late.

Chapter 5

Bianca's POV

The black sedan cut through the night like a hearse carrying the living dead.

I sat in the back, alone, watching the city lights blur past rain-streaked windows while Don Salvatore Pini occupied the front passenger seat with Adriana DeAngelis pressed against his side. Her laughter—crystalline and deliberate—pierced the silence at intervals, each giggle a calculated blade. They spoke in low murmurs, intimate whispers that excluded me as thoroughly as if I'd been locked in the trunk.

No one observing this arrangement would have guessed I was his wife.

The Family's Social Club loomed ahead, its façade of old-world elegance masking the rot beneath. Gilded sconces flanked the entrance, casting pools of amber light across the marble steps where soldiers in tailored suits stood sentinel. This was the heart of Pini territory—a converted palazzo that served as the stage for every alliance, every betrayal, every carefully orchestrated display of power.

Tonight was the Family Gala. The Feast Night.

And I was nothing more than a ghost trailing behind the procession.

The valet opened Salvatore's door first. Adriana emerged on his arm, draped in a gown of liquid gold that caught the light like molten currency. Her fingers curled possessively around his bicep as they ascended the steps together—a portrait of criminal royalty, perfectly composed for the watching eyes.

She waved to the gathered captains and their wives with the practiced grace of a woman who believed this kingdom was already hers.

Perhaps it was.

I followed three steps behind, my presence an afterthought. The whispers began before I'd crossed the threshold.

"Isn't Bianca supposed to be his wife?"

"Why is the Don walking in with the DeAngelis woman?"

"Honestly, Bianca doesn't carry herself like a Donna. Not compared to Adriana."

My jaw tightened, but I kept my expression carved from marble. In this world, emotion was currency you couldn't afford to spend carelessly.

The main hall stretched before us—a cathedral of excess. Crystal chandeliers dripped light onto tables laden with silver and bone china. The old guard occupied their positions of honor near the raised dais, their weathered faces betraying nothing as they observed Salvatore parade Adriana past them like a prize mare.

He introduced her to the Commission elders with evident pride. His hand found the small of her back, guiding her forward with the proprietary touch that should have been reserved for his wife alone.

"Consigliere Benedetto," Salvatore said smoothly, "you remember Adriana. She's been invaluable to the family's... medical interests."

The old man's eyes flickered to me—a brief acknowledgment—before returning to Adriana with carefully neutral assessment.

Then came the moment that sealed everything.

Every Feast Night, tradition demanded the Don lead his Donna in the opening dance. It was more than ceremony—it was a declaration. A statement to the Commission, to the soldiers, to every watching eye that this woman held his protection, his name, his blood oath.

I stood at the edge of the dance floor, waiting.

Salvatore's gaze found mine across the polished marble. For one breath, I thought—

Adriana's fingers slid into his palm.

"Dance with me, Salvatore." Her voice carried just far enough to reach the nearby tables, pitched with theatrical vulnerability. "Forgive me for asking. I simply... I don't want to feel so alone tonight."

Her eyes glistened with manufactured sorrow.

Salvatore hesitated for precisely one heartbeat. Then he nodded without sparing me another glance.

And just like that, he led her to the center of the floor as the string quartet began their slow, ceremonial waltz. Her palm pressed flat against his chest—over his heart, where the old tattoo marked him as a made man. He held her with the careful reverence of a man cradling something precious.

My heart didn't break.

It had shattered so many times before that only dust remained.

What I felt now was shame. Pure, crystalline shame that burned through my veins like acid.

The gathered Family watched. Whispers slithered through the crowd like serpents.

I stood there—an abandoned ornament, a discarded relic—while another woman claimed what the blood oath had promised was mine. The Donna of the Pini Family, left to rot in the shadows while her husband's comare commanded the light.

Adriana tilted her head, resting it against Salvatore's shoulder with the easy intimacy of a lover who knew she'd already won.

Someone near me murmured, "She suits him better. Everyone can see it."

I didn't flinch.

When the music faded, applause rippled through the hall. Salvatore inclined his head toward Adriana with something approaching warmth. She smiled—victorious, radiant, poisonous.

Then, finally, he turned.

He crossed the distance between us with measured steps, his hand extending toward me like an afterthought.

"Bianca." His voice was flat, perfunctory. "Our dance."

I looked at his outstretched hand. The same hand that had held Adriana moments ago as though she were his everything. The same hand that had signed away my children to his black-clinic butchers.

Silence descended over the nearby tables. The old guard watched. The soldiers watched. Everyone waited for me to perform my role.

I smiled—cold as cemetery stone.

"No, thank you."

Surprise fractured his composed mask. His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "Excuse me?"

"I said no." My voice emerged steady, controlled. Calm as the eye of a hurricane.

His expression hardened into something brutal. When he spoke again, his tone had dropped to a lethal register. "Bianca. Don't make a scene."

"You started it." The words left my lips wrapped in bitter silk.

Salvatore's composure cracked. He stepped closer, his voice a serpent's hiss meant only for my ears. "Why must you be so jealous? It was one dance. I didn't want her to feel excluded. Must everything revolve around your wounded pride?"

I met his gaze without flinching. "You didn't want her to feel left out. But you have no concern for humiliating your own wife before the entire Commission."

His lip curled. "You should be grateful you have a husband at all, you ungrateful—"

"Please." Adriana materialized at his elbow, her voice dripping with false concern. "Don't quarrel on my account. I never meant to cause trouble."

I turned my stare on her—let her see the cold fury I'd learned to cultivate in the three years of this marriage.

"Stop performing," I said flatly. "It's tiresome."

She gasped, pressing a hand to her chest as though I'd struck her. But I was already turning away, ignoring the scandalized murmurs that followed my retreat.

I pushed through the nearest door and found myself in the powder room—a sanctuary of black marble and gilt mirrors. I needed air. Space. A moment to stop pretending the cracks weren't spreading through my foundation.

I slipped into one of the private stalls and sat on the velvet bench, pressing my palms against my eyes until stars bloomed in the darkness.

Breathe, I commanded myself. Just breathe.

The door opened. Heels clicked against marble. Two voices, carrying with the careless confidence of women who believed themselves alone.

"Did you see how she just stood there? Like some servant girl."

I went rigid.

The second woman sighed with theatrical sympathy. "Poor creature. But honestly, what did she expect? Don Salvatore clearly doesn't want her. Everyone knows."

"I heard she practically begged for the marriage. Threw herself at him like some desperate fool."

Cruel laughter echoed off the marble walls. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Look at Adriana—she's radiant. No man in his right mind would choose Bianca over her. Not for a wife. Not for anything."

I rose from the bench.

The stall door swung open beneath my palm. I emerged into the powder room with the silent grace of a woman who had learned to move through hostile territory without making a sound.

The two women—wives of minor captains, I recognized them now—went pale as corpses.

"Donna Bianca—"

"Good evening, Donna—"

They didn't wait for my response. They fled, averting their eyes like children caught in transgression, their heels clattering against the floor in their haste to escape.

I stood alone before the mirror.

My reflection stared back—hollow-eyed, pale, draped in a black gown that suddenly felt like mourning clothes. The woman in the glass looked like someone who had been slowly poisoned over three years. Someone whose blood had been drained drop by drop until only the shell remained.

Maybe they're right, the reflection seemed to whisper. Maybe you were never meant to survive this world.

I inhaled sharply, forcing steel into my spine. I would return to that hall. I would endure the rest of this hellish evening. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me break.

The door creaked open behind me.

I turned, expecting another pair of gossiping wives.

Adriana DeAngelis stood in the doorway, her gold gown catching the light like dragon scales. Her lips curved into a slow, predatory smile.

"Well," she purred, stepping inside and letting the door fall shut behind her. "You look like shit, Donna."

Chapter 6

Bianca's POV

I didn't answer her.

I didn't even blink.

My fists clenched slightly at my sides, nails biting into my palms hard enough to leave crescents in the flesh—but I refused to give her the satisfaction she craved. Instead, I held her gaze with the stillness of a woman who had learned to bury her emotions beneath six feet of marble silence. My face betrayed nothing.

She tilted her head, dark curls spilling over one shoulder, clearly disappointed that her venom had failed to draw blood.

"Really? No reply?" she teased, her heels clicking against the imported Carrara tile as she came to stand beside me at the gilded vanity.

I stayed quiet, washing my hands beneath the antique brass faucet, watching the water swirl down the drain like I wished I could follow it.

"Oh, come on, Bianca." Adriana leaned against the marble countertop with practiced elegance, her reflection a serpent in the mirror. "Don't act like you didn't see us that night. You were standing right there in the doorway, watching everything."

Still, I said nothing. The silence stretched between us like piano wire.

She continued with a cruel laugh that echoed off the bathroom walls of the Pini estate. "You should have heard him last night. He was pazzo for my body—couldn't keep his hands off me. I really hope you learned a thing or two from what you saw."

I dried my hands on the monogrammed towel with deliberate calm, then turned to walk away without sparing her another glance.

She was getting irritated at my lack of reaction—I could feel the frustration radiating off her like heat from a furnace. So she pushed harder.

"Oh, I know what'll crack you," she said, her voice dropping to something malicious and intimate. "Let's talk about your babies."

I froze instantly.

My blood turned to ice water in my veins.

"Those poor little things," she whispered from behind me, each word a stiletto sliding between my ribs. "But they didn't die for nothing, you know. Thanks to them—thanks to what the clinic extracted—my womb is finally strong enough to carry his heir."

I turned slowly.

She leaned closer, triumph burning in those coal-dark eyes like hellfire. "You couldn't carry his child. Your body failed him, over and over. But I will succeed where you couldn't. And Salvatore will finally have what he always wanted—with me."

Something inside me snapped at her words.

Three years of silence. Three forced terminations. Three children I never got to hold, stolen from my body for her benefit while I was told it was medicine, told it was for my health. The rage that had been building behind my sternum like a caged animal finally broke free.

I shoved her hard, and she stumbled backward, gasping as she caught herself against the damask-papered wall.

She looked at me in shock for a moment, her carefully constructed mask slipping.

And then, slowly, she smiled.

"You'll regret that," she murmured.

Before I could ask what she meant, she turned toward the wall—

And slammed her own head into it.

I blinked in horror and disbelief.

Then she did it again. And again.

Blood bloomed against the cream-colored wallpaper like roses in winter.

She released a loud, piercing scream that could have shattered crystal, then dropped to the floor in a heap of silk and calculated tears, sobbing and clutching her head as though I had done it.

The bathroom door burst open almost instantly—too quickly, as if they had been waiting just outside.

Several Family members rushed in, soldiers and wives alike, their faces a chorus of manufactured concern.

"Someone call the doctor!"

"This is insane—Adriana!"

"Donna Bianca—what happened here?"

I stood there frozen, my hands trembling at my sides, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird.

Don Salvatore Pini swept through the doorway with two enforcers flanking him, his presence filling the room like a gathering storm. He wore his authority like a second skin—the tailored charcoal suit, the heavy signet ring, the cold calculation in those pale eyes.

He saw the blood first, dark against the wallpaper.

Then he saw her, crumpled artfully on the floor.

Then me.

"Bianca?" His voice was sharp with fury, each syllable a bullet.

Adriana whimpered weakly, curling in on herself with the skill of a woman who had rehearsed this moment.

"She—she attacked me," she sobbed, her voice breaking with perfect precision. "I came to apologize to her for the dance earlier, to make peace between us, and she just snapped. She pushed me and slammed my head against the wall. I—I think I'm bleeding badly, Salvatore."

Salvatore stared at me, his face twisted with rage that I recognized all too well. It was the same expression he wore before every punishment, every lesson he decided I needed to learn.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. My throat had closed around the truth like a fist.

"She's lying," I croaked when I finally found my voice. "She's lying. I didn't touch her—not like that. She's doing this to frame me."

Salvatore's eyes blazed with cold fire. "So now you're calling her a liar? Calling a guest in my house, a woman under my protection, a liar?"

"She slammed her own head against the wall," I said, firmer this time, though my voice shook. "I didn't—"

"Basta!" he roared, and the single word silenced the room like a gunshot.

My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears.

The Family members gasped and murmured among themselves. I could feel their eyes on me—judging, condemning, already writing the story they wanted to believe.

"She's unstable," someone whispered. "Always knew there was something wrong with her."

"The Valente girl was never right for this Family," another voice muttered, low but deliberate.

"Poor Adriana. She only wanted to make peace."

Salvatore turned to his enforcers, his jaw set like granite. "Teach her a lesson."

The words froze the blood in my veins, and my heart stopped beating.

Before I could move, before I could run, the two soldiers stepped forward and grabbed me by the arms. Their grips were iron, unyielding.

"No—wait!" I cried, but it was already too late.

The first blow landed hard against my stomach. I doubled over, gasping for air that wouldn't come, stars exploding behind my eyes.

Another came against my back, sending me crashing to the cold tile floor.

I curled in on myself instinctively, wrapping my arms around my belly—around the secret I had been carrying for eight weeks, the child I had hoped might finally be allowed to live.

"Please—stop," I cried out, my voice breaking.

But they didn't.

They kept kicking and punching mercilessly as I screamed, their polished shoes connecting with my ribs, my spine, my arms as I tried desperately to shield myself.

I tried to protect my belly, especially my belly, but it was useless against their trained brutality.

Then I felt it.

A sharp, twisting pain tore through my abdomen, followed by a familiar rush of warmth down my thighs.

Blood.

I choked on a sob as I looked down. Crimson soaked through the pale blue silk of my dress, spreading like an accusation.

The fourth. They had taken the fourth.

The enforcers faltered, stepping back with something like unease flickering across their hardened faces.

"Don Pini," one of them said, hesitating, "she's bleeding badly—"

Salvatore stepped forward, his rage momentarily giving way to confusion as he registered the growing pool beneath me. He saw the blood.

I met his eyes with tears streaming down my face, my body broken and trembling. "Please..." I whispered. "Please, I was pregnant—"

He hesitated for a single moment. Something that might have been doubt crossed his features.

Then Adriana whimpered from the floor, her voice soft and pitiful, perfectly timed: "Salvatore... I don't feel so good... I think I might faint..."

That was all it took.

Salvatore turned away from me as though I were nothing—as though I had never been his wife, never carried his name, never bled for his legacy—and knelt beside her. "I've got you, Ana," he murmured, lifting her into his arms with a gentleness he had never once shown me.

She clung to him weakly, playing her role to perfection. But as her eyes met mine over his shoulder, she smirked—a small, triumphant curl of her lips that only I could see.

Salvatore didn't even glance at me as he walked out of the room, carrying her like she was something precious.

At the doorway, he finally spoke.

"I hope you've learned your lesson, Bianca." His voice was cold as a January burial. "Get yourself to the clinic. Clean yourself up. And remember your place."

Then he was gone.

Leaving me there on the bloodstained marble, severely injured and half-dead, surrounded by Family members who wouldn't lift a finger to help me.

One by one, they filed out, stepping around the blood like it was merely an inconvenience.

I tried to move, but the pain was too much. My body shook violently, and my vision blurred at the edges. The metallic scent of blood filled my nostrils—my blood, my child's blood, mixing with the expensive perfume that still lingered in the air.

I dragged myself slowly across the floor, leaving a trail of crimson behind me, until I reached the corner where my clutch had fallen earlier. I pulled out my phone with fingers that wouldn't stop trembling.

Then I called my father.

"Bianca?" Don Vittorio Valente's voice came through immediately, already sharp with concern. "What's wrong? Where are you?"

I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. My lips trembled as I tried to speak, tried to form words around the devastation in my chest.

"Papà... please," I whispered hoarsely, my voice barely a thread of sound. "Come take me home..."

"Where are you right now?" he asked immediately, and I could hear him already moving, already giving orders to someone in the background.

I gave him the directions as best I could, my words slurring together as consciousness began to slip away.

He cursed under his breath—words I had never heard him use, oaths that promised retribution. "I'm sending men right now. Don't move. Don't speak to anyone. Just hold on, figlia mia. You'll be fine. I swear to you, you'll be fine."

"Come... qui...ck..." I managed to mumble before the phone slipped from my blood-slicked hand, clattering against the tile.

The last thing I heard was my father calling my name over and over—Bianca, Bianca, stay with me—as the darkness rose up like a tide and pulled me under.