Chapter 1

At my wedding to Sebastian Gilbert, heir to one of the most powerful Mafia families in New York, the enormous screen behind the altar suddenly lit up with photos of me in bed with his family's sworn enemy.

Before I could even explain, Sebastian had already silenced the whispers and brought the chaos under control with terrifying efficiency.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he took my hand and finished the ceremony.

But when the reception finally ended and I went looking for him, desperate to tell him the truth, I found him in our bridal suite with my stepsister, Narelle Harding, pinned beneath him on the marriage bed.

I screamed. I cried. I begged him to listen.

Sebastian only looked at me with cold contempt.

"What's wrong? A woman who slept with my enemy wants to play the loyal Mafia wife now?"

From that night on, Sebastian stopped hiding his relationship with Narelle.

He bought her a mansion, covered her in diamonds, and gave her anything she wanted. He took her to family gatherings, private clubs, and Mafia banquets, parading her at his side while I, his lawful wife, became a joke throughout New York's underworld.

For three years, I tried everything to win him back.

I swallowed every humiliation and clung to the marriage long after there was nothing left to save.

It wasn't until a doctor placed the papers confirming my miscarriage in my hands that I finally understood.

If his love for me was already dead, why was I still clinging to its corpse?

……

As the doctor delivered the news, two nurses' voices drifted in from the hallway, thick with envy.

"Mr. Gilbert must really love Ms. Harding. She had one little scare, and he walked away from a billion-dollar deal with another Family just to stay with her. Her room is overflowing with flowers, gifts, and expensive supplements. I even saw him feeding her himself."

"That's what love looks like when the man happens to be one of the most powerful capos in New York. But isn't Mr. Gilbert married?"

"Oh, you mean that infamous slut? Everyone knows she betrayed him before the wedding and slept with a man from an enemy Family. Mr. Gilbert was generous enough to let her keep his name. A woman like that doesn't deserve to be called Mrs. Gilbert."

Slut.

That one word dragged me straight back to my wedding night.

Sebastian had looked at me with exactly the same contempt when he'd called me that for the first time.

I'd walked into our bridal suite still wearing my wedding gown, desperate to explain what had happened before the ceremony.

Instead, I froze in the doorway.

Two naked bodies were tangled together on our marriage bed.

Sebastian and Narelle.

Something inside me shattered.

I grabbed whatever I could reach and hurled it at them, screaming until my throat burned.

Sebastian immediately pulled Narelle behind him, shielding her with his body. Then he helped her dress, his movements unexpectedly gentle, before ordering one of his men to drive her home.

Only after making sure she was safely gone did he finally turn to me.

I was shaking so badly I could barely stand.

"Why?" I sobbed. "Sebastian, why would you do this to me?"

He leaned against the table and lit a cigarette, his expression cold and indifferent.

"Joy Harding, the devoted-wife act really doesn't suit a slut like you."

The words hit harder than a slap.

I cried until I could barely breathe.

"Sebastian, you can't do this to me. And why her? Why Narelle?"

My voice broke.

"You know what she and her mother did to my family. Her mother was my father's mistress. They destroyed my mother. They drove her to her death."

Something flickered across Sebastian's face.

Then his eyes turned bloodshot.

He kicked the table so hard it crashed onto its side.

"Joy, so you do know what betrayal feels like?"

His voice was raw with fury.

"I treated you like something sacred. All these years, I never laid a hand on you before our wedding, no matter how badly I wanted you. I was afraid I'd frighten you. I was willing to wait until you became my wife."

His jaw clenched.

"And then you turned around and climbed into bed with Hubert Sanchez, a man from the Family that's been trying to destroy mine for years."

He stared at me.

"What the hell did that make me?"

Hubert.

The photograph.

Of course.

The day before the wedding, Hubert and I had both been drugged.

When we woke up, we were lying in the same bed.

I had gone straight to a private doctor afterward. The examination results, along with the last things Hubert and I could remember before blacking out, confirmed that nothing had happened between us.

Someone had set us up.

I had planned to explain everything to Sebastian after the ceremony.

I never imagined that someone would put that photograph on the giant screen at our wedding, in front of both Families and half the New York underworld.

The pain in my chest became almost unbearable.

"I don't know who drugged us or why they wanted us in that room together," I choked out. "But nothing happened between Hubert and me. Nothing."

Sebastian gave a cold laugh.

"Joy, do you really think I'm going to believe that?"

I stared at him through my tears.

"If you don't believe me, then why did you finish the ceremony?"

My voice trembled.

"Why did you marry me at all?"