Chapter 1

The night before our two families were set to seal their alliance, I returned to the city without warning.

And inside the estate, I found the man I had been promised to for five years with another woman.

What unsettled me most was her face.

She looked almost exactly like me.

For all the years I'd spent overseas handling the Valente family's affairs, she'd been at his side, quietly filling the place I'd left behind.

When I called him for an explanation, he only sighed.

"She stayed with me while you were gone. I can't just cast her out now. A man without loyalty is nothing."

Then, as if what he'd done were perfectly reasonable, he added, "The Family can find a place for her. Let her stay for now. If I throw her aside the moment you come back, people will say I have no humanity."

Five years of devotion, and somehow it had lost to a woman who had spent those same years warming his bed.

I looked at the man who had once sworn on his mother's grave that I would be the only woman he ever loved.

Even then, I couldn't bring myself to say the words.

"It's over."

Not yet.

I wanted to see it for myself.

Now that the Valente daughter had finally come home, I wanted to know who he would choose when he could no longer keep one woman in the light and the other hidden in the dark.

His future wife, whose family stood beside his.

Or the goomah who wore my face.

——

Halfway through the feast meant to bind our two Families, the engagement ring disappeared from its velvet box.

The man overseeing the ceremony broke into a sweat. He scrambled to fill the silence with awkward pleasantries, desperate to keep the assembled capos and their wives from realizing something had gone wrong.

Rocco Falcone stepped close and took my hand.

"It's only a ten-carat diamond, tesoro," he murmured near my ear. "Gemma got curious and tried it on. Now she can't get it off. I'll have another one made for you tomorrow. Bigger. Better."

My heart sank.

Only the night before, Rocco had called me, his voice warm with sincerity.

"I've spent a fortune preparing your surprise. Tomorrow, all you have to do is be the happiest bride this Family has ever seen."

So this was his surprise.

My fingers curled into my palms. I looked straight at him, refusing to let him see them tremble.

"Rocco, is this what you prepared for me? You gave another woman the ring meant to seal our alliance. Without it, how are we supposed to..."

Before I could finish, Rocco's right-hand man pushed through the guests, panic written across his face.

"Boss. Gemma's gone. She said she's done with all of this and she's going back home."

Rocco's expression changed instantly.

He pushed past me and headed for the door.

I caught his sleeve.

"Rocco."

He stopped.

My voice was quiet, but everyone close enough to us could hear it.

"If you walk out that door today, whatever existed between us ends here."

For one brief moment, he looked back at me.

Then he tugged at his collar, ran his tongue over his lips, and pulled his arm from my grasp.

He left without another word.

Silence settled over the room.

Then came the murmurs.

The capos exchanged glances across the tables. Their wives leaned toward one another, whispering behind raised glasses.

Rocco Falcone had just abandoned the daughter of the Valente Family at the very feast meant to seal our alliance.

And he'd done it in front of everyone who mattered.

Rocco's mother rose from her seat and hurried toward me. She wrapped her arms around me, as though she could somehow shield me from the humiliation her son had left behind.

"Adriana, you are the only woman I will ever recognize as my daughter-in-law. I swear to you, Rocco will answer for this."

But something inside me had already gone cold.

I swallowed the ache in my throat and forced a faint smile.

"There's no need."

I slipped my hand from hers.

"I'll return the alliance gifts. From today on, there will be no marriage between Rocco Falcone and me."

Beside me, Matteo's expression darkened.

My brother slowly removed his watch and placed it face-down on the white linen.

I knew that gesture.

Everyone in our Family did.

"For him to abandon my sister at her own alliance feast for another woman, in front of every made man in this room..."

Matteo's voice was dangerously calm.

"That's not just an insult to you, Adriana. It's an insult to the Valente name."

Before he could rise, I caught his arm.

"Matteo. Let it go."

His jaw tightened.

"I won't turn this room into a bloodbath over a man I've already decided to leave."

Matteo stared at me for several seconds before finally exhaling and settling back into his chair.

A few moments later, Rocco's right-hand man approached me.

He glanced around the room before lowering his voice.

"Miss Adriana, please don't take what happened the wrong way. You were overseas for three years. During that time, Gemma stayed beside the Boss through everything. The succession fight, the pressure from the other crews, all of it."

He hesitated.

"She left without warning. The Boss was only afraid she might do something reckless."

I almost laughed.

Three years at Rocco's side had apparently become enough to excuse anything.

And somehow, my return had become the disruption.

But if Gemma truly wanted nothing from him, why had she chosen today of all days to leave?

Why disappear on the very day Rocco and I were supposed to bind our two Families together?

I saw no point in arguing.

I exchanged a few quiet words with Matteo, then left.

By that afternoon, gifts began arriving at my estate one after another.

A new car.

A villa in the hills.

Handmade bags shipped in from Europe.

And finally, a rare surgical manuscript I had spent years trying to track down.

I stood in the entry hall and stared at the mountain of gifts.

So this was Rocco's answer.

Not an apology.

Not an explanation.

Just money.

I looked at the men who had delivered them.

"Take everything back."

One of them hesitated. "Miss Valente, the Boss specifically ordered..."

"I don't care what Rocco ordered."

I turned away.

"Get every last thing off my property."