Chapter 1

I turned down the arranged marriage my parents had set up for me, determined to marry Cassian Russo, all because he had taken a bullet for me during an attack.

I thought I had chosen love.

I helped him become the Don of Philadelphia, but Cassian always believed I had forced my way into his life because I was the Morettis' only daughter.

On our tenth anniversary, I came home with a pregnancy report I had waited ten years for, only to find another woman lying in my bed.

The way she stroked her belly said it all: she was carrying his child.

Cassian shielded her behind him. "Bianca is carrying a boy. He'll be the heir to the Russo Family. I won't let you hurt her or the baby."

I didn't take out the results I had just been given.

His brow creased, clearly bracing himself for tears and tantrums, like always.

"Don't worry. The title of Donna will always be yours."

What he didn't know was that I was done making scenes, and I no longer wanted the title of Donna.

The ten-year pact I had with my father had reached its deadline.

This time, I was leaving him for good.

Chapter 1

I was the only daughter of the Moretti Family, one of New York's oldest dynasties.

Growing up, there was nothing I wanted that I couldn't have.

I wanted love, and I was willing to break with my Family to marry the man I had chosen.

Cassian never knew the truth. He believed my father had used his power to force him into the marriage.

But I believed he would fall in love with me eventually.

In the tenth year of our marriage, I finally got pregnant. I finally had my "proof of love."

But when I opened the bedroom door, I found my husband in our marital bed with another woman.

The woman was Bianca Marino, whose deadbeat father owed the Russo Family several million dollars.

The moment I stepped inside, the reek of cheap perfume hit me.

I looked up. She was wearing my black lace nightgown, as if she were the lady of the house.

I could barely breathe.

Before I could even confront them, Cassian's cold, guarded eyes swept toward me.

From time to time over the past ten years, he had studied me with that same look.

In that moment, all my persistence, all my joy, and all my love for him became one enormous joke.

"What are you doing?"

My voice was barely above a whisper, yet Bianca flinched as though I had screamed, burrowing into Cassian's arms.

Cassian pressed a soothing kiss to the top of her head, draped a garment over her shoulders, and only then leaned back against the headboard to look at me.

"Why are you back so early today?"

He was blaming me?

Half an hour ago, I had just learned at the hospital that I was pregnant. I canceled every other appointment and rushed home, wanting nothing more than to share the news with Cassian.

Ten years of marriage, and we were finally having a child.

I had thought this would make him see everything I had given, that he would stop distrusting me.

But now, every trace of joy froze solid.

Cassian, displeased by my silence, shifted to block Bianca behind him. "Valentina, there's no need for that look. Bianca's pregnancy is high-risk. Don't frighten her. If you have something to say, say it to me."

Before I could open my mouth, Bianca peeked out from behind Cassian. "I'm sorry, Valentina. Did I upset you?"

She looked frail, yet every strand of her hair was perfectly styled.

She cradled her belly, turning her wounded gaze toward Cassian. "I'd feel safer staying close to the Don. After all, the doctor said I'm carrying a boy."

Cassian turned back to her in surprise, unable to hide the delight in his eyes.

I clutched my test results until my knuckles ached and buried them deep in my pocket.

Bianca gave a shy nod.

Cassian cleared his throat and turned to me, as if making an announcement. "You're the first woman in the Russo Family to be pregnant... Naturally, this boy should be the heir.

"Valentina, making Bianca's child the heir would keep the Russo name secure. Don't you agree?"

The words drifted into my ears, weightless, and all I felt was bitter amusement.

So any woman on the side could bear the Russo heir. Anyone except the Donna.

Now, when I was finally pregnant after ten years, his attitude could not have been clearer.

My family name, my birthright, had become his excuse to push me away, the very chains that kept me from getting close to him.

But this time, I was tired.

I swallowed every emotion and said only one thing. "Tell her to take off my nightgown. I'll sleep in the guest room."

Cassian was visibly stunned, caught off guard that I hadn't erupted into the usual screaming match that would shake the entire estate.

My calm and restraint clearly pleased him.

A mocking smile tugged at the corner of Cassian's mouth. "Valentina, you're finally starting to act like a proper Donna.

"Keep behaving, and I promise you'll always be my only wife.

"You can even claim the heir as your own."

My hands froze mid-reach inside the closet. I said nothing.

All I could think was how absurd it was that I had devoted ten years of my heart to a man because of one bullet.

If the FBI launched a raid right now, he would take a bullet for every single woman he kept on the side.

Bianca was lucky. She had gotten pregnant with a boy just as Cassian was about to turn forty.

The perfume in the room made me sick. I wanted nothing more than to get out.

I took a deep breath, pointed at the remaining odds and ends, and declared in a low, steady voice, "Bianca, since you like these worthless things so much, consider them a gift.

"As for you, Cassian..."

I pulled out the divorce papers I had prepared long ago, my voice slow and resolute.

"Keep the heir. We're getting divorced."

Chapter 2

Saying those words was like ripping open a ten-year-old scar, raw and bleeding.

But more than the pain, there was an indescribable sense of relief.

Cassian took the papers, read through them with a deepening frown, and then laughed. "Valentina, you were the one who turned down the original arrangement and begged to marry me. Do you really think you get to decide when this ends?"

He reached out and gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes. "You decided we would marry, and now you think you can decide we're done? Valentina, what do you take me for?

"Something you can toy with?"

Cassian stood bare-chested, and the scar on his left shoulder from the bullet he had taken for me by accident all those years ago had almost faded away.

Now, a fresh hickey marked the same patch of skin.

Bianca's heavy perfume clung to his skin as he moved closer.

The sharp scent made my pregnancy nausea surge. I shoved him away and doubled over, coughing and retching, unable to make out anything else he said.

Cassian stiffened for a moment, then pulled me upright. "What? Disgusted by me?

"When are you going to get over this jealousy of yours?"

My head was spinning from the smell, but I looked him dead in the eye and shot back, "You don't deserve..."

Cassian scoffed. "Valentina, you don't get to say that. I never needed this marriage. You're the one who barged into my life using the Moretti name. Because of you, I made enemies of the Five Families. I'm not letting you walk away."

With that, he tore the divorce papers in half. The scraps fluttered to the floor like snowflakes before my eyes.

"And don't think I don't know. Your Family won't take you back either. They froze your trust fund ten years ago. Your father hasn't picked up a single one of your calls in a decade. He's not going to turn on the Don of Philadelphia for a disobedient daughter."

He was right.

I had refused my father's arrangement to marry Alessio Bellini, the head of the most powerful of the Five Families, and insisted on marrying Cassian instead. My father had been furious.

He had even stripped me of the right to divorce.

He had issued a blackout order on me across the entire East Coast: unless the Moretti Family publicly took me back, the Commission would not recognize my separation from the Russos.

Outside the estate walls, I could only ever be Cassian's wife, never a Moretti.

Ten years ago, I hadn't seen it as punishment.

A love that had survived impossible odds had only seemed stronger to me.

But that very ban now gave Cassian's voice an even crueler edge. "Valentina, once you walk out of this estate, you have nowhere to go.

"You're nothing but a castoff with no family to return to."

I lowered my head and laughed bitterly.

What he didn't know was that my father had set one final, secret condition.

He had given me ten years to prove Cassian was worth it.

If I failed, all I had to do was admit to my parents that I had been wrong, and the Moretti Family would take me back.

Now, I had lost.

I accepted it.

I didn't argue any further with Cassian.

I simply gathered my belongings, walked to the door, and turned back. "I'll print a new copy of the papers and leave them in your study. Don't forget to sign."

This time, I wasn't bluffing.

Chapter 3

The bedroom door slammed shut, and Cassian blocked my path, his expression severe.

"Valentina, are you done with this tantrum?

"Marriages in our world are business transactions. Your parents both took lovers. Did your mother ever complain? All these years, what have I not given you? And yet you keep trying to control me. Have I been too good to you?"

I bit down on my lower lip, my body trembling beyond my control.

My mother had gone from weeping in silence to outright hysteria over the years.

Every scene I had forced myself to forget, every time she had held me and sobbed, Cassian had just dragged back to the surface.

On our wedding night, I had told him this was my most painful memory.

And now he tore it open without a second thought.

Right in front of the other woman.

The reason I had rejected the arranged marriage in the first place was to prove that my choice would not repeat my parents' mistakes.

Cassian was brave. He was kind. He had been willing to lay down his life for me in a crisis. How could a man like that be unfaithful in marriage?

And what kind of man was the Don of the Bellini Family?

Women across the East Coast would have lined up to become his lovers. All I could have done was weep, just like my mother.

But now Cassian was slapping me in the face with it all over again.

So much for bravery. So much for kindness.

If he could be brave and kind to me, he could be brave and kind to every woman he kept on the side.

For ten years, he had seen me as nothing but a possessive, jealous shrew.

It had never once occurred to him that I was pouring out everything I had, trying to reach his conscience.

But today I finally saw the truth: he had no conscience.

He didn't even have a heart.

My eyes held nothing but fury and hatred.

It was the first time I had ever looked at him without a shred of love, and Cassian looked dazed for a moment.

"Shut up!"

I had already raised my arm, every ounce of my strength behind the slap that was about to land on his face.

He was a man and could easily have stopped the blow.

But Bianca suddenly rushed out and threw herself in front of Cassian. "Don't... don't hit him! It's all my fault!"

On the surface, she was the picture of fragility.

But where Cassian couldn't see, she shoved me with all her might!

I crashed into the crystal vase behind me. Searing pain tore through my body, and beneath my stomach... a rush of wet heat.

I was in too much pain to speak.

Cassian reflexively reached down to pull me up.

But in the next instant, Bianca clutched her own stomach and leaned into Cassian, wailing, "It hurts so much! Valentina is so vicious. She nearly hurt me and the baby..."

I hadn't even touched her!

Blood was already soaking through the hem of my dress.

My body felt like it was being sawed in two.

My child...

No matter what, the child was innocent.

I tried to call out, to beg Cassian to save our baby.

Bianca's voice immediately drowned mine out. "So much blood! I'm so scared! My stomach hurts so much!"

Before Cassian even noticed the blood pooling beneath me, he turned away completely, swept Bianca into his arms, and barked orders at the staff.

"Everyone, get Bianca to the Family hospital! Full examination, now!"

On his way out, he looked down at me from above. "Valentina, stop trying to use violence to make me come back to you.

"Need me to send a doctor over to check on you?

"I'm sure it's the same as always. Nothing actually wrong."

I was in too much pain to respond.

Once, in my attempts to win Cassian's heart, I really had tried every clumsy trick in the book.

But this time, love and sincerity meant nothing to me; neither did the title of Mrs. Russo.

I wanted none of it.

Cassian strode away with Bianca in his arms, and she peered at me over his shoulder. The woman who had been playing the victim just moments ago now arched an eyebrow and flashed me a triumphant smile.

Her eyes locked onto my belly, and she mouthed the words, "I win."

Yes, she won.

I had lost everything.

Like the blood spreading across the floor, there was no taking it back.

I lay there, helpless, feeling my child slip away from me little by little, with no one to call for help.

All I could do was clutch the blood-soaked pregnancy report in my pocket even tighter, as if that alone could hold on to my baby a moment longer.

But the blood kept coming, and my consciousness faded until everything went dark.

Chapter 4

The moment I woke, the estate had never felt so cold or so dark.

No lights in the guest room. No sign that anyone had cleaned me up.

The blood had gone cold, clinging to my skin like a clammy serpent, sending chills through my body.

The staff must have moved me from the hallway to the guest room bed.

But the room was empty.

There was only the faint sound of my own breathing.

The pain had numbed me by then. It took a long time to regain my senses and make sense of the situation I was in.

I fumbled for my phone in the dark. Not one call from Cassian. Not one text. Not even a single punctuation mark.

The only notification was a text from the family doctor telling me to monitor my symptoms.

Clearly, no one had told him how much blood I had lost.

I smiled bitterly, turned off the phone, and slowly dragged myself out of bed.

Getting out of here was the only thought I had left.

When I stood, the pain between my legs and across my lower back became impossible to ignore. I could only grit my teeth and brace myself against the wall, inching forward.

As I passed the master bedroom, I heard Cassian's voice inside.

I stopped.

There was no trace of the Don in his tone. Instead, his voice was low and tender. "Is your stomach still bothering you?"

Bianca whimpered softly, playing coy, and tested the waters. "I'm fine. But do you show this kind of concern for Valentina too? After all, she seemed to be bleeding quite a lot earlier."

Two seconds later, Cassian let out a cold huff. "You don't know her at all.

"Using injuries, tantrums, and divorce threats to get my attention. That's been her playbook for years. If she really couldn't handle it, she'd call a doctor herself.

"She's been spoiled rotten since the day she was born. She won't let anything happen to herself."

He spoke with the same cold detachment he used when dealing with traitors.

Bianca laughed, then added, "Some Moretti heiress.

"If you ask me, Valentina hasn't given you an heir in ten years. She should have been thrown out of the Russo Family a long time ago."

Cassian gave a quiet scoff but didn't disagree.

Then the room filled with the unmistakable sounds of kissing.

I closed my eyes. All I could think was that this hallway was too long, and I was moving too slowly.

In the dead of night, inside the estate I had called home for ten years, Cassian buried our marriage and our child with his own hands. He extinguished my last trace of hope.

I turned and left without a single word for the man I had loved for a decade.

With my last reserves of strength, I called a car to take me away from the estate. The only things I carried were a blood-stained pregnancy report and a copy of the divorce papers.

The car came quickly. I watched the estate shrink behind me, the light in the master bedroom winking out of sight.

Streetlights flickered past the window as the car carried me away from a past not worth remembering.

I was saying goodbye to the ten years I had spent stubbornly loving him.

Even with a heart in ruins, I had to keep moving forward.

Cassian, I'm the one who doesn't want you anymore.