Chapter 1

On our seventh wedding anniversary, my husband—Don Enzo Cavina—suddenly put a motion before the family council:

The Donna would be barred from taking part in family affairs.

“One vote in favor.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Being forced off the council just as I completed seven years meant the family no longer had to honor its promise to grant me the twenty-percent stake that was about to vest.

I had been reduced to nothing more than an appendage to the Don.

My fingertips turned cold, but my gaze remained steady as it swept over every face around the long table.

“Why?”

Jack was the first to stand.

“You’re nothing but an outsider who married into this family, yet you’ve controlled the port, the banks, and the union for seven years. Who knows how much you’ve skimmed for yourself?”

James sneered.

“If we let you take twenty percent, sooner or later, the Cavina family will become the Medici family.”

I turned to my husband, Don Enzo, seated at the head of the table.

“Is that really what you think?”

Enzo came to me and pulled me into his arms.

“You’ve given seven years of your life to this family. I just can’t bear to watch the council drain you any longer.”

“You won’t have to sit through these pointless meetings anymore. But you will always be my wife.”

Without a seat on the council, I had no say in any decision.

But the Cavinas couldn’t manage their dealings with the Five Families without me.

So that was it.

They still expected me to bear every risk—they just didn’t want to give me the share I had earned.

I smiled, slipped off my wedding ring and family badge, and slapped them both onto the long table.

Three days later, Enzo came to me with every elder who had voted for the motion.

Together, they knelt before me, begging the “outsider who did nothing but steal everyone else’s credit” to come back and save them.

Chapter 1

I had been the Donna for seven years, and everyone saw me as the witch who had pushed the Don aside and taken credit for everything.

But only I knew who had really earned every victory they praised the "Cavina men" for.

Jack ran the port.

Three years ago, he failed to declare a shipment properly and got a batch of restricted medicine held by customs. I flew to Frankfurt that same night and renegotiated the supply documents, saving both him and the shipment.

Afterward, he put a hand over his heart and swore he owed me his life.

Today, that bastard pointed at me and said, "You just know a few people because of the Medici name. We're the ones who actually risk our lives handling the shipments."

James ran the finances.

He couldn't understand the extra conditions in the banks' contracts. Every time our credit lines needed to be renewed, I had to redo his cash-flow reports and complete the risk documents for him. Last year, he missed the deadline to refinance our debt. I used my own credit to guarantee the family's loan and kept us from running out of money.

Now he said, "You kept all our connections with the banks to yourself on purpose. You wanted to make sure the family couldn't do anything without you."

Bruno Cavina handled the union and the dockworkers.

He cut the workers' hazard pay and almost caused the entire port to go on strike. I spent two days and two nights in the union hall negotiating their wages and injury payments, going through every detail with them.

Now he had voted against me as well.

"Anyone can negotiate. The Don only let you be the one in charge because he wanted to make you look important. That's all."

My personal secretary, Luca Cavina, sat at the far end of the long table and didn't look at me once.

For the past seven years, I had checked every piece of information he gave me. Wrong locations, expired inspection lists, informants who had already betrayed us—I caught every mistake before it could ruin an operation.

He had also prepared the list of voters for today.

Thirty ballots. Every single one was there.

I looked at Enzo.

"You were the one who put forward the motion to take away my council seat.

"They say I stole everyone's credit. You agreed with that too.

"Then why would you expect me to continue to handle the accounts, the negotiations, and the port?"

Enzo frowned.

"Emily, don't act as if we've betrayed you.

"You're my wife. Isn't it only natural for you to share the load?"

I finally understood.

They wanted to take away the power and shares I had risked my life to earn, while still expecting me to stay and clean up every mess they made.

I slipped off my wedding ring and family badge and slapped them both onto the long table.

"If I have no right to make decisions for this family, then I have no responsibility to handle its problems either."

Enzo's face darkened.

Jack slammed the table and jumped to his feet.

"You're not a council member anymore. Hand over the bank authentication token and the port access card!"

James immediately held out his hand. "And the family accounts, the credit files, and all the negotiation records. You aren't taking anything with you."

Bruno sneered. "Don't think you can hold on to those things and make us beg you to come back."

I didn't argue.

I went into my office, opened the safe, and placed the bank authentication token, the port access card, and the council seal in front of them one by one.

Jack's eyes lit up as he eagerly grabbed the port access card.

Enzo seemed to relax too. His expression softened into the familiar, loving look he always gave me.

"Good. That's more like it. Once they've calmed down, I'll bring you back."

I didn't tell him the truth.

The banks, the union, and the Five Families hadn't spent seven years working with the Cavinas because we had an authentication token or an access card.

The Medici name had only opened the first few doors for me.

They had kept working with us because they trusted me to stand behind every deal.

These fools had taken the tools while throwing away the only person who knew how to use them.

Chapter 2

By the time I returned to my office to pack my things, the elders were already waiting for me at the door.

Jack tossed a tablet onto my desk.

"Give me all the files for the North Sea route, especially the customs contacts and the steps for getting inspections waived."

James spoke up next. "The Swiss bank credit lines have to be handed over as well. I want every manager's private number, every renewal date, and all the guarantee documents. Don't leave anything out."

Bruno acted as if his demand was completely reasonable.

"Those union people only take your calls. Write down what they really want and anything we can use against them. You can't just leave and dump this mess on us, right?"

I looked up at them.

"Didn't you say you were the ones doing all the work and that I was just taking the credit?"

Jack's face stiffened for a moment, but he quickly became defensive again.

"Work is work. You handled these things for seven years. Of course you need to hand everything over properly."

I opened the archive I had prepared long ago.

It contained 4,186 pages, divided into five folders: the port, finances, the union, intelligence, and family negotiations.

Jack received 1,200 pages of port risk records.

James got more than 800 pages on bank credit lines and family accounts.

Bruno got 700 pages covering union agreements, injury payments, and staffing.

Luca received more than 600 pages of intelligence checks.

Every page showed work they had once pushed onto me.

One by one, my tablet showed that the files had been delivered.

But their faces quickly fell.

Instead of taking the files that belonged to them, they started fighting over the parts that could make them the most money.

Jack wanted the profits from the port but pushed the customs paperwork and safety checks onto Vivian.

James only wanted to speak to the bank managers who could give him money. He pushed all the risk checks onto his subordinates.

Bruno took the union staff lists but left all the injury agreements untouched on my desk.

Luca was no different. He copied only the information that had already been confirmed and ignored all 600 pages of records showing how I had checked it.

They accused me of stealing their credit. Yet the moment they had to do the actual work, they grabbed the benefits and tried to leave the problems behind.

"Who has time to read all this?" Jack was the first to lose his temper.

James flipped through a few pages and closed the tablet in irritation. "It's just a bank credit line renewal. Why would we need hundreds of pages?"

Bruno sneered too. "You turn simple jobs into huge problems just to make everyone think they need you. Emily, we can all see what you're doing."

Luca finally looked up at me.

"All these years, you insisted on verifying all my intel. Now I know why. You wanted to take credit for my work."

I stared at him silently for a long time.

Seven years ago, he had given us the wrong escape route. Three of our men walked straight into an ambush because of his mistake.

I was the one who went into the gunfire and brought them back. Afterward, I kept Luca's mistake a secret from Enzo.

From that day on, I checked every piece of information Luca gave me.

And now he saw even that as proof that I had stolen his credit.

Just then, Vivian Cavina, Jack's daughter, entered the office, her heels clicking across the floor.

The council had just made her its new secretary.

"It's just a few files, isn't it?"

She looked through the folders and gave me a mocking smile.

"Emily did all of this by herself. Are you telling me all of us can't handle it together?"

Jack immediately regained his confidence.

"Exactly. She's just trying to scare us with a mountain of paperwork."

Enzo walked in too and placed a North Sea freight agreement in front of Vivian.

He saw the risk files everyone had ignored and simply assumed that, as always, I would take care of them in the end.

"Emily is only leaving the council. She isn't leaving the family.

"If something really goes wrong, she won't just stand there and watch us suffer the losses."

His words immediately put everyone at ease.

They dared to kick me off the council, not because they could replace me.

They did it because they were sure that no matter how badly they treated me, I would always step in and save them when things went wrong.

"You and Jack will handle this shipment. There's ten million dollars in profit. Do a good job, and I'll recommend you for a permanent seat on the council."

Vivian's eyes lit up.

It was the very deal I had spent six months working on.

She flipped to the last page, saw that the agreement still hadn't been signed, and gave me a mocking look.

"Six months of work, and you still couldn't close the deal. I guess the Donna isn't as capable as everyone says."

I pulled out the red risk page from the middle of the file.

"This route was just placed on the priority inspection list. The shipment contains controlled chemicals, so the customs codes need to be checked again.

"The port union still hasn't agreed to the hazard pay, and our bank guarantee runs out at midnight.

"Until all three problems are fixed, this shipment isn't going anywhere."

Jack barely looked at the page before tossing it into the trash.

"Spare us the scare tactics.

"The customs director is an old friend of mine. Those union workers are broke and depend on us for their wages. And no bank is going to turn against us because of a few pieces of paperwork."

Vivian signed her name on the last page of the agreement in front of me.

"Leave the rest to me. Give me two days, and that shipment will be out of the port."

I picked up my box and walked away quietly.

I had planned to spend the next two days dealing with the cargo inspection, renewing the bank guarantee, and reaching a deal with the union over hazard pay.

Now those problems had nothing to do with me.

What they had taken from me wasn't simply a deal worth ten million dollars.

They had also taken on three serious risks. If even one went wrong, the family could go bankrupt.

Chapter 3

As I walked out of the office, I got a call from Matteo Moretti, the head of the Moretti Family.

"I hear the Cavinas just lost their best Donna."

"Word travels fast."

"There are no secrets at the port." Matteo chuckled. "Eight o'clock tonight. I'll be waiting for you at the club."

I didn't agree to join the Moretti Family right away.

Over the years, too many people had tried to get close to me because of the Medici name.

I had no interest in leaving one family that wanted to use me only to join another that would do the same thing.

That evening, Matteo slid a port expansion plan across the table. His family had put the project aside six months ago.

"The board says the risk is too high. What do you think?"

His chief advisor was the first to laugh.

"Of course Ms. Medici will say we can do it. With her family name, the banks and the port will always show her some respect."

I didn't argue with him. I just turned to the financing page.

It took me only ten minutes to find that the same cargo had been insured twice. I also found a warehousing permit that was about to expire.

"The other side insured the same cargo twice on purpose and hid the cost of renewing the permit under the construction costs. Sign this, and you'll pay at least four million dollars too much."

The advisor's face changed instantly.

I kept turning the pages.

"But you don't have to give up on the project. Remove the old warehousing zone from the agreement and take control of the two empty berths in the south section first. Then sign a joint training agreement with the union. The project can start making money within three months."

Matteo didn't praise me right away. Instead, he asked his lawyers to check the numbers.

Half an hour later, the lawyers came back with the same conclusion I had reached.

The smile disappeared from the advisor's face.

Matteo put the new figures on the screen and told the entire team that I was the one who had found the problems and come up with a solution.

He gave the credit to me. Not to the Medici name, and not to some favor he was doing for me.

Only then did he look at me again.

"What do you want?"

"The right to sign deals on my own, a council seat, and shares in every project I negotiate myself.

"I won't take risks for another family unless I have a say in its decisions."

Matteo picked up a pen and signed the new terms immediately.

"At Moretti, your name goes on every decision you make and every success you earn."

I took the pen.

Just before I could sign, I received a call from Jack.

"Emily, what's the password for the new customs declaration system?"

"It's on page 67 of the port files."

"Page 67 is full of codes. How am I supposed to know which one to use?"

"That's your job."

I hung up.

Less than a minute later, James called.

"The bank says the guarantee has expired, and they're checking all the accounts again. Call the manager and tell him to release the funds."

"The renewal checklist is in your files."

"I'm asking you to call him!"

"No."

I hung up again.

Then Bruno called.

The union was refusing to send workers to handle the North Sea cargo because he hadn't paid the agreed hazard pay.

"Those people used to listen to you. Go tell them that we will pay them every cent they're owed."

"You signed the agreement. You're the one who refused to pay them."

"Emily, are you really going to stand there and watch us fall apart?"

I laughed.

"Didn't you say anyone can negotiate?"

The phone finally went quiet.

I signed my name on the Moretti agreement.

The Medici name was what got me a meeting with Matteo.

But I had just saved him four million dollars. That was what convinced him to give me a council seat and real power.

Meanwhile, in the Cavina council, Vivian was deleting my risk warnings one page at a time.

"She made everything this complicated on purpose.

"Use last year's declaration codes. The bank can wait until tomorrow. And if the union workers refuse to come, we'll get workers from another dock."

Enzo looked at the ten-million-dollar profit shown on the screen and finally nodded.

"The ship leaves port tonight."