Chapter 2

Victor's fingers stopped tapping the desk.

Yet, his initial shock melted into a cold, mocking smirk.

"Elena, do you know what those words just cost me?"

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "I lost. The two properties in Sicily. Let them know I'll have the deeds dropped off tomorrow."

"What are you talking about?" my voice trembled.

"Sofia bet me you would bring up a divorce," he purred, leaning close enough for his breath to brush my neck. "Turns out, you really only know this one trick."

He brushed my cheek like I was a cheap toy. I slapped his hand away.

"I'm serious!"

He let out a dark chuckle and lit a cigarette, the smoke obscuring his cruel features. "How long will you throw these tantrums? Threatening divorce, crying—you just want to force me to bow my head. But Elena, even if you stripped naked and crawled into the bed of any of my enemies, you'd cause more damage than this."

The words plunged into my chest like a serrated blade. I lunged forward, grabbed my water glass, and hurled the liquid into his face.

"Where is the Victor who killed his own father to protect me?!"

He sat there rigidly, droplets of water trickling from his sharply defined jawline. For a split second, a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes before shifting back to a glacial sneer.

"Is it really that fun dragging up the past?"

"Everything you said, the vows you made—does none of it count anymore?" I rasped, my eyes burning.

He exhaled a slow stream of smoke. "That was when we were sixteen. Are you entirely incapable of growing up?"

Sixteen. The year my parents left me at his house as collateral for a massive debt.

His father had cornered me at the top of the stairs, ripping my school uniform and dragging me by my hair. "Your father's debt—you'll pay it back with your body!"

Victor had rushed out, throwing himself at his father's feet. When his father violently kicked him away and pinned me to the floor, the light in Victor's eyes vanished.

A desperate roar. A paring knife plunged straight into his own father's heart.

When the police slammed Victor to the ground in cuffs, he had looked back at me. No resentment. Only bone-deep guilt. I had chased the squad car into the night, screaming that I would wait for him forever.

While he rotted in juvie, I studied like a maniac, terrified to stop. I swore to become powerful enough so no one could ever hurt him again.

Now, that vow was a sick irony.

Victor crushed his cigarette into the crystal ashtray. "I was young and stupid back then. But you can't stay sixteen forever."

He walked toward the door. "The past is done. Stop clinging to it."

"Even the three years you rotted in juvie for me?" my voice cracked.

His footsteps faltered, but he didn't turn.

"The day you got out," I stared at his back, tears finally spilling. "You slashed a rival boss's wrists on the open street just for looking at me. To let me finish college in peace, you wiped out every syndicate on the Southside."

"The elders called you a rabid dog cursed with patricide, saying you'd drag me into the mud. So you marched into the deadliest docks to collect bad debts. You took knives, caught bullets, and climbed over mountains of corpses to put the entire Sicilian underworld beneath your heel."

"You told me, 'Elena, I will make the world know that my love for you is the strength that lifts you higher.' Not to cage me, but to let me stand on your shoulders and see a wider skyline."

He finally turned.

"Is that so? I forgot about that a long time ago."

He walked out, leaving my world to crumble. Beautiful memories, it turned out, were sharp enough to kill.

Numbly, I picked up the landline. "Mr. Thomson. Draft the divorce papers."

The next afternoon, clutching the finalized documents, I went to Sofia's suite. Just as I raised my hand to knock, laughter drifted through the cracked door.

"What exactly do you mean by handing over the three Eastside docks to me? Don't forget, I am your father's widow."

Through the gap, I saw Victor on the sofa. Sofia was straddling his lap.

"I want everyone to know," Victor purred smoothly, "that my love for you is the strength that lifts you higher."

The papers slipped from my trembling hands, scattering across the marble floor.

I thought I was his one and only. Turns out, I was merely the first. The boy who had drenched his hands in blood to keep me pure was now mocking me to strip naked in his enemy's bed.

"What are you doing here?"

I jolted. Leo was standing down the hall, staring at me.

I scrambled to gather the scattered papers and fled back to my own quarters.

I was frantically shoving clothes into a suitcase, ready to vanish from this estate, when my bedroom doors burst open.

Sofia barged in, flanked by her men. She snatched a jewelry box from my vanity and brutally smashed it against my forehead.

I stumbled back, clutching my bleeding brow.

"Hand over the emerald brooch you stole from me!" Sofia shrieked, pointing a trembling finger in my face. "You were just at my place, and now it's gone!"

I grabbed her wrists, shoving her back hard. "I was there to deliver divorce papers."

Victor, stepping through the doorway behind her, frowned sharply. He clearly hadn't known about the papers.

Wiping the warm blood from my eye, I straightened my spine. As a Mafia Don's wife, I already knew how to play by this underworld's rules.

"Check the security cameras," I said, my voice arctic.

"If the cameras prove I took it, I am yours to deal with." I lowered my gaze to her hands. "But if it turns out you framed me, according to the family's code for punishing a rat, I will take three of your fingers."

Sofia swallowed hard, leaving her face ashen. The sheer terror of exposure finally fractured her facade, her eyes darting frantically.

Just then, a childish voice drifted from the doorway.

"Mommy stole the brooch."

My entire body froze.