Chapter 1

If it hadn’t been for trying to scrape together enough money for dialysis, I never would’ve stumbled into Elias’s wedding.

The man who once had only me in his eyes was now dressed in an expensive bespoke suit, his arm wrapped around Sophia, Naples’s only daughter. The softness he used to have had been distilled into something cold and hard, tempered by years of Mafia blood and storms.

When he heard my answer, something dark flickered in his gaze. He stepped on the plastic water bottle I was reaching for, crushed it flat then kicked it into the trash.

His voice dripped with open ridicule. “Iris, the Roxie family’s precious young lady, reduced to picking up trash to survive?”

Sophia leaned into him and let out a light laugh behind her hand. “Elias, she’s still your stepsister. Shouldn’t you help her?”

Pride glittered in her eyes, the way people looked when they were handing out charity they didn’t mean. “Iris, you just want to collect a few bottles we don’t want, right?”

She smiled, bold and vicious. “Take off one piece of clothing, and I’ll give you one bottle. How about that?”

“Perfect, really. You can go back to your old trade and let everyone see how you shamelessly seduced Elias back then.”

Humiliation swallowed me whole. My fists clenched so hard my nails cut into my palms. Without thinking, my pleading gaze fell on Elias.

Once, we’d trusted each other more than anyone. But later… I’d shattered that trust with my own hands.

Elias was ten when his mother, Carla, married into the Roxie family and brought him with her. Back then, my mother had just suicided because she couldn’t stand my father’s Mafia world, the blood on his hands, the years of violence. It hadn’t even been a week since her funeral.

I hated the new “mom” and the new “brother.” I tormented them any way I could, always finding something new.

But Elias never got angry.

Even when I tore up all his homework, he only smiled gently and said, “It’s fine. I’ll just redo it.”

Slowly, as I grew up, I fell for this stepbrother who seemed almost flawless.

And under my relentless pursuit, my stubborn and shameless persistence, we kept it from our parents and started dating in secret.

From eighteen to twenty-two, through four full years of college, we loved each other like we were fighting for air. We even promised that once I graduated, we’d tell everyone.

But on the eve of our confession, a Mafia shootout shattered everything.

My father got dragged into a war between the Corleones and a rival crew. He was kidnapped, executed, and dumped in the wilderness outside the city. When Carla heard, she couldn’t take the blow. She jumped from the rooftop of the villa and died with him.

Overnight, the Roxie family collapsed into dust.

All that was left were me and Elias and the wreckage my father left behind, and enemies hunting us down.

Elias’s face was paper-white, but he still held me tight, his voice hoarse as he promised, “Iris, don’t be afraid. Your brother is here. I’ll protect you.”

But when I looked at his fragile, shattered eyes when I saw the people who’d come for us because my father was dead, I let out a cruel little laugh.

“Elias… you don’t actually think I fell in love with you, do you?”

“Honestly, you were pretty fun. More interesting than your mother, who only knew how to crawl into men’s beds.” I sharpened every word into a blade. “But you’re even stupider than she is. You knew I hated her, and you still naïvely believed I could ever love you.”

“I was going to wait until you confessed, then tell the whole world you forced me, that you used me. But your mom’s dead, and the Roxies are finished. I don’t need revenge anymore, so you—”

“—can get the hell out.”

The moment the last word left my mouth, his face drained of all color. He stared at me like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, fingers locked around my sleeve, his voice breaking.

“You’re lying to me?”

“All these years… you were lying just to get back at me?”

I nodded impatiently. “Isn’t it obvious? Who would ever like the son of a mistress?”

It hit him like a bullet. He swayed like he was about to collapse. And even then, he still wouldn’t let go, still threw away every shred of dignity as he asked,

“Iris… in these years, did you ever just a little like me?”

“If there was even a little, I can pretend none of these matters. We can start over. I’ll handle everything. I’ll protect you—protect you for the rest of my life.” He sounded like he was begging.

Later, I heard he’d gone to the Corleone branch in New York. With ruthless methods and a mind that never missed, he rose fast in the Mafia world until everyone feared him. And somewhere along the way, he met Sophia, the only daughter of a Naples Mafia boss. A match every family called heaven-made.

They really did look perfect together.

I stared at them in a daze, when Elias’s voice cracked through the noise like thunder, cold enough to cut bone.

“Still not enough bottles?” His mouth curved into a smile that was pure mockery. “If you strip all the way, every piece of trash on site is yours. How about that? Enough for one dialysis session, right?”