After saying those words, I couldn't hold on any longer. My consciousness began to fray at the edges.

The private doctor’s voice was urgent in my ear. "Mrs. Gallo, stay with me," he pleaded, wiping sweat from his brow. "Don't close your eyes. If you fall asleep now, you won't wake up. Think about your husband, your child! They're waiting for you!"

The Don leaned in, his voice a low growl. "He's right. You saved my life. When you recover, the Costello family will be under the permanent protection of the Valeriano family. Your child, whether a boy or a girl, will want for nothing. Just hold on. I've already sent for Ethan."

Hearing this, I managed a weak, bitter smile.

I wasn't a fool. The moment I decided to take a bullet for the Don, I knew my baby was lost.

As for Ethan, he would never come.

Sure enough, Sal, the bodyguard the Don had sent, rushed back alone. He dropped to his knees with a thud, his eyes fixed on the floor.

The Don’s brow furrowed, his anger a palpable force in the room. "Where is Ethan?!"

Sal’s voice trembled. "Mr. Gallo refuses to come, Don. He said… he said you shouldn't use cheap tricks to get his attention."

I knew Ethan's real words must have been far harsher. Sal was just softening the blow for the Don's sake. In Ethan's eyes, I wasn't worth a single tear from Cassandra.

But I was his wife. Cassandra was just his mistress. He had abandoned his Don to chase after her.

I had practically begged on my knees for that emergency pager before leaving. In my last life, I pressed it, and he damned me for being ambitious. In this one, the Don himself summoned him, and he still refused.

If he loved Cassandra so much, why did he marry me?

A surge of rage and grief seized my chest, and I coughed up another mouthful of blood.

The doctor glanced at the Don, his face etched with worry. "Don, her emotional state is too volatile. If she doesn't have family by her side at a time like this… I fear she won't pull through."

The Don glanced at me, his fury momentarily suppressed. He ripped the heavy gold ring, the symbol of his power, from his finger and hurled it at Sal.

He roared, "Tell him it's an order. If he doesn't show his face, he will disappear from this city. Permanently."

The Don was truly enraged. For a man of his stature, this was the ultimate humiliation.

My condition was too critical to be moved, so we waited there for the life-saving medicine to arrive.

This time, Sal did not return alone.

I struggled to open my eyes and saw a face I knew all too well from my past life—Cassandra's loyal follower, Bianca.

Bianca had once been my maid. But during my pregnancy, she had poisoned my drink. By the time I realized it, I was on the verge of death.

I had refused to let it go and was about to deal with her myself when Ethan had walked in with Cassandra on his arm.

Cassandra sobbed, looking at me with pity. "Ingrid, how can you be so cruel? You didn't die, did you? Why take a maid's life? Ethan, give her to me. I may not have any status, but at least I can save one person's life."

Ethan sighed, turning to Cassandra with a look of weary adoration. "You're too kind," he murmured. Then his eyes hardened as he looked at me. "Ingrid, she's right. You're not dead, so what's the big deal? Give Bianca to her and stop making a scene over nothing."

I stared at Ethan, unable to believe what I was hearing. I was carrying his child and had nearly been murdered, but as long as I was alive, I had no right to complain.

It was insane.

But back then, I still loved him. I thought he was just being deceived by Cassandra. As his wife, I believed I had to be magnanimous.

Until I overheard him speaking to Cassandra, his eyes full of doting affection. "Next time, make sure your work is cleaner. If you get caught again, I won't be able to cover for you."

Bianca stood beside them, smiling.

The three of them looked like a happy family, while an icy dread washed over me. From the very beginning, Ethan had known everything. He had protected them.

Seeing Bianca again, a towering hatred surged through me, and my body trembled with rage.

Bianca mistook my trembling for guilt. Her initial hesitance vanished, replaced by brazen insolence.

"Mrs. Gallo, Mr. Gallo says he's busy with Miss Thorne," she sneered. "As for you, as long as you're breathing, you're fine. If you bother him again, he'll divorce you. And he'll make sure your bastard child grows up calling Miss Thorne 'Mamma'!"

She continued, her voice dripping with venom. "Mr. Gallo also said he never liked you. He only married you for your father's connections. Now that he's a Capo, keeping you around is an act of charity. If you don't learn your place, you won't even know what hit you."

After Bianca finished, the Don's expression turned thunderous. He slammed his whiskey glass on the floor, shattering it.

At the sound, his men dropped to their knees.

Bianca, however, was completely oblivious. She sauntered over to me and sneered, "Mrs. Gallo, I'd save your breath. This little sympathy act is wasted on Mr. Gallo. And as for this 'other man'? If you're trying to make my boss jealous, you've made a grave mistake."

She leaned closer. "And if I told Mr. Gallo the truth... that you risked your own baby to save this lover of yours... do you think he wouldn't tear you limb from limb?"

The Don had changed out of his bloodied suit jacket into simple, unmarked clothes, leading her to mistake the most powerful man in the city for a common lover.

The Don's expression was terrifying. He let out a cold, sharp laugh and gestured to the newly arrived bodyguards.

Bianca panicked. The moment she opened her mouth to scream, a hand clamped over it, and she was dragged out.

"Dispose of her. Cleanly. Dump the body in the Hudson and send the photos to Ethan Gallo. I want to see what makes that man so special that he'd let Miss Costello be humiliated like this."

The Don's choice of my name was not lost on me. He was deliberately severing my ties to Ethan.

My gamble had paid off.