My mother was dying, and I went down on my knees to my betrothed of the Gallo line, begging him to honor the tribute early so she could have her surgery.

Instead, he turned around and pledged himself to Bianca Russo.

At my lowest point, my childhood friend Lorenzo Moretti dropped to one knee in that hospital corridor and asked for my hand, pressing a fortune in laundered cash into my arms as betrothal tribute.

I said yes on the spot and rushed to arrange my mother's surgery.

But in the end, she never came off the operating table.

I was drowning in grief, and Lorenzo saw to all of her final arrangements himself, the way a Don buries his own.

The marriage pact went forward as planned.

Yet five years later, I happened to overhear a conversation between him and the Family physician.

"Lorenzo, when you ordered Adriana Falcone's mother's life taken to keep Carmela Russo breathing, and never told her, did you ever stop to think what you'd do if she found out? You'd throw your whole standing in the Family away for Bianca?"

"So I throw it away. For her, I'd do anything. It's only one life. I've already given the rest of mine to make it up to Adriana. That should be enough."

The tears spilled before I could stop them.

Only then did I understand that the marriage I had poured my heart into building had been a lie from start to finish.

The one he truly loved had always been Bianca, and no one else.

If that was the case, then I would simply step aside for them.

——

Just on the other side of that door, inside the study, Lorenzo's voice carried out, full of lament, every word laced with regret.

"Since I couldn't make her choose me, then bringing Carmela back for her, so she'd have nothing left to fear, was the only thing I could do. As for Adriana… I've already spent my whole life making it up to her. That should be enough."

Across from him, Salvatore Greco, the blood-brother he'd had since the old neighborhood, looked pained at the words. He drew off his glasses and began to clean them, slow, deliberate, the way he always did when a man's sins sat too heavy in his hands.

"It's a shame. Bianca still has no idea, even now, what you sacrificed for her. That was a human life, Lorenzo. If word of it ever reaches the wrong ears, you'll spend the rest of your years in the Joint. For a woman who doesn't love you, is it worth it?"

"Whether it's worth it, my heart gets to decide. As long as she's happy, I'm willing to do anything. Forget Adriana's mother. If it were my own life on that table, I wouldn't even blink."

"Don't bring any of this up again. It's all in the past. As long as she's living well now, that's enough."

"And Adriana? It really seems like she's fallen for you. What if one day she learns it was you who had her mother killed? The two of you—"

Inside, there was a moment of silence. A lighter clicked. Lorenzo lit himself a cigarette.

Through the curling smoke, he spoke with a bitter mockery turned inward on himself.

"Then I'll pay for it with my life. The cash I've built up over these years is enough to keep her a lifetime."

"Dio… I really don't understand you. Why put yourself through it? Adriana's a good girl, and you insist on holding on to that other one… Never mind. I'll say no more. As long as you think it's worth it, then keep going."

Footsteps drew closer to the door, and I fled back to my own room in a sorry state.

The hot tea in my hand sloshed onto my wrist, but the cold had already seeped all the way through me.

So it turned out my mother hadn't died on that operating table meant to save her.

She had died inside the scheme he carried out for Bianca.

Back then, after Marco Gallo broke faith and abandoned me, I'd become a laughingstock to every family that mattered.

His proposal had never been about giving me happiness. It had been the final knife between my ribs.

All these years of marriage had only ever been a debt he paid me out of guilt.

And to think I'd taken his pitiful charity and gone around boasting about how happy I was.

How absurd.

A door closed somewhere down the hall. Salvatore had gone.

Lorenzo stumbled into the room, cupped my face in both hands, and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

His eyes, clouded with drink, were full of tenderness and ache.

"Why are you standing by the door?"

"It's nothing. I spilled my tea. I was just about to clean it up." I smoothed the wet fabric of my sleeve flat against my wrist, once, slowly, forcing the trembling hand beneath it to lie still.

"Leave that to the help, tesoro. You're not well. When there's nothing for you to do, you rest. It hurts me to see you wear yourself out."

With that, he kissed my lips again.

The gesture was as gentle and adoring as it had always been.

But I could no longer feel any warmth from him.

That one person could go this far for another.

The moment my eyes closed, the tears slid down.

I helped him onto the bed and pulled the covers over him.

The liquor took hold, and he sank quickly into sleep.

I sat at the head of the bed and quietly picked up his phone.

One try at the passcode, and it unlocked.

It was Bianca's birthday.

I dug out every blood oath he'd signed over these years, every pact sealed in the Family's name.

Without exception, all of them were dealings funneled to the Gallo Family.

I'd never set foot in the affairs of the Moretti syndicate, but even I could see it. For Bianca's sake, he had surrendered no small fortune in tribute, rackets bled quietly into Gallo hands.

The face the Family put forward in public was Bianca's favored darling.

The territory the deals touched was the ground Bianca loved best.

Even the final count on every arrangement was a number bound to her.

Her birthday. Her wedding day. The day she first laid eyes on Lorenzo.

With trembling hands, I opened his private photo album.

Every single picture was Bianca's smiling face.

Either her gracing some affair as a daughter of the Gallo line, or her toasting a sealed deal beside Marco.

Marco's face had been cropped out by Lorenzo, leaving only Bianca in the frame.

A full thousand photos, a record of these past five years.

Beyond those, there were countless records of jewels claimed at auction, the kind that passed through the Family's clean-money houses.

Every time, he'd sent them to Bianca under the syndicate's name.

Calling them a gift of goodwill to an allied bloodline.

A man's hidden love was loud and quiet all at once.

Tucked into every little detail.

It stung at my chest in wave after wave.

I'd seen these jewels before.

They were nothing but throw-ins from the auction house, yet he'd told me they were gifts he'd prepared for me.

I gave a bitter little smile to myself and didn't keep looking.

I only bought myself passage abroad for three days from now, a quiet road into distant territory.

And set in motion the renunciation of every paper that tied me to his name.

Three days, to say goodbye to five years. That was enough.

I didn't sleep all night.

When the sky lightened, I went out to wash up.

My phone rang.

Lorenzo's puzzled voice followed right after:

"Adriana? What papers did you cancel?"

I quickly grabbed the phone and explained without missing a beat. I smoothed the fabric of my sleeve flat against my wrist, once, slowly, forcing my hand to lie still.

"It's nothing. My documents lapsed. I arranged to have them seen to."

"Don't you have a sit-down today? Go on. See to your business."

He didn't think any more of it. He only wrapped me tenderly in his arms, his cheek brushing against mine.

"Thank you, tesoro. Having a wife as devoted as you is my good fortune."

I smiled and said nothing.

"As a reward, how about your husband brings you a big gift tonight?"

"Sure. I'll be waiting for you at home."

No sooner had Lorenzo left than one of his men brought me an exquisite breakfast.

He knew I liked that hotel, one of the Family's own legitimate fronts, and for five years, like clockwork, he'd had my breakfast carried from there.

I once took it as nothing but his love for me.

Now, it looked like a brush-off.

If he truly loved me, how could he go five years without learning to cook a single dish?

To keep me from straying too near Bianca, he'd truly spared no thought.

I dumped the breakfast into the trash and turned to walk out the door.

This charade, five years running, it was time to end it.

There weren't many waiting where I went to renounce my papers. I filled out the application and headed to the consigliere's office.

A severance of the union that left me with nothing came from a worn template, and before long the consigliere handed me two copies.

I took the document to the heart of Lorenzo's Family business.

The moment I walked in, I heard the men and women of the house buzzing with gossip.

"Was that woman today Mrs. Moretti? Her presence is just stunning! No wonder the Don guards her like a treasure and won't let anyone near her!"

"She has to be! That necklace at her throat, I delivered it myself a week ago! I heard it went for a fortune at auction! I couldn't earn that if I worked since the dawn of man! I'm so jealous!"

"I heard the two of them go back to the old neighborhood, childhood sweethearts, and the Don's wife was even his first love. He built the whole Family up from nothing with his bare hands, and there's still only ever been one woman in his life. If that isn't something out of an old story, I don't know what is."

At the top floor of the Moretti building, I stood in the doorway, and a familiar voice carried out from inside the office.

"He's treating you well, isn't he?"

"Mm, really well. Just a couple of days ago he bought me a little island, said he wanted to make up for the honeymoon we never had. Honestly, five years married and he still acts like a kid…"

Lorenzo's voice was thick with something bittersweet, low and pressed down, the kind of tone a made man only used when he forgot anyone might be listening.

"Good. That puts my mind at ease."

"You too. Why did you go and buy something so expensive again? If Adriana finds out, she won't be happy."

It had always been like this with Bianca. She took every advantage for herself.

And then she'd turn around and mock me with that sly, two-faced tone.

Years ago, when Marco called off our betrothal, it was Bianca who rushed to the hospital and announced the news right at my mother's bedside.

That was what made my mother collapse on the spot, rushed into surgery in the dead of night.

She and I went at each other, neither backing down.

Marco and Lorenzo hurried in, but both of them took her side, blaming me for being childish.

That was the day I broke completely with Marco and Bianca.

And Lorenzo became the one and only salvation in my life.

But now, he was also the one who'd pushed me into the abyss.

A soldier of the house, anxious to deliver a sealed envelope, rushed past me and pushed the door open. The conversation inside died the way conversations always died when a door opened on the wrong moment.

Surprise flickered through Lorenzo's eyes. His two fingers drifted to the wedding band he never removed.

"Adriana? What are you doing here? Don't read too much into it. Bianca just came by to talk, and to go over the arrangement between the families while she was at it. She handles the Gallo line's interests…"

"Adriana, it's been a long time."

Bianca rose to her feet, draped in the newest piece couture money could buy.

It made me look like some country housewife.

I nodded with a smile, swallowing the hurt as I spoke.

"It's fine. I was out and just stopped by to see you. Since you're busy, I'll head back now."

Lorenzo thought I was angry. He came after me and spent a long while explaining himself.

Watching him fret over me, I suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

To work his way close to Bianca, he'd quietly bled his own rackets dry funneling tribute to the Gallo Family.

Now that Bianca had come to see him just as he wanted, who exactly was the act for?

"Don't worry. I'm not so unreasonable. You focus on your business. I'll be a good girl and wait for you at home."

The relief on his face was plain to see. He had one of his men personally walk me down to the street.

The moment I stepped out of the elevator, the men who answered to the Family looked at me with open scorn.

They tipped their heads together and murmured, loud enough for me to catch every word.

I paid them no mind and walked straight out of the building.

After we married, he was the one who said he didn't want me wearing myself thin with work of my own, said he only wanted me free of worries.

I believed him, and from then on I became the wife tied to his house.

While Bianca, who'd once shared my schoolroom, rose to run the Gallo line's affairs and sit at the table where the men decided things.

By now the distance between us was sky and mud, in standing and in cunning alike.

I could never measure up to her again.

Lorenzo, this is the result you wanted, isn't it.

I'm no longer any threat to the woman you love.

Back home, I gathered everything he'd given me over those five years into a box.

I carried it down to the courtyard and burned it all to ash.

The moment the flames caught, Bianca appeared in front of me.

She kicked the box over.

The photographs scattered onto her in a spray of sparks, and yet she lifted her face into a smile.

"Adriana, after all these years, you're still just as useless."

She pressed her fingertips to her collarbone, a beat too quick to be real. "Back then you couldn't protect your own mother, and now you can't protect yourself. You're a joke."

So she'd known about what happened that year all along?

Fury flared in my chest, and I couldn't hold back any longer. I struck her across the face.

I'd barely put any force into it, yet she toppled straight toward the fire.