Two weeks.

That was all it took.

Fourteen days.

Fourteen days after we buried our daughter, Evander had already buried her memory with her.

The grand ballroom of the Moretti estate glittered beneath towering crystal chandeliers. The heads of allied crime families, caporegimes, politicians, judges, and businessmen loyal to the syndicate filled the room, their laughter blending with the soft strains of a live orchestra as waiters drifted between them carrying champagne.

Above the grand staircase hung a massive black-and-gold banner.

WELCOME HOME, CELESTINE & ALARIC.

My fingers curled so tightly that my nails bit into my palms.

Maeve had been gone for only fourteen days.

Yet my husband had chosen to throw a celebration.

The security guards stationed at the entrance moved to block my path, but the moment they saw my face, neither man dared stop me.

I walked straight through the ballroom, my heels striking the marble floor with sharp, deliberate echoes. One by one, conversations died away until every eye in the room followed me.

Evander stood at the center of the gathering in a tailored black suit, looking every bit the untouchable Don the underworld respected and feared.

Beside him stood Celestine.

She wore an elegant crimson gown, one hand wrapped possessively around Evander's arm as though she already belonged there.

She was smiling.

As though she hadn't destroyed my family.

As though my daughter hadn't been lowered into the ground barely two weeks ago.

The rage consuming me drowned out every remaining shred of reason.

Before anyone could react, I crossed the distance between us and slapped her across the face.

The crack rang through the ballroom.

Celestine staggered sideways, one hand flying to her cheek.

"Aurelia."

Evander's voice carried the unmistakable authority of a man accustomed to giving orders that no one dared question.

I ignored him.

"How dare you?" My voice shook with grief as much as fury. "Our daughter has barely been laid to rest, and you're hosting a celebration as if she never existed."

I turned to Evander.

"You couldn't even give her a month." My vision blurred with tears. "Not even that. Instead, you've placed your former lover beside you while your own daughter lies in a cemetery."

A startled cry escaped Celestine.

Then she collapsed onto the polished floor.

Tears streamed down her face as she pressed a trembling hand against her reddened cheek.

"Evander..." she sobbed. "She hit me... in front of everyone."

Her shoulders shook violently.

"I only wanted to come home."

Before another word could be spoken, a small figure rushed toward me.

Alaric.

His tiny fists pounded against my stomach again and again.

"You hurt my mommy!" he cried.

Every blow was weak.

Every one hurt more than the last.

"My daddy doesn't want you anymore!" he shouted through tears. "He loves us now!"

The room fell into an uneasy silence.

The capos exchanged glances.

The guards stood perfectly still.

No one would interfere unless the Don gave the order.

I could have stopped the little boy without effort.

I didn't.

None of this was his fault.

Even if his existence had shattered mine.

When I lifted my eyes, I caught Celestine looking at me.

Only for a heartbeat.

The corners of her lips curved into the faintest smile before she buried her face against Evander's shoulder once more.

"She wants to destroy our family," she whispered between carefully timed sobs. "She can't accept that you've chosen us."

Evander's expression turned to stone.

Before I realized he had moved, his hand struck my face.

The force sent me stumbling backward.

Silence swallowed the ballroom.

My cheek throbbed, but it was nothing compared to the pain spreading through my chest.

The man who had once promised that no one would ever lay a hand on me had just slapped me in front of every powerful family in the city.

His eyes were cold.

Devoid of warmth.

"This ends tonight."

He reached inside his suit jacket and tossed a thick envelope onto the marble floor between us.

It landed at my feet.

Divorce papers.

My breathing stopped.

Then several photographs slipped from the envelope and scattered across the floor.

Someone switched on the enormous screen behind the stage.

Image after image appeared before the stunned crowd.

There I was...

Naked.

Curled against another man's body.

Then another photograph.

Another man.

Another embrace.

Whispers swept through the ballroom like wildfire.

"No..." My voice barely existed. "Those pictures are fake."

Evander looked at me with open disgust.

"You've disgraced the Moretti family."

"I never betrayed you."

"You slept with other men."

"I didn't!"

Celestine leaned closer against him, dabbing delicately at tears that no longer looked convincing.

"Evander... maybe this isn't the right time."

I looked directly at her.

This time, I saw it.

The satisfaction gleaming in her eyes.

She had planned every detail.

The fabricated photographs.

The public humiliation.

The divorce.

Everything.

"Evander." My throat tightened around his name. "After everything we've survived together... after losing Maeve... do you really believe I would betray you?"

For the briefest instant, something flickered across his face.

Pain.

Then it disappeared.

"I don't care anymore."

His voice carried the cold certainty of a final verdict.

"Sign the papers."

My heart shattered all over again.

Not because he doubted me.

Not because every influential figure in the underworld was watching my life collapse.

But because the man standing before me no longer resembled the husband who had once placed a ring on my finger and sworn that I would always come before everything else.

Slowly, I lifted my chin.

A single tear traced its way down my cheek.

"You'll regret this."

Evander said nothing.

He simply turned his back on me.

Just as he had turned his back on our daughter.

As whispers spread through the ballroom and every pair of eyes settled on me, I finally accepted the truth.

The man I had loved was already gone.

And the woman he had tried to destroy would make sure his betrayal became the greatest mistake of his life.

I was dead.

Or at least, before another sunrise, everyone in the underworld would believe I was.

The divorce papers were still clenched in my hand as I walked away from the Moretti estate for the last time. My cheek still burned where Evander had struck me, but the sting was nothing compared to the hollow ache inside my chest.

No one tried to stop me.

Not the guards stationed at the front gates.

Not the caporegimes who had once addressed me as Donna.

Not even my husband.

Once, I had been the queen of the Moretti empire.

Now I was nothing.

Not a wife.

Not a mother.

Only a woman who had been discarded.

I tightened my grip on the small leather satchel hanging from my shoulder.

Inside were the only things that still mattered to me—Maeve's favorite stuffed rabbit, the delicate silver bracelet Evander had given her on her fifth birthday, and the tiny pink jacket she insisted on wearing whenever she begged her father to take her riding through the estate.

Evander could keep the mansion.

He could keep the fortune, the businesses, and every luxury our life together had afforded.

But he would never take the last pieces of my daughter from me.

I wandered through the empty streets until my legs ached, unable to outrun the memories following close behind.

His slap.

His betrayal.

The contempt in his eyes.

The way he had stood there while Celestine stripped me of every shred of dignity before the most powerful families in the country.

No.

This wasn't the end.

At last, I reached into my coat and pulled out a satellite phone that only a handful of people knew existed.

There was only one person I trusted enough to call.

The line connected after the first ring.

"Ronan."

A familiar voice answered almost immediately.

"Aurelia?"

"I need you."

Silence lingered for a moment.

"Where are you?"

"It doesn't matter."

I drew a slow breath.

"I need a body... a fire... and I need every family in the underworld to believe I died tonight."

Another pause.

Then a quiet chuckle.

"So you've finally stopped living for him."

"Can you do it?"

"I can."

"Then make sure no one questions it."

"Leave everything to me."

The call ended.

Without another thought, I snapped the phone in half and dropped the pieces into a storm drain.

Aurelia Moretti ceased to exist that night.

**

The plan was simple.

Years ago, I had saved Ronan's life after his own organization had sold him out to a rival syndicate.

He had sworn that if I ever needed him, he would repay the debt without hesitation.

Now he finally had the chance.

Before dawn, everything was ready.

An unidentified woman's body recovered from a gang shooting, one that no one had come forward to claim.

Clothes carrying my scent.

Personal belongings taken from my room before I left the estate.

Enough evidence to convince even the most suspicious investigator once the fire had erased the rest.

We carried the body into an abandoned cabin hidden deep in the mountains, far beyond Moretti territory.

The old timber was dry enough to burn within minutes.

When the flames were finished, there would be almost nothing left to identify.

Ronan was arranging the final details when I raised a hand.

"Wait."

He looked at me.

"There's one last thing I need to do."

Using a secure number that only one person still possessed, I made one final call.

Evander.

The phone rang.

Once.

Twice.

Then someone answered.

"The boss is unavailable."

Every muscle in my body went rigid.

"Celestine."

She laughed softly.

"Still trying to reach him? Even after he divorced you?"

"Put Evander on the phone."

"Why?" she asked sweetly. "So he can throw you away all over again?"

My fingers tightened around the phone.

"You think you've won?"

"Oh, Aurelia." Her laughter grew brighter. "I already have."

I remained silent.

Then her voice became almost playful.

"Do you know what I find funniest?"

A chill crept down my spine.

"What?"

"Your little Maeve never had to die."

The world seemed to stop turning.

"...What did you say?"

"Because Alaric was never sick."

I couldn't breathe.

"The doctors believed exactly what I wanted them to believe."

My knees nearly gave out.

"The transfusion was never for my son."

Every word landed like another knife.

"Evander sacrificed your daughter..."

She laughed.

"...for nothing."

The line went dead.

I stood frozen, unable to move as the echo of her laughter lingered in my ears.

Maeve.

My little girl.

She hadn't died because fate had been cruel.

She had died because they had lied.

Because Evander had trusted Celestine without asking a single question.

Because he had chosen her child over ours.

My daughter had been stolen from me by deception.

A warm hand rested gently on my shoulder.

Ronan.

"You heard everything."

I nodded.

No tears came.

Only rage.

Celestine.

Evander.

Every person who had stood by and watched my daughter die.

Every single one of them would answer for it.

"Once this place burns," Ronan said quietly, "there's no going back."

I looked at the cabin waiting in silence.

"There isn't anything left for me to go back to."

He lowered the burning torch onto the gasoline-soaked floor.

The flames spread almost instantly, racing across the walls before swallowing the cabin whole.

Smoke curled into the night sky.

Soon, nothing would remain except ashes.

The Moretti family would mourn the tragic death of the woman they had once called their Donna.

Evander would be told that his ex-wife had died in the fire.

Whether he grieved or not no longer mattered.

I wasn't dying for him.

I was burying the woman who had loved him.

Before dawn, Ronan drove me beyond the territories controlled by every family that had ever known my name.

With forged documents and a carefully constructed identity, Aurelia Moretti disappeared from the criminal world without leaving a trace.

Several days later, we stopped at a secluded villa overlooking the sea.

I stood before the bathroom mirror, watching black dye drip from my hair into the sink until every strand of gold had vanished.

The woman staring back at me looked nothing like the wife Evander had once sworn to protect.

I brushed my fingers through the dark hair.

He had loved doing the same while whispering promises in the quiet hours before dawn.

Those promises had gone up in flames with the cabin.

I held my own gaze in the mirror and spoke softly.

"Welcome back."

The underworld believed Aurelia Moretti had died in a fire.

They were wrong.

The woman they had betrayed was gone.

The one who remained would make every person responsible wish they had burned with her.