A slap cracked across my cheek.

“You’re utterly worthless,” Dante ground out through clenched teeth. “Did you think changing your name and slapping on that makeup would fool me?”

“You could have lived like a princess. Why choose this? Do you realize how repulsive you are to me now?”

Disgusting.

Not just to him — to myself. I had hated this version of me a thousand times.

After each shift, I’d soak in the bath, scrubbing my skin raw until every inch burned and stung.

I had been a princess.

My father was Dr. Valerius, one of New York’s foremost surgeons. His tips from Wall Street tycoons, politicians and celebrities eclipsed his surgical fees.

Then my father’s life fell apart.

He missed an operation trying to reach me; his license was revoked; his mind unraveled.

Now I support two children and pay the nursing-home fees that swallowed what was left of us.

Our assets were long gone. This is how I survive.

“Are you finished? Move aside. My client is waiting.”

Dante hesitated. “Does—does your father know about this? This work?”

I shot back, “What if he does? What if he doesn’t? It’s none of your business.”

My indifference ignited him. His chest heaved; then he stormed off, retreating with a fury he hid behind a tight jaw.

The night wind was sharp. I pulled my thin coat closer, smoothed the hair he’d mussed, and hurried down the corridor.

Before dawn, I changed into scratchy linen and forced my body out the back door of the club.

A hulking woman lunged from the crowd and grabbed Kaminsky by the collar as he stepped out. She jabbed a finger in my face, shrieking, “Speak! Did you spend last night with this slut?”

Kaminsky went pale. “Darling, calm down—honestly, nothing happened. We just had drinks.”

“You spent fifteen hundred just on drinks? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

She landed blow after blow on him until he begged for mercy. Then, like a bull, she turned on me—shoving me to the pavement, straddling me, raining punches down.

“If you don’t cough up that fifteen hundred today, I’ll beat you to death, you slut who seduces men for cash!”

I clutched my pocket. Those few hundred kept my kids fed and kept the home from foreclosure. I couldn’t hand them over.

A crowd gathered, hungry for spectacle. No one stepped in. They egged her on.

“Beat her! Beat the filthy thing till she coughs up the cash!”

“It’s these vixens—cheap tricks to make men hand over their money!”

“She deserves to die!”

These scenes replayed every few days. I’d grown numb as stone to the jeers and slander.

Emboldened, the woman dug a fruit knife from her bag and pressed the blade to my throat. “Pay now, or I’ll scar that pretty face. Then see how you lure men.”

The blade descended—until an iron hand clamped her wrist.

“Fancy a night in the cells?” a voice barked.

She froze, then sneered, “So it’s his old flame. What, come to rescue her?”

Councilman Antonio stormed up behind, roaring, “How dare you disrespect the Costello name?”

Dante’s face had gone stone. “Get lost.”

The woman, cowed by his stare, backed off. She spat at me as she retreated, muttering, “Shameless slut. Try seducing my husband again and I’ll break your legs.”

I staggered to my feet, wiped blood from my lip, brushed dust from my clothes, and limped away.

“Just leave like that?” Dante’s voice sliced the air behind me—cold, hard, and very much not finished.

Councillor Antonio barked, “Hey! You should thank him! If he hadn’t stepped in, your face would be ruined by now!”

Thank him?

Thank him for abandoning me ten years ago, for shoving me into hell with his own hands?

For shattering my family and setting me on this road with no return?

For ramming his car into mine when I was eight months pregnant—then dragging me out and dumping me at my father’s feet like trash?

That day, my father was scheduled to perform a life-saving coronary bypass on a critically ill senator.

That operation would have cemented his reputation and secured the hospital’s future.

Instead, Dante dragged me into the hospital lobby, pointed a finger at my father’s face in front of cameras, reporters, and patients, and shouted:

“Dr. Valerius, didn’t you say street whores weren’t fit for your hands? Well, your unwed daughter’s carrying my child—low as any whore. So tell me, will you save her or not?”

Then he laughed—loud and wild—and walked away.

I lived. My father’s career died.

Thank him?

The greatest joke in the world.

I turned back toward Dante with the smile I’d mastered over the years—bright, hollow, practiced.

“I should thank Dante Costello, indeed. Shame he finds me too filthy. Otherwise, I could offer him a few nights, as repayment.”

Dante’s face flushed dark red, like I’d slapped him.

“Miss Valerius,” he spat, “is there anything left in your head besides filth? Any shred of dignity at all?”

Anyone could accuse me of lacking dignity—but not Dante Costello.

The moment he threw me at my father’s feet like refuse, he ground my dignity into the dirt.

Cast out of high society, I was left to feed two starving children and a father gone mad.

For them, I learned to live without shame.

Each time I smiled at a stranger or let a man’s hands roam where I wished they wouldn’t, I wondered if it would have been better had my father never saved me that night.

I didn’t argue. My voice was calm, flat.

“Call me Luna. Miss Valerius died ten years ago.”

Dante’s fists clenched so tight his knuckles turned white.

After a long moment, he hissed, “Very well, Luna. I truly should never have saved you.”

I met his eyes. “Then I beg you, Don Costello, next time—don’t. Spare yourself the trouble of dirtying your hands with the likes of me. And your reputation, too.”

With that, I turned and walked away without a backward glance.

By the time I reached the small,cottage I rented on the city’s edge, I had to stop and steady myself before pushing the door open.

I forced what I hoped was a cheerful smile.

“Nick, Angie—Mommy’s home.”

My children ran straight into my arms.

But when they saw my bruised face, their smiles faltered into tears.

“Mommy, what happened? Did someone hit you again?”

I crouched, brushing away their tears. “No, Mommy just tripped. Silly me, still falling at my age.”

Angela limped out from the kitchen, leaning on her crutch. When she saw me, she turned away, wiping her eyes.

“Miss, I’ve heated the water. Go wash up.”

I took her hand gently. “Thank you, Angela. Without you, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Angela had been my family’s housekeeper.

When I insisted on being with Dante, she’d begged me not to—said the Costellos were poison. I hadn’t listened.

And the day Dante abandoned me, she tried to defend me. His men shoved her down the stairs. Her leg never healed right.

When my world collapsed, she stayed. Crippled, forgotten, she still watched over my children and me.

What I owe her, I can never repay.

All I can do is whisper hollow thanks.

After the children were asleep, Angela dabbed my bruises with medicated alcohol.

Her voice trembled. “Miss, maybe you shouldn’t go back there. I can make a few pennies sewing and washing for others.”

I sighed. “That won’t even cover a week. Father’s nursing home alone costs two thousand a month. Nick and Angie were premature, always frail. They need medicine, milk, food. I have to earn more.”

I touched my cheek. “But with this face, I can’t go back tomorrow.”

Rain drummed outside through the night.

I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. The sound was steady, relentless—like the thoughts I couldn’t silence.

The next morning, I went to the pharmacy for Father’s medicine.

I emptied my pockets. “I’m still five hundred short… Could you give me a few days? Please, just put it on my tab.”

The pharmacist sneered. “Miss Valerius, if you’re short, sell yourself again. Come back when you’ve earned it.”

The shop was nearly empty, but every gaze burned.

Their whispers were sharp as glass.

“That proud Dr. Valerius—ruined by his shameless daughter.”

“Even selling herself can’t wash away that disgrace.”

I could endure anything they said about me.

But not about my father.

Biting my lip, I turned and left.

Outside, I collided with a solid chest.

When I looked up, it was Dante Costello.

He’d heard every word.

His face was pale, his eyes hard as stone.

“What they said… is it true?”