Married to the Don, Replaced by His First Love

Late one night, a thread blew up and hit the front page of a famous forum deep in New York’s underworld.

The original poster had dug up an old prompt: “Name three words that sum up your youth.”

Then an account that’d been dormant for years popped up in the replies. Its avatar was a backlit silhouette of a girl in a white dress, username: Seraphina.

That was Seraphina Rossi. The Rossi family heiress, the undisputed it girl of New York’s underworld.

She typed:

Vibrant. Passionate.

And Rico Valentino.

All hell broke loose in the thread.

The wild Valentino’s heir and the breathtaking Rossi heiress had once loved each other hard, only for it all to end in bitter regret.

Nearly everyone in New York’s underworld had watched that heartbreak play out. Including me.

I turned my head, staring at the man sleeping beside me.

This was the man next to me: the once reckless kid who’d ruled the streets of Queens with his bare fists, now the Don of the Valention family.

Poised. Unshakable. And he didn’t love me.

I’d always known Rico still kept in touch with Seraphina. That he’d met her in secret, more than once.

That’s why he’d refused to make our marriage public. His excuse was always the same: “Keeping your identity off the grid keeps our enemies from targeting you.”

But I knew I was the one standing between Rico and the woman he’d never stopped loving.

If all three of us were just going to keep hurting like this? I’d rather walk away. Let them have each other.

I’d made up my mind. I was divorcing Rico.

The thread just kept blowing up, everyone more fixated on Rico and Seraphina’s past than the two exes themselves.

“Seraphina’s been single for years. What about Rico? Anyone got tea on his situation?”

“Hell if I know. Who’s dumb enough to dig into the Valentinos? Dude doesn’t even pop up in finance rags or underground circles these days.Bet that workaholic doesn’t even have a girl. Zero scandals in years.”

“Their love was legendary back in the day. Dude probably never got over her. So why’d they even break up anyway?”

“Young and too proud to bend. Seraphina wanted to move abroad for art school, Rico was too stubborn to say he was sorry. They just drifted apart.”

“Now that Seraphina’s back… you think they’ll get back together?”

I stared at the screen, stuck on one question that ate at me.

Why did Rico marry me? Was I just his second choice? A consolation prize?

Then Rico’s phone lit up with a text.

“Ri, I’m back.”

In all of New York, only Seraphina Rossi ever called him that.

He was fast asleep.

I almost deleted the text. I’d always known his passcode: L-O-S-E. At first, I’d thought it was a reminder to never lose, to never fail.

Then I’d figured it out. It was an acronym. Love Only Seraphina Ever.

In the end, I set the phone back down. What was the point?

Rico would never dote on me the way he doted on Seraphina.

I’d seen it once, at a gala.

Seraphina had gotten huffy because another girl asked Rico to dance. That night, he turned down every single woman who came near him, then smiled at Seraphina and said,“I said no to everyone. I’m only here for one thing, waiting for you to ask me.”

I lay awake the rest of the night replaying it in my head. Before I knew it, 7 a.m. rolled around, and Rico woke up right on schedule, same as always.