Back home in Sicily, there’s a rule. If I’m not married by 30, I go back for an arranged marriage.

When I told my boyfriend, Jax, he scoffed.

"What century is your hometown stuck in? The Middle Ages? Arranged marriages? Alessia, I said I'd marry you. Stop trying to force my hand with this pathetic drama."

He casually pulled out a pigeon-blood ruby ring and tossed it to his personal assistant, Bianca.

She caught it, blushing.

"I was going to propose tonight. But since you’re so desperate, I think we both need to cool off."

The ring I’d waited years for. He just threw it to someone else.

My heart froze over.

Jax walked out of my office with a conqueror's smirk.

Bianca pushed the ring toward me.

I didn't even look at it.

"Take it. It’s your size, isn't it?"

The color drained from her face.

I shoved her out the door.

Right before I slammed it shut, I said, "Tell your boss we're done."

He didn't know the "elders" forcing me into this marriage were led by the most ruthless Godfather in Sicily.

And the "blind date" was an arranged union with the Don of the North American Five Families.

Ten years. That's how long I loved him. Now, I was leaving him to go marry the most powerful Don in the Cosa Nostra.

That night, I had just zipped up my suitcase when the penthouse door crashed open.

Jax stood in the foyer, yanking his tie loose.

He glanced at the suitcase. He just looked annoyed, like a boss who hated being interrupted.

"Haven't you made enough of a scene at the office?" He looked down at me. "Couldn't even wait for me to get off work. You had to run home and play runaway bride?"

I stood up and gave him a dead stare.

To him, I was always just "making a scene."

"Didn't Bianca give you my message?" I dropped the nice-girlfriend act.

That set him off.

"Alessia, you're being crazy! Why are you always so hostile to her? You mentored the girl. What are you trying to do, ruin her life?"

Hostile? Ruin her life?

I looked at the man raging in front of me to cover his own guilt. It was pathetic.

He didn't know I was the daughter of Sicily's most ruthless Godfather.

Years ago, I defied my Family. I refused to touch the blood money.

I came to North America with nothing, hid my last name, and swore to build my own empire on Wall Street.

Then I met Jax.

We pulled all-nighters reading financial reports in a shitty apartment, eating discount pizza, fighting the world back-to-back.

I used my Family's killer instinct for business to build him from the ground up. I made him Wall Street's golden boy.

And Bianca?

Just some waitress I bumped into at the café downstairs.

She spilled coffee that day and cried, shaking like a leaf.

Her eyes looked exactly like my cousin's back in Sicily.

In this cold city, so far from my family, that flicker of home was the one thing that broke through my defenses.

I did some digging. Ivy League, sure, but she was drowning in her family's gambling debts.

So I brought her into the firm.

I gave her a real job, planned her career, and even paid off her first debt collector out of my own pocket.

I thought I was saving a desperate girl.

I was wrong.

This helpless little thing had her eyes on Jax from day one.

Later, she spent all her energy at work trying to seduce the boss.

Just last week, she made a fatal mistake.

She leaked our base price on a multi-million dollar contract.

The boardroom was packed with execs and investors.

I went strictly by the book. I pointed out her mistake and told her to call Legal to fix it immediately.

I didn't even raise my voice.

But what did Bianca do?

Her eyes welled up. She looked at Jax like a scared little bird.

That was the first time Jax lost it in public.

"Shut up, Alessia!" He slammed his hands on the table and pointed right in my face.

The whole room went dead silent.

Everyone, even the investors, stared at him in shock.

Jax ignored the fact that the whole team was about to pull an all-nighter to fix her mess. He pulled Bianca behind him.

"It’s just a wrong file. Do you have to humiliate her in front of everyone?"

He looked at me with pure disgust. Like I was the monster.

Then he announced to the room: "From now on, Bianca is my head assistant. Anyone got a problem with that, get the hell out!"

He stood tall, chin up.

He was arrogant, stripping me of my power, high on the thrill of finally putting me in my place.

And Bianca, hiding behind him, looked up at him with pure worship.

Back to reality.

It suddenly hit me. Jax was sick of hearing "There is no Jax without Alessia."

He didn’t want an equal. He wanted a pet who would look up to him.

He was no longer the guy in that shitty apartment who told me, "You're the only one I'll ever surrender to."

My phone lit up.

An encrypted text from the Family.

"Private jet is ready. Bringing you home in three days."

Looking at that text, my disgust just melted away.

I was leaving for good. I couldn't even be bothered to fight him one last time.

I let go of the zipper, turned around, and met his defensive, aggressive glare.

He probably had a whole speech of venom ready to spit.

He was waiting for me to act like a bitter housewife, screaming about marriage and why that ruby ring was in Bianca's size.

He'd be disappointed.

"You're right, Jax," I said, dead calm. "I overreacted. It won't happen again."

Never again.

Jax froze.

His jaw clenched, a flash of pure confusion in his eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, as if covering up his guilt, he muttered, "Whatever," and slammed the door behind him.

He didn't come home that night.

Next morning, I walked into Apex Holdings like usual.

This was the empire I built with my bare hands.

Not a single dime from the Valeriano Family. No Mafia connections.

Every ledger was clean. It was my masterpiece.

If I was leaving, I was taking my life's work with me.

Just as I saved the last blueprint to an encrypted flash drive, my office door burst open.

Chris, the Project Director, stumbled in. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

"Alessia, we got a problem." His voice was shaking.

"Talk." I didn't even look up.

"We lost the Westside real estate bid! And worse, we triggered a five-million-dollar penalty clause!"

My fingers stopped on the keyboard.

"Why."

Chris's eyes were bloodshot. He gritted his teeth. "The Boss was hungover last night. Bianca handled his emails. That stupid bitch sent our classified floor price directly to our rival! A whole year of our team's work, gone!"

I snatched the penalty report off the desk and marched to the CEO's office.

I pushed the doors open. What I saw made my chest tighten for a second.

Bianca was lying weakly on the sofa bed in the corner.

Jax bought that sofa bed for me when my stomach bled from working half a month straight. He bought it because he cared.

Now, another woman was lying on it.

And the high-and-mighty Jax was personally feeding her water from a glass.

Seeing me, Bianca shot up.

"Alessia..." she said, pale and pitiful. "Don't misunderstand. My blood sugar dropped and I felt dizzy. Jax just felt bad for me and got me some glucose..."

I didn't give her a second look.

I walked straight to the desk and slammed the five-million-dollar penalty report down in front of Jax.

"Westside bid price leaked. The deal is dead. Five million in penalties."

I stared at his shocked face. "Who’s paying for this?"

Jax shot up and grabbed the report. His face turned grim.

Bianca, "weak" just a second ago, started crying. Huge tears rolled down her face.

"I'm sorry... It's all my fault!" She threw herself at the desk, giving an Oscar-worthy performance.

"Jax was so drunk last night, his head was spinning. I just wanted to help him with his work... I didn't mean to!"

She turned to Jax, pleading. "Jax, believe me, I'll go beg the rival company! I'll get on my knees! I'll tell them it was my mistake and beg for another chance!"

She didn't expect Jax to stay totally silent. He didn't stop her.

Chris, standing behind me, sneered in pure disgust.

I looked down at Bianca's fake little act.

"Beg? Get on your knees?" My voice was deadpan. "Bianca, you think Wall Street is a charity? This little routine of yours is useless on anyone but a horny idiot."

Backed into a corner, she didn't know how to end the scene.

She looked at my blank face, then at Chris's furious one.

Her crying hitched. She swayed dramatically.

"I... I feel so dizzy..."

Before she even finished, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the floor.

"Bianca!"

Jax gasped and rushed around the desk without a second thought.

He scooped her carefully into his arms.

He looked up, glaring at me with absolute loathing.

"Is that enough?!"

Jax held her tight against his chest, growling through gritted teeth. "She already admitted her mistake! She even offered to beg for the company! How much more are you going to push her?"

He looked at me, full of disappointment.

"Alessia, you always have to go for the throat."

I didn't blow up at him like he expected.

I just watched him cradle his mistress. It was sickening. I walked up and rapped my knuckles hard on the desk.

"Ruthless? Fine. Let's talk business. This five-million-dollar hole. How are we filling it?"

My coldness stung him. His eyes went red and he snapped back, "I'll fill it! It's just five million, isn't it?"

I let out a cold laugh.

"Just five million?" I looked at him, every word a knife. "Jax, you forgot how you drank yourself to a stomach bleed for our first deal, just to save fifty grand on broker fees? Now, for some stupid girl, you're throwing away our reputation and billions in future contracts. Has your dick completely fried your brain?"

I’d hit a nerve. Jax's face turned livid.

"Alessia, you think too small," he cut me off, impatient.

Then he pulled out his phone. Tapped the screen a few times.

A minute later, a payment notification popped up in the company's finance group chat.

Five million dollars, wired straight into the company account.

He looked up at me, acting like it was nothing.

Like he just slapped me across the face with five million bucks to defend his little sweetheart.

But inside, I felt nothing but calm.

The broke kid who used to split a twelve-dollar pizza with me because it was too expensive was now arrogant enough to cross every line in business.

Five million. He'd burn it for Bianca without blinking.

I stared at him coldly. I wondered if he'd still be smirking if it was five hundred million.

That afternoon, I was having high tea at the Peninsula with my best friend, Isla.

The second I picked up my teacup, Chris called, frantic.

"Alessia, get back here! Bianca brought guys to empty out your office!"

I grabbed my bag and marched right back into Apex Holdings in my heels.

The moment I pushed my glass doors open, my eyes turned to ice.

The place was trashed.

The blueprints I drew myself, classified files, and a model I’d kept for five years were scattered like garbage. Covered in dirty footprints.

Bianca stood at my desk, barking orders at the logistics guys like she owned the place.

"Yeah, trash all this useless junk. Move her desk out to the bullpen."

"Stop," my voice cut through the noise like breaking glass.

Bianca turned around. She wasn't even scared. She just stood taller.

I walked right up to her. No bullshit. I raised my hand.

Smack!

A brutal slap right across her face. It echoed in the room.

She stumbled back, clutching her red, swelling cheek, screaming, "You hit me?!"

"I hit you because you're a stupid girl who doesn't know when she's signing her own death warrant." I stared her down.

A vicious taunt flashed in her eyes. "Who gave you the right? Jax ordered me to clear this out! He said you only belong in the bullpen now!"

Rapid footsteps approached from the hall.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jax stormed in.

He saw the trampled blueprints first. A flicker of guilt passed through his eyes. Barely there.

But then he saw the handprint on Bianca's face.

The guilt vanished, replaced by blind rage.

He pulled her into his arms and roared at Chris and the staff outside, "Are you all blind?! You're just gonna let her act like a psycho?!"

Completely irrational. Blaming my team.

Then he turned, grabbed my shoulders, and spoke in this sickeningly patronizing tone. "Alessia, you've been working too hard. Take a vacation. Starting now. You're off company business."

Vacation?

Trash my office, kick me to the bullpen, and call it a vacation?

I shoved his hands off me in disgust.

Jax sneered. His eyes were full of mockery.

"Cut the crap," he looked at me like I was a clown. "Bianca told me. She had someone look into it. There’s no 'arranged marriage by 30' rule back in your Sicilian hometown!"

I narrowed my eyes.

Bianca peeked out from his arms, playing the victim. "I'm sorry, Alessia... I just couldn't stand seeing you lie to him. How could you make up such an awful lie to force him to marry you?"

Watching them play this little duet, I felt sick to my stomach.

Of course Sicily didn't have that rule. The Valeriano family made it a rule. For me.

But they weren't worth an explanation.

My eyes slowly swept over Bianca.

The latest Dior haute couture, limited-edition Van Cleef earrings, and a Hermes Birkin in her hand.

That outfit alone cost more than ten years of her assistant salary.

My eyes went completely dead.