My husband is the Don of the entire New York East Coast Mafia.

For ten years, I dimmed my own light to be his perfect silent partner, the dutiful wife who gave him the perfect heir.

I thought we were the lovers who wou ld die for each other.

Then came a mere associat.

My husband and son had formed an alliance with the woman who seem want to take my place.

But they just said, "Elena, you have the crown and the kingdom. She has nothing but us. Be generous."

So, to make her smile, my husband trampled on my dignity again and again.

To please her, my son affectionately calls her "Mom."

In their eyes, I was the iron wall, the woman who would swallow any insult for the sake of the family honor.

Until the fire.

My husband locked me inside the burning room, to let me "reflect" on my jealousy.

He didn't know that the fire didn't kill me. But it burned away the last ash of my love for him.

My husband is the Don of the New York East Coast.

For a decade, I played the role of the perfect Trophy Wife, raising his heir and managing his household. I believed we were unbreakable.

Until Gina, that low-level associate, showed up.

She was trash from the gutter, disregarding every protocol we lived by.

Yet Marco defended her. "Elena, you have everything. She relies solely on me. You need to be the bigger person."

"I hate this rabbit food!"

My son, Luca—the boy I carried for ten months and raised with painstaking care for seven years—flipped the plate of low-fat nutritional food I had prepared.

He launched himself like a cannonball at the woman who just walked in—Gina.

"I want candy! Gina said I don't have to eat your garbage if I want sweets!"

Gina, wearing a tight red dress that was entirely inappropriate for the occasion, hugged Luca affectionately.

She peeled the wrapper off an expensive imported gummy and shoved it into my son's mouth.

Sitting at the head of the table, the youngest Don in New York history—my husband, Marco—glanced at me with indifferent eyes.

"Elena, I've told you. Stop starving the boy. He's my blood; he doesn't need to count calories."

He took a sip of red wine, issuing orders as casually as if discussing the weather.

"Since you don't know how to raise my heir, Gina will take over as Luca's private governess starting today."

"Clear out the master bedroom. Gina needs to be close to Luca to care for him. You sleep in the guest room."

The Capos and bodyguards standing around the room chuckled darkly.

I was the family’s Mamma , respected for ten years. Now, Marco had thrown my dignity onto the floor for his subordinates to walk on.

In his mind, he gave me the title; I should be grateful and tolerant.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I simply unpinned the family crest from my chest—the symbol of my status as the Don's wife.

"As you wish, Don."

I turned toward the door. Marco’s impatient voice followed me.

"Walking away again? Save the drama, Elena. You know I hate it when women play games."

He was certain I couldn't leave him. He thought I was addicted to this cage of power and gunpowder.

He didn't know I already had a passport waiting in a safe house.

Just as I was about to step out of the villa, Gina let out a dramatic gasp.

"Oh my God! Luca, what happened to your arm?"

That scream made Marco's face go rigid.

He stormed over and yanked up Luca's sleeve.

On the boy's pale arm were shocking purple bruises.

I knew exactly what they were—Gina had painted them on this morning with special effects makeup while no one was looking.

Gina’s eyes turned red, and she covered her mouth, sobbing theatrically.

"No wonder Luca is terrified to eat... It turns out you were secretly..."

Marco's eyes turned colder than a Siberian winter. He stared at Luca.

"Who did this? Tell me, son."

Luca glanced at the candy box in Gina's hand, then at my expressionless face.

He was only seven, yet his eyes held the cunning glint of a liar.

"It was Mom... Mom pinched me. She said if I didn't listen, she'd feed me to the dogs."

My own son's words felt like a death sentence for me.

Marco stood up slowly. The oppressive, violent aura of a crime lord filled the room, suffocating everyone present.

"Bring her here."

Two bodyguards immediately grabbed my shoulders, roughly dragging me back to the center of the living room.

Marco towered over me, looking down with a mix of disappointment and rage.

"Elena, I gave you the world. I made you the most respected woman in the organization . And this is how you repay me? Abusing our son?"

"I didn't do it." I looked him dead in the eye, my voice trembling but firm.

"You still dare to lie to me!"

Marco snatched a whiskey bottle from the table and smashed it violently on the floor.

Amber liquid exploded alongside flying glass shards. One sharp fragment sliced into my thigh.

I was wearing a pure white silk dress.

Blood instantly seeped out, blooming rapidly across the white fabric, a shocking crimson stain.

Five years ago, I took a bullet for Marco during a hit by a rival family. The bullet was laced with mercury. The surgery cost me my spleen and left me with a severe coagulation disorder.

A small wound, if not treated immediately, could lead to fatal hemorrhagic shock.

Watching the bloodstain spread, Marco's pupils constricted. The rage in his eyes flickered, replaced by a flash of panic.

He instinctively took a step forward, reaching out as if to catch me as I swayed.

"Elena..."

But before he could touch me, Gina let out a piercing shriek. She buried her face in Marco’s chest, trembling, while covering Luca’s eyes with her hand.

"Don! The blood! It's so much blood! Luca will be traumatized! Why would she hurt herself just to threaten you? Doesn't she know Luca is still a child? This kind of bloody scene will ruin the heir's courage!"

Gina’s words were poison, instantly triggering Marco’s toxic masculinity and his ego as the Don.

His hand froze in mid-air. The flicker of concern in his eyes hardened into deep annoyance.

He hated being "threatened" by women. In his view, I was his obedient wife. I was supposed to absorb the family's darkness silently, not embarrass him in front of his men.

"Cut the act, Elena."

Marco withdrew his hand, his voice turning cold and arrogant.

"Playing the victim for sympathy only works once. Don't think you can use your old injuries to throw tantrums or threaten your husband."

He turned around, gently wrapping his arm around Gina and guiding Luca out of the dining room. He didn't look back as he issued his cruel order.

"No one touches her."

"Let her stand there. When she figures out how to be a submissive, qualified wife, she can come to me and apologize."

"Until then, no one is to offer her medical aid. She needs to learn a lesson about her arrogance."

The heavy doors of the dining room slammed shut.

In that moment, I finally gave up.

I collapsed onto the cold marble floor, watching the blood pour from my thigh, soaking into the expensive hand-woven carpet.

Flowing out of my body along with the blood was the humble, pathetic love I had held for him.

That burning obsession finally turned cold.

It wasn't until the midnight bells rang that the bleeding in my thigh finally slowed.

Just as I was about to close my eyes and lick my wounds alone in this freezing guest room—

A piercing siren shattered the silence of Corleone Manor.

It was the highest-level raid alarm.

Gunshots, explosions, and the screams of servants instantly erupted into chaos.

As the family’s Mamma, I instinctively dragged my freshly clotted leg and rushed downstairs.

The living room was a wreck.

Several blood-soaked Soldatos knelt on the floor, while Luca was screaming hysterically.

"It's all your fault! If she wasn't trying to save me, Auntie Gina wouldn't have been taken!"

Seeing me descend, a loyal Capo walked over quickly, his expression grave.

"Ma'am, it was that upstart family from the East District. They kidnapped Gina. They ... they want to trade you for her."

"They said only the mistress of the Corleone family is worth the hostage they hold."

This was obviously a clumsy trap.

Anyone with a brain knew this was a dead end designed specifically for me.

The Capo clearly understood this too. He immediately pressed his earpiece to give orders.

"Go to the armory! Get the newest Kevlar vests and have all snipers on standby. We need a foolproof breach plan. We cannot let Mamma be in danger."

"No! There's no time!"

Luca suddenly rushed over, shoving the Capo who was deploying tactics.

His eyes, so similar to Marco's, were filled with hatred toward me.

"Auntie Gina is losing a lot of blood! She got hurt saving me!"

"If you don't go now, she's going to die!"

He pointed at my nose, cursing me viciously.

"You selfish bitch. You just want someone else to do your dirty work, don't you? You're praying Gina dies!"

Even though my heart was already dead ashes, I still felt a chill cut to the bone.

This was the son I had risked my life to bring into the world.

At that moment, Marco, who had been silent, walked in.

He had just come out of the study, carrying the faint scent of cigars. He glanced at the crying Luca, then at the frail me.

As the Don who held the power of life and death, he made his judgment quickly—sacrifice me.

"Elena, you go."

His tone was calm to the point of atrocity.

"That is a rival stronghold. We have to follow the rules. Since they want to talk, you will go represent the family."

The Capo was frantic. "But Don, the Madam has no training, and her body..."

"She is a Mafia wife!" Marco interrupted coldly. "She has enjoyed the glory and wealth for so many years; now it is time to make a sacrifice for the family."

He walked up to me, looking down with a hint of impatient charity.

"Stop stalling. It's the code of the Mafia. They wouldn't dare actually touch the Don's wife; they just want to humiliate me a little."

"Just get Gina back. After this is done, I'll transfer the two vineyards in Italy to your name as compensation."

Compensation again.

In his eyes, my life was just a bargaining chip with a price tag.

"What about the bulletproof vest..." The Capo tried to insist.

"Putting that thing on is a waste of time!" Luca shrieked. "Get the hell out there and save Gina!"

Marco frowned and said to me:

"Did you hear that? Don't disappoint our son. Just go directly. "

In this moment, I didn't even have the strength to smile bitterly.

I pushed away the sidearm the Capo offered me. Dragging the leg that was seeping blood again, I walked alone into the night.

No security detail.

No protection.

Like a sacrificial lamb, I walked alone into that abandoned warehouse.

The warehouse was empty, except for Gina tied to a chair. But the scene was too staged; even the knots were loose.

Seeing me enter, the corners of Gina's mouth curled into a sinister smirk.

The next second.

Boom—!

A massive heat wave swallowed me instantly.

The bomb detonated right at my feet.

Agonizing pain tore through my consciousness. My body was tossed like a kite with a cut string, smashing heavily into a pile of rubble.

In the last second before my consciousness plunged into total darkness, through the overwhelming firelight, I saw a scene that would be branded into my memory forever.

My husband, Marco, the man who sent me to die with bare hands.

At this moment, he was fully geared up, wearing a heavy bomb disposal suit. Like a heroic knight, he charged desperately into the sea of fire.

He didn't even spare a glance at me, lying in a pool of blood only a few steps away.

He threw himself madly toward the unscathed Gina, shielding her tightly in his arms.

Then, my world went completely black.

I was unconscious for two whole days.

When I woke up again, I was lying on the top floor of a private hospital controlled by the family.

Only the Capo who had tried to put the bulletproof vest on me that night was guarding the door like a statue.

Seeing me open my eyes, he immediately stepped forward, though his gaze was evasive.

"Where is Marco?"

I spoke, my throat scorched by smoke and dust, sounding as hoarse as if I had swallowed a handful of razor blades.

The Capo lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, and handed me a tablet.

"Ma'am, the Don said... to comfort the frightened Master Luca and Gina, he must stay by their side."

The screen lit up. It was live surveillance footage from a private amusement park registered under Marco's name.

This was the amusement park Marco built for me when I gave birth to Luca.

He once said this park belonged exclusively to our family of three and that no one else could enter.

I had mocked myself back then, saying I was thirty years old and past the age for amusement parks.

But Marco looked at me and said I was his eternal Princess, and a Princess belongs in an amusement park.

Times have changed. Now, he allowed, and even personally took, Gina to this park.

In the footage, the sun was shining brightly.

Marco had taken off his usual grim black suit and changed into a casual trench coat. He held Luca in one arm and held Gina's hand with the other.

The three of them were wearing custom matching Burberry family outfits, holding balloons and cotton candy. Their bright smiles stung my eyes.

I took the phone and dialed Marco.

It rang for a long time before being picked up. The background was full of cheerful merry-go-round music.

"You're awake?"

Marco's voice sounded like he was in a good mood.

"Don't worry, it's handled. It was the Rossi family. They coveted our underground arsenal in Sicily, so they wanted to kidnap Luca as a bargaining chip."

"While you were out, I personally led the team and wiped out the entire Rossi family. That is the price for touching my woman."

"I want to see you." I looked at the tall back in the surveillance footage. "Marco, I almost died. I want to see my husband and son."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by his impatient scolding.

"Elena, when did you become so needy?"

"The doctor said you just have a concussion and a few fractures. You'll heal. As the Mamma, can't you toughen up a bit?"

"But Gina is different. She suffered huge mental trauma to save Luca. She still shakes when she hears loud voices. She saved Luca, so she saved the family. I have to compensate her properly, even if just to repay the debt."

"Stay in the hospital and rest. Once I've calmed Gina down, if I still have time, I'll come back to see you."

Just then, Gina's sweet, delicate voice came from the other end.

"Marco... look! Look how happy Luca is!"

Immediately after, my own son's voice, crisp and loud, pierced my eardrum like a sharp knife through the receiver.

"Mommy! I want that biggest balloon! Buy it for me!"

That "Mommy" rolled off his tongue so naturally, a hundred times more affectionate than when he called me.

Marco didn't stop him.

He even responded gently, "Okay, Daddy will take Mommy to buy it."

Beep—beep—

The phone was hung up.

I stared stiffly at the surveillance footage in my hand.

Under the Ferris wheel, the three of them held hands, their backs looking as harmonious as a perfect oil painting.

That was the real family of three.

While I was forgotten inside this cold hospital.

Watching their warm interaction, my determination to leave hardened.