I hid my identity and lived as an ordinary husband with Lola Marchetti.

The day I learned she was pregnant, she said it without warning: "I'm marrying the heir to the Crane family in three days."

"I'm actually the legitimate daughter of the Consigliere's household. He and I are a proper match. The betrothal gifts have already been delivered to my family's estate, and... he and I have already consummated our relationship."

When she saw me frozen in place, she added, "I'll set you up with a residence. You'll never want for anything."

I stared at her in disbelief. "So I'm to be a kept man, hidden away for the rest of my life. Is that it?"

Lola turned her face away. "He's a kind and respectable husband. As long as you don't cause a scene in front of him, I can give you everything except the title."

A sharp sting hit the bridge of my nose. I never imagined I meant so little to her.

"What if I told you... that I could match your status?"

——

Lola froze for a moment. The silence between us stretched until I could hear the wind pushing through the trees outside and, somewhere far below the mountain, the faint drone of a car on the coastal road. When she finally spoke, her voice carried the flat certainty of someone who had already run every calculation.

"Alaric Valente, I know it was wrong of me to hide my identity and marry someone else. But the world doesn't run on 'what ifs.' Among all the Five Families, the only man who matches my standing is the heir to the Crane syndicate."

"We've been husband and wife at the foot of this mountain for three years. I know exactly who you are."

But she had hidden her identity. How could she be so sure I hadn't done the same?

I looked around. The cabin we had built with our own hands. The fields we had tilled together. Three years of a life so far from the compound that I had almost forgotten the weight of the Valente name. I refused to believe any of this was real.

"Lola, you're carrying my child. Can't we just go back to the way things were? Please don't marry him."

My gaze locked onto the woman in front of me. If she would just say yes, I was willing to forgive everything.

But all she did was press her lips together and say, quietly, "He and I have already been intimate. I have to take responsibility for that."

My eyes burned red. My body wouldn't stop shaking. "And what about me? Don't you owe me that same responsibility? What about our child?"

Lola reached out and wiped the tears from my cheek. Her eyes were full of ache.

"Alaric, I'm only getting married. I'm not abandoning you."

"There's a property on the outskirts of the territory. Three bedrooms, walled garden, private security. I've already purchased it. If you like the country life, I'll have someone plant fruits and vegetables in the yard for you. Whatever you want, I'll make it happen. Trust me."

I stepped back, shaking my head over and over.

"I won't be locked away as your dirty secret. I won't let myself and our child live in the shadows for the rest of our lives."

But Lola simply walked up to me, her expression unchanged, her voice calm. The same voice she must have used at her father's table, negotiating things that had nothing to do with love.

"I've never thought of you as a kept man. As long as you don't make trouble in front of my husband, you'll still be mine. Isn't that enough?"

I kept shaking my head. "No. It's not. I'm not leaving this place."

This was where Lola and I had spent three years of love. I wanted to be here when our child was born.

"Alaric, you know my alliance ceremony cannot have a single flaw. I have to erase every trace of our past. It's the only way to keep you safe."

Before the shock had even settled, she raised her hand. The soldiers behind her stepped forward with torches and set the entire homestead ablaze.

In an instant the fire roared to life, swallowing the cabin, the fence, the courtyard whole. The heat pressed against my skin like a living thing, and the smell of everything we had built turned to char and ash on the wind.

I gripped the fence and screamed. "No! Stop! Stop it!"

Lola pulled me away and pressed my thrashing body against her chest.

She held me there while I struggled and howled.

"Alaric, when the time is right, I'll make you my secondary husband. Our child can carry the title of a legitimate heir. We can be just like before."

But Lola, I am the Young Don of the Valente family. How could I ever be your secondary husband?

The homestead was gone. There was no going back.

Three years ago, I had a fight with my father and walked out of the compound in a fit of anger, chasing after some dream of a quiet life far from the family.

I shook off his soldiers along the way and settled at the foot of this mountain, in a small coastal town where nobody knew the Valente name.

That was when I met Lola Marchetti. She was on horseback, hair streaming in the wind, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. One look, and I fell hopelessly in love.

I hid my identity from her, and she told me only that she was a drifter with no ties. With heaven and earth as our witnesses, we became husband and wife.

We had no rings from a jeweler on Mulberry Street, no reception hall packed with soldiers and their wives, but tilling the small plot behind the house and mending what needed mending side by side, we were happy.

Now the cottage was destroyed, and I was locked away in that side manor on the Crane estate.

The only glimpse of the outside world I could steal was through a crack in the corner of the wall.

A few women passed by on the road, whispering about the wedding at the Crane family's estate.

"Did you hear? The Consigliere's legitimate daughter petitioned the Don himself to get a prince's blessed medallion for the young heir. Traded three generations of the Marchetti family's earned honors for it."

"Well, he is the heir to the Crane family. He deserves that kind of ceremony."

"They're a perfect match in standing. What a handsome couple they'll make."

The blessed medallion they spoke of had been my favorite in the compound. I simply hadn't reached the age for my own alliance ceremony, so my father never bestowed it upon me.

On my own wedding night with Lola, all I had worn around my neck was a chain of wildflowers she'd braided by hand.

She had said, "My Alaric deserves the finest things in the world. Even a Don's blessed medallion wouldn't be too good for you."

And now she had traded her family's honors to give that very medallion to Milton Crane.

That evening, Lola brought a whole box of the pastries I loved.

She sat across from me, her expression calm. "Eat something. You haven't had a bite all day."

I picked up a piece and ate it slowly, in small bites.

But watching her act as though nothing had happened filled my chest with a bitterness I couldn't swallow.

"When did it happen?"

Lola froze for a moment. She poured me a glass of wine, her movements stiff with embarrassment, then answered in a flat voice, "On your birthday."

The blood drained from my body. A month ago, on my birthday, Lola had vanished without a word. I searched for her the entire night, combing every slope and valley, up the mountain and down.

She didn't return until the next day, windswept and dusty, claiming she'd gotten lost while looking for a birthday gift for me.

Then, beaming like a child presenting a treasure, she produced a snow lotus from behind her back.

I hadn't slept all night, but seeing how much thought she'd put into it, I couldn't bring myself to scold her. I took the flower and tended it carefully.

Now she was telling me that on my birthday, she had been with Milton Crane in secret. Nausea churned through me.

Even so, thinking of everything we'd shared, I couldn't stop myself from wanting to give her one more chance.

"Lola, can you not marry him?"

She turned the glass between her fingers, brow furrowed tight.

"Not marry him? Marry you instead?"

"Do you really have to force me to say something cruel?"

"He's the heir to the Crane family. And you? A peasant who knows nothing but watering crops and tilling soil. How could you possibly be worthy of a Consigliere's legitimate daughter?"

My face went white. I pressed on, unwilling to let go. "Do three years of what we had really have to be measured by standing?"

A sharp, twisting pain tore through my lower abdomen. I clutched my stomach, but I still waited for her answer.

"In families like ours, standing and rank are everything. The line between legitimate and common is absolute."

She paused, and guilt crept across her face as she looked at me.

"The child I'm carrying might be his."

My mind went blank. I stared at her, unable to comprehend.

"Alaric, my child has to be recognized as the Crane family's firstborn legitimate son. That's the only way you'll be safe."

The pain in my gut twisted like a knife. Cold sweat beaded across my forehead. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the box of pastries.

"Lola, you poisoned me for him? How could you bring yourself to do that?"

Lola's eyes reddened, and she apologized over and over.

"I'm sorry, Alaric. He found out you exist. Based on the timing, the child could be yours. He won't allow anyone to threaten his position."

So she laced the pastries I loved most with the Barren Dose, and I never suspected a thing.

"Lola, my stomach hurts so badly. I just swallowed it, there's still time. Please, go find a doctor."

She didn't move. My voice cracked raw with panic. "I won't marry you, alright? I won't. I don't want to live like this, worse than death. Once I'm better, I'll leave. I'll go far away. I won't stand in your way, I swear."

No matter how I begged until my throat gave out, Lola didn't flinch.

She held out her arm. "Bite down on me. It won't hurt as much."

I shoved her arm away. "Go find a doctor. I'm begging you, Lola."

"Alaric, stop talking nonsense. No family physician is going to treat someone of your station."

"The drug's already taken hold. It's too late. Just be good. Even if you can never have children again, my child will still call you father."

I gripped her hand so hard my knuckles went white. "Lola, listen to me. I am the Young Don. Dominic Valente's own son. Go find a doctor to save me. Now."

But she thought I was lying. She wrenched her hand free, anger flashing across her face.

"You've really disappointed me. There's a limit to how far a lie should go. This is the compound, not some coastal backwater of yours. One wrong word here can get you buried where nobody finds the body."

She straightened her jacket and turned on her heel.

"It's only barrenness. It won't kill you. Look after yourself."

I watched her walk away, and the last shred of hope inside me died.

I curled into the corner. The feeling below my waist began to fade, replaced by a pain so sharp I could barely breathe.

I would probably never have children again. And the one child I had prayed for day and night turned out to belong to someone else.

I drifted in and out of consciousness through the night. Below my waist, everything had gone numb long ago.

The door burst open with a single kick. Milton Crane strode in with a handful of soldiers behind him.

He glanced at me, drenched in blood on the floor, then settled himself at the table and poured a glass of wine as though he had all the time in the world. The glass caught the overhead light. He turned it once, studying the color, before he drank.

"Don't blame me. After all, the child in Lola's belly is mine. Can't very well have him calling another man father, can we?"

I braced myself against the wall, barely upright. "So you'd rob me of ever having children again?"

Milton let out a short laugh. "Now that's unfair. Lola was the one who laced the food. Lola was the one who decided you wouldn't keep the child. I merely... mentioned the idea."

I stared at him, nails digging into my palms until I felt skin break.

He rose and walked over to me. "Though, you should count yourself lucky the child isn't yours. Imagine it growing up and calling me 'Father.' How would you stomach that?"

"Bring the tonic over. Make her drink it. Build up her strength."

The soldiers pried my jaw open and forced the liquid down my throat. I recognized the taste. The Severance Compound.

I thrashed, tried to spit it out, but they held me fast, fingers clamped around my face. The burn of it spread through my chest like something alive.

Milton crouched in front of me and patted my cheek, slow and deliberate, every touch a humiliation. The room was silent except for the wet sound of my breathing and the faint creak of his leather shoes on the floor. "Can't have you coveting Lola down the line. Can't have you producing more heirs and stirring up trouble."

"My alliance ceremony's in two days. Still need to go try on my Golden Circlet. If you'll excuse me."

As he stood, the saint's medallion at his collar swung into view. He made no effort to hide it.

It was Lola's. She had told me it was the only thing her mother left her. The one piece of the old life she said she'd never part with. And she had given it to Milton Crane.

He paused at the door, as if just remembering. "Oh, right. Lola transferred the deed to this property into my name. I hear you're fond of the quiet life. Just remember, you're living under my roof now. Mind my rules."

My whole body went rigid. When Lola burned down the cottage, she had told me this estate was bought for me. That I could fill it with lemon trees and gardens.

From the very beginning, she had never intended to give me anything.

"Milton Crane."

I called after him, my voice scraped hollow.

"Has the Crane heir ever laid eyes on the Young Don?"