On the day my sister fled her wedding, the mafia Don, Dominic Cross, slaughtered everyone at the harbor. Even the stray dogs passing by were torn to pieces.

Terrified of his wrath, the Vance family forced me into the wedding dress and sent me straight into Dominic’s estate as his substitute bride.

For seven years after marrying into the Cross family, I took bullets for him, laundered his dirty money, and even tasted his food for poison. The entire mafia family came to revere me as their Donna.

But in the eighth year, my sister, Elena, suddenly returned.

Clad in a scarlet dress, she strode right into the family banquet hall and tasted Dominic’s red wine for poison right in front of everyone.

Dominic’s grip on my hand tightened.

As she collapsed from the poison, she leaned into my ear and whispered, “Sienna, thank you for keeping my seat warm all these years. Now, it’s time to give it back.”

I stood frozen in place, watching Dominic’s face.

The horrors of that night eight years ago flashed before my eyes.

I couldn’t help but wonder.

Would this Don—this man who struck absolute terror into the hearts of the entire mafia underworld—lose his mind and burn the world down for her all over again?

Elena Vance was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Dominic Cross didn’t go with her. He brought me straight back to the estate, where a maid waiting downstairs smoothly took his blood-stained watch.

I walked into the bedroom, pulled open the wardrobe, and began packing my bags.

Dominic poured a glass of whiskey and offered it to me. When I didn’t take it, his gaze dropped to the jewelry I was placing inside my suitcase.

I looked up at him. He had given me these jewels; they never truly belonged to me. I took them out and placed them gently on the desk.

Struggling to keep my voice from cracking, I spoke.

“I won’t take anything of yours. This all belonged to my sister anyway.

“The jewelry, this position... it’s time to give them back to her.”

I had told Dominic these exact words the night I first entered his estate eight years ago.

Neither of us had brought it up since.

Now that the words were out in the open again, an inexplicable ache bloomed in my chest.

Eight years ago, Dominic had returned from a major negotiation on the East Coast. During the mafia family’s celebratory banquet, he approached my father and asked for Elena’s hand in marriage.

Everyone said it was a perfect match. The ring was customized, and the invitations were sent out.

But on the wedding day, my sister vanished.

Rumor had it she ran away with a painter.

Dominic locked down the entire harbor. He searched for her like a madman, slaughtering every single person who had helped her escape.

That night, gunshots rang out relentlessly, and blood painted the docks red.

Before it was the Vance family’s turn to face his wrath...

My father solemnly handed me my sister’s wedding dress. Just like that, I was sent to Dominic’s estate in her place.

That night, he peeled off his bloody leather gloves and cast a cold, piercing glance at me. Then, he turned off the lights and slept on the far side of the bed.

The first time he touched me wasn’t until three months into our marriage. He was drunk, mistaking me for my sister.

The second time, he was wounded, and I was patching up his injuries.

The third time was after a rival family kidnapped me. When he finally got me back, he made love to me all night long until dawn.

Over the past eight years, everyone envied my luck, calling me the revered Donna of the Cross family. But no one knew the price I paid. Because of Dominic, my back bore the scars of a gunshot wound, and my abdomen had been slashed by a rival, leaving me barren.

Four years ago at the docks, he was ambushed by an enemy family.

I used my own body to shield him from the bullets, desperately clutching a briefcase full of encrypted ledgers to cover his escape.

He made it out safely, but the shattering car windows burned my forehead, leaving a permanent scar.

The Cross family achieved its absolute dominance today because I traded my life for it.

Now, she wanted to stroll right back in and enjoy the spoils.

I wasn’t about to give it up easily.

Seeing my eyes glistening with tears, Dominic’s expression darkened. “Tonight…”

The ring of his phone cut him off. He answered it, his gaze sinking. “Speak.”

Elena’s weak voice drifted from the receiver. “Dominic, I know you’ve been waiting for me to come back.

“Sienna doesn’t even look like me anymore. She has a hideous scar on her forehead.”

Dominic’s expression shifted instantly.

Yes, the scar on my forehead was my deepest insecurity.

Before marrying into the Cross family, I had received endless praise for my looks.

On the night of the ambush, the rival family hunted us ruthlessly. To keep our location hidden, I couldn’t go to a hospital. The rudimentary medical care left me scarred.

Looking at that blemish always filled me with intense self-doubt.

Once the Cross family rose to the top again, Dominic searched the globe for world-class plastic surgeons to erase it for me.

Yet, it could never fully return to the way it used to be.

To avenge me, he completely wiped out that rival family in a brutal bloodbath. He established the Cross family as the most powerful mafia family in the city, ensuring no one would ever dare cross us again.

He forbade anyone from staring at my forehead or gossiping about it behind my back. No one dared mention it.

In all these years, the only person who dared fling it right in Dominic’s face was my sister.

I lowered my head, the suffocating weight of my insecurity making it hard to breathe.

Dominic hung up the phone. His expression was conflicted, and he hesitated before speaking.

“Sienna... she doesn’t know how you got that scar.

“Besides, she just woke up from the poisoning and her mind is unstable. She only drank that wine because of me. Don’t take it to heart.”

“But you never used to allow anyone to mention it,” I interrupted him sharply.

“Why do the rules suddenly change just because it’s my sister?”

Dominic’s gaze darkened, quickly overtaken by a look of helpless frustration.

“Are you still blaming me?”

The night Dominic was ambushed by the rival family, I was stationed on the outer perimeter to provide tactical support.

We had agreed on a strict thirty-minute timeline. He was to lead his men inside while I secured the escape route.

But forty minutes passed, and the comms went dead.

He had altered the operational plan without signaling me.

Left completely in the dark, I fell right into the rival family’s trap. I fought brutally to protect the briefcase, enduring their relentless humiliation without ever breathing a word of the encryption key.

At death’s door, I even threw myself into a raging fire just to ensure his safety.

Only later did I discover that the briefcase I carried was entirely empty.

If Dominic had just told me the truth, I could have ditched the decoy and escaped.

But he chose silence.

I remembered violently gripping his lapels, crying and demanding to know why.

Gritting his teeth, his voice choked with emotion as he replied, “Sienna, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t risk them intercepting the real ledger. I had no other choice.

“I swear I’ll find the best surgeons in the world to fix you.”

He held me tightly, raining down an endless stream of apologies.

Once the dust settled from the turf war, he tore the world apart looking for specialized doctors to treat me and completely annihilated that rival family for revenge.

So, I believed him.

Until three years ago, when I walked up to the executive boardroom to deliver some files.

I overheard his conversation with his consigliere.

“I can’t bring myself to look at Sienna. She looks too much like Elena.

“Forget it. Dismiss the surgeon. As long as Sienna keeps that scar on her forehead, I won’t constantly see Elena when I look at her.”

My wrists trembled, and my heart shattered into pieces.

I realized everything I had sacrificed was a joke. Dominic was entirely cold-hearted, and my loyalty had amounted to nothing more than a pathetic self-delusion.

I never confronted him about what I heard, and Dominic never brought it up again.

Now, another phone call cut through the heavy silence of the bedroom.

He answered it, then turned to me. “Elena is in bad shape. The doctors are running out of options. I need to go see her.”

“Go ahead,” I replied flatly. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”

My voice was entirely hollow. I was done listening to justifications.

Dominic had once loved Elena with a terrifying depth; it was only natural for him to do whatever it took for her.

Why should I bother standing in his way?

I turned back and continued packing my suitcase.

Seeing my movements, his eyes turned incredibly dark. Abandoning his plans to leave, he stepped toward me with a deep frown. As if completely provoked, he violently grabbed my wrist.

“Sienna, why are you still trying to leave?!

“What the hell did I even do to make you hate me this much?”

His grip tightened, forcing tears of pain to well up in my eyes. Before I could answer, he threw me roughly onto the bed, leaving me entirely numb.

Dominic slammed the door behind him as he stormed out. My tears spilled onto the back of my hand, carrying a bitter wave of grievance.

I wiped my face, finished packing, and immediately drove back to the Vance family estate.

The moment I stepped through the door, my parents intercepted me.

Taking my suitcase, my mother spoke. “Elena insists on being alone at the hospital and refused our company. It’s better if Dominic goes; they can look after each other.

“It’s good that you’re staying here for a while anyway. Give your sister some time to sort through her thoughts. She’s been sheltered her whole life, and God knows how much she suffered out there these past few years.”

My father chimed in, “Sienna, you need to be more understanding of her.”

My hands clenched into tight fists as my chest turned cold.

Their words felt like a direct indictment of me, as if I were the one at fault. Yet Elena was the architect of her own ruin.

Eight years ago, she chose to abandon everything and run away with that painter.

Dominic had gone on a rampage looking for her, nearly slaughtering our entire family in the process. They seemed to have forgotten all of it.

I let out a cold laugh. “She brought all that suffering on herself. Did either of you ever stop to think about what I went through?

“You’re still doing it—blindly favoring her without condition.”

It had always been this way. When I was only eight years old, I was packed off to a strict boarding school to fend for myself, while my sister attended the school right next door but was chauffeured back and forth every single night.

My father’s excuse was simply that Elena preferred sleeping at home.

She basked in their undivided affection and aggressively guarded it.

During my rare visits home, she would confiscate my hair clips and toys. She even went out of her way to destroy the birthday gifts my mother secretly bought for me.

Whenever I tried to demand a shred of fairness in this house, my parents met me with physical abuse and harsh rebukes, calling me ungrateful and petty for keeping score against my own sister.

Emboldened by their enabling, Elena’s torment only grew worse. She knew that no matter what she did to me, our parents would never blame her.

And I was the one who took a beating every single time.

Eventually, I stopped coming home altogether. I took up part-time jobs and rented a dilapidated shack in the slums, finding a sense of peace in the quiet struggle.

Until the day my sister ran away.

That was when my parents tracked me down at my rundown rental.

Looking back, they had never treated me like their own blood.

My mother took my hand, her expression completely defensive. “Sienna, how can you say that? If your sister hadn’t run away, how else would you have ever clawed your way into becoming the Donna of the Cross family?”

I froze in absolute disbelief.

I had stepped into that substitute marriage solely to save the Vance family from total annihilation. Yet now, they phrased it as though I owed my entire status to their generosity.

Meanwhile, Elena—the one who had brought a death sentence to their doorstep—was completely absolved of guilt.

And I was expected to play the bigger person.

In their minds, the throne next to the Don had always belonged to my sister. To them, I was nothing but a thief who had stolen her life.

Word reached me that Elena had been discharged from the hospital and had moved directly into Dominic’s estate.

My parents had already rushed over to the compound to dote on her, leaving me entirely alone in our childhood home. I immediately contacted my attorney to draw up the divorce papers.

However, I realized that several of my crucial asset titles and deeds were locked away inside Dominic’s personal safe at the estate.

The moment I stepped outside to retrieve them, Dominic’s car pulled up right in front of me.

He rolled down the window, his gaze soft and warm. Smiling at me as if nothing had happened, he said, “Get in. Let’s go home.”

I stood my ground, refusing to move.

He stepped out of the vehicle and gently ruffled my hair. “You’ve been throwing a tantrum for days now. It’s time to stop. I came all this way just to bring you back home.”

A bitter laugh echoed in my mind. So, in his eyes, my deep anguish amounted to nothing more than a childish tantrum.

“Dominic, do you honestly think I’m just throwing a tantrum?”

His expression darkened, his temper visibly flaring beneath the surface.

“Do you always have to be this unreasonable, Sienna?”

I didn’t bother replying. Since I was already planning on a divorce, there was no point in wasting my breath on another argument. Besides, I needed to get back into the estate to secure my documents anyway.

I pulled open the car door and climbed into the passenger seat.

We arrived at the estate shortly after. The moment I stepped out of the car, my sister glided over and smoothly wrapped her arm through mine. She looked exceptionally vibrant, wearing one of my custom silk nightgowns.

“We haven’t seen each other in so many years, Sienna. It’s a shame about the poisoning last time; we didn’t get a chance to properly catch up. I’ve been feeling so terribly guilty about it.

“Thank goodness Dominic went to fetch you. We can use the welcome-back banquet he threw for me to finally catch up as a family.”

My mother chimed in immediately, “Elena always thinks of everything. We’re a family, after all. A welcome-back banquet simply wouldn’t be complete without Sienna.”

I froze, looking at Dominic in sheer disbelief.

Of course. He hadn’t changed at all. His grand gesture of driving out to bring me back wasn’t out of care for me; it was solely to appease Elena. If it weren’t for her banquet, he wouldn’t have bothered showing his face.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, Sienna?” Elena asked, tightening her grip on my arm.

I pulled my arm out of her grasp. “I’m just here to grab a few things. Then I’m leaving.”

Elena’s eyes instantly welled with tears, her voice cracking dramatically. “Are you upset that I’m staying here, Sienna? I knew I shouldn’t have come back.”

She wept gracefully, her shoulders trembling with endless sobs.

“I’ll just leave. I won’t disrupt your lives any longer.”

Dominic handed her a linen handkerchief, his tone incredibly gentle as he comforted her. “No one is driving you out. Rest easy and stay right here.”

“But my sister…” Elena reached out, attempting to grab my wrist again.

Dominic turned to me, his voice snapping into an authoritative command. “Tonight—”

“I’ll be there,” I interrupted sharply.

I had to be there. I was the revered Donna of this mafia family. I had spent eight brutal years married into the Cross family; this estate belonged to me just as much as it did to him. I was not about to hand it over without a fight.

Back in the master bedroom, I gathered all my property deeds, offshore account certificates, and asset documents, packing them securely.

I messaged my attorney to finalize the divorce agreement.

Then, I changed into a structured evening gown and fastened a diamond necklace around my neck. Even if I was walking away from this life, I was going to do it with absolute dignity and grace.

Forty minutes later, my heels clicked sharply against the marble floor as I stepped into the grand banquet hall.

Elena was still wearing my nightgown, lounging comfortably in the prominent seat that rightfully belonged to me. She was laughing with Dominic, looking completely at ease, as if she owned the place.

The moment she spotted me, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Are you afraid I’ll steal your spotlight, Sienna? Is that why you took so long dressing up in your room?

“But you know... some blemishes can’t be hidden, no matter how much you dress them up.”

She was mocking the scar on my forehead. I clenched my jaw, refusing to let my smile slip.

“Perhaps you’ve grown too accustomed to living in the slums, Elena, because you clearly don’t understand the protocols here. At a mafia family banquet, the Donna wears formal attire. It isn’t a beauty pageant; it’s a statement of the family’s power and discipline.”

I swept a cold gaze over her attire.

“Since you’re so desperate to sit at the head of the table, you should at least wear something respectable. My wardrobe is full of clothes I’ve already worn out; you’re welcome to have them.”

My words shattered her composure.

Elena slammed her hands on the table and stood up, clutching her chest as she coughed violently.

“Sienna, you stole my life! You took my throne without my permission! You should be thanking me for dragging you out of that pathetic rental shack in the first place!”

I set my wine glass down calmly, watching her display.

The sheer irony of it was hysterical. Had she forgotten that she was the one who abandoned our family to run away with a painter?

She hadn’t given a damn whether the family lived or died back then.

“Did I steal it? You’re the one who abandoned your family to follow a man, leaving everyone at death’s door.

“You got to pack up and leave whenever you pleased, while I was forced to clean up your mess. I had to take bullets for this family, launder their money, and endure the humiliation of being kidnapped by rivals in your place.

“I am completely sick of it. You want this wretched estate? Keep it. You want the title of Donna? Take it. I don’t want to spend another miserable second looking at any of you toxic bastards!”

Dominic slammed his hands down and stood up, his rage exploding through the room. The crystal glass in his hand shattered completely, blood mixing with the spilled wine and staining the tablecloth.

“Sienna! Do you really hate me this much? So this is how you truly feel!”

His voice roared through the hall, trembling slightly with rage. In a flash, he drew the pistol from his waistband, aiming it directly at my chest. His finger was already locked tight against the trigger.

My parents gasped in terror, quickly pulling Elena back out of the line of fire.

I took a step forward, grabbing the barrel of his gun and forcing the muzzle tight against my heart.

“Pull the trigger,” I said, my voice completely steady.

I hadn’t planned on walking out of this compound alive today anyway. Dominic was a volatile madman. If he wanted to murder me, so be it.

Dominic’s eyes were bloodshot. “You think I won’t?!”

My mother rushed forward frantically. “Sienna, stop! Your sister only—”

“Stay back!” I barked, drawing my own firearm and pointing it directly at my mother. I was utterly done listening to her suffocating favoritism.

Elena lunged forward instantly. “No!”

She grabbed my hand, deliberately forcing the barrel away from my mother and adjusting the trajectory toward her own shoulder. Before I could pull back, she forced my finger against the trigger, and a deafening gunshot echoed through the hall.

Through the chaos, I caught a fleeting, twisted smirk on her face.

“Elena!” My parents shrieked, rushing forward to support her.

Blood poured from Elena’s shoulder as she collapsed into Dominic’s arms, her voice fading weakly. “Sienna... no matter how much you hate me... Mom is innocent.

“Dominic, I shouldn’t have come back. Knowing you still care is enough for me. Please... don’t let anyone else get hurt because of me.”

I stood frozen, completely numb to the theatrical absurdity of it all.

With bloodshot eyes, Dominic stood up and delivered a vicious slap across my face.

The force threw me off balance, and my lower back slammed violently against the sharp edge of the dining table. A searing wave of agony flared from my cheek straight down to my spine.

“Sienna! I never realized you could be this deeply malicious!”

I stared back at him, struggling to breathe through the excruciating pain.

Dominic had completely convinced himself that I was a monster. But of course he did. When it came to Elena, his trust in her was absolute and unconditional.

“Believe whatever you want.”

I didn’t even care enough to offer an explanation.

Dominic scooped Elena up, roaring for the family’s private doctor. Because Elena was wounded, the entire room scrambled to cater to her every need, completely ignoring me.

Pressing a hand against my agonizingly injured back, I looked at his retreating figure.

“Let’s get a divorce. I’ve already had my attorney draft the papers. I played an equal part in rebuilding this empire over the last eight years. Half of the Cross family assets belong to me, and I am taking every dime of it with me.”