There wasn’t a day that I woke up and did not regret having once loved such a cruel man, nor did I ever stop wishing I could break his, and his snake-of-a-wife's neck.

But before I could even get the chance to act, that bastard beat me to it. I was gone before I even realized.

Seriously, the nerve!

That day was supposed to be as dull as ever, but then a guard suddenly barged into my room.

“Signora, the Russos! It’s a raid!”

His brain exploded before the words even registered in my head. Then Dominic Russo stormed in, looking ready to kill.

“Where’s Talia?” he demanded, barely holding back his fury.

“I already told you, I don’t know where your damn wife is,” I repeated the same words I told him on the phone. And it was the truth. I had stayed clear of these bastards for a long time—why would I bother keeping his wife from him?

Dominic fired a warning shot that just barely missed my ear.

“I never miss, Adriana. Give me my wife and child back,” he growled through gritted teeth.

I was baffled. Why did he keep insisting I had his wife? How insulting.

“Screw you, Dominic!” I snapped. “I already told you, I don’t have her! Your bitch means nothing to me!”

With a look of disgust, he rained me with bullets, but I quickly rolled and took cover on the other side of my bed.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, grabbing my gun stash from under the mattress. “When did you start using your ass to think?”

I fired back, taking down his men.

“Enough with your mind games, Adriana. I know all about your threats to Talia. You just can’t leave us alone, can you? Meeting you was the biggest regret of my life!”

His words stung more than any bullet could. He used to tell me I was his ideal woman with a sugary sweet voice. Now, he was treating me like the worst scum.

I stepped out of hiding, facing him head-on, both of us aiming guns at each other’s heads.

“You have no idea how much I wanted to shit on your graves. But I’ve lived in silence for five fucking years. Why would I throw away my peace for some petty bullshit?” I spat, my rage fueling every word.

“Silence?” Dominic scoffed, matching my steps as we closed the distance. “You pathetic liar. You never missed a day sending us threats. Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe you didn’t kidnap my wife? Bullshit!”

“I’ll never admit to something I didn’t do,” I scoffed, adding, “You pig-headed mule.”

“You insufferable bitch!” Dominic screamed, pulling the trigger—only to realize he was out of bullets.

I thought I had the upper hand and aimed to shoot him, but my mag was empty too.

“Fanculo!” I cursed, tossing the gun at his face before bolting for the window. Jumping from the third floor would hurt like hell, but it was better than staying in a room with that bastard.

However, I underestimated Dominic’s cunningness. I made a beeline for my grand escape, only to find his armed men waiting for me.

“You’re not getting out of here alive, Adriana. The Salvatori family ends here,” Dominic’s voice came from behind me.

Rage boiled over as I watched them set fire to our family’s ancestral estate.

“Russo!” I screamed, spinning around, only to freeze when I saw him holding my nanny and the steward—who were like parents to me—at gunpoint.

“Tell me where Talia is, or I’ll put a bullet in their skulls,” Dominic demanded coldly.

What the hell did he expect me to say?

“I told you, I don’t fucking know!”

Without hesitation, he shot the steward dead, and I gasped in shock.

“Last chance,” he said, his voice like ice.

I was torn. As much as I hated to admit it, seeing my nanny crying broke my heart. I couldn’t bear to see her die too.

“Fine!” I shouted. “I kidnapped your wife. Happy now? Just let her go!”

Dominic’s expression twisted with rage, and as our eyes locked, he pointed his gun at me and tattered me with bullets.

That should have been my end—until I jolted awake in my bed, gasping for air and drenched in sweat.

"What the hell just happened?"

I shot up, feeling the darkness pressing in around my room. Confusion swirled in my mind. I should be dead, so why am I still breathing?

I flicked on the light, my eyes scanning the neat, untouched furniture. There was no sign of the bloody chaos I last remembered.

I let out a disbelieving laugh. "Did I just have a freaking nightmare?"

If that was a dream, it was the wildest one I’ve ever had. Maybe it was just some twisted manifestation of unresolved issues. But I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was off.

Then, a wave of déjà vu hit me when my phone rang.

[Unknown Number Calling…]

My heart raced as I answered, hoping it was just a coincidence—until I heard his voice, spewing the same crap, word for word. Suddenly, it was like I was starting that nightmare all over again.

“Damn you, Adriana! Won’t you ever get out of our lives? If anything happens to Talia, I swear you’ll regret it!”

I stared at my phone in disbelief. Could it really just be a string of coincidences?

With my mind in a fog, I instinctively repeated the same words I had in the dream. "What the hell are you talking about?"

“Don’t play games with me, Adriana. You know what you did! Where did you hide Talia?” Dominic screamed, his response eerily identical.

I unconsciously laughed. Once or twice, I could brush it off as a coincidence, but three times? The universe was playing some weird joke on me.

That wasn’t a dream.

Dominic and I were heirs to the most powerful crime families in Viridian City and Ravensgate. While he was the obvious choice to lead the Russo family, I was far down the line of succession in mine. Yet, that didn't stop our paths from crossing.

As I clawed my way up the ranks with bloodied hands to become the Madame of the Salvatori family, our encounters grew increasingly frequent. One way or another, we would have ended up killing each other.

But fate has a twisted sense of humor. What began as heated clashes, fueled by generations of hatred and rivalry, soon ignited into something far more passionate. He and I became lovers.

For once, our families finally found some peace. But it all fell apart when I trusted Talia, who used to be a close friend of mine. I had no idea she was hiding deep-seated envy, so I believed the lies she fed me. She drove a wedge between Dominic and me. Then got me framed for sabotaging Russo's deal with the Russians. I was sure Dominic wouldn’t believe the accusations, but instead, he rallied his people and reignited the old war between our families.

That night, the streets of Viridian were soaked in blood. We both lost so many lives, and I had no choice but to pull all Salvatori operations back to Ravensgate. And the worst part? Talia used our rift to worm her way into Dominic’s life and marry him.

I felt betrayed and wanted revenge, but I couldn’t afford it. I had to swallow my pride and keep my family strong. Eventually, things cooled down as our families started avoiding each other. Years later, I moved on, found someone new, and got engaged. Life was never better—or so I thought.

“Adriana!” Dominic’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Listen, Mr. Russo, Salvatori isn’t a center for missing persons. We don’t care where your damn wife is, so try looking somewhere else,” I snapped, the words coming out like I was reading from a script.

“Damn you! I’ve put up with your crap for years, but this is the last straw! The world doesn’t revolve around you, Adriana!”

Dominic’s voice was full of rage, pressing hard on one of my peeves. I should be feeling hurt and mad from here and acting like an ass, but I felt nothing. My head was clear.

I was never the angel he wanted, and that was exactly why Talia had him under her thumb. She knew how high my pride was and played her cards well to get what she wanted.

But something was not clicking. I was too hot-headed to notice it before and missed such an important clue. Dominic was talking like I’d been meddling in their lives all this time when I hadn’t.

“Are you that bitter because I dumped you?” Dominic kept going.

I scoffed. “Get over yourself, Dominic. You’re not the only man in the world. Why would I waste my time on you?”

“Talia is pregnant, Adriana. You’d better bring my wife and child back safe, or I’ll burn everything you’ve built to the ground,” Dominic warned. “You’ve got less than twenty-four hours.”

And just like that, he hung up.

For whatever reason, my clock started ticking again. I don’t know who or what I owe this second chance to, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste it.

I hated that Dominic knew me so well because he was right—I was arrogant. He gave me that same warning once before, and I shrugged it off. I took pride in Salvatori’s security and power. The Russos could never breach our defenses. But he did, and he destroyed everything, just like he said he would. The only way that was possible was if he had help from the inside.

I got out of bed, scrolled through my contacts, and made a call.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said as soon as it connected. “I need your help with something.”

I swear to God, Dominic and I would be doing this dance again, and I’m going to do it better.

Racing against time, I headed into my office at dawn. Since midnight, I’d been relaying diversion orders to set up a trap and gain the upper hand. At this point, I couldn’t trust anyone inside the fold, so I had to bring in an ace from the outside.

Not long after I sat down at my computer, an encrypted video call came through. I quickly logged in the password and answered.

“Heya, darling! Looks like you’ve gotten yourself caught in a tricky snare. Getting out won’t be easy,” he greeted me.

This guy was a notorious hacker in the business—no one had ever tracked him down or figured out his background. He always hid behind a silly mask, and having his contact was pure luck. Although he looked quite untrustworthy, he would never turn on a client and risk a bad reputation.

“What’ve you got for me, Fox?”

“Everything, darling. Everything, for the right price.”

I frowned. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he had a smug smile behind that mask.

“I’m in a bind here, Fox. Name your price later. Spill.”

“I’ll hold you to that, hun!” His tone shifted, and he immediately shared a file on the screen.

The anger I hadn’t felt last night erupted with the force of a supernova as I looked at the information.

“Someone in the Russo family played you like a fiddle,” Fox began, his tone serious. “That busted Russian deal five years ago wasn’t the end of it. Salvatori has been sabotaging Russo operations from the shadows ever since the Viridian bloodshed.”

“How the hell did I miss all this?” I was in disbelief. Massive operations were happening right under my nose, and I hadn’t caught a whiff of it.

“You would’ve noticed if you hadn’t locked yourself away in Ravensgate.”

I slammed my hand on the table, frustration boiling over. “There’s no way the Russos would take that quietly. Why didn’t they raise hell?”

Fox chuckled, opening another folder. “Oh, they did. Someone’s been busy sweeping everything under the rug.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered, dumbfounded.

The folder was filled with investigation files dating back six years ago—secret transactions, unauthorized psyops, records of Russo’s deals getting compromised, and countless attacks on their businesses. And all of it was being traced back to me.

I was starting to think I was the idiot and not Dominic.

There was only one person who could’ve hidden something this big from me, and I was boiling with rage just thinking about making him pay.

“Don’t get too worked up yet. We’re just getting to the best part.”

He showed me another file, this one detailing Talia’s activities over the past five years. Subtle, but there were clear signs of her involvement in each incident linked to Salvatori. Not only that, but the missing Salvatori funds were being funneled straight into her pockets.

“That swine bitch!”

“I know, right?” Fox’s voice took on a jubilant tone. “Here’s the kicker—Talia’s been missing for the last 24 hours, and Don Russo’s been tearing through every city trying to find her. But guess what? I caught her on CCTV last night.”

“Where was she?”

“She went to a countryside hospital, pregnant, the day she disappeared. But by midnight, she slipped out quietly, and let’s just say, the balloon had popped.”

A dry laugh escaped my lips, almost involuntarily, as the pieces started to click into place.

As I watched the footage, something caught my eye—she wasn’t alone. A man was waiting for her inside an unidentified car, but the footage was too dark to make out his face.

I leaned closer to the screen. “Did you get an ID on the guy in the car?”

Fox went silent, the line thick with tension. “Amore,” he finally said, his voice low, “you know the rules. I can’t divulge a client’s information.”

“Hah!” I laughed in disbelief. Every piece of intel from Fox made me want to set the world on fire.

This guy was part of the reason nothing was reaching me, and I hired him to help me out. Damn irony!

“Do you flirt with all your clients, or just me?” I asked, needing to distract myself from making him an enemy too.

“Only because I like you,” he teased, but I could hear a serious edge to his voice.

“Fine. I'll pay you whatever you ask. I want everything you can dig up on her and the scum she’s working with, especially this guy,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Now, we’re talking!” He rejoiced.