I wiped away my tears and gazed out of the window at the gray sky over Falcone territory, the city where every block below belonged to someone who answered to the Family.

Maybe the only relief was that both Lorenzo and I were finally free.

While I was lost in thought, my phone rang.

It was him.

"Serafina, did you go running to the old man again? You ruined my night with Bianca! I'm warning you. Pull something like this again and I'll cut off every dollar the Family lets you touch."

In the past, I would have begged, apologized and done everything to get back into his good graces.

But now, I just said with an indifferent face.

"Do whatever you want."

He was caught off guard by my indifference. But soon, he sneered.

"I heard you gave birth. Having a child really gives you confidence, huh? But don't forget. I'm the heir to the Falcone throne. As long as you carry this Family's name, I can make your life hell."

I closed my eyes.

I had seen what he was capable of.

The first time I caught him in bed with another woman, I naively went to the old Don for justice, believing the code meant something under that roof.

But all I got in return was his twisted revenge.

He used my mother against me, the life-debt that bound me to this house, forcing me to kneel on the freezing balcony, slapping myself over and over.

That night, I listened to him and his lover making love, their voices echoing through the compound, while I shivered until I passed out.

By the time morning came, my face was swollen, my body frostbitten and the Family's private physician was called to carry me off the record.

That was the night the last of my love for him died in the snow.

After that, no matter how cruel he was, I pretended not to see.

I endured every humiliation and every insult that Falcone dealt.

I forced myself to stay in the role of the Underboss's wife.

But now, my mother was gone.

My child, too.

This union, already a corpse, needed to be buried once and for all.

I hung up the phone without another word.

Then I stood up and quietly twisted the plain band on my finger before contacting a man I trusted at the funeral home to arrange the cremation.

When I returned to the hospital room, I saw Lorenzo standing in the doorway, one of his soldiers a silent shadow at the far end of the corridor.

He drew his eyebrows together as he looked at me, then sneered.

"Why don't you keep acting, pretending to be pitiful anymore?"

He crossed his arms and scanned me with an icy gaze. "Running around so soon after giving birth? Looks like you're in great health. I suppose you won't need any time to rest and recover."

He stepped closer, his voice dripping with malice. "I've decided to move Bianca into the compound. She's young, delicate and doesn't know how to keep a house. Go on and process your discharge papers. Come home and be our maid."

As he leaned in, his lips curled into a cruel smile.

"Your pain is the best stimulant for me in bed."

He stared at me dead on, expecting to see my pained and saddened look.

But I didn't. I met his gaze with an expression as blank as an empty canvas, drained of any emotion.

His amusement faded when he realized there was nothing left for him to destroy. Irritated, he turned to a nurse hovering near the wall. "Where's the baby? Boy or girl? Bring it to me."

The nurse hesitated, her face pale with anxiety.

I helplessly said, "The Don carried away the baby."

Lorenzo looked like he wanted to say more, but his phone rang. The moment he picked up, his face twisted with fury.

Without warning, he slapped me across the face.

"Serafina! What did you do to Bianca?! If anything happens to her, I swear you will regret it!"

Already weak from childbirth, I stumbled back, crashing into the railing of the private room the Family kept off the record. The nurse rushed forward, steadying me.

"Signor Falcone, your wife just gave birth! If you keep this up, you will kill her!"

But Lorenzo didn't care. He acted as if he hadn't heard. With concern for Bianca and without sparing me another glance, he stormed out of the room, his mind solely on her.

The nurse looked at me with a heartbroken face. My pale face, however, didn't have any extra expression. My face was pale, my heart empty. As if all the love and hatred had been consumed in ten years of suffering.

After the check-up, the physician instructed me to rest. It was then that I finally realized the reason why Lorenzo had lost his temper.

The baby had died and the old Don, grief-stricken, retaliated by using every hand he owned to shut Bianca out of every front club and social circle the Family touched. Desperate, she mistakenly thought that I was the one settling the score. She had run to Lorenzo, crying and exaggerating the situation and added more fuel to the fire to complain to him. That was why he had struck me.

But it didn't end there.

As tribute to Bianca, Lorenzo stripped me of my cut of the territory earnings and signed those rights over to her.

To further appease her, he even bought her the naming of twenty stars in the sky and titled each one with Bianca Renna.

During an interview at one of the Family's nightclubs, Bianca flaunted her new diamond ring, smiling sweetly. Her smile snapped into place a half-beat too fast. 'I don't consider myself a mistress. If a woman can't keep her husband's heart, she has no one to blame but herself.'

She ran a finger over her ring, her voice dripping with mockery. 'Besides, the current Signora Falcone married for the Family's money. But me? I only love Lorenzo with all my heart.'

The whole social scene erupted into chaos. Her followers showered her with praise, while others condemned her shamelessness. Some even tagged my account, flooding me with insults, demanding I step aside for her.

I stared at my phone, but instead of anger, I felt… irony.

After so many years, Lorenzo's tricks for coaxing girls haven't changed at all.

Thinking back then, Lorenzo had done the same thing for me.

After learning that I had grown up with nothing and never celebrated a single birthday, he showered me with twenty gifts on my twentieth. From a golden locket for my first year to a house of my own for my twentieth.

He said he wanted to compensate me for the suffering I had endured in the past twenty years.

I still remember that day, he took my hand under the starry sky.

"Serafina, I lost my parents when I was young. But from now on, I will treat your mother as my own. I will start the happiest family with you."

I melted in the depth of his eyes.

Naively, I thought that I had finally found someone to share a lifetime with.

But then, love had an expiration date. And once the novelty wore off, he had simply moved on to someone else.

One night, during one of our so-called dates, he left me stranded on a hillside outside the compound's territory just so he could carry flowers to his new mistress. That night, I walked for miles down the rugged trails alone. My feet were torn and bleeding and my calves were left with lifelong scars that would be hard to erase, a permanent reminder of the price I paid for loving him.

Looking back, I should have known then.

A selfish and sentimental man like him would never settle for just one woman. Our blood-bound union had always been nothing more than his excuse to justify his infidelity.

With that thought settled cold in my chest, I left a comment under Bianca's latest video, the one her followers were already flooding with praise:

Serafina Costa: [I wish you a hundred years of happiness and an early birth]

Not long after the message posted, the video vanished.

Shortly after, my phone rang. Lorenzo. I let it ring out. Then, with the same cold indifference he had shown me for ten years under the Falcone roof, I blocked his number.

I remembered then. Today was the day they returned my mother's ashes to me. I told the Family's private physician what I needed and signed myself out ahead of the schedule he'd set. Dr. Bruno didn't like the color of me, that much was plain, and he took it upon himself to come along.

When they placed my mother's urn in my hands, I did not fall apart the way I had braced for. Instead something deep inside me finally snapped. The last chain binding me to this wretched life, the debt that had bought and sold me, gone.

I drew a breath and murmured a quiet goodbye to Dr. Bruno before heading back to the Falcone compound to pack my things.

The moment I crossed into the living room I saw two people. Lorenzo and Bianca, tangled together on the sofa.

At the sight of me, Bianca hurried the zipper of her dress up her spine. But no amount of covering could hide the red marks on her skin, the evidence of what they'd been doing. Her hand went to the diamond at her throat, touching it as if to remind herself what she was worth here.

I felt nothing. No anger. No heartbreak. I simply turned and walked to the bedroom as though I'd seen nothing at all, as though the two of them were no more than ghosts drifting through a house that had never been mine.

By the time I finished packing, Bianca was gone. Lorenzo remained, drinking alone. The bottle beside him was already half spent, and he poured again without once glancing at the glass.

As I came out with my suitcase, he finally looked up. The low light of the room cut shadows across his face, and I could read nothing there.

"Serafina, where were you today?" he asked.

"None of your business."

I had no wish to say more, but Lorenzo set the wine glass down and it slipped from his fingers.

He crossed the room to me in three long strides.

"Don't play so pure and untouchable," he sneered. "You think I don't know? You were out whoring around, weren't you?"

I went still. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Serafina, are you so starved for company?" His voice dropped low, quiet in the way that men in this Family go quiet before something breaks. "You think I've been neglecting you, so you ran into someone else's arms. That it? Fine. For your loneliness, I'll be the one to fulfill you."

And with that he tore at my clothes and dragged my hand toward the bed.

Panic surged through me. I fought him, thrashing, and got out, "Lorenzo, are you insane?! I just gave birth!"

But he wasn't listening. Like a wild animal, he bit down on my shoulder, his breath hot and ragged against my skin.

Rage and disgust flooded through me. With everything I had left, I shoved him back and struck him across the face.

The room went still for a fraction of a second. Even the silence seemed to be holding its breath.

Then his eyes darkened.

The enraged Lorenzo would not be the one to give ground. Without hesitation he seized the glass bottle from the table and hurled it at me.

Bang! !!

Pain exploded across my forehead, and warm blood trickled down my face.

Lorenzo froze for a split second, then moved toward me on instinct, as if to catch what he'd already broken.

"Why don't you know how to dodge," he muttered under his breath.

I stumbled back a few steps, trying to find my footing, trying to shape words. But my body gave out first. The world blurred, then faded into black.