The news came that Raymond had been shot. I was seven months pregnant, but I flew straight across the country to the family's East Coast compound—and got detained the moment I stepped inside.

“Never heard of the Don having a fiancée, and pregnant no less. You've got some nerve running a con on Carraso turf.”

The barrel of a gun pressed cold against my temple. My heart was clawing its way up my throat when I caught sight of a familiar figure across the room.

“Raffina,” I shouted, “tell them I'm your brother-in-law's fiancée.”

Raffina gave a small wave of her hand, and the man holding the gun immediately bent at the waist. “Donna, I didn't know she was a friend of yours. My mistake.”

I stared with wide eyes, unable to make sense of what I was seeing.

Inside the compound, the same man crossed to where Raymond sat on the couch without a scratch on him, and gave a formal nod. “Don, she claims she's your fiancée.”

Raymond took a slow sip of his whiskey and shook his head, just barely.

They dragged me out, and on the way the man slapped me across the face, warning me not to try my con act anywhere near the family again.

I pulled the engagement ring off my finger and went straight to International Financial Tower.

The CEO of International Financial gripped my hand tightly, his eyes crinkling with delight.

“With you back on the team, I'd bet good money our numbers climb another tier this year.”

He paused, his gaze drifting to my bare ring finger, and his tone went careful.

“The Carraso family—they've signed off on this decision of yours?”

I followed his eyes down to my own left hand.

There was a faint indentation around the base of my finger, a small footnote left by the years.

Raymond had slipped that ring on three years ago.

Back then, he'd held it like a promise that would never fade.

“Delores.”

His eyes couldn't hide a thing back then; the moment my name left his lips, the tenderness just poured out of him.

“We'll get engaged first. Once the family's fully clean and legitimate, I'll marry you properly.”

His eyes had been deep as the ocean, and I'd drowned in them completely.

I'd quit my position as one of the top fifty hedge fund managers in the world to manage the Carraso family's funds full-time.

The first year, he told me his brother's death had been too brutal; the whole family was in mourning, and the wedding had to be delayed.

The second year, he told me the feds were sniffing around the eighty-million dirty pile, and getting married now would expose me.

I spent six months laundering it clean for him through dozens of offshore accounts.

After that, he poured a fortune into an estate, promising it would be our home after the wedding.

He planted roses for me in the garden, and the love in his eyes was like those roses, romantic and burning.

I waited without complaint, right up until I got pregnant.

I told him gravely, “I can wait, but the baby can't. Your heir can't come into the world labeled illegitimate.”

He was quiet for a long time before he finally said, “There's one last shipment to handle at the East Coast compound. Before the baby's born, I swear I'll give you what you're owed. Just trust me one more time.”

Until today, when I heard it with my own ears: the men at the compound calling Raffina Donna. And I finally understood that every reason he'd ever given me, every single one, had been just an excuse.

When the fog of lies cleared, what stood underneath was uglier than I'd been ready for.

Raffina was the widow of Marco, the brother Raymond had buried.

Marco had died three years ago, and afterward Raffina had moved into the estate.

At the time, Raymond had held my hand and explained it carefully. “Raffina was Marco's whole world. I promised him I'd take care of her, so from today on, she's family.”

Marco had spent three years undercover in a rival family. When his cover was blown, they shot him fifty-two times and let him bleed out, then dumped him in an alley for the rats.

Raymond had brought home Marco's body, and Raffina along with it.

To make it up to Marco, he made Rafina his blood sister. She gained lifelong protection from the family and free movement across all Carraso territory.

I understood him. Sicilian men bled their whole lives for one reason, and that was to take care of family.

Marco had bled for the family, and Raymond was taking care of his woman. That was fair.

So I'd treated Raffina like family too, sharing everything I had with her.

When she was sad I listened, and when she was sick I took care of her.

She wove herself into our lives.

But the way she looked at Raymond kept growing softer, closer, and the way she addressed him had shifted too. She'd stopped calling him Don. Now it was always Ray, light and familiar.

I'd noticed something was off, but Raymond had brushed it aside with a wave.

“Del, you're overthinking it. She's looking for the closest thing she has to family, for Marco's sake.”

He saw I wasn't happy and tapped the tip of my nose lightly. “Silly girl. I love you, only you, from the beginning.”

I'd nodded and let it go.

I'd told myself the world had stripped her of everything, and she just wanted a little more comfort from Raymond.

I hadn't realized that comfort had migrated into his bed.

The pain hit some kind of threshold inside me, and I made a decision. Raymond was going to be locked out of my world.

Once a heart betrayed me, I was done with it. No exceptions.

I squeezed the CEO's hand firmly and gave him a clean smile, my voice crisp.

“No need for Raymond's approval. He doesn't speak for me, and the decision is already made.”

The CEO blinked, then his face lit up with surprise and pleasure. “Even better. I'll announce it to the board immediately.”

His eyes peered at me over the rim of his glasses with a touch of something wistful.

“Three years ago, Chairman Vincenzo was determined to keep you here. Pity Miss Delores had a better offer at the time.”

He paused. “Would you like me to arrange a meeting? Old friends catching up, nothing more.”

I lifted my brows, then shook my head with a small bitter smile.

Three years ago, Vincenzo had pulled every string he could to keep me at his side, and in the end, I'd chosen Raymond.

After everything that had happened, I couldn't look him in the eye.

The CEO walked me out personally, and as we parted he offered one more compliment.

“Three years gone, and Miss Delores is exactly the same. Sharp as ever.”

He made a slicing motion with his hand. “The world is butter, and you're the hot knife. Cuts clean through with that satisfying sizzle.”

I smiled and waved him off.

I'd barely stepped out in front of my hotel when a familiar voice stopped me cold.

“Delores!”

It was Raymond.

He was darting across the street with one hand thrown out to stop traffic, the horns and shouted curses from drivers chasing him all the way to my feet.

I took a deep breath and slapped him across the face with everything I had.

My hand throbbed and stung, the same as my heart at that exact moment.

The blow turned his head sideways. He held there a second, then slowly straightened and adjusted his tie on the way back up, his face dark as a thundercloud.

“I rushed all the way here to explain myself, and you hit me?”

His voice was quiet, almost gentle, like the air right before a storm breaks.

“There's nothing to explain,” I bit out. “That slap was for the lying.”

“I heard them clearly. Your men were calling Raffina Donna.”

He lit a cigarette and exhaled the smoke straight into my face.

“And? It's just a title.”

“The estate is in your name. I've given you full authority over the family funds. You control everything.”

“Raffina is alone out here. She needs the protection. What's the harm in a title?”

“The family's a ship. I steer, you run the sails, you keep us supplied. What difference does a title make?”

I was so stunned by his nerve that I just stood there, unable to get a word out.

He stomped his foot hard, like he was crushing something underfoot.

“Del, we're both reasonable people. Reasonable people look at substance, not surfaces.”

“The substance is that I love you, and you know it. So don't throw a little-girl tantrum at me.”

He let out a small laugh and tilted his chin up, looking down at me from on high.

“Besides, I handed you the entire Carraso fund portfolio. That's trust. You really want to pick a fight over something this small?”

What a joke.

Three years of loyal service, three years of bleeding for him, and to everyone else I was nothing but his dog.

The promised wife's position had been handed to someone else overnight, and now I was the one being unreasonable?

I held my hand out, palm up.

“Fine. Three years of work for the Carrasos, and I didn't take a single cent.”

“Now I'm taking back what I'm worth.”

I turned to go.

His eyes flickered, then his hand shot out and seized my arm, his face going gray.

“Where do you think you're going? I'm not letting you leave.”

“What gives you the right? Are we legally anything to each other?”

My eyes traveled across his face, flattening every last trace of his arrogance.

Irritation crawled up his face like vines, slow and spreading.

He took a deep drag on the cigarette, and the ember flared bright, throwing shifting light across the side of his face.

“I know you have a temper. That's why I made up the story about getting shot, so I could stay here and handle this mess.”

“I already told you I'd give you what you're owed before the baby comes. Can't you wait even three more months?”

I shook his hand off and smoothed the wrinkles he'd put in my sleeve, my face cold.

He watched me, his patience visibly fraying.

“Del, I'm a Don. Everything I do is for the family. I have my reasons.”

“Just three more months, okay?”

I'd heard this speech too many times.

And the end of it was always the same: another woman with the title of Donna.

I gave him a small, dry smile. “Raymond, you can have your reasons, and I can have my choices.”

His jaw locked. He didn't say a word, but he didn't move out of my way either; he just stood there like a wall.

That was when a small boy, maybe three years old, came toddling over.

He launched himself at Raymond's leg, wrapped his arms around it, tilted his head up and called out, sweet as honey,

“Daddy.”

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning.

My eyes traveled past the boy and found Raffina.

She was walking toward us with two ice cream cones in her hands, smiling.

The world spun around me, and the ground felt like it was sinking under my feet.

Raymond and Raffina had a child.

I'd already braced myself for the breakup, but I hadn't been ready for a bullet like this one.

I staggered back a few steps, my voice shaking.

“She's Marco's widow, the woman you swore to protect like family. This is how you take care of her?”

I pointed at Raffina. “So these three years, all that talk about her being family, it was an act? You two are disgusting.”

The words had barely left my mouth when my cheek exploded into fire.

The crack rang out sharp, and Raymond's hand hung suspended in the air after the slap.

“Shut your mouth.”

His forehead was sheened with sweat, and his face was contorted like someone had just punched him in the gut.

“You don't understand anything—”

He scooped the boy up. “Del, look at him. Look at this child's face. You really have the heart to leave a boy this sweet without a father?”

The kid looked at least half like Raymond.

A wave of nausea rolled through me, and I stared at him in disbelief.

For three years Raymond had spoken to me only with tenderness, and now, not only had he fathered a child with someone else, he'd hit me for that child's mother.

What a joke.

The baby inside me seemed to feel my grief and kicked.

I laid a hand over my belly and straightened my spine, burning every tear off with rage as I locked my eyes on the two of them.

“You can be that boy's father,” I said with a cold laugh, “but you'll never be the father of mine.”

Raymond's head jerked up, his eyes red, and he spaced out his words like nails.

“You really are a cold-blooded woman.”

I gave him a small, contemptuous laugh and said nothing.

I had always been this way. I said no to what I didn't want, straight to its face.

Raffina suddenly started weeping, soft and broken.

“You're the Don. I never thought Del wouldn't even let you have another child.”

“Ray, she must hate me. That's why she hates this baby.”

“If I've caused her so much pain, I can leave. I can make it on my own.”

Raymond set the boy down and turned to comfort her. “Don't worry. I already told you, the Carraso family is your home.”

He whipped around to glare at me. “Raffina is family. I won't allow you to insult her or her child. Apologize. That's family rule.”

I was about to hurl sharp sarcasm at them.

But Raffina got there first.

“Del, don't be upset. I was the same way when I was pregnant. Hormones, probably?”

She tilted her head, putting on a thoughtful little frown.

“Yesterday the accounting team mentioned something. Even Del, someone so sharp, made a mistake on the family books.”

Then she stuck her tongue out and added, “Oh, I don't really understand any of that. It just slipped out.”

Raymond looked at me and clicked his tongue impatiently, his voice going cold.

“Del, when did you become this petty? The family accounts are not your toy for tantrums. Can't you act like an adult?”

I stayed calm in the face of the smear. “Don't underestimate my professionalism. The accounts are in perfect order, and you can audit them anytime.”

Raffina wrapped both arms around Raymond's elbow and pressed herself against him, her voice going soft and clingy.

“Ray, I believe Del's professional, but she needs rest in her last trimester. Let me go over the books with you instead, just for now.”

Raymond's eyes lingered on me a long moment, then he said flatly, “Fine.”

And just like that, the two of them turned and walked off together, back to the compound, without me.

I reached into my purse and took out the sapphire engagement ring.

I smiled.

Then I dropped it straight into the storm drain.