On my wedding day, my fiancé's first love walked in holding a little boy and named the groom as the child's father. My mother saw it, and her heart gave out. She died right there on the floor.

The wedding collapsed and I went down with it, fainting in front of everyone. When I came to, my oldest friend, Lucian Graves, was sitting beside me.

He held me tightly in his arms. He took care of all my mother’s funeral arrangements for me. When the reporters swarmed, he put himself between me and the cameras.

He cleared my name over the wedding, and then he got down on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him, swearing he would take care of me for the rest of my life.

After marriage, we became the happiest couple in our circle.

Then, on our first anniversary, I opened the chat history on his phone.

"Don, thank God you set up that wedding disruption. My son and I are happy now."

"You did get her mother killed, though. Don't blame yourself. She's the one who insisted on marrying a man who was never hers."

The replies were from Lucian.

"Nothing to blame myself for. It was just an accident."

"As long as you're happy, there's nothing I won't do."

The ground dropped out from under me, and the phone hit the floor.

"What's wrong, Vivian?"

Lucian's voice came through the bathroom door.

I grabbed the phone off the tile and kept my voice flat. "Nothing. A vase tipped over."

I pressed in the lock code, my birthday, and my eyes stayed nailed to the screen.

"Don, if our families weren't sworn enemies, you're the one I'd want to marry."

"But don't worry, I don't love Julian. The second I get what's mine, I'm coming to you."

"Even if you have to hide me away, even if I'm only ever the other woman, I don't care. And if you don't want my son…"

By the timestamps, Lucian hadn't made her wait a single second for the reply.

"I'll take care of your son to the end, and I will never let you be the other woman."

"As for Vivian, I've already had her dosed. The doctor says she'll never be able to have children."

"When the time comes, that's the reason we'll use to push her out of the family."

"Once you've taken what belongs to you and you're free of the Sloanes, I'll clear the way for you and bring you into the Graves house myself."

By the last line my face was soaked, and it felt like a hand had closed around my throat.

I didn't snap out of it until the water in the bathroom shut off.

I copied the whole thread and dragged my sleeve across my face.

When my mother died and my fiancé betrayed me, the storm of public opinion nearly drove me out of my mind.

The depression took me down hard, and more than once I wanted to die to be with her.

Every time, it was Lucian who pulled me back from the edge.

He killed the rumors for me, and he hit my fiancé Julian Ashford's businesses hard enough to bleed them.

He did it just to take the edge off the bitterness I couldn't shake.

I dug my nails into my palm and forced myself calm.

But the moment Lucian came out, he caught the red rimming my eyes in a single look.

His step stalled, and then he crossed the room to me.

"What is it?"

I pushed his hand away and turned my face from his.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about my mother."

Lucian looked at me for a few seconds.

The next moment, the Don whom every family in Sicily feared dropped to one knee in front of me.

He lifted his hand and ran his thumb slowly along the corner of my eye.

"Vivian. Look at me."

I didn't move.

He took my chin and tipped my face down to his.

"I told you."

"As long as I'm breathing, you'll never be alone again."

Then he stood, pulled me hard against his chest, and held me like he was giving me every ounce of safety in the world.

"Cry if you want to."

"I'll cancel my meetings tomorrow and take you to see your mother."

"I'll have the road to the cemetery closed off ahead of time. Stay as long as you want."

He sounded sincere, but with my back to him, there wasn't a trace of feeling left in me.

I let the silence stretch a long time before I spoke, my voice raw.

"Lucian."

"Security was airtight that day. So tell me, how exactly did Camilla Sloane get in?"

His body went visibly stiff, and then he smoothed it over.

"Vivian, stop dwelling on that day."

"You can't lock yourself in with the dead and the past forever. Understand?"

That night Lucian held me to sleep the way he always did, and gave me my sedative the way he always did.

This time I didn't swallow it. I tucked it into my cheek and spat it into my palm, and I had never felt so clear-headed in my life.

In the middle of the night, Lucian went out to the balcony to take a call.

"Every trace from the wedding day, wipe it clean."

"Surveillance, entry logs, the guest list. Don't leave a single one."

I curled deeper under the covers, my eyes going cold, and then I heard him say more.

"And buy that discontinued jewelry set. I want it delivered before March seventh."

The man on the other end perked right up.

"For the Donna, sir? I remember she loved that set too."

Lucian went quiet for a beat, and his voice came back impatient.

"Just handle it as I told you. Don't ask me pointless questions."

He hung up, eased back into bed, and carefully looped an arm around my waist.

I couldn't bring myself to smile.

Because I knew that March seventh was Camilla Sloane's birthday.

In the dead hours before dawn, once Lucian was deep asleep, I slipped downstairs and called Dr. Reed, the Lockwood family physician.

"Dr. Reed, I need you to set up a procedure for me. I want to stage my own death."

Then I added, my voice catching, "Please don't ask me why."

There wasn't a reason anyway. It was simply the only way out from under Lucian Graves.

After I hung up, I stood at the window and stared out at the garden Lucian had built for me.

Back then he'd poured everything he had into making me happy, from a single gift to an entire garden.

In the end, all of it was fake.

He was the one who'd walked me into hell with his own two hands.

So in return, it was only fair that I let him taste hell too.

Let everyone find out how their flawlessly loyal Don secretly doted on an enemy's daughter.

And how he destroyed the wife he was supposed to love more than anything, with his own hands.

I wanted to see whether he could keep the act going after that.

I wiped my face dry, and I didn't spare the garden behind me another ounce of regret.

On my way back to the bedroom, I passed the study and saw the light still on.

My psychotherapy schedule for next week was sitting on the desk.

I picked it up and saw the dense markings in his handwriting, and something behind my nose stung.

The next second, I shoved the paper back down against the desk.

There was a thud.

The bottom drawer jolted half an inch out, leaving a thin gap.

My hand went still.

After a moment, I bent down anyway and pulled it open.

There were no documents inside, and no gun.

Just a stack of yellowed letters.

The top one had a curled corner, and the signature beneath it was perfectly clear.

Camilla Sloane.

They were love letters Lucian had written her when they were young.

I read them one by one, and by the end the pages were soaked through, with not a single tear left in me.

So the Don who'd grown cold enough to seem barely human had once been a boy with his whole heart laid open.

He'd buried it so deep that even I, his close friend of years, never knew this hidden affection.

That night I sat against the headboard and didn't sleep at all.

Early the next morning, Lucian offered to take me to my mother's grave.

I shook my head and said, "Don't bother."

He blinked.

I kept my eyes down and my voice level. "Last night just got on top of me. Don't you have meetings today? Work comes first."

He studied me for a long while, and in the end he let it go.

But only I knew the truth.

It wasn't that I didn't want to see my mother.

It was that a murderer like Lucian Graves had no right standing in front of her headstone.

Lucian dropped it, only telling me before he left that I'd be going with him to a banquet that night.

I had no heart for getting ready. I had a gynecology appointment that afternoon and barely changed clothes before it was time.

It wasn't until I arrived that I saw Julian Ashford standing in the middle of the hall with Camilla Sloane on his arm.

Camilla was dressed to dazzle, planted dead center like the world had been born to circle around her.

She had a boy by the hand, dressed up like a little prince.

The moment Julian saw me, my old fiancé's eyes slid away.

But Camilla led the child straight toward me.

"Vivian, it's been too long."

"What happened back then, I had my own reasons."

"But seeing you married to the Don, seeing you this happy, honestly it takes a weight off me."

The whole time she said it, her eyes were on Lucian.

And when he looked down at her, something in his face went noticeably soft.

Right then someone nearby spoke up with a laugh.

"If you ask me, Miss Sloane's the one who's truly happy."

"A devoted husband, a beautiful son. Now that's a real family."

The man beside her changed color the instant it landed and yanked her aside.

"Watch your mouth. The Don is right here."

The room dropped quiet.

Worried I'd read too much into it, Lucian took my hand and bent to murmur at my ear.

"Vivian, we'll have children too, one day."

I looked at him and the whole thing struck me as absurd.

Right then my phone buzzed. It was the test results from Dr. Reed.

"Results are in. Confirmed long-term residue from abortive medication."

"The damage to your uterus is severe. You can no longer conceive."

"It's also affected your nervous system, which is why the depression keeps getting worse."

I read it word by word, and the room blurred.

"What are you looking at?"

Lucian came over, and I killed the screen at once and let out a soft breath. "Nothing."

He was about to say something.

Right then someone's hand slipped, and red wine splashed across Camilla's son.

Lucian's grip on his glass snapped tight.

I saw it clearly. He took half a step forward, on instinct.

But Julian had already crouched first, wiping the wine off the boy's face.

Camilla bent down too, soothing him in a low voice.

Lucian stayed where he was, his face dark.

The man who'd spilled it apologized in a rush, and others smoothed it over, saying the boy was fine, a change of clothes and it was forgotten.

But Lucian only turned and said low to one of his men.

"Make a note of that one."

"He's not to be invited to a Graves event again."

His voice was quiet, but I still caught it.

So this was what it meant to love a woman so much you loved her child too, even a child that wasn't his.

A cold, hollow feeling came over me. I made an excuse about getting some air and went out to the back garden alone.

Before long, the boy came running out after me.

He crouched at the edge of the pool to play in the water, no adult watching him, leaning so far his upper body nearly hung over the surface.

My chest tightened, and I went toward him without thinking.

His foot slid out from under him, and just as he was about to pitch into the pool, I lunged and caught him by the arm.

I hadn't even exhaled before Camilla's voice cut sharp across the garden.

"Vivian, why would you push my son?"

People came rushing over in an instant.

Once the boy was clear of the water, Camilla crushed him to her chest, sobbing like she couldn't breathe.

"What happened before was my fault, and I apologized for it. If you can't let it go, come at me. What kind of person takes it out on a child!"

With Lucian standing right there, no one said the cruelest things out loud, but the way they looked at me had clearly soured.

Julian's face went cold too. His eyes went past me, straight to Lucian.

"Don."

"My family expects an answer for this."

After that the guests slowly drifted off.

I turned to Lucian, my voice gone badly hoarse.

"I didn't push him. I just saw him about to go in, so I—"

But before I could finish, Lucian cut me off, cold as ice.

"Come in."

He turned and walked toward the study, without sparing me so much as a glance.

The door had barely shut before Lucian rounded on me, his face like iron.

"Vivian."

"How much longer are you going to trap yourself in the past?"

I froze in place.

Lucian came toward me a step at a time, his voice sinking lower.

"Today it's shoving someone."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Will you not stop until you kill them in front of everyone?"

I stared at him, unable to believe it.

For a second, the old days came back to me.

After my mother died, he brought in the best therapist in the area for me.

He promised, over and over, that he'd be patient and walk me out of the past.

And now, the moment Camilla Sloane was involved, every bit of that act fell apart.

Lucian watched my eyes redden and only frowned harder, like his patience had run out.

"Enough."

"This is going to be a real mess."

"The Ashfords won't let it go easily, and I'm the one who has to clean up after you."

I stared at him, my throat blocked solid, unable to get out a single word.

But Lucian had already turned away, done looking at me.

"If you're going to cry, don't do it here. I don't have time for your feelings."

"Get out."

I didn't try to explain again. I turned and walked out of the study.

The moment the door shut, the tears came down.

But this time there was no hurt in them. There was only hatred.

Calm as still water, I called the Lockwood family's investigators. "For the next month, I want eyes on Camilla Sloane every single second."

Lucian was careful, and he never left an obvious handle for anyone to grab.

But Camilla was different.

She loved to show off, loved to win, loved watching me come apart.

Keep her in frame long enough and she would hand me exactly what I needed.

The kind of thing that would burn Lucian Graves's name to the ground.

It should have been a minor thing, but the Ashfords sank their teeth in and wouldn't let go.

I didn't have to guess who was stirring it up from behind. Camilla wanted me humiliated.

So the whole circle heard about it, until it grew bad enough to force a meeting of the family heads.

In the meeting room, every face that turned to me was cold.

I knew they'd never liked me to begin with.

After the circus at my wedding, my name had been mud out there.

Now that something like this had happened, they had all the more reason to come after me.

Someone gave a cold laugh.

"She really is that man's daughter. She can blow a nothing incident up until the whole world knows, clearly just to put the Graves family on the spot."

Then he turned to me, his voice dripping with mockery.

"Take your revenge if you must, Donna, but could you not pick somewhere with no witnesses?"

"Going after a child in front of everyone is beyond reckless."

The room went still for a beat.

"Let's focus on a fix. This has blown up, and the Ashfords won't budge."

"Wasn't the Donna hospitalized for psychiatric issues before? We could say she was triggered, lost control, and made a mistake in the moment. That gives the Ashfords their explanation and makes it easy to sell outside too."

My fingertips went rigid, and it was a long time before I slowly lifted my head to look at them.

"So what?"

"You're going to nail me down as a madwoman?"

When I finished, the room fell silent.

I looked at Lucian.

He sat at the head of the table, quiet for a moment, then finally said, flatly:

"It's not a bad idea."

When the meeting broke up, people filed out one by one.

I stayed where I was, hands and feet cold, unable to move for a long time.

The deputy paused as he passed me, his voice full of contempt.

"Thankfully, the Don keeps business and personal apart."

"Otherwise, if this had really blown up, who knows how far you'd have dragged the Graves family down."

Then he gave me a cold look.

"If the Donna's so worried about her reputation, she shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Marrying you was the worst deal the Don ever made."

In that moment, it felt like the biggest joke I'd ever heard.

Business and personal?

If the woman across the table had been anyone but Camilla Sloane, he'd never have treated me like this.

The one who betrayed the family first was him.

Not long after, Lucian found me.

"Stay in your room for a while. Let the heat die down."

Then he had things sent up: books, records, art supplies, several sets of expensive jewelry.

All the things I used to love.

At the end, he touched my hair, his voice tired. "Vivian, be good. Stop causing trouble."

It took me a few days to realize that letting the heat die down really meant two guards posted outside my door.

I couldn't even walk down to the garden without Lucian's say-so first.

Three days in, Dr. Reed messaged me.

"Miss Lockwood, are we still going ahead with the thing you asked about?"

Yes. Of course we were going ahead.

The problem was, I couldn't even get out the door.

First I said my condition had relapsed and I needed to see Dr. Reed at once.

But half an hour later, the house doctor and the psychiatrist walked into the villa together instead.

Then I took a fall down the stairs and said the private doctors weren't enough, that I needed a hospital.

But they checked me over and only said it was nothing serious, a few days of rest and I'd be fine.

That was the moment my patience finally ran out for good.

That night I broke everything in the room I could break, letting them see the state I was in.

The guards had no choice but to call Lucian, and the voice on the other end was edged with impatience.

"Vivian, I'm in the middle of cleaning up the mess she left behind."

"Can you not make my life harder?"

Then the line went dead.

I sat in the wreckage, hair in my face, my eyes blank.

Cleaning up her mess?

Then what were these, the photos the investigators had just sent me?

In them, Lucian had taken Camilla and her son to an amusement park, even letting the boy ride on his shoulders.

In another, the two of them sat on a bench by the water at dusk, watching the sun go down, their silhouettes exactly like a couple in love.

He'd even traded his usual black suit for the kind of pale coat Julian always wore.

And he'd never had any use for Julian Ashford.

I glanced at the calendar. It was March seventh.

He was probably busy celebrating Camilla's birthday.

So this was what he meant by handling it.

The maid took one look at the state of me, sighed, and turned to leave.

The next second, someone let out a cry of alarm.

"Donna! What are you doing?"

Blood ran from my wrist and dripped off my fingertips to the floor.

There was a broken shard of the vase still in my hand.

I leaned back into the wreckage and stared up at the ceiling, hollowed out.

"Now. Can I go out now."

The maid's screaming carried, and the whole villa went into chaos.

They got me into a car fast.

The guards meant to take me to the private hospital the Graves family always used.

But the moment the car pulled out, I grabbed the sleeve of the man beside me, my voice shaking so hard it was barely audible.

"Dr. Reed."

"Take me to Dr. Reed."

The men in the car traded a look.

They all knew Dr. Reed had handled my therapy from the start, so they thought nothing of it and turned the car around at once.

Half an hour later, they wheeled me into the emergency room.

When the doors of the emergency room shut, the corridor went dead silent.

I didn't know how long it was before Dr. Reed came out and pulled down his mask.

"I'm sorry."

"We did everything we could."

Every face in the hall went white.

When they called Lucian, the line rang a long time before he picked up. He was fastening that gemstone necklace around Camilla's neck.

His voice was thick with the irritation of being interrupted.

"Acting up again?"

"Tell her I'll come see her later."

The guard held the phone, his voice shaking so badly it barely held together.

"Don…"

"The Donna. She took her own life. We couldn't save her."

The other end went suddenly silent.