Everyone in the underworld knew Rosalie Thorne, the "Thorn Principessa" of the North. Wild, rebellious, notorious.

Street racing, high-stakes gambling, guns, and drinking, she had mastered them all. The rose-and-thorn tattoo on the nape of her neck drove countless men wild.

But what they didn't know was that for Rocco, the new mob boss of the South, a single sentence, "I prefer a more obedient woman," was all it took.

At his word, I had the tattoo lasered off and swapped my leathers for long, conservative dresses.

I am Rosalie. For five years, I hid my identity and played the porcelain doll Rocco wanted.

Until the night he eliminated all his rivals and was crowned the new Don of the South.

That was when he let his men bow to another woman, hailing her as their "Donna."

I watched Rocco. The same hands that had just executed a traitor were now gently placing a pair of red high heels on the feet of his adoptive sister, Vivian.

"Rosalie, she has a temper. She'll make a scene if she doesn't get the title."

"You're the good one, the obedient one. Just let her have this."

That day, I walked straight out into the rain and never looked back.

I was never truly obedient. I just made myself smaller for him.

My family had already chosen a husband for me.

They had been waiting five years, just for me to say yes.

Everyone in the underworld knew Rosalie Thorne, the "Thorn Principessa" of the North. Wild, rebellious, notorious.

Street racing, high-stakes gambling, guns, and drinking, she had mastered them all. The rose-and-thorn tattoo on the nape of her neck drove countless men wild.

But what they didn't know was that for Rocco, the new mob boss of the South, a single sentence, "I prefer a more obedient woman," was all it took.

At his word, I had the tattoo lasered off and swapped my leathers for long, conservative dresses.

I am Rosalie. For five years, I hid my identity and played the porcelain doll Rocco wanted.

Until the night he eliminated all his rivals and was crowned the new Don of the South.

That was when he let his men bow to another woman, hailing her as their "Donna."

I watched Rocco. The same hands that had just executed a traitor were now gently placing a pair of red high heels on the feet of his adoptive sister, Vivian.

"Rosalie, she has a temper. She'll make a scene if she doesn't get the title."

"You're the good one, the obedient one. Just let her have this."

That day, I walked straight out into the rain and never looked back.

I was never truly obedient. I just made myself smaller for him.

My family had already chosen a husband for me.

They had been waiting five years, just for me to say yes.

...

The night Rocco was crowned Don, he pinned me to the bed and took me with a rough hunger, driving into me until I was breathless and spent.

Only when I was on the verge of fainting did he finally let me go.

I lay limp in the sheets, my body trembling with a satisfying ache.

On the floor, my expensive lace lingerie lay in shreds.

"Rocco," my voice was raw and hoarse. "Are you trying to kill me?"

He had the sated look of a predator after a feast, and a terrifyingly unfamiliar air about him.

Rocco leaned against the headboard, clipping an expensive Cuban cigar.

Blue smoke curled upwards, blurring his deep, cold eyes.

"Rosalie, you've been with me for five years now, haven't you?"

He blew out a ring of smoke. "Back then, when I was fighting my way to the top, I needed someone quiet and submissive, like you."

"But now, being too obedient and weak... it's boring."

He turned his head, his eyes scanning my bare shoulders. "You're missing that wild streak. It's boring."

His tone was teasing, but a chill ran down my spine.

He said I lacked wildness.

So who had the wildness he craved now?

I suppressed the bitter bile rising in my throat and reached for the cigar between his fingers, taking a hard drag.

I hadn't touched one in so long. The harsh tobacco smoke seared my lungs, and I coughed until the corners of my eyes were red.

Rocco frowned, snatching the cigar back. His fingertips, cool against my skin, wiped away a tear from the corner of my eye.

"That's enough. Don't try so hard. It doesn't suit you."

My hand froze in mid-air.

For a moment, I couldn't tell if the bitterness in my throat was from the smoke or from my own heart.

"Rocco, I don't understand. I thought you liked obedient women."

He blew out a ring of smoke. The dim wall sconce cast his features in a cruel, heartless light.

"That was then. Now, I'm the King of the South. A woman who is too docile and well-behaved is is simply unpresentable."

"The woman by my side needs to be a wildfire, a loaded gun ready to go off at any moment."

He paused, a fiery obsession I'd never seen before flickering in his eyes.

"Someone like Vivian... is nice."

His voice was calm, but it hurt me.

Unpresentable?

To please him, I gave up cigars, gave up the thrill of the card table. A single "I don't like tattoos" from him had me erasing the symbol of my honor until nothing was left.

I chiseled away pieces of myself, bone and soul, to fit the mold he wanted.

And now he was telling me he'd outgrown that mold.

As for Vivian, the name was a nail driven into my heart.

Three years ago, Rocco brought her into his private club, a woman in a slit red dress, her hair a wild cascade of curls.

I remember it clearly. His voice was uncharacteristically gentle, his eyes crinkling with a smile. "Rosalie, this is Vivian, my adoptive sister. She just got back from Europe."

Vivian, her nails a garish scarlet, let out a disdainful laugh as she scanned me from head to toe.

"Rocco always said he kept a little saint at home. So that's you."

"You look so boring. Like a glass of water."

Rocco just ruffled her hair affectionately and turned to me.

"Vivian has been wild since she was a kid. She speaks her mind. You're older, so just be patient with her."

Back then, I just nodded meekly, but my heart felt like it had been stung.

He had never defended me like that in front of others.

The memory overlapped with the present.

I looked at Rocco's cold face, finally unable to stop myself from challenging him.

"Rocco, if she's so wonderful..."

Before I could finish, Rocco's private phone rang.

The custom ringtone. I didn't have to guess who it was.

He immediately held up a hand, silencing me.

A second later, he answered, his cold demeanor melting into raw urgency.

"What? Vivian fell at the stables?"

"I'm coming over right now."

Rocco didn't even spare me another glance. He strode from the room, fastening the cuffs of his shirt as he went.

At the door, he paused. "I have a strategy meeting with the Capos. I won't be back tonight."

"And for the victory gala in three days, wear a new, expensive dress."

"Throw out those cheap, well-behaved rags. Don't embarrass me."

The door slammed shut.

I sat rigidly on the disheveled, custom-made Italian bed, my fingertips trembling.

Slowly, I raised a hand to the bare skin on the nape of my neck.

The proud rose-and-thorn of the Thorne family had once bloomed there.

To get rid of it, I had endured three laser removal sessions. I could still smell the stench of my own burning flesh.

That year, Rocco was just a low-level enforcer in Little Italy who couldn't even afford a bulletproof vest.

We were crammed into a shitty apartment that stank of mold and sewage.

Outside the window, we could hear the shouts of our enemies hunting for him. Inside, we had a single, paint-chipped pistol.

He sat on the floor, covered in blood, in the dark and cramped room.

He never knew that the innocent girl in the white dress before him had all but disowned her family and abandoned her name for him.

"Rosalie, are you sure about this?"

His eyes then were like those of a cornered, lone wolf, his voice trembling.

"I'm a rat in the Southmi gutter. If you stay with me, you'll be living on a knife's edge for the rest of your life."

"I can't give you the life you want."

I was so stupid back then.

I thought this was romance. I thought betraying the world for one man was the greatest love of all.

I thought he loved me as much as I loved him. I thought one day, I would be his Donna.

So I knelt on the filthy floor and wrapped my arms around him, his body reeking of blood.

"Rocco, I don't care about that life."

"I only care about you."

He shuddered, and the scorching heat of his chest nearly set me on fire.

I fought alongside Rocco for territory on the streets of the South. I took a bullet for him, stitched his wounds.

In this city of gunpowder, our lives were tied together.

Rocco once swore an oath on that leaky roof.

He said that the moment he became Don, the very first thing he would do was give me the grandest wedding in all of America.

Now, he was indeed the emperor of the underworld.

But his first words to me were that I wasn't fit to stand beside him.

I wiped a tear from my eye and dug out the encrypted, long-forgotten phone from the back of the nightstand drawer.

I dragged a name from my blocked list.

In the next second, the other side called back.

When the call connected, there was no sound immediately from the other end, only a sharp intake of breath.

A joyous roar came through the phone, his voice cracking with emotion.

"Rosalie?! You finally turned on your phone?"

"Five years! My Principessa! You hid from me for five years for that piece of trash from the gutters!"

"Do you know how many times I wanted to bring my men, kick down the door, and kidnap you back? I..."

Julian Gravano. The heir to the Gravano family, my childhood friend.

He hadn't changed a bit. Or rather, he'd only gotten crazier.

"Julian," I cut him off, my voice calm. "I want to come home."

You were right, Rocco.

Obedient women don't survive in this world.

So I'm done pretending.

The real me will never be a trophy wife by your side.

Three days later, the Poseidon, the South's most luxurious seaside casino hotel, was a glittering spectacle of light and champagne.

This was Rocco's victory gala, an event to divide the spoils of war.

Tonight, the balance of power in Southmi's underworld would be redrawn.

I wasn't here to fight for everything, but I had to claim my share.

It was the price for five years of my youth.

I had changed into a deep-V silver sequin gown, slit to the top of my thigh.

Facing the full-length mirror, I gave myself a sharp, smoky eye and painted my lips the brightest shade of red.

The Rosalie who always kept her head down was dead.

In her place stood the Thorn Principessa of the Thorne family.

As I pushed open the two heavy, gilded doors of the banquet hall, Rocco was lounging in the high-backed chair at the head table, swirling a glass of champagne.

Vivian was pressed against his side, her tight red dress accentuating her exaggerated curves.

As I approached, a newly promoted Capo, eager to move up, raised his glass and bowed to Vivian with a fawning smile.

"To our future Donna! Please, drink as you wish!"

The triumph on Vivian's face was impossible to miss.

And Rocco, his back to the entrance, didn't stop it. He just let it happen.

My heart felt like it had been squeezed in a fist, a pain so sharp it made me want to vomit.

You're pathetic, Rosalie. Still feeling pain for this man, even now.

I took a deep breath, straightened my spine, and walked toward them, clinging to my last shred of dignity.

Vivian saw me first.

She looked me up and down, her eyes sweeping over my startling new look, a smirk playing on her red lips.

"Well, well, Rosalie? Finally decided to ditch the nun's habit?"

"Dressed like that... are you trying to copy me? How pathetic."

The surrounding chatter seemed to pause, and all eyes turned to us.

I ignored her, my gaze fixed on Rocco.

"Rocco, I'm not dead yet, and you're already letting your men call someone else Donna?"

My voice wasn't loud, but it sliced through the jazz music.

Rocco's hand, holding the wine glass, paused.

He slowly turned around. The moment he saw me, a flash of pure astonishment crossed his cold eyes.

But it was quickly replaced by that familiar, entitled arrogance.

"Rosalie, don't be so petty. Vivian and I grew up together. The men are just trying to get on her good side."

"I spoiled her rotten. If I don't let her have her way, she'll throw a fit."

"It's just a title. You've always been generous. What's the harm in letting her have it?"

Donna. Such a sacred title, and he was telling me to let her have it.

I looked at the man before me and felt like the past five years had been an absurd joke.

The sharp pain in my chest miraculously vanished, leaving only a dead, gray calm.

I smiled.

"Fine," I said softly. "Since you asked, I'll let her have it."

Rocco's expression visibly relaxed, probably thinking I had gone back to being the meek woman who would swallow any humiliation.

He was wrong.

"Vivian, since I've given you the title of Donna, is there anything else you want?"

I turned to the gloating woman. "Our last meeting was so rushed, I didn't prepare a gift. Ask for anything today, and it's yours."

Vivian's eyes lit up as she pointed to the ruby ring on my finger.

"Perfect. Rosalie, I think that ring would go well with my dress. Since you're being so generous, give it to me."

Everyone's eyes focused on my hand.

The ring wasn't exceptionally valuable, but it was one-of-a-kind.

Three years ago, after fighting his way through a hail of bullets to secure control of the Southmi port, Rocco had sketched the design himself.

He said the ruby was his true heart—proof of his absolute loyalty to me, and a symbol of my future as his Donna.

He had given me many more expensive gifts over the years, but this was the only one I always wore.

Now, Vivian was publicly demanding this heart.

Rocco frowned and gave a low shout:

"Vivian, stop messing around. That ruby is out of style. If you want jewelry, I'll buy you something better."

In that reprimand, there wasn't much anger, only indulgence.

I looked at the smug entitlement on Vivian's face, then at the casual indifference in Rocco's eyes.

I'd had enough.

I smiled even more brilliantly. "If you like it so much, it's yours."

While Rocco watched in shock, I raised my hand without hesitation and pulled the ring from my finger.

The cold metal slid across my skin, sending a subtle shiver through me.

As if what I was removing wasn't a ring, but an organ connected to my flesh and blood.

"Rosalie! What are you doing?!" Rocco shot to his feet, his face ashen.

I frowned, my eyes full of tears I was fighting to hold back.

Didn't you say the ruby, your true heart, was out of style?

Now that I'm giving up everything, what are you getting so worked up about?

"Catch, Vivian. Here's the heart you wanted."

With a flick of my wrist.

The ring, laden with so many broken promises, was tossed like a piece of trash at Vivian's high-heeled feet.

The room fell silent. I didn't look at anyone.

"Rocco, let's just say we..."

"Don't say it!"

He lunged forward to stop me, but Vivian blocked his path.

A stiff smile remained on my face, but real tears streamed from my eyes.

"Let's say our debts are settled."

Without another glance at him, I turned and walked away.

Behind me, I heard Vivian's theatrical shriek.

"Rosalie, are you insane?! Rocco gave that to you! How could you just throw it on the ground! You're so ungrateful!"

"Well, if you don't want it, it's mine..."

Just as she bent down, her fingers reaching for the ring.

A gunshot exploded through the room.

Vivian screamed, yanking her hand back and cowering on the floor, trembling.

Rocco stood with his silver Beretta in one hand, the muzzle still smoking.

His eyes were terrifyingly dark, his voice a blade of ice.

"Anyone touches it, and I'll break their arm."

"I want to see who's brave enough to pick it up tonight."