My mother’s happy words choked the fight right out of my throat.

I couldn’t tell her the cruel truth. Not now.

"Mom... I'm a little tired. I'll call you back later," I said quickly, hanging up. My hands and feet felt like ice.

Blair stepped forward, the crunch of broken glass under his leather shoes grating on my nerves.

"You heard her. The invitations are out. Your mother is thrilled." He braced his hands on the vanity, trapping me against it. "The wedding is set. The entire underworld is watching us. If we call it off now, the Hillrose and Falcone families will be a laughingstock."

He knew my weakness. He always knew how to use my family to control me.

"So?" I laughed, a bitter, angry sound, and tilted my head back to glare into his blue eyes. "So you're using our families' honor to blackmail me into playing the fool in some three-person 'wedding of the century'?"

"Don't be dramatic, Flora," Blair said, his brow tight. "We built an empire together. This union is what's best for both our families. Are you really going to throw away our six years, everything we've built, over something so insignificant? That's not the woman I know."

"Insignificant?" I shoved him away, my chest heaving. "You married another woman! You made me the other woman without me even knowing! And you call that insignificant?!"

"It's a worthless piece of paper!" Blair's patience finally snapped. He grabbed my wrist, his voice a low growl. "Mia has nothing to do with the business. She's a ghost. She's nothing!"

"Nothing?" I laughed coldly, tears burning my eyes. "But the law calls her Mrs. Falcone! So what the hell does that make me? The Don's dirty little secret?"

"Are you crazy? Who would dare call you that?" Blair yanked me into his arms, crushing my struggles against his hard chest. His breath was hot on my neck. "The wedding is happening. The world will see you standing by my side. And our heir will come from you, Flora, and only you. You will be the true matriarch of this family. Anyone who disrespects you, I'll put a bullet in their head myself."

I fought against him, but he only held me tighter.

"Listen to me. Just calm down." Blair softened his tone, laying out what he thought was a generous offer. "I'll sign over the casinos on the three biggest ports to you. They'll be yours. Mia will never be in your life. She lives in the suburbs, you live in the manor. You'll never even have to see each other."

He laid out our future for me, a future for the three of us, with the tone of a king granting a favor.

What a perfect, selfish son of a bitch.

What shameless greed.

"You make me sick," I said, my voice flat as I stopped struggling.

"Flora!" Blair cupped my face, his eyes full of the deep love I knew so well. "You're the only one I love. From the moment you saved my life in that shootout six years ago, my heart has been yours. I'd give you anything—money, power, even my life!"

I looked at the face I had loved for six years, and it was terrifyingly unfamiliar.

He would give me everything.

Everything except his loyalty.

I finally understood how stupid I was, trying to talk about fidelity with a cold-blooded Don who thought he could have it all.

Seeing the dead look in my eyes, Blair must have thought I’d given in.

He let me go and pulled a velvet box from his coat pocket. Inside lay a massive ruby signet ring, the symbol of the Falcone family's matriarch. He placed it on the counter and gave me a long, meaningful look. "This belongs to you."

I suddenly remembered something from a few years ago. We were at a meeting with some old-school Don.

"A Don's wife should be accommodating. It's normal for a man of his stature to have a mistress," the fat man with the gold chains had said. "Women need to know when to look the other way. Harmony in the family is what's important."

I remember Blair's face turning to stone.

He shot to his feet and slammed his whiskey glass on the floor. It shattered.

"My wife will never suffer that kind of disrespect," he'd said, his voice pure ice. "Anyone who disrespects her has to answer to me."

Back then, his words had brought tears to my eyes. I thought I had found the one man in the world who would love me completely.

Now I knew it wasall a well-rehearsed lie.

I looked at him, exhausted. "Get out."

"Flora?"

"Get the hell out!" I screamed, snatching the velvet box and throwing it at him.

The corner of the box caught him right on the brow bone. A thin line of blood welled up instantly.

He didn't even flinch. He just wiped the blood away with the back of his hand and stared at me.

"Don't be childish, Flora," he said calmly. "This isn't you."

"Not me?" I let out a sharp, ugly laugh. "Then tell me who I'm supposed to be. Am I supposed to be obedient and quiet, like your wife?"

"You're too emotional right now." Blair sighed and turned to leave. "We'll talk when you've calmed down."

He left, leaving me alone in the wreckage of my life.

For the first time in six years, I cried like a child, soaking the pillows with my tears.

I told myself I would leave him, that I would make him pay, no matter the cost.

Just then, my phone rang again.

It was the Hillrose family's private doctor.

"Miss Flora," the doctor's voice was grave. "I have some news about your mother."

A cold dread crept over me. "What is it?"

"She has lung cancer. It's terminal." The doctor's words made me freeze. "She's been hiding it from you. She said she wanted to see you married and settled, and she didn't want you to worry before your big day."

The phone slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor.

I had no more tears left to cry.

Finally, with a trembling hand, I picked up my phone and dialed Blair's number.

"I'll do it," I bit out, each word a piece of my soul. "I'll do it. The wedding... is on."

When I got back to the Hillrose estate, my mother was on the balcony, sorting through a box of files. The setting sun cast her profile in a pale, fragile light.

"Flora, you're back." She turned and forced a smile, but I could see how weak she was.

"Mom." I walked over, swallowing the grief that was clawing at my throat.

"These are important family documents." She patted the box beside her. "I wanted to give them to you before the wedding. And this."

She took off the Hillrose family signet ring, the one my father had given her, the symbol of our family's power.

"Your father should have been the one to give you this, but..." Her voice trembled. "I'll give it to you for him. From now on, you are the true heir of the Hillrose Family."

I took the ring, feeling its weight in my palm.

I fought back my tears and hugged her tight. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll be happy. And I'll be the heir you need me to be."

The day before the wedding, I told Blair I wanted to meet his wife, Mia.

He frowned, thinking for a moment, but he didn't refuse.

"Trust me," he said. "When you see her, you'll realize she's just a timid little thing who can't hold a candle to you. My heart is yours."

He drove me to a villa in the suburbs.

The place was heavily guarded. The gardens were filled with expensive Sicilian roses.

The fountains, the security systems—everything screamed that this was the home of someone important.

This wasn't some place he'd "stashed her away." Every detail here was chosen with care.

I met Mia in a sun-drenched glass conservatory.

She was wearing a simple white cotton dress, her black hair loose around her shoulders. She looked young, fragile, like a startled fawn.

The moment she saw Blair, her eyes lit up, and she threw herself into his arms.

"Blair! You're finally here!" she cried, clinging to his waist with a sweet, cloying dependency.

Blair caught her automatically.

Then, seeming to remember I was there, he gently pushed her away.

"This is Flora," was all he said.

He didn't explain who I was to her, or who she was to me.

Mia glanced at me quickly. "Miss Flora, hello. I'm Mia," she whispered.

"Why are you out here dressed like that?" Blair's tone was scolding, but his body betrayed him.

He instinctively shed his suit jacket and draped it over her frail shoulders. The gesture was so practiced, so natural, it had clearly been done a thousand times before.

The nausea churned in my stomach again.

"Mrs. Falcone, your tea is ready," a servant said respectfully, bowing to Mia.

Mrs. Falcone.

The title was like two poisoned needles stabbing into my eardrums.

The title that should have been mine. On this meek little woman, it sounded so natural, so right.

I knew then that staying here a second longer was just torturing myself.

I stood up after less than three minutes. "I should go."

Mia offered to walk me out.

Blair got a call about a firefight down at the docks. "I have to handle this. I'll be back in ten."

That left just me and Mia in the hallway.

The air grew thick.

Mia held her teacup, the timid expression still on her face, but her eyes had changed.

"Miss Flora," she said, her voice still soft. "You really are beautiful."

"Thank you," I replied politely.

"But..." Mia's eyes glinted. "So what if you're a Don's daughter? Legally, you'll always be the other woman. The mistress hiding in the shadows."

I was stunned by the sudden change.

I thought she was a victim in this, too. But now I saw she knew everything.

I had no desire to engage. I turned to leave, but she stepped in my way.

"Have you seen this?" Mia held up her left hand. A magnificent diamond ring glittered on her finger. "Blair gave this to me to make up for not having a big wedding. He said only a wife deserves a ring like this."

I clamped down on the pain in my chest. "What exactly are you trying to say?" I asked, my voice cold.

Seeing she wasn't getting a rise out of me, Mia stepped closer, her smile turning into a sneer. "Aren't you ashamed? If your dead father knew his daughter was another man's mistress, he'd roll over in his grave."

"You—"

"And your mother," Mia pressed on, her voice dripping with venom. "I hear she's still telling everyone her daughter is about to become the Donna. How pathetic. If she knew the truth..."

That was the line.

"Shut your mouth!" I snarled, shoving her away from me.

Mia stumbled back theatrically and fell to the floor with a pained cry.

"Flora! What the hell are you doing?" Blair's voice boomed from behind me.

He rushed over to where Mia was clutching her ankle, immediately crouching to check her injury.

"Her ankle is sprained." He looked up at me, his eyes blazing with fury. "Flora, what is wrong with you?"

I met his glare without flinching. "Ask her what she just said to me."

Mia’s voice was thin and shaky. "Blair, I didn't... I just told her she was pretty..."

I wasn't going to watch her pathetic act.

"She cursed my dead father and called my mother a fool! Is that your idea of a harmless, fragile woman?"

Blair took a deep breath.

"Even if she said something out of line, you don't put your hands on her. When did you become this unreasonable?"

Unreasonable?

I watched him shield Mia behind him, and the fire in my chest was instantly doused with ice water.

"She called me a mistress and insulted my parents, so I'm the one who's unreasonable?"

I laughed, but tears streamed down my face. "And you? Lying to me for six years, what do you call that?"

"Enough," Blair said coldly. "I thought you'd accepted this. I didn't realize you were this fucking dramatic.”

He looked at me with disgust. "When will you ever be gentle and understanding, like Mia?"

I remembered a time, after I'd dragged him through a hail of bullets, he'd told me, "This is what I love most about you. You never back down."

Another lie.

"Blair," I said, wiping away my tears, my voice calm again. "There's nothing left for us to talk about."

He paused. "You said the wedding..."

"That's right. The wedding is still on," I said, my gaze shifting from his gloating little actress of a wife back to him. "After six years, I deserve a goddamn spectacle, don't I?"

Now, I couldn't wait for the wedding.

I couldn't wait for this farce to be over.