It's been eight years.

Eight years since I fled that century-old crime family. I never thought I’d run into my ex-husband, Renato Colombo, at an art auction I was curating.

A few of his Capos did a double-take, their tone dripping with contempt. "So, this is what you've become after abandoning the Colombo family? A common gallery curator, groveling for buyers?"

I subconsciously touched my stomach. Eight years ago, six months pregnant with Nico, I was caught in a shootout with a rival family. As I lay wounded on the ground, he was shielding another woman—his so-called true love, Isabella Rossi. She was also pregnant but had only a scratch. Yet he refused to leave her side, abandoning me to face the cold barrel of a gun alone.

When I confronted him, heartbroken, he’d looked at me with pure annoyance. "Don't be so jealous, Scarlett. As long as you're obedient and know your place, you'll always be my wife—the future Donna of the Colombo family."

I couldn't bear the despair, so I ran. And I stayed away for eight whole years.

Now, those sharp, possessive eyes were locked on me again. "Are you done with this tantrum? If so, come home. A Colombo woman has no business making a spectacle of herself out here."

What he didn't know was that at home, dinner was on the table. My husband and our daughter were waiting for Nico and me.

————————

1

"Where have you been hiding? Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?" Renato Colombo blocked my path, a low snarl simmering in his throat.

His eyes burned with a possessive fire as I glanced nervously at my son, Nico Bellini, who was admiring a painting nearby.

A few of Renato's Capos closed in, jabbing their fingers in my direction.

"You cold, heartless bitch! How could you just disappear?"

"Do you have any idea what he's been through? He's been half-crazy looking for you!"

I had fled in chaos while pregnant. It seemed Renato had never given up searching for his "private property." His men were now closing ranks, defending their boss.

"We thought you'd be living the high life after leaving. Who knew you'd end up a nobody, hawking paintings for a living?"

"That's right. If Renato hadn't protected you, you'd be nothing! This is what you get for betraying the family!"

Renato frowned, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes as their words hit home. He raked his gaze over my modest blazer and slacks, his expression shifting.

"Scarlett, how have you really been these past eight years?"

I clutched the curator's badge on my chest as bitterness churned inside me. To evade the Colombo family's reach, I’d spent the first two years in the coldest, dampest basements. I’d eaten discarded food. I had given birth to Nico alone in a sterile, indifferent hospital room, with no one by my side.

Thankfully, that was all in the past.

My silence was met with contemptuous snorts from his men.

"See how merciful he's being?"

"Why don't you get on your knees and kiss his ring? Beg for forgiveness. Maybe if he's in a good mood, he'll let you back into the family."

They snickered, their leering eyes raking over my body.

Renato remained silent, making no move to stop them. He was savoring his control.

Nico noticed the commotion and thought I was being bullied. He immediately clenched his small fists and rushed over, glaring at the men. "Don't you dare touch my mom! Get away from her!"

Fearing he would get too worked up, I quickly pulled him into my arms. "Nico, it's okay. Mommy's just talking to some... old acquaintances."

Nico had inherited Renato's defiant jawline, and the recognition hit Renato like a physical blow. He saw a spitting image of himself.

He was stunned for a moment, then his gaze turned fiery. "It's Nico, isn't it? I'm your papa. Come here. Let me get a good look at you."

Renato gently reached for Nico, but my son slapped his hand away and shouted, "You're not my papa! My papa is the Don of the De Luca family! He protects Mom and me! You're just a bad man!"

Lorenzo De Luca, the uncrowned king of Aethelburg's underworld.

Even old-school Mafia families showed him deference. If the Colombos were a pack of wolves carving out territory, the De Lucas were a dragon surveying the world from on high.

Renato's face instantly darkened.

"Is this how you raise my son? Teaching him to acknowledge another man as his father and shame the Colombo name?"

Renato was convinced I had orchestrated this, taught our son to pledge allegiance to another man—a direct challenge to his honor.

He couldn't know that Nico was mercilessly teased at school for being "fatherless," that he'd been diagnosed with social anxiety. If it hadn't been for Lorenzo's patient guidance, Nico would have shattered long ago.

Sure enough, as Nico grew agitated, tears welled in his eyes.

"I'm not lying! I'm not a liar! You're the liar! You're the..."

Renato lost his patience. He snatched Nico from my arms and glared down at him. "Is this how your mother raised you? To disrespect your own father? The first rule of the Colombo family is to know your place!"

"What are you doing?! You're scaring him!"

I lunged for Nico, but Renato shoved me hard, sending me stumbling back against the wall.

"Look at him! Selfish and spouting lies! Nothing like a Colombo! This is all your doing! It's time someone taught you some respect!"

Nico’s cheeks puffed out in defiance, and he bit down hard on Renato's hand. In a blind rage, Renato slapped our son across the face.

Nico burst into sobs, a blotchy, red welt already blooming on his cheek.

Renato froze, his hand still in the air. He seemed about to say something, but his phone rang.

"Renato, where are you? Leo is crying for you. He had a nightmare and won't stop..." Isabella Rossi's delicate voice whispered through the phone, a child's wails echoing in the background.

Renato's tone softened instantly. "Tell Leo that Papa will be right back. Tell him to be a good boy."

He hung up and impatiently dropped Nico, as if the doting father from moments ago was a figment of my imagination.

"I have to go. You and Nico wait for me here. Don't go anywhere. I'll have my men watch the door."

The cavernous halls of the art museum stretched out behind us. Renato and his men hurried away, off to comfort Isabella and her son.

It was just like eight years ago, when one call from Isabella was enough for him to abandon me, pregnant and bleeding, in a firefight. Some habits die hard.

Nico was on the verge of a panic attack, so I told my director we had an emergency and slipped out the back door with him.

After we returned to our temporary apartment, I settled him into bed and received a call from an informant.

"Scarlett, Renato Colombo is digging into your background. Don De Luca's people have already intercepted the information. Do you need us to take care of the source?"

"No. No need to escalate."

We were only in Aethelburg for a week. After that, Renato and I would return to our separate lives, parallel lines that would never cross.

But I had underestimated his reach in this city.

Less than an hour after I hung up, the doorbell rang.

"Scarlett, open the door. Don't make me break it down."

Renato stood on the threshold, holding a custom-made toy gun. He scanned the elegant but modest apartment, his eyes filled with open disdain.

"You live in a place like this? This isn't even as big as a bedroom in the Colombo estate. Is this what you call happiness? You left me for this pathetic, low-class life?"

His condescending gaze was a ghost from eight years ago, echoing the refrains from his men and his mother: I was too delicate, too argumentative, too ungrateful for the gilded cage he'd built. I needed to suffer to learn my place—that a woman's only purpose was to please her man.

Eight years had passed, and he seemed to think I had finally learned my lesson. He thrust the expensive toy gun at me as if bestowing a great honor.

"A welcome gift for Nico. Boys should play with guns, not paintbrushes."

I calmly took the toy and dropped it into the trash can.

Renato's face turned ashen. "You..."

"This is for Leo, isn't it?" I cut him off. "The ruby on the grip is engraved with an 'L'. Nico's future is in art, not violence."

I remembered the first time I ended up in the emergency room, hit by a stray bullet at his private range. Renato hadn't slept, staying by my side for three days until I woke. But that was before Isabella. After she appeared, these gaudy, ruby-encrusted trinkets began showing up, gifts meant to suit her tastes, not mine.

"Sorry... I grabbed the wrong one."

A flicker of shame crossed his face, a memory of our past, but it vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by his familiar, accusatory glare.

"If you hadn't run off, I wouldn't have lost eight years with my son! If he had been by my side, I would damn well know what he likes!"

He snarled, "In the end, this is all your fault! You're too selfish!"

The silence that fell between us was as heavy as a tombstone.

Soon, he dropped the pretense of warmth.

"Nico has Colombo blood in his veins. That's a fact you can't change, and I will never let him call another man father. I'll give you two days to come to your senses. Then I'm coming to get you both. Don't make me use force, Scarlett."

Two days later, instead of waiting in the apartment, I took Nico to a charity gala.

Lorenzo's Consigliere, Santino Vella, was overseeing the event's security. Knowing I was worried about Nico, he had assigned an assistant to help me watch him.

"Don De Luca is meeting with the mayor and will be here shortly," Santino told me respectfully. "You can take Nico to the children's lounge in the meantime."

I nodded, but just as I turned to find my son, I ran straight into Renato and his entourage.

"Well, well, if it isn't Ms. Bellini, the gallery curator?"

"This is an exclusive gala. How did someone like you get an invitation?"

Tonight, Renato wore a custom-tailored Italian suit, with Isabella perched on his arm like a proud peacock. His gaze darkened the moment he saw me.

"You shouldn't be here. Leave. Now. Don't embarrass me."

Renato had always believed my commoner background was a liability, that I didn't understand the intricate rules of his world and would bring him shame. He never took me to formal events, and his men, naturally, looked down on me too.

"Renato, I saw her come in with some old geezer," one of his men sneered. "Think she... slept her way in for an invitation?"

I frowned, about to retort, when the sound of children arguing erupted from across the hall.

I pushed through the crowd and saw a chubby boy pinning Nico to the ground, smashing the small ice sculpture Nico had proudly made. My son was clutching desperately at the broken shards.

I rushed over and pulled the boy off him.

Nico's hands were cut and bleeding from the ice. Tears streamed down his face, but he stubbornly refused to make a sound.

The chubby boy saw Renato and immediately ran to his side, burying his face in his father's suit and sobbing.

"Papa, he called me names! And he said I was a liar... he said I'm not your son!" Leo Rossi wailed.

Renato comforted him, then turned a dark, furious face to Nico. "Apologize to your brother. Now."

He claimed he wanted Nico back, that Nico was his son, yet when the two children clashed, he didn't even bother to find out what happened. He instinctively sided with Isabella's son.

Nico stubbornly scrambled to his feet, his small body trembling. "Mom, I didn't. He called me a bastard first and broke my sculpture. I tried to walk away, but he hit me..."

Tears welled in his eyes again.

I knew my son. He wouldn't fight unless pushed to his absolute limit.

Renato roared, his face flushing with anger. "Enough! A liar at such a young age! You're just like your mother—deceitful and ungrateful! I ought to teach you a lesson!"

He grabbed for Nico's collar. I tried to pull my son back, but Renato shoved me aside.

Then, in front of everyone, he gripped Nico, trying to force him to apologize to Leo.

Isabella feigned concern. "Renato, let it go. It's normal for kids to lie sometimes. Nico hasn't had a father's guidance, and with a mother like that... of course he's gone astray. You don't need to be so angry."

Renato’s eyes smoldered. "Stay out of this! He's only seven and he's already a pathological liar. If I don't discipline him now, he'll ruin the Colombo name!"

Then, he raised his hand.

Nico flinched and burst into fresh tears. Renato bellowed, "Apologize to your brother!"

Nico cried, but he refused to speak.

Renato grew even angrier. Just as his hand was about to fall, the grand doors to the hall swung open.

A tall figure walked in, holding a little girl's hand. The crowd parted before him as if by an invisible force.