Chapter 6

Midnight came and went. The grand halls of the De Luca Estate remained silent. No convoy arrived. No bodyguard came to escort me home. No one came back for me.

Just as Don Alessandro De Luca had promised...

Someone would come.

No one ever did.

It was one of the auction house's cleaners who eventually found me unconscious on the marble floor.

Not a member of the De Luca Syndicate.

Not my husband.

The old man quietly called a discreet underground clinic used by the city's criminal families. The doctor stitched the cuts on my face, wrapped my fractured shoulder, and treated my bruises without asking questions.

He knew better.

In the mafia world...

Silence kept people alive.

When dawn was still hours away, I returned alone to the De Luca Estate. The mansion was dark.

Empty.

No one noticed I had come back. I locked myself inside our bedroom. Then I walked straight into the bathroom. I turned the shower to its coldest setting. Water poured over me.

Again. Again. Again.

I scrubbed at my skin until it burned. Until blood seeped from where my nails dug into my arms.

I wanted to erase Viktor's hands. Erase the fear. Erase the humiliation. Erase every second of that nightmare. But memories don't wash away.

Every time I closed my eyes... I heard fabric tearing. I heard Alessandro begging another man to spare me.

Then I saw him... Choosing her. Again.

I didn't sleep. Not even for a moment.

When sunlight filtered through the curtains, I stood before the mirror.

The woman staring back at me looked unfamiliar. Her face was swollen. A purple bruise darkened one cheek. Her lips were split. One arm rested inside a sling.

She no longer looked like the Lady of the De Luca Syndicate.

She looked like someone who had survived a war.

Today...

Everything would end.

Today I will collect my new identity and international clearance arranged by my father.

Today...

Sophia De Luca would disappear forever.

I placed the signed divorce agreement inside my leather briefcase.

Beside it... My resignation as Consigliere. My new passport. My immigration documents.

One final breath. Then I walked downstairs. The moment I opened the front door...

I froze.

Alessandro stood on the front steps.

His black overcoat was stained with dried blood.

Dark circles shadowed his eyes. He looked as though he hadn't slept either.

For one impossible second... I wondered if he had finally come looking for me. Then I saw the fury burning inside his eyes.

Before I could speak...

Slap!

His hand struck my face. The force threw me onto the stone floor. Pain exploded through my injured shoulder. A cry escaped my lips before I could stop it. Alessandro stared down at me.

For the briefest moment... His eyes flickered. He noticed the bruises.

The stitches. The cuts covering my body. His raised hand trembled. Then his expression hardened once more.

"Why?" His voice was low. Dangerously calm. "Why would you do something this disgusting?"

I looked up in disbelief. "What...?"

"You worked with Viktor." His words landed like bullets.

"You staged the attack." "You wanted to make Selena miscarry." His fists tightened.

"Do you realize what you've done?" "Our son is dead because of you."

I laughed. A broken... Hopeless laugh. "It wasn't me." My voice cracked. "I almost died, Alessandro."

"I was kidnapped." "I was tortured." "You saw what happened." I saw exactly what you wanted me to see."

His answer was merciless. "You manipulated everyone." "I don't believe a single word."

He raised his hand again. Ready to strike me.

Then...

His eyes settled on the bruises around my neck. The bandages beneath my torn collar. His fingers twitched. Slowly... His arm fell back to his side.

For the first time... Something resembling doubt crossed his face.

Only for a second.

Then it disappeared. "What do you expect me to do?"

"I can't ignore what happened to Selena." He looked away. "I'll stay with her."

His tone became cold. Business like.

"As compensation..." "I'll hold a public wedding." "The underworld will recognize Selena as Lady De Luca." "The heads of every syndicate will witness it."

He paused. "But privately..." His eyes met mine. "You'll remain my legal wife."

"You'll continue managing the syndicate from the shadows."

His words were so absurd... I almost smiled.

"So..." "This was your plan all along." "You wanted two wives."

One for love. One for power.

Alessandro frowned.

"You're the one who caused this." "I'm simply fixing the situation."

His gaze sharpened. "You lost a child, too." "You should understand Selena's pain."

The irony was unbearable. He still didn't know. He still had no idea... That his own child had died with me in that operating room.

Not once had he asked. Not once had he noticed my empty womb.

Not once... Had he cared. The last fragment of love inside me quietly crumbled into dust.

I looked directly into his eyes. Then nodded. "I understand."

Nothing more. Nothing less.

He waited. Perhaps expecting tears. A fight. A desperate plea.

Instead... He found only silence.

His phone rang. The name glowing across the screen said everything.

Selena.

Without hesitation... He answered.

"I'm coming." He never looked back as he walked away. The sound of his car faded into the distance.

And with it...

The last connection between us.

Ten minutes later... My phone vibrated. Unknown Number. I opened the message.

Selena.

(Why are you so difficult to kill?)

Another message arrived.

(I tried everything, and you're still alive.)

Then another.

(If you had any pride left, you'd disappear forever.)

The next message made my fingers tighten around the phone.

Alessandro doesn't even know you lost your baby. Doesn't that tell you everything?

Photographs followed. Dozens of them.

Alessandro is sitting beside her hospital bed. Holding her hand. Brushing tears from her face. Kissing her forehead. Looking at her with a tenderness... He had never truly given me.

So... That was what love looked like.

I stared at the screen for a long moment.

Then...

I blocked the number.

Without anger. Without tears.

Simply... Done.

By afternoon, I had erased every trace of myself from the De Luca Estate.

Every photograph. Every dress. Every memory.

The syndicate's internal records no longer listed me as Consigliere.

The financial accounts had already been transferred to my successor.

My fingerprints were removed from the mansion's security system.

I no longer existed within the De Luca Syndicate.

In my bag rested two certified copies of our finalized divorce. Signed by the underworld's legal council.

Official.

Irreversible.

One last task remained.

I walked into the estate's private mausoleum. Inside the temperature-controlled chamber sat a tiny white urn.

My unborn child.

I carried it carefully into the mansion. Placed it gently on the living room table.

Beside it… I laid the divorce papers. Then several encrypted flash drives. Inside them were years of surveillance footage. Medical records. Financial transactions. Audio recordings. Every secret. Every lie. Every betrayal. Including the evidence proving who had stolen our daughter's donor heart.

I left everything behind.

By the time Alessandro returned... The truth would be waiting for him.

But I wouldn't.

Outside the estate gates... A convoy of black armored vehicles had already arrived.

Each car bore the silver wolf crest of the Morentti Mafia.

The rear door of the lead limousine opened. An elderly man stepped out. He bowed deeply.

"Young Mistress." "The Don has sent us to bring you home."

I took one last look at the mansion behind me.

Seven years. A marriage.

Two children. A lifetime of love. Gone.

Without another glance... I stepped into the waiting car.

As the convoy disappeared into the night... The gates of the De Luca Estate slowly closed behind me.

When Don Alessandro De Luca finally came home... His wife was already gone.

And the woman he had spent seven years taking for granted...

Would never return.