Chapter 1
Outside the VIP suite on the top floor of a private hospital, two bodyguards in black suits blocked my way.
“The Don gave orders. You can’t go in.”
From inside the room came a woman’s soft, fragile sobbing.
“Julian, our baby… what if we lose our baby?”
Liliana, Julian’s true love.
A moment later, Julian’s deep, cold voice sounded through the door. Only now, it carried a tenderness I had never once heard from him.
“Don’t be scared. The doctor said it’s nothing serious. You just need bed rest.”
“This is my fault. I never should’ve made you suffer like this, sneaking around with me.”
Liliana cried even harder.
“But Seraphina… what if she finds out? Will she hate us?”
“Julian, we’ve wronged her. I never wanted to ruin your family.”
Julian let out a cold laugh, his disgust undisguised.
“Don’t mention her.”
“She has another man in her heart. She’d be thrilled if I never came home again.”
“Liliana, remember this. The Donna’s place will be yours sooner or later.”
Standing outside the door, listening to the two of them pour their hearts out like some tragic lovers, I almost laughed.
Half an hour ago, I had been at Luca’s kindergarten, attending a parent-child event with my son, when Julian’s underboss called me.
“Donna, the Don was in a car accident. He’s being rushed into emergency care!”
My heart had nearly stopped. I rushed to the hospital like a madwoman, only to find Julian standing outside the suite without a scratch on him. The one badly injured in the crash was his precious true love.
To protect Liliana, he had used his own bulletproof car as a shield and rammed aside an out-of-control truck.
How touching.
I had no interest in hearing another word. I turned to leave.
The bodyguard stepped in front of me again.
“Donna, the Don said you can’t leave.”
“He wants to speak with you once Miss Liliana’s condition stabilizes.”
I yanked my arm away and said coldly, “Move.”
The bodyguard looked troubled, but he didn’t dare touch me again.
After all, I, Seraphina Vosselli, had never been known for my sweet temper.
Julian and I were the infamous miserable couple of the Sicilian and North American mafia circles.
Three years ago, the Moretti family had been on the edge of bankruptcy. My father offered funding and access to our arms network on one condition that Julian had to marry me.
The wedding was grand. Everyone envied us.
But only Julian and I knew the truth.
This marriage was nothing more than a family transaction.
He never loved me. And he hated my father for forcing him into this.
As for me, I did not love him either.
On the third day after the wedding, he moved into another villa and lived separately from me.
Aside from necessary family meetings and business events, we were strangers.
We each lived our own lives.
He drowned himself in underground clubs, changing women like suits, all to spite my father and me.
I traveled the world searching for the boy I had loved in my youth. My first love, Luciano.
We stayed out of each other’s way, and for a while, that arrangement worked.
Until two months ago, when Liliana returned to the country.
Julian became a different man overnight. He dismissed every woman around him and suddenly began playing the role of a devoted lover.
And I finally found Luciano.
He had been severely injured. His memory was gone. I placed him in a family safe house in the western suburbs and cared for him myself.
I thought this fake marriage would go on like that — until Luca was old enough to take care of himself.
Clearly, Julian had run out of patience.
I had just stepped out of the elevator when Julian caught up to me and grabbed my wrist.
“Seraphina, we need to talk.”
His face was dark. The last thin layer of courtesy he used to show me had vanished.
I pulled my hand free. “Talk about what? Your love story with Liliana? I’m not interested.”
Julian stared at me, his gaze sharp.
“You found him, didn’t you?”
My heart skipped.
“Who?”
“Luciano.”
Julian pronounced the name slowly, one syllable at a time.
“Stop pretending. Did you really think I wouldn’t know you hid him in a safe house in the western suburbs?”
“Seraphina, you’ve gone to impressive lengths for him.”
I looked at him and suddenly smiled.
“Right back at you. You almost threw your life away for Liliana. How are we any different?”
“Didn’t we agree long ago not to interfere in each other’s lives?”
Julian’s expression grew even uglier. He lowered his voice, and a vicious edge slipped into it.
“That was before. Things are different now.”
“Liliana is pregnant. I have to give her a proper title.”
So that was it.
I wasn’t surprised. If anything, I almost wanted to applaud.
“So you want a divorce?”
“Yes,” Julian said without hesitation.
“Luca stays with me. Liliana will raise him as if he were her own son.”
“As for the Vosselli family’s assets and arms shares, I’ll give you thirty percent according to our original agreement. After that, we’re done.”
He said it so casually, as if he were discussing an ordinary business deal.
He wanted to hand my son over to his mistress. And help himself to the Vosselli fortune in the process?
I was so angry I nearly laughed.
“Julian, did the crash knock something loose in your head?”
“Luca is my son. He’s the heir to the Vosselli family. What gives you the right to take him?”
“And the Vosselli assets? Who the hell are you to divide them?”
Julian seemed to have expected my reaction. With a cold smile, he took a document from his pocket and flung it at my face.
“Read it yourself.”
The paper sliced across my cheek, leaving a cold sting behind.
It was a share transfer agreement.
Written clearly on the page was the fact that my father had transferred fifty percent of Vosselli shares to Julian without compensation.
The signing date was yesterday.
My hands began to tremble.
“No… impossible. My father would never do this.”
“Nothing is impossible.” Julian looked down at me, his eyes full of the pleasure of revenge.
“Your father is old and confused. He actually believed I’d have a change of heart toward you.”
“He was afraid that if we divorced, no one would inherit the Vosselli family’s empire, so he handed the shares to me of his own accord, hoping I would treat you well.”
“What a shame. He trusted the wrong man.”
His words drove into my heart like a knife.
All these years, Julian had acted obedient and respectful in front of my father, earning every ounce of his trust.
Now, at last, he had bared his fangs.
“Julian, you son of a bitch!” I was shaking with rage.
“Call me whatever you want.” He didn’t care in the slightest.
“Seraphina, I’ll give you three days to think it over.”
“Either you file for divorce yourself, walk away with nothing, and we stay out of each other’s lives from now on…”
“Or I’ll make sure you and that precious first love of yours lose your reputations, your money, and everything else.”
He leaned close to my ear, his voice as poisonous as a snake’s hiss.
“Don’t forget, he’s an amnesiac cripple now. Can you really bear to let him suffer with you?”
With that, he turned and walked away without looking back.
I stood frozen in place, cold from head to toe.
Julian.
You ruthless bastard.
