Chapter 1

"I need you to help me fake a private jet crash. I want my husband to believe I'm dead. It’s the only way to save myself from him." I said.

I grew up in a family where I was always overlooked.

I was six when I went missing. Four years later, I finally returned home, but my parents already had another daughter, Chloe.

From then on, everything I owned belonged to her—my toys, my dresses, my friends.

By the time we reached college, Chloe had not only stolen two of my boyfriends, but also the research paper I’d spent two years writing.

Then I met Lucian Marino, heir to New York's most powerful Mafia family.

He fell in love with me at first sight. No matter how hard Chloe tried to seduce him, he never once wavered.

He defied his family to marry me, and for three years, I was his cherished Donna.

I thought I'd finally found something my sister couldn't steal.

Until I received a photograph of Lucian holding a pair of twins, with Chloe smiling beside him.

They were his children. Worse, both our parents had known all along.

I still loved him. God, I loved him so much it hurt.

But that love was no longer enough to make me stay.

I'd believed he would always be the one person who chose me. Now I realized even that promise had been a lie.

This time, I was choosing myself. And I was taking our child with me.

I would never look back.

...

When I discovered that my husband had fathered twins with my younger sister, the pain was so unbearable that I coughed up blood and collapsed.

When I finally opened my eyes, my husband Lucian was sitting beside me, warming the IV tubing between his palms.

"Sweetheart, you're awake." He pressed my hand against his cheek, his voice trembling. "You scared the hell out of me."

This was Lucian Marino, the most feared Mafia Don in New York. I'd once seen him stare down a loaded gun without blinking, yet the news of my collapse had nearly brought him to his knees.

Looking into those dark green eyes, filled with genuine fear and tenderness, my heart twisted painfully.

I knew he loved me.

But had he looked at Chloe with those same eyes? Had he whispered the same sweet promises to her while I waited for him at home?

Chloe Hayes was my younger sister, born during the four years I was missing as a child.

Ever since I returned home, she'd taken everything she wanted from me. My toys, my dresses, even my boyfriends. Our parents always expected me to give in.

When Lucian started pursuing me in college, Chloe tried to steal him too.

She spread rumors about me, humiliated me at my part-time jobs, and once arranged for several men to corner me outside campus.

Lucian caught them.

He had the men dealt with and warned Chloe that if she ever touched me again, she would regret it. For years afterward, he refused even to be in the same room as her.

That was why, without the intimate videos and DNA reports Chloe had sent me, I would never have believed he could betray me.

Much less that their twins were already over a year old.

I turned my face toward the pillow, hiding my tears.

Lucian gently brushed my hair aside.

"Audrey, the doctor examined you while you were unconscious." His expression suddenly brightened. "You're eight weeks pregnant. We're finally having a baby!"

I froze.

"And our third wedding anniversary is in five days. Can you believe it?" He laughed, looking happier than I'd seen him in months.

For three years, I'd been unable to conceive.

His parents had never hidden their disappointment. To them, a Donna who couldn't produce an heir was a liability to the Marino bloodline.

Lucian had always defended me.

"I married Audrey because I love her," he'd told his father. "If you humiliate her over an heir again, you'll lose your son along with your precious successor."

I'd believed I was the luckiest woman alive.

Now, with a hand resting over my stomach, I could barely breathe.

Why had this child come now, when everything I believed in had already fallen apart?

I began to sob.

Lucian immediately pulled me into his arms. "Baby, what's wrong? Tell me who upset you. I'll take care of it."

As he leaned closer, I caught an unfamiliar perfume on his shirt.

My stomach lurched.

I shoved him away and bent over the side of the bed, retching.

Without hesitation, Lucian cupped his hands beneath my mouth.

"It's okay, sweetheart. I've got you."

He'd always been obsessive about cleanliness. Yet he didn't flinch, even when I was sick.

Watching him, I remembered how he personally washed my clothes, cooked my meals, and made time for me no matter how dangerous his Family business became.

For one foolish moment, I almost wanted to forgive him.

Maybe if he ended things with Chloe, we could still raise our baby together.

Then his phone vibrated.

Lucian glanced at the screen, and something shifted in his expression.

"I'm sorry, darling. There's an urgent Family matter I need to handle."

"Can it wait?" I whispered.

He hesitated, then kissed my forehead.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise."

I watched him leave.

Thirty minutes later, Chloe sent me a photograph.

Lucian was sitting between two children—no, her children—holding the twins close as he kissed their foreheads.

Beneath the picture was a message.

He's such a wonderful daddy, isn't he? Too bad you had to wait three years for something I already have.

I stared at his smile.

It was the same smile he'd worn when he learned I was pregnant.

The last of my hope disappeared.

I had spent my childhood surrendering everything to Chloe because our parents loved her more.

Lucian had been the first person who chose me.

And now, even he had chosen to give her a part of himself that should never have been hers.

I couldn't keep living like this, waiting for him to decide which family needed him more.

That afternoon, I went straight to Rachel, my closest friend and a brilliant hacker.

If anyone could help me disappear without a trace, it was her.

I told her everything and laid out my plans

Rachel looked at me, her eyes filled with terror, but she nodded and agreed to help me.

I know Lucian will never agree to a divorce, and he'll never let me take his child away.

So, in two days, Lucian will believe we both died.