Best Friends, Carbone Brides, Perfect Revenge

My best friend, Bianca, and I both married into New York's most formidable Mafia family—the Carbones.

She was the golden canary caged in the manor by the Don’s eldest son, Marco, while I was merely the replacement for Seraphina, the woman his younger brother, Nico, truly loved.

The twist? They both loved the same woman.

The talk of New York high society was us—two nobodies, handpicked by the Carbone heirs and thrust into a life of luxury.

But our gilded lives lasted only three years. The moment their one true love, Seraphina Velasquez, returned, it all came crashing down.

"First, I get my hands on a drug that'll make me look dead. Then, you drive me off a cliff and into the sea," my best friend, Bianca, whispered.

I nodded. Together, we planned our daring escape from New York.

When the woman they could never forget, Seraphina, arrived to reveal our ruse, the ever-composed Marco shocked everyone by pulling Bianca into a desperate embrace.

And the cold, ruthless Nico imprisoned me in his penthouse, keeping me by his side day and night.

What they didn't know was that this was all part of an elaborate revenge plot we'd been hatching for three years.

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1

Seraphina had made her third attempt on our lives this month.

We stood on the deck of the family yacht during a party, watching as she slowly sank into the frigid seawater, her dramatic display leaving only churning foam in its wake.

Bianca scoffed, her brow furrowed. "Give it a rest, Seraphina."

Just then, the frantic pound of footsteps echoed from behind us.

I tugged on Bianca's sleeve, but before I could speak, a powerful shove sent me hurtling overboard.

I plunged into the water, my body swallowed by the paralyzing cold. Bianca's panicked scream rang in my ears. "Alessia!"

I broke the surface, gasping, only to see my husband, Nico, dive into the water without a second thought.

But he swam in the opposite direction.

It wasn't until he pulled a seemingly unconscious Seraphina from the water and began frantic first aid on the deck that the cold truth hit me: he hadn't even glanced in my direction.

Seawater flooded my nose and lungs. Just as darkness crept in at the edge of my vision, strong arms yanked me onto the deck.

Bianca’s frantic voice screamed in my ear. "Alessia! Don't you dare die on me! What am I supposed to do without you?"

Bianca pounded on my chest until I finally coughed up a lungful of saltwater, sputtering back to consciousness. I gave a weak smile and sagged against her.

I gasped, "Takes more than that to kill me."

I glanced over at Nico, who was still desperately trying to resuscitate the supposedly unconscious Seraphina.

His hands were trembling as he pleaded, "Seraphina, wake up. I can't lose you again."

Bianca helped me to my feet and rounded on Nico. "Are you blind? You shoved Alessia overboard! Seraphina’s a champion swimmer; she’s fine. Alessia can't swim, and she's your wife!"

Before Bianca could finish, Seraphina picked that exact moment to "wake up," coughing violently. She opened her eyes, the redness at the corners making her look pitiable and frail.

With calculated innocence, she pressed her soaked body against Nico's.

She murmured, "Nico, I'm fine. You should go check on Alessia."

Nico shot me a cold glance. "Who pushed her overboard?"

I shook my head. "She jumped in herself."

Bianca's anger flared. She pointed a trembling finger at Nico. "Use your head! This is the third 'accident' Seraphina has had this month. Anyone with half a brain can see what she’s doing."

Still cradled in Nico's arms, Seraphina began to sob. "It's my fault. I fell in by accident. Nico, don't blame them. It has nothing to do with them."

She made a show of struggling out of his embrace, but he only held her tighter.

Nico lifted her into his arms and started for the ship's cabin.

"You're freezing. I'll take you back."

Bianca blocked his path, while I shivered behind her, my wet clothes clinging to my skin.

She warned, "Don't you forget, Alessia is your wife. You're the reason she almost drowned, Nico. Do you even have a heart?"

Nico deftly sidestepped Bianca, not even sparing me a glance.

He replied, "I haven't forgotten. But one thing is clear: you two can't leave Seraphina in peace."

Bianca was livid. She pulled me along, about to block them again, when another voice cut through the tension.

"What happened to Seraphina?"

Marco strode over, his concerned gaze locked on Seraphina.

Nico didn't bother with details, just saying coldly, "Marco, you'd better get your wife in line. You don't want anything else to happen to Seraphina, do you?"

He brushed past, leaving Marco to glower at us.

Marco grabbed Bianca's arm, trying to pull her away, but she wrenched free.

His expression darkened. "Bianca, it seems I've been too lenient with you. You've become spoiled and insolent. Go back to your room. You're confined until I say otherwise."

Then, without another glance at Bianca, he hurried after Nico.

In the biting sea breeze, only the two of us remained, soaked to the bone as passing guests whispered and stared at our miserable state.

"Now that Miss Seraphina is back, there's no room for those two social climbers."

"Exactly. If one wasn't a cheap copy of her and the other hadn't saved Marco's life, they never would have married into the Carbone family in the first place."

Bianca kept her head down, silent for a long moment, then suddenly gripped my hand.

"Alessia, let's get out of here," she said, her voice low and fierce. "We can't take this humiliation anymore. I know an underground doctor who owes me a favor. I'll get a drug from him, something that can fake a death. We'll disappear together. Okay?"

I nodded, and we exchanged a look of grim understanding.

The railing beside us was bone-chillingly cold. We looked back at the wake of the yacht, a scar on the water that refused to fade.