He Framed Me and Took My Career,I Took His Empire

Bianca Bellandi was the most renowned criminal-defense attorney in Astoria, boasting a win rate of ninety-nine percent.

No one expected that intimate photos of her and a client would flood the internet overnight.

An anonymous source claiming to be an insider at the legal front alleged that she had no real legal talent at all, that every case she'd ever landed came from sleeping with her clients.

She denied it immediately, insisting the photos were doctored and the accusations fabricated.

No one believed her.

Especially after reporters caught her husband, Dante Vitale, on camera. The sorrow in his eyes and his careful refusal to comment convinced the public it was all true.

Within hours, the internet was drowning in vitriol aimed at Bianca.

When she watched the interview clip, her expression remained as composed as ever. But in a corner where no one could see, her hands trembled.

Every one of those intimate photos had been edited from her private pictures. Pictures only Dante had access to.

She drove straight to the Vitale Family's front headquarters on Mulberry Street. The social club occupied the top floor of a shipping-company office that smelled of old wood and espresso and the particular stillness that settled over any room where men discussed things that could never be repeated. She needed to hear from Dante himself why those photos had been leaked.

And why he hadn't cleared her name in front of the cameras.

She had just reached the door to the back room when a familiar voice stopped her cold:

"Mr. Vitale, are we really going to keep paying people to attack Attorney Bellandi online?"

"The hate is everywhere already. If she finds out we're behind this, won't she be furious?"

It was his shadow aide, Luca Conti.

Dante's tone was clipped with impatience:

"She has no one to blame but herself. She hoards every case and refuses to give younger counsel a chance."

"Viviana's been working the Family's legal front for ages, and Bianca hasn't handed her a single case. A little lesson was overdue."

"If Bianca finds out Viviana was behind this, you know how she is. She never lets anything go. She'd destroy Viviana."

"Besides, Bianca is obsessed with her work. The only way to get her to stay home where she belongs, by my side, is to take her career away from her. I can't give up either of them..."

"Start planting more stories about Bianca. Keep her too busy putting out fires to trace any of this back to Viviana. If she does figure it out, tell her someone beneath me acted without my knowledge."

Luca nodded:

"You really do care deeply for Miss Caruso, going to such lengths against your own wife for her sake."

"Then again, if Attorney Bellandi hadn't forced her way in and pressured you into marrying her, you and Miss Caruso could have been together openly this whole time."

Dante said nothing. His silence was confirmation enough.

Bianca's hand, raised to knock, shook so violently she couldn't control it. The shock tore through her like a physical blow.

So it had been Viviana all along. And Dante had approved every bit of it.

He must have given Viviana her private photos. Let her doctor them. Let her frame her.

All because Bianca hadn't handed over the Vittorio Marino case the way Viviana wanted.

What Luca said. Dante's heart belonged to Viviana?

But he had told her, to her face, that Viviana was just the girl next door. Like a little sister.

He had been lying to her all along.

The color drained from Bianca's face. In that instant, it was as if ice water had been poured over her from head to toe, soaking through to the bone. Her heart went cold with it.

The hallway outside the back room was silent. A bodyguard at the far end of the corridor stood with his hands folded, eyes forward, trained not to see. Somewhere below, the espresso machine hissed, and it was the loneliest sound in the world.

She clenched her jaw, forcing the tears back by sheer will.

She had just turned to leave when the door swung open. Luca stared at her, wide-eyed:

"Attorney Bellandi, what are you doing here?"

Dante heard the commotion and stepped forward, reaching for her hand:

"Bianca, how long have you been standing there?"

Guilt flickered across both their faces, terrified she had overheard.

Bianca forced the faintest trace of a smile:

"Just got here."

Dante exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders almost imperceptibly. He shot Luca a look. Luca caught it, nodded, and slipped out of the room.

Bianca pretended she hadn't noticed the exchange. She let Dante lead her by the hand into his back room. The door closed behind them with the heavy, deliberate click of a lock built for rooms where secrets lived and died. His signet ring pressed cold against her fingers where he held her.

She looked at him, swallowing the storm raging inside her, and said quietly:

"I saw your interview this morning."

A flash of panic crossed Dante's eyes, but he recovered quickly:

"I'm sorry, Bianca. I know you want to ask why I didn't speak up for you."

"The interview this morning was supposed to promote one of the Family's legitimate ventures. The whole thing caught me off guard. I didn't know how to respond without making it worse."

Bianca cut him off. Her voice wavered:

"So you chose to say nothing at all?"

"Because of your silence, the whole world thinks it's true now. You're the one who wanted those photos taken. Why won't you admit it?"

Dante's voice dropped:

"Bianca, I'm the head of this Family. If people found out I have that kind of... preference, what would they think of me?"

"Stop making a scene. I know you're innocent. Isn't that enough? Why do you care what strangers think?"

Bianca almost laughed:

"What they'd think of you? Do you have any idea what they're saying about me right now?"

She held on to her last shred of hope, locked her eyes on his, and spoke each word with deliberate weight:

"Dante. I'm asking you. Please. Hold a press conference and clear my name."

"If this isn't dealt with now, my career is over."

Dante glanced at her, something conflicted stirring behind his gaze. His thumb moved once against the signet ring on his right hand, then went still.

After a few seconds of silence, he took her hand. His voice turned soft, almost tender:

"Bianca, why don't you just... resign?"

Bianca stared at him in disbelief as he continued:

"The Family's business is big enough now. You don't need to work. Use this as your exit. Come home. Be my partner behind the scenes."

"My mother's been asking when we're going to have an heir. You could focus on that."

"As for the front firm and all the clients you've built up, you can hand everything over to Viviana. She's smart and capable. She'll do a great job."

Bianca's heart shattered into countless pieces, each one sharp enough to steal her breath.

This was the man she had defied her parents to marry. The man she had crossed bloodlines for, left the Bellandi name at the altar for, bound herself to in a union her father had warned her she would one day regret.

His childhood sweetheart had smeared her name and destroyed her reputation, and his answer was to give that woman everything Bianca had built.

Her mother had been right. Dante Vitale was not a man worth trusting with a lifetime.

She thought of the extraction documents her mother had sent her the night before. Papers for safe passage to Bellandi-protected territory overseas, a private hangar, an offshore account already funded. And finally, the decision settled into place.

She would leave the country with her parents.

As for Dante Vitale, she was done.