I held Maeve tightly against my chest, her tiny body growing colder with every passing moment as each breath became shallower than the last.
"Please, Evander." My voice broke beneath the weight of my desperation. "She needs you. Our daughter needs her father."
His jaw locked.
His gaze lingered on Maeve before drifting toward the little boy standing beside Celestine.
Alaric.
His son.
I knew that look better than anyone. It wasn't the expression of a Mafia Don weighing profits against losses or deciding which rival family lived to see another sunrise. It was the face of a father being torn in two, crushed beneath the consequences of a secret he had kept buried for years.
Then he looked at me.
"I'm sorry, Aurelia."
The words cut deeper than any bullet ever could.
"No..." I shook my head, clutching Maeve even tighter. "No... you don't mean that."
But I saw the truth before he said another word.
He turned to Dr. Moretti.
"Prepare the transfusion."
The doctor hesitated.
"For which child, Don Evander?"
Evander closed his eyes for the briefest moment.
"Save Alaric."
A broken sob escaped me.
"Evander..."
He never looked back.
The surgical team rushed to prepare the operating room while the guards stationed outside lowered their heads in silence. No one questioned the Don's order. They had sworn loyalty to him long before I became his wife, yet every face reflected the same disbelief as they watched him choose one child over another.
Not his daughter.
Not the little girl who carried his name.
I rested my forehead against Maeve's.
"I'm here, sweetheart," I whispered, tears soaking her soft hair. "Mama's right here."
Her tiny hand lay in mine.
Then, little by little...
...her fingers went limp.
The steady rhythm of the heart monitor faltered.
A single, piercing tone filled the room.
My scream shattered the silence.
I barely realized the nurses were trying to take Maeve from my arms until I was fighting them with everything I had left.
"No!" I cried. "Don't take my daughter away from me!"
No one listened.
Not even Evander.
He remained where he stood, one hand resting protectively on Alaric's shoulder while everything I had built my life around collapsed before my eyes.
At that moment, I made myself a promise.
I would never forgive him.
Not in this life.
Not in the next.
**
Maeve's funeral was held three days later.
Only the inner circle of the Moretti family attended. Caporegimes, trusted soldiers, and the few relatives who had earned the privilege stood beneath black umbrellas as Maeve's small white casket was lowered into the private cemetery hidden behind the family's estate, where generations of Moretti leaders had been laid to rest.
A cold rain soaked through my black dress until it clung to my skin, but I couldn't feel any of it.
I stood beside my daughter's grave, watching the casket disappear beneath the earth.
There were no tears left.
Hatred had swallowed every last one.
Evander stood several steps away, surrounded by his underboss and senior captains. Since the night Maeve died, he hadn't spoken a single word to me.
Perhaps he knew there was nothing left to say.
The family priest finished his prayer, asking God to receive Maeve into His kingdom.
I didn't hear a single word.
Then Evander suddenly stiffened.
His phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen, his expression changing almost instantly.
Without another word, he turned and walked away from our daughter's grave.
I already knew who had called.
Celestine.
Even today...
Even while our little girl was being buried...
She called him, and he answered.
A hollow laugh rose in my throat before fading into silence.
The head of the Moretti family had walked away from his own daughter's funeral because another woman needed him.
I could have begged him to stay.
I could have demanded that he remain until the last handful of earth covered our child's coffin.
Instead...
I watched him disappear through the rain.
As the grave was filled, I made another promise to myself.
I would never forgive him.
Because Celestine had taken everything from me.
Years ago, she had walked away from Evander and married another man.
Only after becoming a widow did she return to our world.
She hadn't come back simply for Evander.
She had returned for the life that had become mine.
My husband.
My family.
My future.
And Evander...
The man who had once sworn no one would ever come between us...
Had opened the gates himself.
**
I remained beside Maeve's grave until night swallowed the estate.
The cemetery lay in silence, watched over by armed guards patrolling the perimeter walls, their footsteps the only sound besides the wind moving through the cypress trees.
My body ached from the cold, but I couldn't bring myself to leave.
Only my memories kept me company.
They arrived one after another, refusing to let me breathe.
I remembered the night a rival syndicate kidnapped me.
My wrists were tied so tightly the ropes cut into my skin while they laughed, convinced they could use the wife of the Moretti Don as leverage.
Then gunfire erupted outside the warehouse.
Within minutes, the heavy steel doors were blown apart.
Evander came himself.
He didn't send soldiers.
He didn't negotiate.
He walked through the smoke with a pistol in each hand, cutting down every man who stood between us. By the time he reached me, the concrete floor was stained with blood.
His hands trembled as he cupped my face.
"Did they touch you?"
I could only shake my head.
He pulled me against him so fiercely I thought I might break.
"I'll wipe every family off the map before I let anyone take you from me again."
A sob lodged painfully in my throat.
Once...
He had meant every word.
Another memory followed.
Evander lay in the family's underground clinic after taking a bullet that had been meant for me.
His shoulder was heavily bandaged, yet he smiled the moment I walked into the room.
"I've waited long enough."
He reached into the drawer beside his bed and pulled out a small velvet box.
Inside rested a diamond ring that had belonged to his mother.
"Evander..."
"You've almost died."
He laughed softly.
"Then don't keep a dying man waiting."
I laughed through my tears.
"You're impossible."
"Marry me," he whispered. "No matter what happens in this life... you'll always be my home."
My knees gave out beside Maeve's grave.
Then came the memory of her birth.
Evander had worn a path across the hospital corridor while waiting for the delivery.
The moment the nurse placed Maeve in his arms, every trace of the feared Mafia Don disappeared.
"Our little princess."
He kissed her forehead with trembling lips.
"I swear no one will ever hurt you."
My fingers dug into the damp earth.
A promise.
Broken.
The last memory belonged to Maeve's seventh birthday.
Evander had rented an entire amusement park, closing it to the public because our daughter wanted to ride every carousel without waiting in line.
She laughed as he carried her on his shoulders.
"Is all of this really for me, Daddy?"
He smiled without hesitation.
"For my little princess."
Then she pointed at me.
"And Mama?"
He reached for my hand and intertwined our fingers.
"For Mama too."
That night, beneath a sky bursting with fireworks, he wrapped an arm around my waist and whispered against my hair,
"This is everything I ever built this empire for. You. Our daughter. Our family."
I closed my eyes.
How cruel those words sounded now.
Once, he would have burned the underworld to protect us.
But when fate forced him to choose...
He chose another child.
Now I stood alone before my daughter's grave while my husband was undoubtedly at Celestine's side.
No tears came.
Because the woman who had loved Evander Moretti with all her heart had been buried alongside Maeve.
All that remained was an empty shell.
