I was dead.
Or at least, before another sunrise, everyone in the underworld would believe I was.
The divorce papers were still clenched in my hand as I walked away from the Moretti estate for the last time. My cheek still burned where Evander had struck me, but the sting was nothing compared to the hollow ache inside my chest.
No one tried to stop me.
Not the guards stationed at the front gates.
Not the caporegimes who had once addressed me as Donna.
Not even my husband.
Once, I had been the queen of the Moretti empire.
Now I was nothing.
Not a wife.
Not a mother.
Only a woman who had been discarded.
I tightened my grip on the small leather satchel hanging from my shoulder.
Inside were the only things that still mattered to me—Maeve's favorite stuffed rabbit, the delicate silver bracelet Evander had given her on her fifth birthday, and the tiny pink jacket she insisted on wearing whenever she begged her father to take her riding through the estate.
Evander could keep the mansion.
He could keep the fortune, the businesses, and every luxury our life together had afforded.
But he would never take the last pieces of my daughter from me.
I wandered through the empty streets until my legs ached, unable to outrun the memories following close behind.
His slap.
His betrayal.
The contempt in his eyes.
The way he had stood there while Celestine stripped me of every shred of dignity before the most powerful families in the country.
No.
This wasn't the end.
At last, I reached into my coat and pulled out a satellite phone that only a handful of people knew existed.
There was only one person I trusted enough to call.
The line connected after the first ring.
"Ronan."
A familiar voice answered almost immediately.
"Aurelia?"
"I need you."
Silence lingered for a moment.
"Where are you?"
"It doesn't matter."
I drew a slow breath.
"I need a body... a fire... and I need every family in the underworld to believe I died tonight."
Another pause.
Then a quiet chuckle.
"So you've finally stopped living for him."
"Can you do it?"
"I can."
"Then make sure no one questions it."
"Leave everything to me."
The call ended.
Without another thought, I snapped the phone in half and dropped the pieces into a storm drain.
Aurelia Moretti ceased to exist that night.
**
The plan was simple.
Years ago, I had saved Ronan's life after his own organization had sold him out to a rival syndicate.
He had sworn that if I ever needed him, he would repay the debt without hesitation.
Now he finally had the chance.
Before dawn, everything was ready.
An unidentified woman's body recovered from a gang shooting, one that no one had come forward to claim.
Clothes carrying my scent.
Personal belongings taken from my room before I left the estate.
Enough evidence to convince even the most suspicious investigator once the fire had erased the rest.
We carried the body into an abandoned cabin hidden deep in the mountains, far beyond Moretti territory.
The old timber was dry enough to burn within minutes.
When the flames were finished, there would be almost nothing left to identify.
Ronan was arranging the final details when I raised a hand.
"Wait."
He looked at me.
"There's one last thing I need to do."
Using a secure number that only one person still possessed, I made one final call.
Evander.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then someone answered.
"The boss is unavailable."
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
"Celestine."
She laughed softly.
"Still trying to reach him? Even after he divorced you?"
"Put Evander on the phone."
"Why?" she asked sweetly. "So he can throw you away all over again?"
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"You think you've won?"
"Oh, Aurelia." Her laughter grew brighter. "I already have."
I remained silent.
Then her voice became almost playful.
"Do you know what I find funniest?"
A chill crept down my spine.
"What?"
"Your little Maeve never had to die."
The world seemed to stop turning.
"...What did you say?"
"Because Alaric was never sick."
I couldn't breathe.
"The doctors believed exactly what I wanted them to believe."
My knees nearly gave out.
"The transfusion was never for my son."
Every word landed like another knife.
"Evander sacrificed your daughter..."
She laughed.
"...for nothing."
The line went dead.
I stood frozen, unable to move as the echo of her laughter lingered in my ears.
Maeve.
My little girl.
She hadn't died because fate had been cruel.
She had died because they had lied.
Because Evander had trusted Celestine without asking a single question.
Because he had chosen her child over ours.
My daughter had been stolen from me by deception.
A warm hand rested gently on my shoulder.
Ronan.
"You heard everything."
I nodded.
No tears came.
Only rage.
Celestine.
Evander.
Every person who had stood by and watched my daughter die.
Every single one of them would answer for it.
"Once this place burns," Ronan said quietly, "there's no going back."
I looked at the cabin waiting in silence.
"There isn't anything left for me to go back to."
He lowered the burning torch onto the gasoline-soaked floor.
The flames spread almost instantly, racing across the walls before swallowing the cabin whole.
Smoke curled into the night sky.
Soon, nothing would remain except ashes.
The Moretti family would mourn the tragic death of the woman they had once called their Donna.
Evander would be told that his ex-wife had died in the fire.
Whether he grieved or not no longer mattered.
I wasn't dying for him.
I was burying the woman who had loved him.
Before dawn, Ronan drove me beyond the territories controlled by every family that had ever known my name.
With forged documents and a carefully constructed identity, Aurelia Moretti disappeared from the criminal world without leaving a trace.
Several days later, we stopped at a secluded villa overlooking the sea.
I stood before the bathroom mirror, watching black dye drip from my hair into the sink until every strand of gold had vanished.
The woman staring back at me looked nothing like the wife Evander had once sworn to protect.
I brushed my fingers through the dark hair.
He had loved doing the same while whispering promises in the quiet hours before dawn.
Those promises had gone up in flames with the cabin.
I held my own gaze in the mirror and spoke softly.
"Welcome back."
The underworld believed Aurelia Moretti had died in a fire.
They were wrong.
The woman they had betrayed was gone.
The one who remained would make every person responsible wish they had burned with her.
