Unbidden, memories surfaced. Distant, sweet, deliberately buried. I'd locked them away, too afraid to touch them, but now they crashed over me like a relentless tide, pulling me under.
Maeve and I had been in love once. Once, he'd held me in the palm of his hand like something precious.
It was my eighteenth birthday. The Falcone estate garden was filled with white roses — my favorite — and moonlight spilled soft across the lawn, a gentle breeze stirring the petals. Eighteen-year-old Maeve stood among the roses in a crisp white shirt, tall and straight-backed, the tips of his ears burning red, a flush creeping across his cheeks. He clutched a bouquet of white roses so tightly his knuckles had gone pale. He looked shy. Nervous.
He walked toward me, step by step, his gaze steady and deep, his voice carrying the faintest tremor: "Adriana. Happy birthday. You're an adult now."
He held out the roses, his ears so red they might bleed. "I've liked you for a long time. Since you were eight, when you first came to live with us. You hid in the corner, looking at me with those timid eyes — that's when it started. I don't want to just be your brother anymore. I want to take care of you. I want to protect you for the rest of my life. I want you to be my girl." His voice dropped, raw and earnest. "Adriana, give me a chance. Please?"
The devotion in those young eyes, steady as starlight, was intoxicating. In that moment, all my shyness and fear melted into something soft and boundless. I took the roses, their delicate fragrance filling my senses, and looked at him — so bashful, so sincere. Tears slipped down my cheeks before I could stop them.
"Yes," I whispered.
After that, Maeve treated me like a princess. He remembered everything — that I hated cilantro, picking every last leaf from my plate at Sunday dinners while the capos' wives pretended not to notice. When my period came, he'd clumsily brew ginger tea with brown sugar to warm my stomach, insisting I finish it even when it tasted terrible. In winter, he'd tuck my hands into his coat pockets, holding them tight. "As long as I'm here," he'd say, "you'll never be cold." When I was sad, he'd pull me into his arms and stroke my back. "Don't be scared. I've got you."
Those days were sweet and warm. I believed the tenderness would last forever. I believed I'd finally found a home of my own, someone who truly loved me. I gave him everything — cooked his meals, managed his life, forgave his moods and temper. Because I loved him.
But the sweetness didn't last.
The year I turned twenty-two, Salvatore called us both into his study. The old Don sat in his leather armchair, espresso cup in hand, his expression grave. The signet ring on his thumb did not move. When he looked at me, his eyes held something like guilt.
"Adriana," he said slowly, "your grandfather saved my life. I've carried that debt every day since. You've had such a hard road — losing your parents so young, then your grandfather too. I couldn't bear to see you married off into some other family where they might mistreat you."
He paused, glancing at Maeve beside him. "You two grew up together. You love each other. You're both of age now." He set down his cup. "Why not formalize the alliance? It would put my mind at ease — and honor your grandfather's memory."
I was overjoyed. I thought this was the culmination of our love story.
I had no idea that from the moment those words left Salvatore's mouth, everything would change.
Maeve's warmth vanished overnight. The tenderness, the devotion, the lingering looks — gone, as if they'd never existed.
He stopped being gentle. Stopped remembering what I liked. Stopped spending time with me. He could barely stand to look at me. I didn't understand. I racked my brain trying to figure out what I'd done wrong, why he'd become this stranger. I asked him, begged him to explain, but he never gave me a reason. He just looked at me with cold, distant eyes — like I was no one. Like I was nothing.
A year into our marriage, I got pregnant with twins. I thought the babies might bring him back to me, might restore what we'd had, might make us a real family.
I was wrong.
After that, Maeve only got worse. He stayed out every night — drinking at the social clubs, never coming home. He paraded Vanessa Rosati around openly, his precious first love, showing her off at every sit-down and private dinner without a shred of shame. He didn't care about my feelings. He didn't care that his pregnant wife was watching.
I confronted him. I screamed, I cried. Every photo of them together, every whispered rumor that reached me through the wives and associates, cut me like a knife. I sobbed and demanded to know why — why he was doing this to me, why he'd forgotten every promise he'd made, why he was betraying everything we had.
Maeve just stared at me, cold and mocking, like I was some raving lunatic.
"Are you done yet, Adriana?" His voice could have frozen steel. "You got what you wanted. You're the young Mrs. Falcone now. You're carrying heirs for the Family. The name, the position, the money — you have it all." His lip curled. "What more could you possibly want?"
