I traveled everywhere, piecing together the little wooden cabin from his memories, detail by detail.
I learned every trick in bed to keep him satisfied.
I thought we'd have a happy future.
But on our wedding anniversary, he walked into a hotel with my best friend, right out in the open.
I ran to confront him like I'd lost my mind.
Nico sneered and flung my contract with Don Aldo in my face.
"Sera, what exactly do you think you are? You play house for a couple of days and suddenly you think you're Mrs. Valente?"
"You're a dog my grandfather bought. What right do you have to question anything I do?"
"Push me again and I'll have your grandmother's treatment cut off today."
I stood there as if I'd been struck by lightning, unable to form a single word.
After that, Nico only got worse.
Once he'd had his fill of socialites and girls from associate families, he started going after my friends. Pushing past every line I had left.
On one side, my grandmother needed her treatment. On the other, a marriage that had already rotted through.
The two forces pulled me apart from opposite ends.
I nearly broke.
One day I was so out of it that I lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs of the compound. The hospital visit revealed I was pregnant.
Don Aldo all but begged me: "Sera, keep this baby. It might be the turning point for your marriage."
"If Nico still hasn't changed after the child is born, I promise I won't ask you to stay."
Carrying every tangled emotion inside me, I agreed.
I never imagined that after fighting so hard, my grandmother, my baby, my marriage, my love — I couldn't hold on to a single one.
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes, slowly, and looked up at the gray haze beyond the window.
Maybe the only consolation left was that Nico and I had both been set free.
While I was still lost in thought, his call came through.
"Sera, you went running to Grandpa to tattle again, didn't you? Gianna and I finally had some time alone and you ruined it."
"I'm warning you. Pull something like that again and I'll cut you off completely. No money, no protection, nothing."
Before, I would have groveled. Explained. Apologized. Done whatever it took to earn his forgiveness.
Now I just said, flat and empty:
"Do whatever you want."
My indifference caught Nico off guard.
But it only took a moment before he let out a cold laugh.
"I hear the baby was born. Having a child in your corner really does give you nerve."
"But don't forget. I'm the Valente heir. As long as you're still under this roof, I have more than enough ways to make your life hell."
I closed my eyes.
I knew exactly what Nico's ways looked like.
The first time I caught him in bed with someone, I'd been naive enough to go to Don Aldo for justice. What I got instead was Nico's fury.
He used my grandmother as leverage and forced me to kneel on the freezing bedroom balcony, slapping my own face over and over. Two of his soldiers stood inside the glass doors, watching. Neither moved. Neither looked away.
That night, the sounds of him and his woman carried through the walls until morning.
I was taken to the hospital the next day with a swollen face and frostbite. The doctor on the Family's payroll logged it as a fall on ice. No one questioned it.
Whatever real feeling I'd had left for him scattered into that blinding snow and never came back.
From then on, no matter what Nico did, I pretended I didn't see it. I swallowed every humiliation, endured every petty cruelty in silence. I held on to the title of Mrs. Valente with everything I had.
But now, my grandmother was gone. My baby was gone.
This marriage that had been dead in everything but name — it was time to finally end it.
I hung up without a word.
Then I stood, called the funeral parlor where the Family sent its dead, and scheduled a time for the cremation.
