Nico moved on fast.
Once, during one of their early dates, he'd left me on a mountain road to deliver flowers to whatever woman had caught his eye that week. Just drove off and forgot I existed.
I walked miles of winding mountain road home alone that day. My feet were raw and bleeding by the end, and the scars on my calves never fully faded.
I should have understood then. This man was selfish and faithless. He would never rein himself in for anyone. That blood-bound marriage was nothing but an excuse he'd written himself for cheating.
With that thought, I left a comment under Gianna's latest video.
"Wishing you two a lifetime of happiness and a baby on the way."
She deleted the video within minutes.
Nico's call came right after, demanding answers. I didn't pick up. Instead, I did what he'd always done to me. Calmly blocked his number.
Then I remembered: today was the day Nonna Rosa was being cremated.
I explained the situation and checked out of the hospital early. Dr. Matteo Ferraro wasn't comfortable letting me go and couldn't talk me out of it, so he insisted on coming along.
When the attendant at the funeral parlor placed the urn in my hands, I didn't feel the crushing grief I'd expected. All I felt was the shackle that had bound me for seven years finally breaking apart. The weight of the urn was nothing compared to the weight lifting off my chest. Seven years inside the Valente compound, seven years of silence and submission and the slow grinding of Omertà against everything I was.
I let out a quiet breath, said goodbye to the doctor, and went back to the Valente estate alone to pack.
The moment I stepped into the living room, I saw Nico and Gianna on the couch. Gianna scrambled to zip up her dress when she spotted me. But the red marks covering her skin gave away exactly how intense things had just been.
I felt no heartbreak. No anger. As if I'd seen nothing at all, I walked into the bedroom without expression.
By the time I came back out, Gianna was gone. Nico sat alone, drinking. A bottle of something expensive and half-empty on the side table, the room carrying the faint sweetness of her perfume mixed with whiskey.
He raised his head slowly when he saw me. The dim light fell across his face, unreadable. The heir to the Valente empire, sitting in shadows with his shirt half-unbuttoned, looking at me the way he might look at a soldier who'd arrived late to a sit-down.
"Sera. Where were you today?"
"None of your business."
I had nothing more to say, but Nico hurled his glass against the floor. Crystal shattered across the marble, and the sound echoed through the too-large room like a gunshot.
He closed the distance in two strides.
"Drop the act. You think I don't know you were out with that pretty boy of yours?" His voice was low, controlled, the kind of quiet that preceded the worst things in this house. "Can't stand being lonely, is that it, Sera? You blaming me for ignoring you? Fine. I'll give you what you want."
He tore at my clothes and dragged me toward the bed.
I recoiled, stunned by what he was doing. "Nico, have you lost your mind? I just gave birth!"
He was past hearing. Past reason. His teeth sank into my shoulder.
I shoved him off with everything I had and slapped him across the face.
That only made him worse. He grabbed the glass from the table and hurled it straight at me.
The crack of impact.
A thin line of blood slid down from my forehead.
Nico froze for a second, then reached for me on instinct. "Why didn't you dodge…"
I staggered backward, trying to speak. My body gave out before the words could come.
I didn't know how long I was out. Nico and Aldo arguing woke me. Their voices carried from the far side of the room, the old Don's tone a register I had never heard from him before. Not raised. Worse. Flattened to something cold and final, the voice of a man who had passed judgment a thousand times and was now passing it on his own blood.
I was back in the hospital.
When he saw my eyes open, Nico seemed to let out a breath of relief. Then his expression soured, and he turned to Aldo.
"This is the wife you picked for me. Couldn't even wait till she recovered before running off to meet her boy toy."
Aldo was shaking with rage. His ring finger tapped twice against the arm of his chair, hard and deliberate, the sound cutting through the sterile room like a verdict.
"A date? Do you have any idea where Sera went yesterday…"
