Serena’s POV
I was stuck in a hospital bed, still lightheaded from the blood loss. My arms ached, the world tilting every time I tried to sit up.
But the pain wasn’t what broke me.
It was the silence after everything.
I had lost my child.
And in the mafia world Nico Vescari ruled, grief didn’t slow anything down.
Someone sent me a video.
Nico at a black-tie Syndicate gala—wine in hand, laughing with foreign capos like nothing in his life had ever cracked.
Natalie beside him.
His hand at her waist like she was already branded into his empire.
Another clip came in later.
Private dinner. No cameras except the Syndicate’s own security feed.
He fed her dessert like she was the center of the room. Like I was just… background noise that had stopped existing.
He looked happy.
Like I had been erased cleanly.
When I was discharged, no convoy came.
No driver.
No Vescari men waiting at the gates.
Just me, a hospital bag, and the quiet humiliation of realizing I had officially fallen off his radar.
I still had nowhere else to go but the estate.
So I went back.
That was how I saw them.
Outside the private maternity wing of Vescari Medical.
Natalie glowing like she belonged in the highest tier of the underworld—designer coat, guarded by Syndicate nurses who only treated “protected women.”
Nico stood beside her, hand resting on her back like a claim.
A nurse passed and smiled brightly. “Mrs. Vescari, your checkup results look excellent.”
My stomach twisted.
Mrs. Vescari.
She didn’t even correct herself.
Neither did he.
I turned away before anyone saw my face break.
Then—
“Serena.”
His voice cut through the hallway like a drawn blade.
I stopped.
Of course he noticed me.
Nico always noticed what he still considered his property.
I turned slowly.
“I wasn’t looking for you,” I said flatly. “I just got discharged.”
Natalie clung to his arm immediately, soft and calculated.
“Babe,” she said, tilting her head, “let her come with us. She helped me before… with the blood thing.”
Like it was charity.
Like I wasn’t bleeding out for her child.
Nico exhaled. Then nodded once.
“Fine.”
That was it.
No hesitation.
No regard.
Just an order shifting me into his schedule like baggage.
So I got in the car.
Because in the Vescari Syndicate, you didn’t refuse a Don in public.
Even if he had already stopped seeing you as his wife.
The ride started in silence.
Then Natalie turned slightly in her seat, smiling.
“Oh,” she said lightly, as if remembering brunch gossip. “My underwear is still in the backseat.”
My head moved before I could stop it.
She giggled.
“Can you believe it, babe?” she said, looking at Nico. “After last week in the car?”
Nico’s mouth curved faintly. “You’re careless.”
“Mmm,” she hummed. “You weren’t complaining when you had me against the door outside the border checkpoint.”
The car went quiet except for the engine.
Natalie leaned back, enjoying it.
“Or when you pulled over because I wouldn’t stop touching you—”
“Enough,” I said.
Not loud.
Just final.
Silence snapped shut instantly.
Even the driver stiffened.
Natalie only smiled wider, like she’d won something invisible.
I looked out the window instead.
My hands shook as I opened my phone.
Elio’s message was already waiting.
Flight confirmed. 9:00 PM. Private strip.
I stared at it for a second too long.
Then typed:
Thank you. I’m coming.
His reply came fast.
What happened? You can trust me.
My fingers paused.
I could tell him everything. He was the only man in the underground who had ever treated me like I wasn’t replaceable.
But I didn’t want another war started in my name.
So I answered:
I just need out.
That was enough truth.
The only one that mattered anymore.
The phone was suddenly yanked from my hand.
I went still.
Not startled.
Just… done.
I turned to Nico slowly.
“Seriously?” I asked quietly. “We’re doing that now?”
His eyes didn’t leave the road.
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one you care about,” I said.
“What’s the passcode.”
I almost laughed.
“The day we met,” I said. “Try not to forget it this time.”
He tried.
Once.
Twice.
Locked.
Natalie leaned closer, amused.
“Just give up, Serena,” she said sweetly. “You don’t really have anyone left anyway.”
She looked at me like I was already erased from the Syndicate’s ledger.
Like I was no longer a wife.
Not even an enemy.
Just… expendable.
And for the first time—
I believed her.
