"If it weren't for the Moretti name backing her, I wouldn't touch this shrew with a ten-foot pole. The fact that I'm willing to give her a child is already the greatest mercy she could hope for."
"If she doesn't know what's good for her, she can be the laughingstock of every Family in the city. A woman whose alliance has been called off is worth less than a coat-check girl at some strip joint. Who would ever want her?"
I watched this man coldly. The man I'd chosen when I was ten years old.
Fourteen years together. I had given him nearly everything I had to give.
Two years ago, old Don Falcone passed away, and the unremarkable Damian took over the Falcone criminal empire. In just three months, he'd managed to offend more than half their backers and silent partners. Not only did he botch the syndicate's flagship racket, he went against the entire circle of capos and poured cash into over a dozen ventures that were guaranteed to bleed dry. In six short months, the Falcone family, a dynasty built over nearly a century of blood and territory, saw its cash flow collapse under billions of dollars in debt.
The family liquidated every front, every holding, every piece of collateral they owned. It still wasn't enough.
With a hundred years of legacy on the verge of total ruin, I was the one who begged my father to save the Falcones from being bled out entirely.
Back then, Damian had knelt before my father, sobbing, swearing he would never betray me in this lifetime. Between him and me, he said, nothing but death would ever part us.
It was the Moretti family's vast network of resources, the tribute lines, the shipping routes, the political contacts threaded through every industry, that allowed Damian to rebuild the Falcone empire in just two years.
And now, before the Falcones had even found solid footing among the city's ruling families, he couldn't wait to force me into being the other woman.
The guests looked at him as though they were watching a fool perform.
Everyone knew that while the Falcone operations still bore the Falcone name on paper, aside from Damian's figurehead title as Don, the entire organization had long since become Moretti property through and through.
A man who depended on his fiancée just to maintain his lavish lifestyle. Where did he find the nerve to provoke the very person bankrolling his existence?
But Damian was completely oblivious. He was convinced I still needed him the way I once had.
When I said nothing, his arm tightened around Adriana's waist.
"Bianca, if you get on your knees right now and bow to Adriana three times, I might be generous enough to forgive your little tantrum."
"Otherwise, you won't even get the chance to bear my children, let alone set foot in the Falcone compound!"
I looked at that arrogant, repulsive face of his, and I couldn't help but laugh.
This kind of idiot? Whoever wanted him could have him.
A blessed woman doesn't walk through a cursed man's door.
My father let out a cold scoff. "My daughter, the pride of the Moretti family, and you think you're worthy of passing judgment on her?"
"This alliance is off."
"When Bianca decides she wants to marry someday, every eligible young man from every Family in this city will be lining up at our door. And if she never wants to marry at all, I'll gladly take care of her for the rest of her life."
With that, he clapped three times and gave a sharp order to the soldiers standing along the walls. "Bring every last piece of my daughter's dowry back. All of it."
"Two hundred cases of cash. Silent stakes in twenty front operations. Ten armored cars. Thirty properties across eight countries. And the thirty billion dollars wired into the Falcone accounts. Recover every cent. Not a single dollar stays behind."
The staggering scale of my dowry drew a collective gasp from the room. Chairs shifted. Someone set down a glass too hard.
"The Falcones are finished. Without the Morettis, they're not even worth the name on the gate!"
"Throwing away a century-old bloodline for some retainer's daughter. Absolutely moronic!"
Adriana let out a shrill scream. "No! That dowry belongs to me!"
