Chapter 3

I walked down the street in a daze.

It wasn't until someone gasped at the sight of my arm that I looked down.

Blood had soaked through my sleeve and was dripping from my fingertips.

I called the butler and asked him to have a private doctor waiting at the estate.

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"Donna, all the private doctors have been reassigned by the Don to attend to Miss Blake."

I paused, hung up, and ducked into a random pharmacy.

I fumbled with the bandages, my fingers shaking from the pain.

Growing up, I'd almost never been hurt.

The first time Dominic saw me at a banquet, I was still my father's little princess, shielded from everything.

On our wedding day, he promised my father that he'd make me happy forever, that I'd be a sun that never set.

But later, he was the one who pulled me back down from that sky.

I stared at the thick, clumsy bandages on my arm and laughed bitterly at myself.

Then my phone buzzed.

Dominic had sent a message, calling an emergency Family council.

By the time I reached the council hall, Dominic was already seated at the head of the table.

His gaze landed on the white bandage on my arm, and he visibly stiffened.

But in the next second, he looked away and turned back to the others.

"Effective immediately, the Donna is no longer authorized to independently issue orders for exile, detention, or execution.

"All deployment of her guards and weapons must be approved by me."

The hall fell dead silent.

It didn't take long for the room to catch on. Eyes, some shocked and some smug, all turned toward me.

Dominic scanned the table.

"Any objections?"

"Yes."

Under the weight of every stare in the room, I slipped the Donna's ring from my finger and placed it on the table.

The clean, sharp sound it made plunged the hall into complete silence.

"Since the Don doesn't trust me, he can have this position back."

Dominic's face darkened. He snatched the ring from the table and pulled me out of the council hall.

The door barely closed before he held the ring out in front of me.

"What do you think you're doing? I told you, I'm not getting a divorce!"

I looked at him calmly. "All because of that phone call?"

He didn't answer. He only said, "I'm not trying to strip your authority. I'm just saying you can't interfere in anything involving Serena."

He paused, as if he'd already made an enormous concession.

"The Westport docks, the casino, and the smuggling route. All under your name now.

"That territory was Lucas's once. I've shown more than enough goodwill, so let it go."

Over the years, countless people had taken bullets and risked their lives for Dominic.

Yet Serena's family was the only one whose debt he could never finish repaying.

I suddenly felt the whole thing was pointless.

But Dominic didn't hear my refusal.

Back in the council hall, he announced in front of everyone that the entire Westport territory would be transferred to me.

The room erupted.

No one could understand how, moments after stripping my authority, he'd just handed me half the Family's lifeline.

Serena clearly didn't understand either.

That same day, she stormed into the estate with tears in her eyes.

Even through the closed study door, I could hear her screaming.

"You used to demand a divorce all the time! Why are you being so good to her now?

"You even gave her my brother's territory! Once she has that power, she'll just keep hurting me!"

Dominic was quiet for a long time before he murmured, "I'm doing this for your own good."

"If you want what's good for me, then divorce her and throw her out!"

"Absolutely not."

Not a shred of hesitation.

Serena stared at him, then asked through tears, "Do you really love her that much?"

This time, Dominic didn't answer.

The shouting and crying in the study went on.

I turned away, stone-faced, and went to the bedroom to pack.

But Dominic's silence, that final silence, still drove into my chest like a blade, again and again.

He'd never been good with words.

But before every mission, he used to hold me tight and tell me he loved me, over and over.

He'd say bullets don't care who they hit.

That he was afraid he'd leave one day and never get the chance to tell me again.

Now he couldn't even say the word "love."

I slept badly that night.

In my dream, I saw a woman who looked exactly like me.

Only she was calmer, and far more radiant.

We stood across from each other through a curtain of pouring rain, gazing at one another for a long time.

Finally, she said softly, "Leave him. You'll have a better future."

I didn't understand what she meant. I frowned. "Who are you?"

She reached out her hand to me and smiled.

"I'm you. Ten years from now."

I was about to take her hand when a frantic pounding on the door jolted me awake.

The next second, Dominic dragged me into Serena's room.

The room was in shambles. The wheelchair lay overturned on the floor, and the carpet was stained with blood.

He seized my collar, his eyes bloodshot.

"Where did you take her?"