Chapter 1

Sandra's POV

I left the black market.

Cradling my son's ashes, I took him to the amusement park he had long dreamed of visiting.

He had always understood how hard I worked for every penny. Every time I saved enough and promised to take him to the park, he would refuse, insisting patiently, "Let's wait until Mom ransoms Dad. Then the three of us can go together."

But he waited and waited. What he received instead was a body weakened by illness. The father he longed for, apparently trapped in the black market, turned out to be nothing but a cruel illusion.

The grief hit me so hard that I couldn't shed a single tear. Numb, I wandered with my son's ashes from ride to ride, letting him "play" as if he were still there.

Night fell. I carried the ashes along the riverbank, lost in the quiet murmur of the water. Suddenly, a screen shot up from the center of the river, projecting a photo of Joe Masseria's sister-in-law, Sofia Rizzuto, and her son—along with a single line of text.

[Sofia's mysterious husband has captured a priceless treasure for her, and he has built Mechinsia's largest amusement park for their son, set to open in one month!]

I stared at the words, frozen, until the dam of composure broke. I collapsed to the ground and wept like I had never wept before. All the sorrow I had buried over the years surged at once.

For so many years, I had worked day and night, risking my life, just to ransom him. My son had often been left without care; since the age of three, he had been in boarding nurseries. Everyone who saw us would sigh at our misfortune.

The money I had scraped together for my son's treatment—the money that should have saved him—was worth less than a toy plane for Sofia's son.

For the sake of not harming his brother's widow, Joe had not returned home once in five years.

I bowed my head and cried until my body was wracked with sobs, until I vomited blood from sheer despair. Gasping for air, I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and struggled to stand.

Then my phone lit up with a number I hadn't seen in ages.

I answered, and a familiar, excited voice came through.

"Sandra, I've been working hard lately. The boss's family had some celebrations, and in his joy, he let me go. I'll be home soon."

In the past, whenever he got hold of a phone, he would call me immediately. I would remind him to eat well, to take care of himself, promising I would ransom him back as soon as possible.

But now… it seemed he only called on a whim, a sudden thought of me, a charity rather than a concern.

A blade seemed lodged in my throat. I paused for a long moment before I could even speak.

"Okay."

My calm, almost indifferent response startled him. Perhaps he thought I was too exhausted from work to speak.