Chapter 1

The words had barely left my mouth when I felt a momentary daze.

"A month ago, the Morettis found you through hospital records and offered to take you back. You refused." Salvatore put down his cigar and looked straight at me. "Why the sudden change of heart now? Did someone pressure you?"

I bit my lower lip and shook my head. "No one's forcing me out."

I just didn't want to hear them tell me to be reasonable anymore.

The night Bianca came back six months ago, Leon gave her my seat at the dinner table.

"Bianca just got here. We can't make her feel excluded."

Leon said it so casually. It was just a chair. I shouldn't have made a fuss.

Then Enzo pushed my favorite dessert, the sea salt cheesecake, right in front of her.

"This cake is pretty good, Bianca. Try it."

Enzo didn't even glance my way when he said it. His eyes were all on her.

After dinner, Darius canceled the weekend movie we'd planned weeks ago. His reason? Bianca had just returned and he needed to show her around the Falcone estate.

They all said it was only temporary. That I needed to be patient.

But six months had passed. I'd given up more and more, and they never once gave anything back.

The seat. The dessert. The movie.

Each thing was so small that refusing would make me look petty.

But together, they weighed so heavy I could barely breathe.

"They all say I stole twenty-two years of Bianca's life." I clenched my fists. "But that wasn't my fault. When we were switched, I was just a baby too."

Salvatore's face darkened.

Twenty-two years ago, Bianca and I were born in the same hospital. That day, a rival family attacked the facility. In the chaos, several newborns got mixed up. I was taken to the Falcones, while Bianca grew up with a small-time merchant's family.

But we weren't the only ones switched that day. One of the Five Families, the Morettis, had a child swapped too. And the final DNA results showed that I was the Morettis' long-lost eldest daughter. Only Salvatore and I knew.

"You will always be my daughter." Salvatore rose to his feet. "Who humiliated you? Leon, Enzo, or Darius? I'll make them pay."

"Don't." I stopped him at once.

The last time he punished Enzo for me, Leon asked why I couldn't even let Bianca have a little compensation. Darius warned me that if I kept using Don's power to fight for my place, the two sides would end up with guns drawn on each other.

I didn't want the Falcones tearing themselves apart over me. I didn't want them caught in the crossfire either.

So after that, I never asked the Don to stand up for me again.

"They didn't kick me out." I forced the corner of my mouth up. "But I've made up my mind. I have to leave."

Salvatore sighed and pulled a document from his drawer, the one to revoke family membership. The signature line was still blank.

"I'm heading to Mexico tonight for an arms deal. Once you decide, let me know immediately." He patted my shoulder. "No matter which name you end up with, you will always be my daughter."

My fingers went stiff as I took the papers.

If there had been any other choice, I wouldn't have wanted to leave either.

But no one had left me that choice.

As I stepped out of the study, I saw Darius walking toward me. In his hands, he carried an elaborate two-tier cake.

Tomorrow was my birthday. Every year before this, Darius would stay up until midnight just to be the first one to wish me happy birthday.

The cold that had frozen me all day suddenly melted.

"Darius!" I stepped forward to meet him, already deciding in my head that I could give him one last chance.

Darius stopped. For a brief moment, his gaze softened.

Then the words on the cake caught my eye.

— Happy Birthday, Bianca.

I froze. My eyes burned.

How could I have forgotten? Bianca and I shared the same birthday.

Darius turned sideways, shielding the cake with his arm as he stepped around me.

"Elena. Don't forget to show up for Bianca's party tomorrow."