Chapter 1

Tomorrow was supposed to be the day Kane and I left New York for Europe, the day he was set to join my family and start our life together.

I thought we were each other's one true thing. I was wrong.

Three years together, and it had always been a con. He'd been playing me for my assets from day one, while his heart had never left his childhood sweetheart.

The moment I heard the truth, my chest seized.

When we first met, Kane was the illegitimate son of the Stafford Family, cast out, hunted by enemies, bleeding out in a dark alley with nowhere left to go.

I had just turned eighteen. I couldn't stand there and watch a life drain away in the gutter. So I acted.

I activated a private medical team that operated across borders. I took over an entire underground clinic. I threw everything at keeping him alive: experimental treatments, specialist surgeons, three days and nights of round-the-clock care. And it worked.

When Kane came around, he scanned the room with wary eyes.

I didn't want him to know who I really was. My real identity, as the daughter of the Don who commanded the most powerful mafia alliance in Europe, wasn't something I could just drop on a stranger. So I kept it simple. I tucked the sheets around him and lied with a soft smile: "Don't worry. I'm nobody special. My family runs some international trade, and I just happened to find you."

The moment he heard that, the suspicion left his eyes. And when he realized I had money, something close to hunger lit up in their place.

Once he'd recovered, Kane came after me like his life depended on it.

He knew I ran cold, and he found a way around every wall I put up.

For my favorite violets, he scoured half of New York's private florists. On a night I mentioned offhand that my stomach hurt, he showed up at my building in a downpour with a fever, standing in the rain for three hours just to hand me a bowl of warm soup he'd made himself. He even carved my name into his own arm with a knife, held me while he sobbed, and swore I was the only light in his ruined life.

"Francesca, before you, I was nobody, just the Stafford bastard everybody spat on, waiting to die in the street. You're the one who pulled me back from the edge."

He'd knelt in front of me, cradling my hands, his eyes steady and full of what I believed was devotion. "If I can be with you, I'll walk away from all of it. The power, the violence, all of it. I'll come to your family, live quietly, and spend my whole life loving only you."

I fell for every word.

I thought I'd saved a fallen man. I thought we were fighting for each other.

To help him leave the life for good, I picked a fight with my father over the phone and threatened to walk away from my inheritance. I was so sure it was worth it.

I even went behind Kane's back and had a lawyer draw up full transfer documents for everything I'd built in North America: trust accounts, offshore funds, every asset I owned. I was going to give it all to him at the wedding as a surprise, no strings attached.

The sweeter the memory, the louder the slap when reality hits.

I was jolted back to reality by the sound of heavy panting and the thudding of bodies colliding inside the safe house.

I stood frozen outside the door, witnessing the fiancé I had loved for three years shamelessly entangled with Alicia.

Kane knew full well how much I loathed betrayal, yet there he was—clutching the childhood friend straddling him, his movements rough and frenzied.

Alicia’s white dress was torn to shreds, and the haute couture necklace that rightfully belonged to me dangled glaringly around her neck.

As Kane claimed her with aggressive intensity, he panted into her ear in a lewd, unfamiliar tone: "Baby, just put up with that idiot for one more day. Once I trick her into signing over the Manhattan property and the offshore funds to me tomorrow, I’ll kick her to the curb immediately. That pathetic little lapdog isn't worth a single hair on your head..."

Alicia let out a wanton, coquettish laugh.

Watching their bodies writhe together in such a shameless, intimate tangle, an overwhelming sense of betrayal washed over me like a tsunami, instantly drowning me.

Three years. All that time, and what was it worth? My loyalty, my sacrifices, every tear I cried over him, and in his eyes I was just a nuisance he was tolerating until the check cleared.

The pain came like a wave, and then it was gone. What was left was silence, clean and cold.

My eyes burned, but I didn't let them fall. The pride running through my blood wouldn't allow it.

I took one last look at that closed door, turned around, and walked away.

Kane. You made your choice.