After My Daughter Threw Me Away, I Went Back to the Family

I went up to my room, found the number I hadn't dialed in years, and called it.

"Richard, I need you to draw up divorce papers. Send them to me as soon as you can."

Richard sounded almost giddy when I finished. "Miss Gambino, you've finally come to your senses about that man? I'll get started right now!"

The second the call ended, Preston pushed the door open.

I looked at him with no expression at all. "Preston, we need to talk."

But he only changed his shirt, then turned to me with impatience all over his face. "Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. And you should spend tonight thinking about what you just did!"

Then he walked out without looking back.

By the time I came downstairs the house was empty. There was nothing but a note on the dining table.

It said, "Anna and I are waiting for you at the Golden House."

The Golden House was the restaurant where Preston had proposed to me, and where we spent every anniversary afterward.

But since Lena became his secretary, we hadn't set foot in it for three years.

I arrived at the Golden House at the time he'd set, telling myself they had remembered it was my birthday after all. Then I walked in, and what I saw hit me like a slap in the face.

Lena stood in the middle of the room in a gorgeous evening gown.

She stroked the expensive pink diamond necklace at her throat and thanked Preston, who stood beside her, in a soft, intimate voice. "Preston, darling, thank you for my present. I absolutely love it!"

I knew that necklace. Preston had bought it at auction for three million dollars, and he'd said it was for the most important woman in his life.

So the most important woman in his life was Lena.

Then what was I?

Six years ago, Preston and I met in a bar in Sicily.

He was nobody then, just a bartender, but when I was drunk and an old enemy of the Family came looking for payback, he put himself in the way for me.

And I was the future heir of the Gambino Family, the most powerful mafia Family in Sicily.

I hid who I was so he wouldn't be dragged into any of it, and I fell in love with him.

I still remember the promise he made me in that cramped basement apartment, his eyes lit up. "Winnie, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make you the happiest wife in Sicily!"

But before he could keep it, someone found out about us.

My father decided he was beneath me and could never make me happy, and he refused to hear another word about it.

So I chose happiness. I gave up my claim as heir, buried my name, and left with Preston for a city where nobody knew us.

I lived in that basement with him and fell asleep every night to the sound of rats in the walls.

At our lowest we didn't have money for food and ate the free samples at the supermarket.

But none of it ever made me unhappy. I built out his business with him. I walked beside him from nobody to a CEO people were afraid of.

And now he was buying a three-million-dollar necklace for a woman who had never done a day of it.

Worse, he was calling her the most important woman in his life.

What a joke!

"Mommy, why are you just standing there? Come wish Mommy Lena a happy birthday!" My daughter's voice broke into the memory.

I came back to myself and found the whole room looking at me.

Lena gave me a sweet smile and came toward me, all warmth. "Mrs. Hale, I'm so happy you came!"

She moved to hug me, but I shoved her off.

Her heels slid out from under her and she went over backward. Preston lunged forward and caught her against his chest.

Then he rounded on me, furious. "Winnie, what is wrong with you? Lena was being kind to you. Look at yourself, look how petty you are. I should never have asked you to come. Apologize to her, now!"

Before I could say a word, Anna came up and shoved me hard, copying his tone exactly. "You're the bad mommy! Why are you being mean to Mommy Lena!"

I looked at the two people who mattered most to me in the world, treating me like this, and something in me went to ice.

Lena played the peacemaker. "Preston, it was my own fault, I lost my balance. It had nothing to do with your wife. Please don't fight over me."

Everyone else took her side too.

"Mrs. Hale is unbelievably small-minded. She doesn't deserve to stand next to a man like Preston!"

"Right? Lena's the one who should be Mrs. Hale."

"A woman whose own husband and daughter can't stand her. That's about as big a failure as it gets!"

Every word went into me like a needle.

I looked up at Preston, and he watched me the way a stranger would, cold, with no intention of defending me.

Instead his voice went flat and hard. "Winnie, before I really lose my temper, you're going to listen to me and apologize to Lena. Otherwise I'll have security throw you out!"

I laughed under my breath. "You don't have to throw me out. I'm leaving. Looking at the two of you makes me sick!"

Then I picked up the vase beside me and smashed it through Lena's three-tier birthday cake.

The room came apart behind me and I walked out without looking back.

Before I reached the door, I heard Preston shouting after me. "Winnie, if you walk out now, next time I won't forgive you so easily!"

But Preston didn't know there wasn't going to be a next time.

Outside the restaurant, my phone buzzed.

Richard had sent the divorce papers.

Preston regretted marrying me. Fine. Then I would be the one to end this marriage.

And every single thing in his life that was never his, I wasn't leaving behind for him either!