Chapter 1

The words had barely left my mouth when the entire dining hall went silent.

Twenty years ago, the Moretti family took Celeste and me in and raised us as future Donna candidates.

For years, I pushed myself through finance, investment development, family politics, and the rules of both the legal world and the underworld.

Everyone knew how much I had sacrificed just to stand beside Adrian as his Donna.

And now, before he could even make his choice, I had given it all up myself.

Adrian froze for a second.

After that brief flicker of shock, his eyes went cold again.

The words had barely left my mouth when the entire dining hall went silent.

“Elena,” Rosalie said with a frown. “Do you understand what you’re saying?”

“I do.” I met her gaze. “Adrian’s heart belongs to someone else. The Moretti family needs a Donna trusted by her husband, not a backup bride pushed onto the stage.”

Adrian stared at me for a moment, then suddenly rose.His chair scraped against the marble floor with a sharp, ugly sound.

“I’m going out.”

I knew where he was going.

At this moment, Celeste had not yet been ambushed by the Lopez family in the underground parking garage. Everything could still be changed.

In my previous life, she died in that chaos. Adrian carried her death for the rest of his life and blamed that grief on me and on the Moretti family.

Now that he had been reborn too, of course he would run to save her.

I didn’t stop him.

The men at the door hurried aside, and Adrian’s back vanished into the night.

Someone whispered. Someone looked at me with pity, as if I had just lost an entire life.

I only picked up my napkin and slowly wiped my fingertips.

In my last life, I turned myself into the sharpest knife in the Moretti arsenal for a man who was never truly mine.

This time, I would not place the handle in someone else’s hand.

That night, I went back to my room and packed.

The walk-in closet held gowns, furs, and evening dresses tailored for me by the Moretti family. The safe held the jewelry Adrian had given me. The drawer held family bank cards and keys to several safe houses. I touched none of it.

The next morning, my phone filled with notifications.

[Adrian Moretti personally escorts Celeste Vale back to the estate. The heir has made his choice.]

[The lost white rose returns. The young don’s heart was always hers.]

[Elena Vega steps down. The future Moretti Donna may change overnight.]

In the photos, Celeste wore Adrian’s suit jacket and leaned against his chest. She looked pale, but her smile was soft. Adrian lowered his head to look at her with a tenderness he had never given me at our wedding.

At noon, voices rose downstairs. I stood by the second-floor railing and watched Adrian lead Celeste into the study. Her arm was wrapped in gauze, and her face still looked bloodless. Even so, she couldn’t wait to sit before Vito.

"Godfather, since Adrian chose me, shouldn’t the South Dock redevelopment come to me too?" Her voice was gentle, with the perfect amount of injury in it.

Adrian said nothing. He only rested his hand on the back of her chair. That gesture said enough.

The South Dock redevelopment was the Moretti family’s most important legal project in years. On paper, it covered old port real estate, hotels, and a yacht club. Underneath, it controlled dock access, casino licenses, and interest trades among several Chicago families.

In my previous life, I spent three years untangling that mess. I pulled Moretti out of street-level bloodshed and pushed the family onto the Commission’s negotiating table.

Celeste knew exactly what the project meant.

Soon, the butler came upstairs for me. Vito sat behind his black ebony desk with exhaustion carved between his brows. Adrian stood by the window. Celeste sat beside him with her fingers resting lightly on her bandage, like a white flower that had barely survived gunfire.

Vito spoke first. "Elena, you’ve always handled the South Dock. A sudden change will look bad outside the family."

"You don’t need to make this hard, Godfather." I placed the leather folder I had prepared on the desk. "The handover documents are all here. I listed the government consultants, contractors, union reps, and port security contacts."

I took off the black diamond family ring that had given me authority to sign for Moretti front companies since I was eighteen and set it beside the folder.

The Moretti eagle was engraved inside the band. Vito had placed it in my hand on my eighteenth birthday and told me I could sign on Adrian’s behalf from that day forward.

In my previous life, the ring stayed on my finger until the night I died. This time, I laid it down without shaking.

Vito stared at the ring as his knuckles tightened.

Celeste’s eyes brightened, and she reached for it almost at once. The moment her fingertips touched the ring, Vito frowned. Adrian also lifted his eyes to me.

I pulled one last thin memo from the folder. "And this."

Celeste flipped through a few pages. Her smile stiffened line by line.

"South Dock isn’t just a real estate deal," I said. "The Lopez family, the longshoremen’s union, a federal tax task force, and old debt tied to Saint Harbor Casino are all locked inside it. Handle one link wrong, and Moretti loses at least three hundred million dollars. Worse, you hand three shipping routes to our enemies."

I looked at her, then at Adrian. "With Miss Vale’s ability, I’m sure that won’t be a problem."

Celeste forced a smile. "You worry too much. Adrian will help me."

Adrian’s voice turned cold. "Enough, Elena. From today on, South Dock has nothing to do with you."

"Good." I turned to leave.

But Celeste spoke again. "Wait."

She rose slowly. Her eyes finally stopped pretending to be fragile and showed a sharp, satisfied gleam.

"Since Miss Vega is no longer Adrian’s fiancée and no longer part of family business, should she keep using Moretti property?"