Chapter 3

The phone rang seven times before I picked up.

"Evelyn, are you out of your mind?!" Dominic's roar nearly blew out the speaker. "Why are all my cards frozen? I can't pay at the hotel! Do you have any idea how humiliating that was at the front desk?"

"Your cards?" My voice was calm. "You know exactly which businesses generated the money in those accounts."

When we married, my father had given me more than just the docks. Land. Industry channels. Dominic, the illegitimate son once sidelined by the Marchetti family, had used exactly these resources to claw his way into the family and take the Don's seat.

Silence on the other end for a few seconds.

"Honey." His voice dropped, suddenly, dangerously gentle. "Are you joking with me?"

"No. I'm dead serious." I pushed the door open. The sunlight outside was harsh, but I could breathe. "Also, the East Side docks will be managed by me from now on. Tell Kayla if she wants to prove herself, she can do it without touching what's mine."

"You—"

"And," I cut him off, "our marriage ends here. My lawyer will be in touch."

Hang up. Block. Done in one breath.

The next second, a notification popped up. Kayla's Instagram Story.

Inside a private jet, she leaned against Dominic's shoulder, forehead to forehead, fingers making a heart. Caption: "A rare little break in a busy schedule… ugh, I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted on bringing me along. Hope someone isn't mad~"

She knew Dominic liked seeing this. Playing to his tastes. I turned off the screen. In the rearview mirror, the house shrank smaller and smaller, then disappeared around the bend. I rolled down the window. The wind rushed in and blew away the last warm trace on my face.

The East Side docks. The last legacy of the Rosetti family.

Before my father died, he told me, "Evelyn, this is a marriage alliance. You'll be bound by vows you can't avoid. But a Marchetti man isn't worth giving your heart to. Remember. Always leave yourself a way out."

I'd tucked the divorce agreement inside that hundred-million-dollar Brooklyn waterfront infrastructure contract. I'd made a show of giving Kayla the advantage. Then I handed it to Dominic to sign. He didn't even look. One stroke of the pen. The divorce agreement went into effect.

While the two of them were away on business, I moved into the top floor of the East Side dock office building. Red brick exterior. Five stories. Below, dispatch and warehouses. Above, accounting and meeting rooms. For the past five years, Dominic had used "family unified management" as the excuse to let Kayla, under the title of special assistant, hold this place. I'd been completely sidelined.

Now I sat behind my father's mahogany desk.

"Evelyn." The man across from me set down the contract, surprise plain in his voice. "You're sure you want to hire me? Does the Marchetti family know?"

Frank Costello. My father's former right hand. A man the Marchetti family had erased. He'd opposed my marriage to Dominic. The first thing Dominic did after taking power was kick him out.

"Starting today," I set a signet ring on the desk, "the East Side docks will return to the glory the Rosetti family once had. Marchetti is the past."

Frank looked at the ring, the rose crest carved into it. Something lit up in his cloudy old eyes.

It was my father's ring. The rose crest of the Rosetti family, carved into the face.

Just then, my phone lit up. Unknown number. I answered.

It was Dominic. He'd seen I blocked him and assumed I was throwing a fit.

"Honey." His voice was low, almost coaxing. "Stop this. Unfreeze the cards, unblock me, and we'll talk about the docks when I'm back. Kayla is just my assistant. There's no need to go after her."

I laughed. "Dominic, you called me just to speak up for Kayla?"

"She cried the whole ride. Said you won't take her calls and shut down every project she was handling. Honey, you didn't used to be this petty."

"I didn't used to be." My voice was soft. "I used to think if I just held on a little longer, you'd come back to me. Now I get it. You will always stand on her side."

"I stand on the side of reason." His tone dropped. The gentle mask finally came off. "You freeze accounts, grab the docks, throw tantrums. You think anyone in the Rosetti family is left to back you? Your father's dead. You're nothing!"

"Dominic." I cut him off, word by word. "The East Side docks were always my father's private property, left to me. My divorce lawyer will be contacting you."

Dead silence on the other end.

Then I heard Kayla's voice in the background, soft and sweet. "Don, what's wrong? Is she threatening you with divorce again? Don't let her scare you. How would she even survive without you…"

I smiled and hung up. This time, I didn't even bother blocking him again.

Frank watched me from the side. After a long silence, he spoke. "Your father used to say you were too soft. Looks like he was wrong."

I slid the ring back onto my finger, stood, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. Below, the docks were lit up. Cargo ships unloading. The Rosetti flag snapping in the wind.

"He wasn't wrong." I looked out at the distance. "It just took me three years to see clearly."

To see that the tenderness in that man's eyes was just the sugar coating on his need for control. That every time he defended Kayla, it was a slow cut to my dignity. That the "way out" my father talked about was never cowardice.

It was the card you keep to survive.

"If your father could see this day…" Frank's voice trembled.

"He can." I said. "And I'm going to make sure everyone else sees it too. A Rosetti daughter is second to no man."

Frank took a deep breath, opened the contract, and pulled an old fountain pen from his suit pocket. He signed his name on the last page.

"Welcome back to the East Side docks, Donna Rosetti."