Chapter 1

My brother died in my arms. My hands shook as I texted my husband, Don Adriano.

"Adriano, I want a divorce."

Three seconds later, he called.

"Carina, that's enough," Adriano's voice was ice. "Stop this nonsense."

"I'm not."

"Leo gets a scratch, and you file for divorce? When the hell did you become so pathetic?"

I closed my eyes. Tears streamed down my face.

I could still feel Leo's cold body in my arms.

"He's dead, Adriano."

"Bullshit. If Isabella's heart condition flares up, she could die. Leo has a scratch. I'm warning you, stop using these pathetic little tricks to get my attention. I'm busy."

The phone went dead.

I saw Leo’s bloody face in my mind. I saw yesterday. My birthday.

Adriano promised us a celebration. Me and Leo. My favorite French restaurant.

Leo and I waited for him all night.

He wore the new suit I bought him, sitting quietly in the corner of the restaurant.

He didn't talk much, but the hope in his eyes said it all.

When the waiter asked for the third time if we wanted to order, Leo tugged on my sleeve.

"Sister, he’s not coming."

Leo barely spoke. When he did, each word was a knife to the heart.

I didn't take Leo home until the restaurant closed.

Just as we stepped outside, a car sped right for us. Bullets from a rival family rained down.

Leo pushed me out of the way. The bullets hit his chest.

I screamed, hauling him to the Moretti family's private hospital. The guards at the door stopped me.

"Mrs. Moretti, I'm sorry. The Don's orders. The entire medical team is on standby at the villa tonight. No one gets through. Miss Isabella can't be disturbed."

I knelt. I begged. I told them I was their Don's wife. But no one dared to defy Adriano's order.

My phone screen was red with blood. My hands shook as I dialed Adriano's number.

First call, no answer.

Second call, still no answer.

The tenth, the twentieth...

On the twenty-eighth try, Adriano finally picked up.

"Carina! Are you crazy? Calling all night!"

"Leo's been shot. There are no doctors at the hospital. He's dying—"

"What doctors?" Adriano cut me off, impatient. "There's a thunderstorm warning. Isabella is afraid of thunder; it could trigger her heart condition. I moved all the doctors to the villa. I can't risk anything happening to her."

"What about Leo? He's bleeding—"

"It's a flesh wound. Stop making a scene." His voice was devoid of all humanity. "Put pressure on it. I'll send a doctor tomorrow."

"Please," I begged, my dignity shattered on the floor.

"Enough! Stop being ridiculous!"

He hung up.

Leo's breathing grew faint. His lips turned blue. "Sister, I'm so cold..."

I wrapped my coat around him, but it did nothing to stop the life draining out of him with his blood. "Leo, hang on. The doctors will be here soon."

I lied. The doctors were never coming.

Leo died at 3:17 AM.

He died in my arms. On a night Isabella slept peacefully.

I don't know when I passed out.

When I woke up, Chloe was sitting by my bed, smoking. Her mascara was smeared. A fresh bruise bloomed on her cheekbone.

"Carina, I'm so sorry."

"He's really gone, Chloe," I said to the ceiling, my voice hollow.

Chloe crushed out her cigarette, her eyes holding the same resolve as mine. "Then let's go, Carina. It's time for us to wake up, too."

"Last night, Lorenzo ditched my security detail. A 'gift' for some model he was screwing. A rival crew found me in an alley. They almost... while he was popping champagne on a yacht."

Chloe let out a cold, shaky laugh. "I'm divorcing him. And I'm sending those bastards to hell."

"Yes, let's leave," I stared at the ceiling. "I want a divorce."

Five years ago, my father called me into his study. He told me that for Leo's future, for our family's survival, I had to marry Adriano Moretti.

"Love is a luxury, Carina," my father had said. "Security is a necessity."

I became Adriano's wife. A stranger he treated with politeness, but no warmth.

On our wedding night, he told me he loved a girl named Isabella. He never touched me.

I thought I could live with a marriage like that. Until my father died.

That night, I was sobbing my heart out. Adriano walked into my room and awkwardly held me.

"Carina, I will protect you and Leo. I swear it."

He kissed the tears from my face, so gently, so sincerely.

"Do you trust me?"

I nodded.

The next day, I signed over all my family's shipping lines to the Moretti family.

We started living like a real husband and wife.

Adriano would buy me flowers, watch movies with me, and stay up all night to care for me when I was sick.

For a while, I thought I was the happiest woman in the world.

Until a year ago, when Isabella returned.

Every time it rained, Adriano would drop everything and run to her side.

He would publicly gift her the most expensive jewels at auctions. He would drop everything to fly her to the southern hemisphere for a vacation, just because she asked.

He once promised to take care of me.

Then he started calling my brother "the retard," or just "your burden."

And when my brother was dying, he had to be with his precious Isabella.

A second later, my phone rang again.

"Carina, I don't want to hear the word 'divorce' again," Adriano's voice was a threat. "Leo gets a scratch and you're talking divorce? I didn't realize your jealousy had gotten this pathetic."

Chloe snatched the phone from my hand.

"Adriano Moretti, you listen to me, you son of a bitch!" she screamed into the phone. "Leo is dead! His body is in the morgue right now! If you want to fight this divorce, you can tell it to his corpse at the morgue!"