Chapter 5

Harvey’s POV 

I knew something was wrong the moment she stopped coming home after work. It started when she began to leave right before me but I would leave later and reach the house but she won’t.  

Alisa had never been the type to hide where she was going. She’d tell me she was out with friends, or working a case, or helping her brother although I never really got to meet him since he’s living overseas but she always claimed to help him out with office documents as his virtual assistant. Currently, she doesn't say anything. No text. No call. No note. Sometimes she won’t return until the next day. Sometimes two days later.

The first time I asked her where she had been, she laughed. The second time, she rolled her eyes at me and walked inside the room. The third time, she looked at me like I was nothing in her eyes.

“I can’t be in love with a broke man,” she said.

That hit harder than any punch I’d ever taken. I wasn’t expecting this although I suspected it. 

This was months after the court ruled in Nada’s favor and I was barely left with anything. I had already lost most of my savings in the divorce, how I wish I had known. The court had given Nada eighty percent of my assets. I couldn’t even fight it. But now I sit down to think, she had every reason to take it. I’d been the one who destroyed the marriage. I’d been the one who ruined her trust. She never stopped being loyal, even stooped low to make me more secure. 

The words Nada was supposed to say, being from a wealthy billionaire family everyone knew, she didn’t, but here Alisa whom I’d thought would be pretty much better was saying it. 

I was slowly starting to regret it. 

I wanted to hang in there a little bit if things would change. I just got in with her and couldn’t just leave. I would be a laughing stock especially to Nada. Even though she’s absent from my life, my mind tells me that she’s constantly watching secretly. 

“What are you now going to use to take care of me or do you think I’m the kind of wife you will cater for with your three thousand monthly salary?” She smirked. 

“Even when I was your best friend, you didn’t use that on me.” She scoffed, walking away. 

Slowly reality crept in. 

I thought she cared for me. I thought she was my best friend. We’d worked side by side in the force for years. She’d been there when I doubted myself, even before I got to know Nada. She has always been there from the beginning. She’d listened when I complained about the job, even when I used to complain about my wife not delivering a baby for me. 

The memories began flowing in, the promise she used to give. “If she can’t, don’t worry one day I’ll stand in for you and give a happy after.” But now she was looking at me like I was just a failed investment.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, toasting from one side to the other. She was gone again. No call. No excuse. I told myself to ignore it. To stop caring. But my hands were shaking.

By midnight, I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed my keys and left. It’s safe here in Brooklyn, at any time of the night, besides I’m a cop.

Her car wasn’t at the apartment lot. I drove around the city, checking every place I thought she might be. She wasn’t at the bar we used to go to after work. She wasn’t at her sister’s place. I didn’t give up. An hour later, deep into the dead of the night, I spotted her car outside a club on the east side.

The music inside was hitting louder than I’d ever heard. From the music, I could sense there would be smoking, binge drinking and lots of sexual activities going on. 

“Should she be going into this type of place as a potential wife?” I muttered, angry and stormed towards the entrance. I was blocked by the door. 

“No one comes in after 10 PM.” 

I pulled out my ID. “I’m a cop, I’m here to pick my wife. That’s her car.” I pointed at it. Seeing the frustration on my way alongside my status, they let me in. 

Lights flashed, bodies swayed in erotic dance steps, and sweat and smoke filled the air. I pushed my way through the crowd. That’s when I saw her.

She wasn’t alone.

She was at the VIP section, sitting with a man I had never seen before. He was tall, sharply dressed, with the kind of confidence that comes from knowing that the people around fear you. He had one hand on her thigh. She was smiling at him in a way she’d never smiled at me.

My stomach clenched. 

I moved before I could stop myself. “Alisa, what are you doing here with him?” I grabbed her arm. She jerked back, startled, but before she could speak, the man stood up standing before me and her. His eyes cascaded over me with pure disgust. 

“Who the hell are you?”

“Her husband,” I snapped.

He laughed. “She didn’t mention you.”

Then he stepped closer. I could smell the expensive cologne, the faint trace of cigar smoke. His eyes were cold, his face gave the mafia vibes. Vile and heartless.  

“Leave,” he ordered. I arched my brows, twitching my lips in disgust. 

Who are you to tell me to leave? 

I didn’t. I shoved him back. It was a mistake. The next second, two men emerged from nowhere and grabbed me. My arms were twisted back.  

“Stop! Matteo, stop!” Alisa finally spoke. 

This man. Matteo? I froze. I looked at her, then at Matteo. Something shifted in my eyes. Recognition? Calculation?

Her brother she has always told me about, that she’s working for. 

He smiled but kindly. It was the kind of smile that tells you you’ve stepped into something you’ll never get out of. At least, not easily. 

“Harvey,” he said, like he’d known my name all along but was pretending not to know me. “I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

That night, everything changed.

At first, I thought Alisa had just been cheating. It was worse. Much worse. Matteo Morelli was not just her lover. He was her fiancé. He was also the heir to the Morelli crime family — one of the most powerful mafia syndicates in the city but he himself happened to operate from Mexico.

The moment I realized who that brother she has always been talking of was, I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me.