Chapter 1

"Lena, I need these files sorted out as soon as possible. The council wants them today."

Iris Medici dropped a thick stack of documents onto my desk, her voice saccharine sweet.

After glancing around the office, she leaned closer and added, "There are still two rows of filing cabinets in the records room that need to be cleared out. Since you're already here, why don't you take care of those today, too?"

"Sure."

I kept my head down and continued working without looking at her.

From the corner of my eye, I saw her shoot me a vicious glare before stalking off, her heels clicking sharply across the floor.

One of the men sitting nearby gave me a sympathetic look. The moment he realized I had noticed, he quickly turned away.

Everyone knew I was Adrian Castellano's fiancee. They also knew how many legal problems I had handled for him over the years.

And everyone knew that, given my experience and position, I shouldn't have been squeezed into a shared workspace with the junior staff. I should've had an office of my own.

Iris had joined the family the year before.

Her father died while working for the Castellanos, and Adrian had brought her in despite strong objections from the rest of the family.

After that, he treated her like a sister and started giving her preferential treatment at every turn.

On her very first day, she made two demands.

First, she wanted my sunny office with the window because she claimed it would be more useful to her.

Then, she asked Adrian to hand her the project I was working on, insisting that she was the real professional and could do a better job than I could.

I wasn't about to roll over and accept that.

I emailed the council directly and asked for the treatment my position should've entitled me to from the beginning.

The matter was put to a family-wide vote.

More than 90% of the votes were cast anonymously in my favor.

Iris received only one.

Unfortunately, that single vote carried veto power as it belonged to Adrian.

He turned on me right there in the meeting, accusing me of being an outsider who had come into his family and started building my own little faction.

The cases I had been handling were never returned to me.

I lost my office, was removed from my position as the family's Consigliere, and the people working under me had six months of their allowances docked as punishment.

After the meeting, Adrian tried to justify what he had done.

"Because of our relationship, I have to be even more careful about keeping work and our personal lives separate. I can't give anyone a reason to say I'm playing favorites. And after what happened to Iris' family, looking out for her is the right thing to do, professionally and personally."

"I've spent years keeping the family's illegal business from becoming a legal nightmare. If you're confident she can do the same, then I really don't care."

I couldn't be bothered to say anything else.

Later that day, I saw Adrian come downstairs in a fresh set of dark clothes.

He didn't look at me as he headed for the door, but when he passed, I caught the faint scent of perfume on him.

Adrian had never worn fragrance, but I knew that scent.

It was Iris'.

He had to know I would recognize it, just as I knew exactly what game he was playing.

Things had been like this between us for the past year or two.

I still remembered how it started.

One night, Iris messaged Adrian and told him she was afraid of the dark.

Whenever the lights went out, she claimed she couldn't stop thinking about her father. She asked if Adrian could come over and stay with her for a while.

When he finally came home, I was furious.

"If she's really scared, then we should go together. What do you think it looks like when you show up at another woman's place alone at night?

"You're so worried about whether she's scared that it never occurred to you how I'm supposed to feel about it. Besides, we're both women. If she needs someone to stay with her, I'm the one who should be doing it, not you," I had argued.

Adrian decided I was jealous.

Worse, he decided I was being petty.

No matter how I explained myself, he acted as though I were making a mountain out of a molehill.

Eventually, he seemed to reach the conclusion that if I was going to criticize him no matter what he did, he might as well stop caring altogether.

The more we fought, the more attentive he became toward Iris.

Once, after we stopped speaking to each other following an argument, he spent the entire time buying her designer bags, necklaces, and jewelry.

The truth was, even if I had never fought with him over going to Iris' place and staying there until she fell asleep, something else would have driven us apart eventually.

Adrian liked having another woman depend on him.

He was an ass. There was no kinder way to put it.

Not long ago, Iris had taken Adrian home with her for a visit. I heard they even went to see her grandparents.

After they returned, I noticed the way they acted around each other had become even harder to ignore.

Fortunately, I figured things out early enough that I had already stopped caring.

The only reason I was still here was that I had been waiting for the right time to leave.

Now, the time had finally come.

Years ago, I had left my own family for Adrian. I stood with him and helped build the Castellanos into what they were today.

All this time, Padre had believed I was gone for good.

Once I made my decision, I drafted a formal resignation letter stating that I was stepping down from my position. After printing it, I asked my assistant to submit it with the rest of the documents waiting for Adrian's approval.

He signed off on it without even reading it.

I had always been meticulous.

In all the years I worked for him, I had never made a serious mistake.

Adrian had become so used to trusting anything that came across his desk from me that he approved my documents in batches without checking them individually.

That was why my resignation went through without a hitch.

Then, I contacted Padre.

I told him I wanted to come home and work for him, and I gave him a rundown of everything I had accomplished over the past several years.

He was thrilled.

He told me I was welcome home and said the paperwork would take three days to process. Then, he urged me to return as soon as possible.

My flight was booked for two days later.

Once I boarded that plane, I would leave this place behind.

I would go back to the Riccis and Padre.