Chapter 2

Vera refused to back down. She looked at me and grinned.

"Serafina, do you really think no one would dare touch you?"

She pulled a knife from a sheath strapped to her inner thigh and lunged at me like a madwoman.

Vito and several family members stepped in at the same time to stop her.

But I moved faster than any of them.

Before the knife could touch me, I'd already pressed the muzzle firmly against Vera's stomach.

Through the thin silk, I could feel the slight swell of her belly beneath the barrel.

Vera froze, and every trace of savagery drained from her face.

Her knife hand hung in midair, and her eyes locked on the gun in my hand.

I had to fight the urge to laugh.

With nerves like that, she calls herself a madwoman?

She did look a bit like me, and she had a bit of my temper too.

But beneath the surface, we were nothing alike.

She was red paint. I was blood.

La Bella Pazza. I'd earned that nickname in fights with real knives and guns.

In the years since I'd lost my memory, everyone seemed to have forgotten how crazy I could be. Even Vito.

Vito closed his hand around mine and steered the muzzle away from Vera's belly, his other hand moving to shield it.

"Serafina, that's enough."

His voice was low and heavy.

"Stop making a scene. It ends here."

I looked up at him and laughed without humor.

"Who's the one making a scene?

"If she dares to provoke me, she has to pay for it."

Vito studied me for a moment, then hung his head and sighed.

"Fine. You're right. I'll pay for it."

He gripped my hand and forced the gun down until the muzzle pressed against his own stomach.

Through his shirt, the barrel dug into taut muscle.

"Shoot here."

I stared at him, and my finger froze for a split second.

But Vito smiled, as if my hesitation had given him exactly the answer he wanted.

He wrapped his finger around the trigger and pulled.

My wrist jerked aside by instinct.

The gun went off.

The bullet grazed his side, and blood spattered the back of my hand.

Vito grunted and staggered, his hand flying to the gushing wound.

"Boss!"

Several family members rushed over, crying out in alarm. Someone pressed a handkerchief to his wound.

But the blood soaked through the cloth fast and ran down his side.

I stared at the bloodstain spreading at his waist, and my eyes stung.

Vito came closer and touched my face with his bloody hand, his thumb brushing lightly across my cheek.

"Feel better now?"

The smell of blood on his hand was so strong it made me sick.

Vera screamed behind him. "Why would you hurt yourself for her? Let me go. I'll tear her apart!"

Vito's face darkened, and he turned and snapped at her, "Shut up!"

Vera stared at him, stunned.

Vito scooped Vera into his arms. The movement pulled at his wound, and veins bulged at his temples.

But he didn't put her down. He gritted his teeth and walked out.

Her head on his shoulder, Vera still got in one last threat. "Serafina, just you wait!"

I stood where I was and watched them leave.

Even as Vera cursed me through her tears, she reached up to cover the wound in Vito's side.

Vito murmured soothingly to her, careful to protect her belly the whole way.

Blood dripped from the hem of his shirt, leaving a glaring trail of red behind them.

Without thinking, I tightened my grip on the gun. The memories pressing down on me kept my mouth shut.

Once, Vito and I had belonged to rival families.

We'd exchanged gunfire more times than I could count over the docks, the casinos, and the business on every block.

No one wanted to see me lose more than Vito did, and I felt the same way about him.

The absurd part was that he loved me with everything he had.

Even more absurd, he'd now fallen for someone else.

Only then did the ache hit me. It pulsed in my chest with every breath.

Most absurd of all, during those five years when I couldn't remember my past, I'd truly loved him too.

But now he'd wiped out everything between us with his own blood.

I have to find Luca.

I went back to check the records and found the truth was grimmer than I'd imagined.

For five years, Vito had sent Luca chasing false leads.

Meanwhile, I'd been trapped on the Marcello estate, unable to make a single call without being monitored.

Vito's people followed me wherever I went.

He'd gently shut me away in a gilded cage and cut me off from my past.

But I was awake now, and he couldn't keep me locked up anymore.

No one can cage a hurricane.

Late that night, Vera stormed into the estate alone and demanded to see me.

She didn't bring up what had happened earlier. She just held out her phone.

On the screen were photos of her and Vito.

He went with her to prenatal appointments, careful to protect her belly.

He cooked nutritious meals for her himself.

"Maybe he loved you once, but that's all in the past."

Vera gave me a dazzling smile. "Being Donna is just an empty title. The woman he really loves now is the one who wins."

She pulled a document out of her bag and set it on the table.

It was a divorce agreement.

Vito had signed on the husband's line.

I glanced at the familiar handwriting. "He even sent you to deliver our divorce papers?"

"The Don's down at the port doing business. He can't get away."

Vera pushed a pen toward me. "Too scared to sign? Too scared to face the fact that he doesn't want you?"

I couldn't help laughing out loud.

This agreement had come at just the right time.

I picked up the pen and signed my name without a second's hesitation.

Then I took the black-gold wedding ring off my finger and handed it to her along with the agreement.

"Tell Vito I wish you both a happy marriage."

Vera tucked away the agreement and the ring, then swept out of the estate with her chin high.

Three hours later.

My phone started buzzing like crazy.