Chapter 1

"Stop right there," Louis said coldly. "Shirley, go to my study and get Jenny's asthma medication. It's in the bottom safe."

I stopped dead in my tracks. Louis's study held the family's most secretive documents, and even I needed multiple approvals to enter.

And now, the safe that held secrets the entire family's survival depended on contained a woman's asthma inhaler.

A chill slowly spread down my spine. "I'm not going."

As if on cue, Jenny began breathing weakly in Louis's arms. "Please, Shirley. Can you get it for me? I feel awful."

Her little performance was so perfectly timed that it put all the pressure on me.

Louis frowned deeply. "Shirley, I know you don't like Jenny, but this isn't the time to throw a tantrum. Jenny can't wait for her medication. Are you really going to stand there and wait for something to happen to her?"

His words were cruel, as if refusing him would leave me with blood on my hands.

I suppressed my anger and went to the study.

The study I remembered had been all black. Now, pink bows covered the room. Photos of Louis and Jenny together were neatly arranged across the desk.

Louis and I had spent eight years together, surviving gunfire side by side. And yet, we never had a single photo together.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

No wonder he had spent every night for the past three months working in this study and stopped sleeping in the master bedroom.

I blinked, suppressing the sting in my eyes, and said nothing. I retrieved the inhaler from the study, which was secured by three locks, and handed it to Jenny.

Louis nodded approvingly and kept ordering me around. "Shirley, go to the kitchen and make Jenny some risotto. She just had a scare, and she needs to eat something nourishing."

I chuckled faintly, finding the whole thing quite absurd. "Louis, enough. You're the one who owes her family. Repay them yourself. Stop using me for it."

After I married Louis, I learned to cook despite years spent with a gun in my hands. The food I made was barely edible, and Louis used to laugh and tell me I was only allowed to cook for him.

But now… He wanted me, the Donna of the Cascino family, to personally take care of another woman.

Louis's tone left no room for argument. "Jenny can't stomach anyone else's cooking. She only likes yours."

I gave him a faint smile. "Louis, I'm not cooking for her."

Louis paused. He was about to speak when Jenny sobbed and cried out. "Louis, why do I feel worse after taking the medicine Shirley gave me?"

Jenny's face went pale. Her body shook, and her eyes were full of fear as she looked at me.

Louis shot me a vicious look. "Shirley, if anything happens to Jenny, I'll never forgive you!"

I froze, my mind going blank momentarily.

He bent down, scooped Jenny up from the bed, and hurried out.

His cold command rang down the hallway. "Lock her in the secret room. No one lets her out unless I say so."

The secret room was the prison where the Cascino family punished traitors. It was completely sealed off, and anyone locked inside was bound to suffer.

I took out my encrypted phone and called my father overseas. His familiar voice came through.

"Shirley, it's been eight years. When are you finally going to leave the Cascino family?"

My eyes instantly turned red. "Papa, send someone for me. I'm coming home to the Corsi family."