Chapter 1

A month before my due date, I slipped while taking a shower in the estate bathroom and couldn't get up.

The Apple Watch on my wrist detected the fall and automatically alerted my husband, Dante Romano.

But I lay on the cold marble for an hour, and he never came.

In the end, it was a maid who heard me and had the guards break down the door.

A young guard rushed me downstairs on his back while our driver raced to the hospital, leaning on the horn the entire way. Even those who normally wouldn't dare address me by my surname abandoned all decorum to save my life.

When Dante finally showed up, he was drenched in sweat.

He saw the blood between my legs and lost all composure at my bedside, right in front of the doctors and guards. His voice trembled uncontrollably.

"Bianca, I'm sorry. I'll never leave you alone again."

Our daughter, Lia, came early, but thankfully we were both all right.

When the doctor brought Lia over from the incubator, Dante was too nervous to hold her. He kept asking if I was still in pain.

It wasn't until a nurse showed him how to support her head and neck that he finally took her in his arms. He didn't put her down all night.

Over the next month, Dante had every bathroom floor in the estate torn out and replaced with nonslip tile, and runners laid on every staircase. He canceled family meetings and handled Lia's nighttime feedings himself.

If she so much as coughed, he'd get out of bed to check on her, then check again.

When he bathed Lia, he tested the water himself. When he changed my dressings, he wouldn't even let the nurse touch the tape. When the baby cried before dawn, he always got to the crib before my personal maid, Rosa Ferri.

My mother-in-law, Carmela Romano, couldn't stop telling everyone how completely Lia had her father wrapped around her little finger.

I didn't contradict her.

Dante's love and care for Lia and me were genuine.

But before I stepped into the shower that day, he had texted me. Victoria needed a co-driver at the last minute, and he would be home as soon as she finished her run.

He still hadn't come back by the time they rushed me to the hospital.

Every minute our unborn daughter and I waited for him, he raced toward the finish line with another woman.

Five years ago, Dante was just an underground racer who drove for other people.

My father was against the marriage, but I was the one who handed Dante the De Luca port deals and my family's vote on the Commission.

I'd stood by him every step of the way as he rose to power.

He'd promised me that no matter how powerful he became, being my husband would always come first.

And for years, he'd kept that promise. No matter how many people demanded his attention, all it took was one call from me.

That hour was the first time I realized he'd changed.

On the morning Lia turned one month old, I started packing up my things and hers.

When Rosa saw me slip the birth certificate into a folder, she asked quietly, "Donna, are you and the Don taking Lia to LA?"

"Just me and Lia."

Her expression froze, and she looked past me.

Dante stood in the doorway, holding a glass of warm milk for me.

He went to the crib first to make sure Lia was still asleep, then came back and pressed his hand to my forehead.

"Is there something you need to take care of out there? I'll go with you."

"No."

Before my father died, he entrusted me with the family business. But once Dante became Don, I'd let him handle everything on my behalf. I'd never seen a reason to separate his authority from mine.

Now I was taking it back.

When Dante spotted the lawyer's business card on the table, his expression changed.

He pulled a handwritten invitation from his inside jacket pocket, with all three of our names on it.

"The christening is in seven days." He pressed the invitation into my palm. "Give me seven days. I'll never forget what happened that day."

I knew he meant it.

When he paced the room at night with Lia in his arms, he truly couldn't stand to hear her cry.

But he had taken the race just as seriously. So seriously that he forgot he had a wife.

I put the invitation back on the table.

"The divorce papers will be delivered along with the document stripping you of my family's voting rights."

Dante looked at me for a long time. In the end, all he did was tug my shawl tighter around my shoulders.

"You're still recovering. Get some rest. We'll talk when you're feeling better."

He turned and told Rosa not to leave me alone for the next few days and to let him know right away if my mood changed.

I gripped the folder until my knuckles went white.

I wanted a divorce, but he dismissed it as a new mother's mood swing.

Hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

A guard rushed in with news. Victoria's red race car had clipped the guardrail on its way back to the pits. A damaged brake line was later discovered, and her family was convinced someone had tried to assassinate their sole heir.

Dante immediately arranged a safe house for her.

"The safe house on the north side will be ready tonight," he told the guard in front of me. "Send a doctor and the racing team over there. And keep the Donna out of it."

But half an hour later, the estate gates opened.

Carmela personally brought Victoria in, her leg wrapped in bandages.

"It's not safe out there." She walked right past me and told the staff to get a room ready. "Until they find whoever did this, she's staying here."

Dante stood behind his mother, frowning, but he didn't object.