Chapter 2

Somehow, I was pregnant.

When the doctor heard I'd been regularly taking birth control pills, his first reaction was disbelief.

"Are you sure? If you got pregnant while on the pill, that baby is one little fighter."

The doctor's words stirred a faint spark of hope.

Maybe Tony wasn't as heartless as he'd made himself sound.

Torn between despair and hope, I drifted home in a daze.

As I walked through the door, a trending notification popped up on my phone.

#HawthorneHeiressHintsAtWeddingBells#

In the photo grid, Clara and a man stood hand in hand, fingers intertwined.

Only a sliver of the watch on his wrist was visible, but I recognized it instantly. I'd saved three months' salary last year to buy it for Tony.

There was also a handwritten draft of a wedding invitation. The date was set for August 8th.

The Hawthorne heiress marrying into Tony's family was Clara Hawthorne, my best friend.

I stared at Clara's radiant smile, a dull ache throbbing through my chest.

Shortly after meeting Tony, I'd crossed paths with Clara by coincidence.

We both loved movies, and we gradually became close friends.

She was the one who'd recommended my office job.

When she heard I wanted to earn extra money, she set me up with the moonlighting gig at the club.

So she'd been positioning herself close to me from the very beginning.

Watching from the sidelines as Tony made a fool of me.

Now that the two families' union was approaching.

She'd thrown me a bone.

Letting me discover Tony's grand deception on my own.

My husband and my best friend had both been treating me like a fool.

I steadied myself against the doorframe and gathered my thoughts.

I needed to pull myself together. There was still something to verify.

I placed the vitamin pills I'd been taking next to a newly purchased bottle and compared them.

There were subtle differences.

Without looking closely, they were impossible to tell apart.

The vitamins had definitely been switched!

Ever since I'd heard those lies the night before, something cold and heavy had been sitting in my chest, pressing down without relief.

Until that moment of confirmation.

I couldn't hold it in any longer. I sobbed and screamed without restraint.

I remembered the night I woke up burning with fever. Tony carried me on his back all the way to the hospital and stayed at my bedside for a full day and night without sleep.

I'd saved up to buy him a discounted designer coat. He was so happy he scooped me up and spun me around like a little kid.

In our most intimate moments, he'd whisper in my ear, "Once I make it big, I'll buy you a huge house."

All of it was fake.

His identity was fake. His poverty was fake. His love for me was an act.

I wiped the tears from my face and texted Arthur Romano, someone I hadn't contacted in years.

If Tony ever heard that name, he'd probably break into a cold sweat demanding to know my connection to him.

The most powerful crime boss on the East Coast, the very man Tony's family wanted desperately to avoid, was my half-brother.

Ten years ago, after both my parents passed away, the rumors started.

Everyone said my mother was a scheming homewrecker who'd clawed her way into the Romano crime family for power.

Unable to bear the whispers, I wanted nothing more than to escape that cage of power struggles and gossip.

So I dropped my father's surname and lived as an ordinary person.

After meeting Tony, I believed I could build a simple, happy life alongside the man I loved, sharing every hardship together.

Until the naked, brutal truth was laid bare before my eyes.

If cruelty and conflict were inescapable no matter where I went, then instead of running, I would face them head-on.

This time, I would confront every scheme and every betrayal.

No one would control my fate.

And right now, there was a battle to fight.

I disposed of the newly purchased vitamins and put the old bottle back in its place.

Tony was always careful. I couldn't afford to give myself away.