Chapter 1

I'd spent years waiting to marry my mafia fiancé, Daniele Moretti, but he kept stalling.

And just as we were about to exchange the marriage alliance contract, he replaced his own name with his uncle's, Samuele Moretti.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Marco Ferraro's voice blasted from one of the rooms of the private club.

He stared at the tampered marriage alliance contract in Daniele's hands, eyes wide. "What's Regina going to do when she finds out? She's waited five years for you!"

Daniele let out a low, contemptuous laugh and knocked back his whiskey. The alcohol turned his eyes sharper, almost reckless.

He waved a hand, signaling the lawyer to keep editing the document. "She won't notice. And even if she does, so what?"

"But—"

Daniele cut him off, a smug spark flickering in his eyes. "Zitto! I lost the bet, so I'm paying up and keeping my promise to Sofia. It's just a little trick."

He pointed at the altered section of the marriage contract, where Daniele Moretti had been swapped for Samuele Moretti.

The lawyer finished the edits, his hands shaking, and passed the document back to Daniele. The wax seal went on again, clean and perfect, hiding every trace of what they'd done.

Daniele smirked viciously. "By the time Regina realizes something's off, the wedding will already be over. Besides, I've dragged this out long enough. She won't care."

Sofia Ricci peeked out from behind him and slid a hand over his shoulder. Her voice was syrupy as she said, "Daniele, are you really sure?"

He caught her hand and brushed a light kiss across her knuckles. "Of course. Regina worships me. Without me, she's nothing."

The others in the private room started hooting.

"What if she actually ends up marrying Samuele?" someone joked.

Daniele burst out laughing. "Even if she ends up marrying my useless uncle, that failing heart of his could give out any day. When he goes, Regina will only have me left.

"Sterlini Group's fortune and everything under Uncle Samuele's name will end up mine."

"Like killing two birds with one stone!"

"Daniele, you're a genius!"

"Regina's a loyal idiot," Daniele added. "She's obsessed with me. She'll go along with it. No question. It's settled. Nothing's going to go wrong. Everything's lining up perfectly."

The private room roared with laughter.

I stood in the shadows outside the door, every word landing hard in my chest.

Five years. I'd waited for him for five whole years.

I turned down every suitor and bit back all the snide gossip in Novarisse's high society because I believed he'd marry me.

Every time we got close to sealing the marriage alliance contract, Daniele found another excuse to stall.

At first, people wondered why we hadn't rushed the wedding. As the delay dragged on, I turned into a punchline for the upper class.

Eventually, even the families that used to want an alliance stopped looking my way, because everyone knew Daniele and I already had a marriage contract.

From 21 to 26, I spent the best years of my life waiting on him. And now, he treated me like a bargaining chip.

I looked down at the bottle of whiskey in my hands, the one that cost 100 thousand dollars. I'd bought it to celebrate the end of his bachelor party.

It was one of the rarest bottles in the world, a rarity even powerful families struggled to obtain. It took me three months to win it at an auction.

Looking at it now, I felt like nothing but a joke.

I turned and walked to the end of the hallway, then poured the entire bottle into a potted plant.

I found myself thinking back to the boy Daniele used to be. Whatever warmth he'd once had for me was long gone.

When I fell into the frozen lake at 12, he'd been the one who jumped in after me, dragging me out and fighting to wake me up.

People never understood why I waited so many years. I just didn't want to throw away a love that had once been real.

The amber liquid soaked into the soil, disappearing just as my love for him had. The scent of whiskey hung in the air, a mocking reminder of my stupidity.

…

When I got home, I sat in the study and waited in silence. Sure enough, less than an hour passed before I heard Mamma calling from the stairs.

"Regina!"

She was holding a document, her face drained of color. She stormed in and slammed the marriage contract onto the desk, the one bearing the Morettis' wax seal.

"What is this supposed to mean? Why is the groom listed as Samuele Moretti?"

I stared at the altered name and felt a cold, hollow laugh rise in my chest.

Daniele thought I'd be too blind to notice the change, that I'd still beg him to finish the wedding, that I'd show up one day crying and ask him to switch it back.

But he was wrong.

I picked up the pen on the desk and signed my name at the bottom of the document.

My voice stayed steady, perfectly calm. "Va bene, Mamma. We'll go through with this."