His Hidden Wife Was a Mafia Heiress

For one second, Luca Moretti looked at me as if I had spoken in another language. Then his expression settled into the tired patience."Aria, I know I was wrong to hide who I am. I know marrying someone else is unforgivable. But this life doesn't run on what-ifs. The only family with enough weight to bargain with the Morettis is the Voss family."He glanced around the cabin. "You and I have lived here for three years. I know you. You're not the kind of woman who belongs in a Commission ballroom."He had hidden that he was the heir to the North District, but somehow he was certain I couldn't have hidden anything at all.I looked around our little home. Outside the window were the herbs and vegetables I had planted with my own hands. On the wooden deck sat the cradle Luca had been sanding for the baby, one side still unfinished. For three years, I had honestly believed this place was my whole world."Luca, our baby is about to be born." I gripped his sleeve, trying one last time to pull

The safe house was silent after he left.Pain tore from my belly into my lower back until breathing felt like work. Warm blood slid down my thighs. I leaned against the wall and dragged myself inch by inch toward the bookcase, my trembling fingers finding the worn cover of an old cookbook.Hidden inside the cover was the emergency beacon I had smuggled out when I left home. My father had told me that if I ever pressed it, the Castellanos would find me.Back then, I had called him controlling. Now I understood that not every cage was made to trap you. Some were built by people who knew the world had teeth.I pressed the button. A red light blinked three times in my palm.A few minutes later, the lock clicked.For one wild second, I thought Luca had sent a doctor. Then Bianca Voss walked in with two female guards behind her. She wore a white custom gown that skimmed over her swollen belly, and on her wrist gleamed an obsidian bracelet.It was Luca's mother's bracelet, the one left for th

By the time we returned to the Castellano estate, night had fallen.When I left three years ago, I thought the estate was a gilded cage. Now, as the car rolled through the iron gates and I saw lights glowing in the windows of the main house, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time.I was home.My father didn't scold me. He stood outside the glass wall of the medical center and watched the tiny baby inside the incubator for a very long time, his eyes red."What's her name?" he asked.I looked through the glass at my daughter's clenched fist. "Mia. Mia Castellano."My father nodded, his voice rough. "Good. She carries our name."The doctors said Mia had survived because treatment had started in time. She still needed to stay under observation, but the worst had passed. As for me, the drugs, the blood loss, and the emergency C-section had wrecked my body. Recovery would be long. Another pregnancy in the future might be difficult.My father heard that, smashed a glass on the spot, an

Three months later, my father finally agreed to let me move out of the main estate.He refused at first. Then I sat in his study all afternoon with Mia in my arms. In the end, he lost to one sleepy yawn from his granddaughter. He signed the approval with a grim face and assigned two extra security teams before I could even thank him.I chose a place by the lake again, but it wasn't the old cabin. This one stood close to the Castellano estate, with a hill behind it, water in front, and a row of silver maples along the road.I had a new wooden house built, put up a white fence, and filled the yard with tomatoes, mint, and sunflowers. Every few days, my father sent another truckload of things - formula, baby clothes, bulletproof glass, a new security system - as if he intended to move the whole estate into my little house piece by piece.I laughed at the absurdity and accepted it anyway.In the mornings, birds woke Mia before they woke me. I would hold her and open the window, watching mi