Chapter 1

Elena Vance was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Dominic Cross didn’t go with her. He brought me straight back to the estate, where a maid waiting downstairs smoothly took his blood-stained watch.

I walked into the bedroom, pulled open the wardrobe, and began packing my bags.

Dominic poured a glass of whiskey and offered it to me. When I didn’t take it, his gaze dropped to the jewelry I was placing inside my suitcase.

I looked up at him. He had given me these jewels; they never truly belonged to me. I took them out and placed them gently on the desk.

Struggling to keep my voice from cracking, I spoke.

“I won’t take anything of yours. This all belonged to my sister anyway.

“The jewelry, this position... it’s time to give them back to her.”

I had told Dominic these exact words the night I first entered his estate eight years ago.

Neither of us had brought it up since.

Now that the words were out in the open again, an inexplicable ache bloomed in my chest.

Eight years ago, Dominic had returned from a major negotiation on the East Coast. During the mafia family’s celebratory banquet, he approached my father and asked for Elena’s hand in marriage.

Everyone said it was a perfect match. The ring was customized, and the invitations were sent out.

But on the wedding day, my sister vanished.

Rumor had it she ran away with a painter.

Dominic locked down the entire harbor. He searched for her like a madman, slaughtering every single person who had helped her escape.

That night, gunshots rang out relentlessly, and blood painted the docks red.

Before it was the Vance family’s turn to face his wrath...

My father solemnly handed me my sister’s wedding dress. Just like that, I was sent to Dominic’s estate in her place.

That night, he peeled off his bloody leather gloves and cast a cold, piercing glance at me. Then, he turned off the lights and slept on the far side of the bed.

The first time he touched me wasn’t until three months into our marriage. He was drunk, mistaking me for my sister.

The second time, he was wounded, and I was patching up his injuries.

The third time was after a rival family kidnapped me. When he finally got me back, he made love to me all night long until dawn.

Over the past eight years, everyone envied my luck, calling me the revered Donna of the Cross family. But no one knew the price I paid. Because of Dominic, my back bore the scars of a gunshot wound, and my abdomen had been slashed by a rival, leaving me barren.

Four years ago at the docks, he was ambushed by an enemy family.

I used my own body to shield him from the bullets, desperately clutching a briefcase full of encrypted ledgers to cover his escape.

He made it out safely, but the shattering car windows burned my forehead, leaving a permanent scar.

The Cross family achieved its absolute dominance today because I traded my life for it.

Now, she wanted to stroll right back in and enjoy the spoils.

I wasn’t about to give it up easily.

Seeing my eyes glistening with tears, Dominic’s expression darkened. “Tonight…”

The ring of his phone cut him off. He answered it, his gaze sinking. “Speak.”

Elena’s weak voice drifted from the receiver. “Dominic, I know you’ve been waiting for me to come back.

“Sienna doesn’t even look like me anymore. She has a hideous scar on her forehead.”

Dominic’s expression shifted instantly.

Yes, the scar on my forehead was my deepest insecurity.

Before marrying into the Cross family, I had received endless praise for my looks.

On the night of the ambush, the rival family hunted us ruthlessly. To keep our location hidden, I couldn’t go to a hospital. The rudimentary medical care left me scarred.

Looking at that blemish always filled me with intense self-doubt.

Once the Cross family rose to the top again, Dominic searched the globe for world-class plastic surgeons to erase it for me.

Yet, it could never fully return to the way it used to be.

To avenge me, he completely wiped out that rival family in a brutal bloodbath. He established the Cross family as the most powerful mafia family in the city, ensuring no one would ever dare cross us again.

He forbade anyone from staring at my forehead or gossiping about it behind my back. No one dared mention it.

In all these years, the only person who dared fling it right in Dominic’s face was my sister.

I lowered my head, the suffocating weight of my insecurity making it hard to breathe.

Dominic hung up the phone. His expression was conflicted, and he hesitated before speaking.

“Sienna... she doesn’t know how you got that scar.

“Besides, she just woke up from the poisoning and her mind is unstable. She only drank that wine because of me. Don’t take it to heart.”

“But you never used to allow anyone to mention it,” I interrupted him sharply.

“Why do the rules suddenly change just because it’s my sister?”

Dominic’s gaze darkened, quickly overtaken by a look of helpless frustration.

“Are you still blaming me?”