Chapter 1

I will never forget that day.

I was in the hospital, struggling through a difficult labor. They were waiting for my husband to sign off on a C-section, but Nolan wasn't answering his phone.

Then a man in a suit burst into my room, a gun tucked into his waistband.

"The Don will approve the C-section, but only on one condition. The baby goes to Mrs. Walsh to raise."

Desperate and terrified, I begged him not to do this to me. I wanted so badly for Nolan to show up and save me.

I did see Nolan, but he was nothing like the man I thought I knew.

My dockworker husband sat beside another woman's hospital bed, dressed in an expensive suit. He held her hand gently, his fingers laced through hers.

The man who'd brought me there addressed him as Don and the beautiful, fragile woman as Mrs. Walsh.

When Nolan saw me, he frowned. "Aria, what are you doing here?"

Guilt flickered across his face, but he didn't let go of Christine's hand.

"Christine's husband, Matthew, died saving my life. Jamie was the only thing keeping her going, and now her child is gone. Aria, you're my wife. Give her your baby to raise."

I clutched my belly, fighting the searing pain, and stared in disbelief at the stranger giving me orders.

"You've been lying to me this whole time... You were never a dockworker..."

My voice shook from the pain and the shock.

Concern flickered in Nolan's eyes, but he quickly made up his mind.

"That doesn't matter.

"Aria, as long as you do as you're told, you can have another baby someday."

He waved a hand. Two of his men immediately hauled me out of the room.

I broke down, and the distress sent wave after wave of pain through my belly. Then I passed out.

When I woke up, my belly was flat. A grim-faced doctor told me I'd been in labor too long and they hadn't been able to save the baby.

But I knew he was lying. My baby had been taken, handed to another woman by my own husband like a gift.

For three days, I lay in that hospital bed, kept alive by an IV drip. Nolan never once came to see me.

I spent those three days reliving every detail of our seven years together.

Nolan never made much at the docks, but on holidays he'd bring home a bouquet of roses for me.

When we were first married, he got hurt all the time. Even when his shoulder hurt so badly he couldn't lift his arm, he insisted on going to work at the docks.

In our second year of marriage, he secretly lived on dry bread at the docks for two months just to buy me an expensive tube of lipstick.

It had all been a carefully crafted lie.

Two weeks later, I was allowed to go home.

Before I knew the truth, the best food in the house always went on Nolan's plate, and I filled up on hard, dry bread dipped in gravy.

But now I bought myself a prime steak to help my body recover from all the blood I'd lost.

So Nolan could look presentable at the docks, I'd gone five years without buying myself new clothes. I only shopped at thrift stores.

Now I went to a downtown mall and bought the red dress I'd always wanted but never let myself have. I bought a gorgeous handbag, shoes, and a necklace to match. I had a whole new look, from head to toe.

I threw out all my cheap no-name skincare products and stocked up on supplements at the pharmacy to regain my strength.

My face was no longer so pale. Looking in the mirror, I finally realized how foolish I'd been.

One day, I was at home packing up old things.

The door flew open. It was Nolan's right-hand man, Luca Romano.

"Aria, the Don's been hurt! He kept calling your name before he passed out. You have to come to the hospital with me."