Chapter 1

My steward worked fast.

He confirmed that every last piece of my plan was locked in.

He paused at the door. “Madam… if you go through with this, the Don will lose his mind.”

There was a time when Zane would drop everything just to get to me, when he held me like I was the only thing that mattered in his world.

But that was a long time ago. Now, she was the one who came first in his heart.

“I’m sure,” I said quietly.

He lowered his head and left.

Right after he left, Zane walked in.

Before I could say a word, his phone rang.

A sweet voice came through the speaker.

“Zane, when are you coming back? The power went out again, it’s so dark in here… I’m so scared…”

Zane’s voice softened instantly, this warm, tender tone he hadn’t used with me in years.

“Shh, Susan, don’t cry. I’m heading over right now, I promise.”

He frowned and headed for the door.

“Susan’s having a bad episode. I need to go. Get some sleep. If it’s about the docks, you’ve got full authority to sign off on it from now on.”

The door slammed shut before I could reply, leaving me alone in the empty villa.

Three nights earlier, at a banquet, I had been accidentally locked in the underground wine cellar.

My congenital heart condition hit.

With the last of my strength, I had dialed Zane, begging for help.

On the other end of the line, his voice had dripped with sharp impatience.

“Just sit tight. I’ll send someone to unlock the door. Seraphina, you haven’t had an episode in years, so stop faking this for attention. Susan’s having a full-on meltdown, she’s petrified of the dark. I can’t leave her right now. Just hold on.”

I had blacked out in that cellar.

It was my family’s lifelong steward who found me. When I came to, I found out Zane had sat with Susan the whole night, not once checking in on me.

That very day, I decided I was going to disappear.

The tool for my vanishing act? That same heart condition Zane swore up and down I was faking.

Zane didn’t stumble back home until noon the next day.

He’d just hung up from a call with Susan, and was flipping through the docks’ financial reports on the couch.

His hand drifted to the spot next to him, reaching for the jasmine tea I’d brewed him every morning for years.

When he found nothing there, he finally lifted his head, his face set in a scowl.

“It was just a locked cellar, for Christ’s sake. Susan’s doctor said your condition’s basically gone. Stop faking these spells for sympathy, and quit being so goddamn dramatic.”

I held his stare, thinking to myself: Fine by me. Soon enough, you’ll never have to look at my face again.

I went back to my business, not sparing him another glance.

When I didn’t take the bait and snap at him, Zane slammed the reports down and stormed out.

I didn’t waste a single second on his temper.

I finished the docks’ account reconciliations, made myself a warm glass of milk, and took a long, hot shower to wind down.

That night, my phone buzzed.

It was a message from Zane’s assistant.

[The Don’s had too much to drink at the dockside casino.]

For years, Zane had had a bad stomach. Too much alcohol would leave him nauseous and pounding with a headache.

Before I realized what I was doing, I had already gone into the kitchen.

By habit, I prepared a bottle of honey water and the hangover medicine he always took after nights like that.

I stood there for a moment with both in my hands.

I had already decided to disappear. His comfort, his temper, his sleepless nights were no longer supposed to be my concern.

And yet my body still remembered him before my mind could stop it.

Maybe that was the cruelest part of loving someone for too many years. Even after deciding to leave, some habits refused to die.

In the end, I took my coat and headed for the dockside casino.

At the door of the private booth, I heard voices inside.

“Shouldn’t you at least check on Seraphina?” one of them asked. “That heart condition of hers was serious before. What if something really happened this time?”

Zane let out a low laugh, his voice heavy with bourbon.

“Nothing’s going to happen. She’s done this before. The moment Susan needs me, Seraphina suddenly has an episode too. Susan’s doctor already said her condition is basically gone. She’s just making a scene to pull my attention back onto herself.”

My fingers tightened slightly around the bottle in my hand.

There had been a time when one call from me would have been enough.

Back then, he would drop everything, rush across the city, and hold me through the worst of it.

He used to stay awake all night beside me, afraid I might stop breathing if he looked away.

Now, the only person he ever worried about was Susan.

There was a brief silence inside.

Then he added, more impatiently, “She’s always had a sharp tongue when it comes to Susan. The darker Susan’s moods get, the harsher Seraphina gets with her. At this point, I can tell exactly what this is. She wants me worried. She wants Susan pushed away. That’s all.”

Something in my chest twisted, then went completely still.

It didn’t matter anymore.

In three days, I would be gone.

And this time, I would leave everything behind—including him.