LOGINIn the world of crime family, Don Damian and I were known for two things: him for running wild, me for standing by him. Everyone knew I was crazy about Damian. It started when we were kids. I was born with a congenital heart defect. My parents couldn't afford the surgery and chose to walk away. Back then, Damian was just a street-level errand boy whose father had gambling debts. He had no standing, no money, nothing. But to raise cash for my surgery, he volunteered for the most dangerous work the Coronelli family had, the kind where each job was a gamble with his life and every payday came in blood. He clawed his way up. The Don eventually took him in as an adopted son, and I became his wife, just like I'd always hoped. But ten years into our marriage, Damian stopped coming home. I'd sit alone at a table of cold food, calling him over and over. Sometimes a woman's voice would answer in the background. He had a private lounge at the family's club, and there was never a shortage of company. My best friend Vincent couldn't understand it. "Is it worth it? He doesn't love you anymore." I just smiled. "He gave me my life. I know he still loves me." Then Vincent forwarded me an encrypted video. A girl in a hospital gown sat on a hospital bed. At the edge of the frame, a hand with sharp-knuckled fingers reached into the shot, a hand wearing the family crest watch. Their fingers were intertwined. The caption read: [My hero promised to marry me once I'm better!! yay!!] I stared at the screen for a long time. That watch. I knew it cold. It was the one I'd fastened it onto his wrist myself more times than I could count, and there was no way I was wrong.
View MoreDamian went to the hospital one last time.Nina was already sitting up when she saw him. "You're finally here! I've been waiting—"She reached for him. He stepped back, not roughly but steadily, like moving away from something that no longer had a claim on him."...What's wrong?"She watched him, suddenly uncertain. "Are you okay?"Damian looked at her for a moment. "I won't be coming back.""What? Why?"She started crying immediately. "You said you'd marry me when I was better! Did you mean none of it?"Damian rubbed his eyes. "Your brother asked me to look after you. You used that. Every time I didn't give you what you wanted, you'd go tell him I was treating you badly. You know how much pressure that put on me.""I was only decent to you in the first place because he put you in my care and I had no way out.""The things you said about us, I took them as a kid talking without thinking. I never treated them as real."He looked at her steadily. "And honestly, the only reason I was even
By the time all the paperwork was done and a court date was set, a week had passed.I'd replaced my phone and my messaging account. Damian couldn't reach me.In court, I didn't look much different. Damian looked like he'd aged ten years, clearly lost weight, eyes bruised underneath, his suit hanging off him like it belonged to someone else.He kept trying to get a moment with me. I didn't give him one. The judge granted the divorce, and because I'd waived all property claims, I didn't want anything built on blood, it moved fast.Outside the courthouse, Damian caught up to me. "Wait — Quinn!"I kept walking. A car pulled up. Vincent stepped out from the driver's side and slung an arm around my shoulders, smiling directly at Damian."The great Don, and he still can't let his ex-wife walk away? Quinn really did waste the best years of her life on you."Damian's eyes went red immediately. "Who is he. Quinn — who is he—""Who am I?" Vincent looked delighted. "Guess."He bundled me into the
I stopped waiting to see what Damian would do.He went back to managing the fallout from the crash. Danny ended up in prison. Damian cut ties with Nina's brother. Word got around that he'd brought the matter before the family's internal council and imposed penalties there too. I didn't particularly care. I used the time to go back to the villa, gather the marriage certificate and everything I'd need for divorce proceedings, and start packing.I wasn't taking a dime from Damian.He'd given me a life once. I'd paid it back.We were even.Packing took longer than expected. By the time I finished it was nearly dark. I sat in the living room and waited for him to come home, not the way I used to wait, full of tension and hope, watching the door.Just quiet. If anything, slightly bored.When Damian walked in, I slid the divorce agreement across the table."I'm not signing."His eyes were rimmed red. He pushed the papers aside and pulled me in, voice wrecked. "You're really going to do this
Damian's lips parted. His pupils shook. He forgot entirely about the officers behind him, about Nina watching. He walked straight across the room to me.His knees hit the floor with a heavy sound, the kind that carries weight. He'd never knelt before anyone in his life, not fully. Even in front of the Don, he'd only ever given one knee. He went down on both in front of me.He took my hands in his, eyes red. "Quinn. Baby, you were pregnant? When? How long? I didn't know. I didn't know."He couldn't stop himself from looking at my stomach. I lifted my shirt.A raw, jagged surgical scar cut across my abdomen, left from the emergency procedure when I'd been hemorrhaging. "I didn't know either. The doctor told me after I woke up from the crash."I smiled. "My poor baby. He only left me this scar to remember him by. He must have hated me for not noticing him in time. That must be why he punished me like this.""No — don't say that—"Damian's voice broke. He stared at the scar, and something






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