The Don Made Me Fake My Death, Then Lost Me Forever

After Dante left, I stood at the floor-to-ceiling window for a long time.

The syringe of blue nerve agent sat on the coffee table within reach.

For 48 hours, every sign of life would disappear. Once my coffin was out of the cemetery, someone would come and take me away.

He'd even prepared a new identity for me.

Anna.

An orphan who'd inherited a distant relative's fortune in Switzerland. No ties, no attachments, and no reason ever to set foot in this underworld again.

My confidante, Agatha Moro, stared at the new identity papers, her eyes red.

"Miss Chiara, he's even decided what you'll be called for the rest of your life."

I put the papers away in a drawer.

"Saves me the trouble. Isn't that nice?"

Everyone knew that Dante, the Cordano family's new Don, had taken the eldest daughter of his sworn enemies, the Gariboldi family.

Me. He'd snatched me right out of my own engagement party and locked me away on his estate.

For my sake, he'd defied a death warrant issued by the elders and personally shot three capos who dared to provoke me. He'd signed over to me a share of all shipping profits on the Rhine. He spoiled me so lavishly that every socialite in Europe envied me.

There was only one thing he never did.

He'd never slept with me.

For a while, I thought it was a gentleman's code ingrained in him, his way of respecting the little dignity I had left.

But I was nothing more than a gilded target he'd placed in the line of fire.

His enemies had kept me in their sights for three years. Now that the curtain had risen, the stand-in had to leave the stage.

Bruno, the butler, announced from outside the door, "Ms. Marchi has arrived."

Isabella walked in wearing a pure white dress, followed by two armed bodyguards in black trench coats.

She tipped her head back and studied the massive architectural rendering hanging over the fireplace.

It showed a lavish floating casino that had yet to be built.

In Dante's handwriting, the casino's name was "The Chiara."

It was the birthday gift he'd given me the year before.

Isabella gave a soft laugh. "The design's nice. The name's wrong, though."

The architect, Klaus, immediately spread a new set of drawings across the table and started making changes.

I watched them take the blueprint down.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Changing it, of course," Isabella said.

Her voice was soft and cruel. "This casino is going up right where Dante and I watched the sunrise on our first date.

"He promised he'd build me a palace like no other.

"It was only after I was kidnapped that your name went on the blueprint."

So even that grand promise, that one-of-a-kind gift, and that future with my name on it had never been mine.

Someone dragged a scraper wet with sharp-smelling solvent across my name.

The paint melted, and the word "Chiara" dissolved into a muddy blur.

Agatha was so angry she was shaking.

"If Ms. Marchi wants one, she can have a new one painted. Why destroy all of Miss Chiara's work right in front of her?"

"Because Isabella wants to," Dante said as he came in.

He went to Isabella's side. When he noticed a speck of dust on her hand, he immediately pulled a handkerchief from his suit pocket and wiped it away.

A black falcon was embroidered in one corner of the handkerchief.

I'd stayed up three whole nights embroidering it for him, one stitch at a time.

For once, he'd actually complimented me when I gave it to him. "Very elegant."

That had made me happy for a long time.

I hadn't known until that day that Isabella's code name was Falcon.

Isabella leaned against his shoulder.

"But Chiara doesn't seem to want to let it go."

Dante followed my gaze to the ruined blueprint.

"It's only a casino.

"Isabella was tortured for five years because of me. Now she just wants back what belongs to her, and you're going to fight her for it?"

I lowered my eyes.

"I'm not."

He seemed satisfied that I'd given in so meekly.

"I know this is hard for you.

"For three years, I kept your brother safe while he grew up, went easy on the Gariboldi family, and never truly treated you like a prisoner.

"Even in Switzerland, I'll make sure you live comfortably for the rest of your life."

He paused.

"Chiara, learn to be content with what you have."

I watched Klaus write a different name on the new drawings. It read "The Isabella."

Little by little, her name erased every trace of my existence there.

Dante was right.

I should be content.

For three years, he'd taken bullets for me and spent sleepless nights by my side. After working late on family business, he would sometimes kiss my forehead in secret.

Even if it was all an act for his enemies, at least I hadn't known at the time.

I'd truly fallen for him.

But when I curled up in his arms, happy beyond reason because I thought I'd finally found somewhere I belonged, what did he see when he looked at me?

Probably just a pawn that had finally been tamed.

Klaus put down his pen.

On the new blueprint, Isabella's name gleamed.

Dante and Isabella looked so perfect together.

As if that palace on the water had never held any trace of me at all.