Chapter 2

Enzo stood up and picked up the divorce papers. "I'll have my lawyer, Giorgio Saviano, send over the marital settlement agreement as soon as possible."

The moment the door closed, the room fell silent once again.

As Isabella watched Enzo leave, the warmth slowly faded from her eyes. Her mind drifted back to a long time ago.

She was born into the Rossi family.

The Rossi family was an old-line mafia clan whose reach extended from Cantele to Millbrook. They had their hands on maritime shipping, air freight, pharmaceuticals, firearms, and a network of underground trade routes.

Isabella was the family's only daughter, a Principessa raised under the adoration of countless people.

When she was ten years old, the family was in turmoil. Thus, her Padre, Riccardo Rossi, sent her back to the estate in Canele to stay out of harm's way.

By then, there was already another child living there—Enzo, whom her Nonna, Noemi Orsini, had taken in.

Enzo's Padre, Davide Caro, had once worked for the Rossi family and died in a shootout at the docks, and his Madre, Viviana Tanzini, had long since passed away.

Enzo was a kid who'd clawed his way up through blood and mud, yet he knew better than anyone how to sheathe his claws when he was around Isabella.

If Isabella so much as glanced at a dress in a shop window, Enzo would go behind Noemi's back and run errands at the docks, the auto shops, and the underground boxing rings until he'd saved enough to buy it for her.

If she paused for just a couple of seconds outside a restaurant, he would eat the cheapest bread for three months straight and use the money he saved to buy her an expensive cake.

As a teenager, Enzo was quiet, sullen, and had a brutal hand.

But with Isabella, he was always gentle, so much so that he didn't seem like someone who would ever step into the family business.

Later, when Isabella was taken back to Millbrook, she insisted on keeping Enzo by her side.

It was she who begged Riccardo to give Enzo a status and to provide him with tutors who taught him law, accounting, negotiation, and protocol.

It was Isabella's Madre, Elvira Fiero, who brought Enzo to meet lawyers, congressmen, and bankers. She taught him how to scrub a trail of blood clean and dress it up as proper business.

It was also Isabella who staked her marriage, her reputation, and her position as heiress on Enzo, turning him from the Rossi family's weapon into someone capable of holding his own ground.

Riccardo and Elvira had never liked Enzo. They believed that an outsider whom the Rossi family had elevated could never be worthy of their only daughter.

However, Isabella knelt before them with red-rimmed eyes and said that she would marry no one but Enzo in this lifetime.

If they wanted to drive him away, then she would leave the Rossi family with him.

That day, Enzo also knelt beside her and swore an oath before Riccardo and Elvia. He said that within ten years, he would establish his own family and rise to the position of a Don whom no one could look down upon.

He said he loved Isabella more than his own life. He said he would never do her wrong.

Later, the man who'd grown up in the shadow of the Rossi family truly did climb his way up. Over blood and banknotes, he established the Caro family name in Millbrook.

He became one of the youngest and most ruthless Dons in Millbrook's mafia circles. He seized control of the docks, the nightclubs, the casinos, security operations, real estate, along with the shipping routes and pharmaceutical channels the Rossi family had carved out for him.

Enzo had finally gained the power to give Isabella the best life imaginable, yet it was at precisely this moment that he told her he had fallen in love with someone else.

…

Isabella dialed Elvira's number and called out, "Mamma."

Elvira immediately picked up that something was wrong. "What's the matter? Who hurt you? Why are you crying? Just tell me. You have your Padre and me. We're not going to let you shoulder this alone."

Isabella's tears fell all at once.

In recent years, the Rossi family had shifted most of their shipping and pharmaceutical operations to Poradia.

Yet, for Enzo's sake, Isabella had insisted on staying in Millbrook, staying with him as he built the Caro family into something formidable.

It was because of Enzo that her relationship with Riccardo and Elvira had also grown increasingly strained over the years.

She couldn't shake the feeling that they blamed her, yet she was too proud to be the first to reach out.

But in her previous life, when things between her and Enzo got truly ugly, the first ones to fly back to Millbrook and stand by her side were her parents. Even until the moment of their death, their greatest worry was simply whether she was living well or not.

Isabella bit down hard on the back of her hand, only managing to calm herself when she tasted blood in her mouth.

"It's nothing. I just miss you and Papa, that's all," she replied softly. "Isn't it Papa's birthday in a few days? I'll fly home for it."

After hanging up, Isabella booked a flight for a week out.

In seven days, she'd be gone from Millbrook, free of the marriage that had dragged her through hell.

She'd walk away from Enzo and never look back.