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Chapter 2

Author: Eternity
Half of my room had already been cleared out. Serena's champagne-colored gowns hung in the wardrobe, and her perfume bottles sat on my vanity. My books, photographs, and old coats had been thrown into cardboard boxes in the corner.

This bedroom had a new mistress before the old one had even left.

I opened my suitcase and packed what was left. Five years of marriage fit into half a case. That was almost funny.

The moment I zipped it shut, the door opened.

Damian stood in the doorway in a black three-piece suit, silver wolf cufflinks at his wrists, his expression sharp enough to cut. His gaze dropped to the suitcase, and his face darkened.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Before I could answer, Serena slipped out from behind him and grabbed my wrist.

"Eve, I only came home to see Mom and Dad. Are you really leaving because of me? Do you still blame me for not marrying Damian back then?"

Damian gave a cold laugh. "I didn't know you had it in you to throw a tantrum like this."

I looked at him. This was the same man who had once stayed up all night when I had a fever. Once, when a branch wife mocked me under her breath, he made her kneel on a dock until dawn while the sea wind tore through her coat. He had not always been cruel to me.

That was why I had mistaken scraps of warmth for a lifeline in my last life. I had clung to them until they strangled me.

Damian lifted his hand, and his underboss took my suitcase from me at once.

"Tonight is Serena's welcome party. You are her sister, and you are not going anywhere. Change your clothes and stop embarrassing the Vegas and the Luccheses."

Serena touched his sleeve. "Don't be so harsh. Eve is still your wife."

The word wife fell into the hall, and everything went quiet.

Damian glanced at me as if he wanted to explain something. In the end, his voice only hardened. "Go inside."

I didn't argue. I took another document from my bag and handed it to him.

Serena's face changed.

Before she could speak, I said, "Serena just came back. She doesn't have anything strong enough to get her a seat on the Vega board. I want to transfer my shadow shares in the port to her. I need your signature to confirm it."

Damian frowned. "Do you know what those are worth?"

"I do."

"Three shadow shares, two shipping routes, and at least two billion in clean value."

"Yes."

He stared at me, and for the first time that night, something moved in his eyes. "And you're willing to hand them over?"

"There's nothing I can't let go of."

After all, I was letting go of him too.

Damian picked up the pen and signed without reading at all. The real divorce agreement was tucked between the authorization papers, and now his signature sat on the final page.

I put the folder back in my bag and turned to leave.

Behind me, Serena asked sweetly, "Damian, aren't you being too cold to her? She has been married to you for five years."

After a moment of silence, Damian said, "She was never supposed to be in that position."

My steps paused.

He used to say he kept me hidden because his enemies would target me. I believed him. I had even been grateful for his protection.

So it had never been protection.

I had simply never deserved to stand beside him.

Back in my room, I locked the door, slipped the signed divorce papers into my bag, and tucked the pregnancy report beneath them.

"Baby," I whispered, resting a hand on my stomach, "we're leaving soon."
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  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 9

    The official correction came on a Friday morning.It called Serena's actions reckless. It acknowledged that I had been the lawful wife of Damian Lucchese for five years and that any suggestion otherwise had been false.It was stiff, ugly, and written by lawyers.By noon, my mother's first message arrived.[Eve, please call me. This has gone too far.]Then my father's.[We need to speak as a family.]I deleted both.That evening, they appeared at my office without an appointment because people like my parents believed blood was a master key. My mother entered first, thinner than I remembered, wrapped in a cream coat that made her look softer than she was. My father followed with the same hard face he used whenever he was about to ask for something and call it duty."Eve," my mother said, tears already gathering. "How could you let strangers handle this? We are your parents.""You were Serena's parents," I said. "You were my relatives. There's a difference."My father's face flushed. "D

  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 8

    Damian arrived at my lawyer's office at nine fifty-eight.He came alone. No guards in the hallway, no men waiting by the elevator, no driver blocking the street below. I checked anyway, because healing did not mean becoming stupid. Once I was satisfied, I walked into the conference room and sat beside Mara Klein, the lawyer who had built my exit while everyone in New York was busy applauding Serena.Damian stood when I entered.Mara opened the file in front of her. "This meeting is being recorded. Mr. Lucchese, you are here as a prospective co-parent, not as Mrs. Vale's husband, protector, or family authority. If that distinction is unclear, this meeting ends now.""It's clear.""Good. The divorce agreement is valid under New York law. Your signature was witnessed electronically through the port authorization packet. You may challenge it, but doing so will open discovery on the circumstances of the signature, the staged wedding, the assault at the party, and Miss Vega's fraud. I would

  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 7

    Lisbon did not ask who I used to be.New York had known me as the wrong bride, the hidden wife, the eldest Vega daughter who never smiled wide enough to be charming. In Lisbon, I was Evelyn Vale, a shipping compliance consultant with a clean passport, a rented office above a bakery, and a doctor who called me by my chosen name without flinching.My apartment faced the water.It was small, bright, and mine. I bought a blue kettle, three cotton dresses that fit around my growing belly, and a secondhand desk with a scratch down one leg. Every morning, I made tea, answered emails, and reminded myself that peace did not have to feel dramatic to be real.By the third week, my company had four clients. All women. All rich enough to be targeted and underestimated enough to need someone like me. Daughters who had been passed over for sons, widows whose husbands' brothers wanted control, mistresses turned business owners who knew exactly how expensive male pride could be.I helped them move mone

  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 6

    The Lucchese Family could make most problems disappear by morning. Bodies vanished. Witnesses changed their minds. Bank records learned to behave.Eve did not disappear like a problem.By dawn, Damian's phones were ringing nonstop. The first call came from the dock union. A winter shipment was being held because the emergency medical fund Eve had quietly managed was locked behind trust authorization. The second came from San Lorenzo's accountant in Tuscany, who refused to release quarterly numbers without Mrs. Lucchese's signature. The third came from a city councilman who wanted to know whether the Luccheses still had a stable family structure or if he should start taking meetings elsewhere.Matteo stood in Damian's office with three folders under one arm. "You should see this."Damian did not ask if it was bad. Good news did not make Matteo pale.The first folder was Serena's travel history. Monaco had only been the pretty version. Five years ago, after running from the wedding, she

  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 5

    For three full seconds after the helicopter vanished into the snow, no one inside St. Michael's Chapel moved.Then the first black envelope landed in the aisle.A senator's wife picked it up before Damian's men could stop her. The color drained from her face as she stared at the copy of the divorce agreement inside, Damian's signature sitting clean and undeniable at the bottom of the page.Another envelope hit the front pew. Then another. Damian did not move from the altar. Serena's hand was still stretched toward him, her white glove trembling, but he was looking past her to the side door Eve had used. "Seal the doors," he said.Matteo, his underboss, snapped his fingers. Men in black moved down the aisles, but the damage was already done. Phones had come out. Screens were glowing. Serena turned toward the guests with tears shining in her eyes. "This is fake. Eve did this because she hates me. She has hated me since we were girls."Someone near the back laughed under his breath.

  • The Forgotten Donna: A Second Chance   Chapter 4

    A stranger from the party took me to St. Anne's Hospital. The Lucchese Family controlled the place, but when the nurse pushed me into the emergency room, it was almost empty.She made three calls. With each one, her face grew paler. "The trauma surgeon and the head of obstetrics were called to the top floor. Miss Serena was frightened, so the Godfather wants a full examination."Blood seeped from my leg into the sheets. Pain tightened low in my stomach again and again.I caught the nurse's wrist. "Don't let them know I'm pregnant. Save my baby."She froze, then nodded with red eyes.Before I passed out, I thought I heard Damian's voice at the end of the hall."Where is she?"Someone answered, "Sir, Miss Serena is still waiting for you."His footsteps stopped for one second, then moved away.When I woke up, two days had passed. The nurse told me that if I had arrived ten minutes later, the baby would have been gone.There were no missed calls from Damian. No message. Not even a question

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