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Chapter 3

Author: Eternity
The welcome party was held at the Lucchese club in Manhattan. From the outside, it looked like an abandoned theater. Inside, it was filled with New York's most respectable criminals: politicians, lawyers, dock bosses, bankers, and every ally Damian needed to keep his throne.

In five years, he had never thrown a public dinner for me. Serena came home, and he gave her the whole city as an audience.

She entered on Damian's arm, wearing the Lucchese obsidian pendant at her throat. It was the symbol of the Godfather's wife. Five years ago, Damian told me it was too dangerous to wear in public and locked it in a safe. He had never put it on me.

Now it rested against Serena's collarbone.

Whispers moved through the crowd.

"So she's the real one."

"The Godfather kept the wife hidden for five years because he was waiting for the younger Vega daughter."

"We'd better start calling her Mrs. Lucchese."

My parents stood in the middle of the room, smiling with a pride I had never received from them. Years ago, when they tried to brag about my marriage, Damian warned them to stop. They lost face because of me, so they hated me even more. Tonight, Serena was finally giving them the glory they wanted.

Damian raised his glass. "Serena has been away from New York for too long. From tonight on, she remains the jewel of the Vega family and someone the Lucchese Family will protect."

Applause thundered through the club.

Serena took the microphone with tears in her eyes. "The person I want to thank most is my sister. Eve carried so much for me, and she has always been willing to give me the best of everything. Without her, I wouldn't be here today."

Every face turned toward me.

I stood behind a pillar on the second-floor balcony and lifted my glass.

"Welcome home."

The calmer I was, the more disappointed Serena looked.

The gifts came next. My father gave her a yacht. My mother fastened our grandmother's sapphire necklace around her neck, the necklace that should have gone to the eldest daughter.

At last, Damian's underboss wheeled out a black velvet case. Inside was the deed to the San Lorenzo Winery in Tuscany. It was not just a vineyard. It was the cleanest public face of the Lucchese fortune.

Serena threw herself into Damian's arms and cried right on cue.

The room cheered.

When it was my turn, I asked a waiter to bring over a narrow mahogany box.

"A welcome-home gift."

Inside, there should have been a ruby bracelet. It was the first thing Damian had given me after our wedding, and I no longer wanted it.

Serena opened the box in front of everyone.

The bracelet was gone.

On the velvet lay a bloodstained silver bullet, pinned beneath a black card with one sentence written on it: Impostor. Pay what you owe.

The hall went dead silent. Then someone screamed.

Serena stumbled back with a hand on her stomach, her face bone-white. "Eve, why would you scare me like this? I only wanted to come home."

My father slammed his glass down. "Eve! She is your sister!"

My mother rushed in front of Serena, sobbing as if I had put a knife to her throat. "You can't stand that people love her. You can't stand that Damian cares about her, so you had to ruin her night."

I looked at Serena. She was crying in Damian's arms, but for half a second, the corner of her mouth lifted.

I understood.

She didn't just want my place. She wanted to make sure I could never come back from this.

"Someone switched the box," I said.

My voice vanished under the noise.

Damian held Serena close and looked at me as if I were staring down the barrel of his gun.

"Eve, I thought you at least had a line you wouldn't cross."

I tried to explain, but one of the Lucchese guards shoved through the crowd. In the chaos, he moved as if he were protecting Serena, then slammed his shoulder straight into mine.

I fell backward and struck the champagne tower. Glass burst across the floor. A shard opened my calf, and the edge of the table drove into my lower stomach so hard that pain shot up my spine.

Someone gasped. "She's bleeding."

Damian looked back at me.

Only once.

Serena cried against his chest. "Damian, my stomach hurts."

So he turned away, lifted her in his arms, and left. The doctors, guards, and his underboss followed him out.

I slid to the floor, one hand braced against the table leg, while my mother's voice cut through the room.

"Karma. That's what this is."

In my last life, it had been snow.

In this life, it was blood.

As long as Serena was there, they would always leave me behind.
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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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