Nouvelles Independence Mafia & Romans Countdown

To marry Lorenzo Vincenzo, I gave up my photography career. A dream I had held for ten years. But on our fourth anniversary, I asked my sister Greer to draft the divorce papers. She kept asking, over and over. "Why would you leave Lorenzo? He's the top surgeon at St. Vincent's. Rich, gorgeous. Half the city is dying for a shot at him." I swallowed the bitterness clawing up my throat. "Because of a gift." Greer followed my gaze to the music box on the table. The card was in Elara's handwriting. Lorenzo's junior from med school. [Thank you for flying out to do my aunt's surgery, senior. I know it was a long trip. You worked so hard. The little dancers on this music box remind me of us at graduation prom. Hope you like it, Lorenzo.] That day, my father was in a car accident. I rushed him to St. Vincent's. Only Lorenzo could do the surgery. I searched every floor of that hospital, every corridor. Nowhere. I told myself he must be on a business trip. But no. He had left his post for Elara. The same man who once swore he would never abandon the OR for personal matters. Finally, my father died on the table. Greer pulled me into her arms. "The Vincenzo family owns this city. Their reach is everywhere. Where could you possibly go that he would not find you?" I glanced at the flight confirmation on my phone. "Three days. I am flying to Paris, to a photography studio there. And I will make sure he never, ever finds me."

Five years ago, I threw myself in front of a bullet meant for my husband and lost my hearing in the process. Nico Marchetti learned sign language, held my hand through every doctor's appointment and swore he would protect me for the rest of his life. On the night I discovered his betrayal, he sat across from me at a dinner table surrounded by his capos and smiled, "Giulia is the only woman I love. But I hide it well because if she ever found out about Valentina, she'd leave me."  Then he carved his steak and placed it on my plate like a devoted husband. What he didn't know was that I had regained my hearing exactly seven days earlier. I had already contacted the Benedetti family. I had already arranged my escape to Sicily. All I had to do was wait seven more days. Then I disappeared from Nico Marchetti's life forever.

After I came of age, I entered the Gallo family's trial period. Only those who passed the family's trials within five years would earn the right to wear the family crest. Anyone who failed would be sent to the shooting range as a live target. This year's trial was to seize a weapons shipment at the port. I was the first to locate the weapons cache, but when Vera blundered into the ambush, I had to stay behind and clean up the mess to save her. After the fierce gunfight, my team's casualties ended up exactly one more than Vera's. At the crest ceremony, my mother Carmela once again pinned the family crest to Vera Gallo's chest, smiling with satisfaction. "Vera brought back the weapons with the fewest casualties. She passes the trial again this year, without question. "Not that the crest needs to be awarded twice, but Elsa, you really aren't as capable as Vera. Better luck next time." Better luck next time. I'd been hearing those exact words for four years straight. Ever since Vera was brought back four years ago, I, the adopted orphan, had become the most unwelcome person in the house. Because she claimed everything I had should have been hers. The moment she heard that Carmela had treated me well, she'd spiral into hysterics and threaten to kill herself. From then on, I waited four years and never once received the crest from Carmela's hands. This time, I was done waiting. I was going home. My real home.

On my wedding day, all my friends told me I hit the ultimate jackpot. Everyone knew the story: my groom was gorgeous, insanely rich, and the don of the most powerful mafia family in town. At the altar, he held my hand, kissed it, and promised me forever. Looking into his eyes, I really thought I got my happily ever after. But over the next eight months, he bailed on our city hall appointments to sign the marriage license—25 times. Always with a new excuse. Right before our 26th attempt, he flaked again. All because Sienna, his late savior's daughter, had another "emergency." I didn't lose my mind like I used to. I just quietly took off my engagement ring, packed my bags, and bought a single ticket to London. Every single compromise chipped away at my love until nothing was left. This time, I'm the one dumping him.

The day I learned I was pregnant, I walked out of a private clinic holding the test results, ready to tell my husband that we were finally going to have a child. I never got the chance to make the call. A sports car driven by Damian's foster sister, Serena, struck me outside the clinic. When Damian arrived, he rushed past the paramedics and lifted Serena into his arms, even though she had suffered only minor injuries. He never recognized his wife being loaded into the ambulance. After surgery, he called to tell me that Serena had been in an accident and needed him beside her. "I am sorry, but I have to cancel our anniversary dinner." I did not tell him that I was the other person involved in the crash. I did not tell him that the child we had wanted for five years was gone. He gave me the title of Donna while reserving his forbidden devotion for her. Since he could not bear to lose either of us, I would make the choice for him. In seven days, I would leave New York and return to my parents in Sicily. Damian would receive the two gifts I left behind. The first would be a divorce that restored his freedom. The second would be the wedding he and Serena had always wanted. This time, I would not ask why he betrayed me. I would quietly give them my blessing, and then I would disappear forever.

Ten days after giving birth, I told my husband, Ethan Reed, that something was wrong with me. He turned his phone face-down on the coffee table and looked at me for a full three seconds. "Sophia, you just had a baby. It's normal to feel tired." Then he flipped the phone back over and went on texting his office nurse, Serena Blake. That was the last time I brought it up. Everything that happened after that, I assumed was my own fault. That changed when I reached into his coat pocket and felt a collar I'd never seen before. Real leather, brand new, with a round metal tag hanging from it. It wasn't my size.

To be with Luca, I left New York and moved to Montreal. Three years of slaving over the stove, teaching myself the books, studying every detail of how to dress—all to fit into his world. To become his Donna. I actually believed I was on my way. But tonight, at the family banquet, the woman beside him wasn't me. It was Liliana—his childhood friend. His understudy leaned in and muttered in Italian. "Don, if you're settling things with Liliana, what happens to Catherine?" Luca took a slow drag of his cigar. "I love Catherine. But for the family, my Donna can't be some nobody." "And if she finds out?" "She loves me too much to walk away. I'll give her everything but the title." My chest tightened. A tremor ran through me that I couldn't stop. What they didn't know—I'd learned Italian in secret. I caught every single word. Liliana swept in wearing a long red dress. She shot me a look from above and gestured for me to move. Luca patted my hand. "Liliana's here to hold the room tonight. Go watch the kitchen. Don't let the staff screw up." I looked into his eyes. Three years of this—and it was all a joke I'd played on myself. I turned and walked out, pulling off his necklace and letting it drop to the carpet. My phone buzzed. My father asked how much longer I'd stay away. I stopped and typed. "Three days. I'm coming back to New York." Luca, when you find out your family doesn't even hold a candle to mine... what then?

When Dante postponed our wedding because of Nadia for the fourth time, I accepted it silently as usual. But after hanging up, I immediately had my private lawyer draft a divorce agreement. I placed the agreement on the last page of our postnuptial agreement, then asked Dante to sign it. He was rushing pick up Nadia, so he signed his name without reading it at all. "The agreement will take effect 7 days after signing." Seven days. Seven days later was the exact wedding date Dante had promised me. The countdown began.

On my thirtieth birthday, our car crashed on the way home from a charity gala. Damian Moretti stepped over me—his girlfriend of six years, lying there with a fractured ankle—and carried Sofia DeLuca away because the cut on her palm had made her panic. He knew I was hurt worse. He chose her anyway. It was punishment for asking whether the two of them were getting too close. That night, while I sat alone in the ER, Sofia posted a photo with her face pressed against his shoulder. [Thank you to the man who always catches me when I fall.] Damian expected me to call, cry, and demand that he come back. That was how our fights always ended: he hurt me until I panicked, then rewarded me with affection once I apologized. This time, I liked Sofia’s post. Then I accepted an eighteen-month transfer to Paris. My flight left in seven days—on our sixth anniversary. Damian mistook my silence for surrender. He thought he had finally taught me to stop questioning him. So on the night I once believed he would propose, he put Sofia in a wedding dress, held out the ring I had waited six years for, and gave me one last chance to behave. He expected me to beg. Instead, I left my key on the table and headed for the airport. By the time Damian realized I wasn’t testing him, my plane had already taken off.

The day I found out I was pregnant, my husband Dario Vitale's adopted sister Sofia pushed me down the stairs. I lost the baby. And I ended up in a coma. For five years while I slept, he punished her, tormented her, and made her pray for me every single day for five years. But the moment I woke up, everything had changed. Everything that was mine now had Sofia written all over it. My spot. My space. My place in his life. She'd taken over every last bit of it. When I confronted Dario, he didn't even realize how completely he'd already taken her side. "Camila, you're awake now. Sofia's spent five years paying for what she did—isn't that enough? Can we... let this go?" Five years. And in the end, he decided I'd forgiven her for him. The pain in my chest hurt worse than anything my body had been through. The man who used to look at me like I was his whole world—he wasn't there anymore. I called my sister Ayana. "Three days. I'm going back to the Manhattan firm. And I'm never seeing Dario again."

At our seventh anniversary gala, my husband, Alexander Rossetti, had gifted me the city's one of a kind Rose Manor. I was kissing Alexander. That's when his Capo, Romeo, stepped up with his wine glass, lowering his voice in pure Sicilian dialect with a teasing grin: "Don, the Jasmine Manor for Elena's all settled, identical to the one you gave to Donna." Alexander let out a chuckle. He shot back in Sicilian, casual as ever: "What can I say? She begged me in bed, said she wanted the same thing as her sister. " He kissed my cheek as he spoke, gazing at me with all the warmth in the world, while telling his men: "Don't say her name. If my Donna finds out, we're all in deep shit." His men exchanged knowing smirks, raised their glasses to him, and swore up and down they'd keep their mouths shut. He kissed my cheek, and didn't notice my smile had frozen solid. Maybe Alexander was too smug. He forgot one thing. My grandmother came from one of the oldest families in Sicily. I understood every single word they said. Fireworks burst overhead. Alexander said: "I love you, Olivia. We'll be together forever." I hugged him back, but behind his back, I pulled out my phone, opened the weapons research invitation that Santoro Institute had sent me days ago, and hit "Accept." Three days from now, I would vanish from his world completely.

After the miscarriage, I became exactly the kind of rational, understanding Mafia wife Cillian had always wanted. When I got into a car accident, I handled it myself instead of calling him. I stopped caring about the scent of other women's perfume on his clothes. Even when I saw him drunk, passionately kissing and tangling with his first love, Zelda, in bed, I simply closed the door for them and walked away. But Cillian wasn't used to it. He bought me expensive jewelry and designer bags, throwing grand birthday parties just to show the world how much in love we were... And I only gave him a polite, practiced smile. Cillian looked at me, confused. "Why have you changed? Are you still mad at me about what happened? What do I have to do for you to forgive me?" I didn't say a word. Because I wasn't mad. I didn't love him anymore, so getting angry felt completely pointless. Besides, I had already filed the divorce papers. In half a month, I’d be leaving Chicago for good.

The day of the gang shootout, while I was cleaning up the mess, I realized our marriage certificate was missing. My husband Victor Rosso tried to comfort me. Said the whole family only recognized me as their Donna. No need to bother replacing it. I mulled it over for a few days, then still brought my ID to city hall to get a duplicate. The clerk tapped at her keyboard for a minute, then looked up at me. "Ma'am, your marital status shows as single." I froze. Then I wrote down Victor's name and mine again and handed it back to her. She checked once more. Her expression turned strange. "The system says you're single, but your husband is listed as married..." She paused. "The spouse's name is Anna Martin. Do you know her?" My mind went blank. Victor and I were each other's first love. He'd always treated me like I was the moon, the stars, everything. And Anna—my sister, his savior, the woman he personally shipped off to Milan because she wouldn't stop chasing him. Turns out, while he was calling her reckless to my face, he'd already given her his legal name on paper. I pulled out my phone and called my mentor. "Mentor, I need to get back to my jewelry studio. What's the soonest you can get me in?" "Flora. Three days. Just give me three days."

I came home from a business trip. My daughter Anna threw herself into my arms and held up a hand-strung necklace she had clearly worked hard on. "Mommy, this is the birthday present I made for Mommy Lena. She's going to love it, right?" My heart dropped. Lena was my husband Preston's secretary. My daughter remembered her birthday. She had forgotten that today was mine. It wasn't the first time. She was always attached to Lena, hanging off her arm and asking, "Mommy Lena, when are you and Daddy taking me back to the amusement park?" Even when she ran a fever, the name she called out over and over was Mommy Lena. I corrected her, disappointed. "Anna, I'm your mommy, not Lena." But Anna pushed me away and shouted, "You're the bad mommy! I don't want you! I want Mommy Lena to be my mommy forever!" In that moment I could almost hear my own heart cracking. A second later, Preston shoved the door open. He scooped up the wailing Anna and turned on me. "Winnie, what kind of mother are you? Your child is crying like this and you can't even be bothered! "Anna's right. As a mother you're not half of what Lena is. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I married you!" I watched their backs disappear down the hall and felt something go out in me. So this was what it had bought me. Six years ago I gave up my name and my claim as heir to the Family, all for love, and what I got in return was the contempt of my husband and my daughter. If that was how it was, then it was time for me to go home to the Family.

My mother dragged me out of my biological father's brutality, and I thought we had finally escaped. Then she married the Don of the Falcone family. The woman who once fought to protect me completely changed. To secure my stepfather's approval and coddle his beloved Sofia, she stood by and let them turn me into a servant in the house I was supposed to call home. Every time I pushed back, they pushed harder. Every time I begged to be seen, I was met with contempt. My biological father's fists left scars on my body. This family's marks went deeper—into my bones. So I stopped. If they never wanted me there, I would stop breaking myself for their hollow approval. I would take my own life back. In seven days, I would leave. Harvard acceptance in hand—Boston waiting.

The entire New York mafia world knows that Don Alessandro of the Rossi family takes a brutal punishment from the Council every year just to marry me. Because the Rossi family has a strict rule: all marriages must be approved by the Council. Yet, for three years in a row, Alessandro submitted our marriage application, and every time, it was rejected! The first year, he was locked in solitary confinement for three days and nights. The second year, his back was whipped raw. The third year, he even knelt in a torrential downpour to beg for their mercy. I always thought it was my fault, that I just wasn’t good enough to meet the Council's standards. It wasn't until the fourth year that I found out all those rejection letters from the Council were forged by Alessandro himself. And the reason was Mia—his secretary who had been secretly obsessed with him for years. "Mia has been by my side for eight years. She took a bullet for me. She held me and cried, saying the day I get married would be the darkest day of her life." "I love Jane, but I just can't bear to hurt Mia." "It just means marrying Jane a little later. She loves me so much, she won't mind." But he was wrong. Even though my heart was breaking, I didn't want this kind of love anymore. I called my father: "Dad, I'm ready to come back to Italy and marry the Don of the Caruso family."

Someone had posted a private video on the dark web of the underground world. In the video, a naked woman was sitting on top of a man. The comment section was flooded with messages: “So fucking hot. She’s unbelievably sexy.” My gaze swept across the man’s body, and in that instant, I felt as if lightning had struck me. A black ring glinted on his hand, which was wrapped around the woman's waist. It was the wedding ring my husband Edward, the Don of the Family , and I had designed together.

The old Don was killed in an ambush by a rival crew. At the mass, Vito, the new Don, stood at the very front of the church. I'd rushed back from a job and barely made it. There were only two spots left in the church. One was right next to the new Don. The seat for his wife. The other was at the very end of the guest line. I figured, without even thinking about it, that the spot beside him was mine. So I walked straight toward Vito. But he looked right past me. "Sofia." He lifted his chin, just slightly. "Come up." Around me, the family elders and the heads of the different crews started whispering. "The next Don's wife is a beautiful woman." "Look at those two. They just fit." Vito took the gilded crest plate from the altar and placed it in Sofia's hands. I turned around and walked to the very end of the line. Stood there. Didn't say a word. The entire service, he never once looked back at me. Even the small life growing inside me felt like a cruel joke right now. Maybe it was time to leave. Me and my unborn child.

Three months into our marriage, I was cooking dinner when I noticed that every plate, bowl, and cup in the house was smaller than standard dinnerware. That slight difference mattered. Every time I lifted a bowl or wrapped my hand around a cup, I had to adjust my grip to the tighter curve. I held up two bowls of different sizes and asked Damian Moretti why. He said they had simply been custom-made for the Family. That night, a torrential downpour left me stranded at the station after I finished handling Family business. Across the street, inside a restaurant, Damian held a bite of steak to the lips of the young woman opposite him, then gently wiped the sauce from the corner of her mouth. The young woman was the Family's new secretary. One look at the custom dinnerware in front of her, and I understood everything. So that smaller size had been designed for her. I checked my phone. "It's pouring. My old wrist injury is acting up, and I can't hold an umbrella. Can you come get me?" I had sent that message three hours ago. Nothing had come back. He never let me ride in his private armored car or appear at his side at society dinners. In public, he always kept his distance. "As Don, I have to keep my public and private lives separate. The Donna can't draw too much attention, or my men will talk." He held to those boundaries of his so faithfully. It turned out the boundaries only applied to some people. Through the rain, I saw a small plaque on the front passenger seat: CECE ONLY. And suddenly, I no longer wanted to stay in this marriage.

I've always been terrible with directions. No matter where I go, I end up lost. Seraphina didn't buy the whole "born this way" excuse. So she roped in my foster brother Gabriel and my childhood friend Lucas, and they decided to put me through "training." For the border patrol exercise, they drove off with the tactical SUV ahead of time, took my phone, and left me stranded alone at the subway entrance—right in the middle of gang territory. They said it was to sharpen my sense of direction. I opened my bag and found a note from Seraphina: "We've walked this escape route with you twice. I know Carone's blood will find its way to the safe house, Leah!" "We'll be waiting at the mansion." I stared at those words, and suddenly this whole childish "training" felt hollow. Truth is, not memorizing the tunnels wasn't even a big deal. What hurt was being left behind—over and over again. So I went home and applied for Zurich. Ten days later, I was gone. And only when I was already across the ocean did they realize what they'd lost.