Chapter 1
Seven years of marriage, my Mafia husband had slept with every woman around me.
I pretended not to notice, performing a perfect Donna.
Until one day, on my way to my prenatal checkup, his newest lover hit me with her car.
Bleeding and desperate, I begged Leonardo to take me to the hospital.
He looked down at me with disgust.
“Sofia Romano, stop pretending. Even if you die in front of me, I won’t care.”
Then he walked away-hand in hand with his new favorite.
By the time I reached the hospital, my unborn child was gone.
And when the news reached my grandmother…
her heart stopped too.
In that moment, I finally woke up. From the beginning, I had been a joke.
I severed our marriage, making a decision that would make him regret it for the rest of his life.
When I woke up, I stared blankly at the former Don of the Mancuso family.
“Let me go,” I said, my voice drained of everything. “Whatever I owed the Mancusos, I’ve paid back with my
life.”
While we spoke, my phone vibrated with message after message.
A flood of photos filled the screen. All of them were Leonardo and his new woman, Isabella Vieri, tangled
together in a luxury hotel.
While I had been fighting for my life in a delivery room, the two of them had been celebrating until dawn.
Isabella, covered in his kiss marks, leaned into his chest with a triumphant smile.
Trying not to believe the worst, old Mr. Mancuso made one last attempt. He placed a stack of share-transfer
documents in front of me.
“Sofia, Leonardo isn’t irredeemable. You’ve loved him for so many years. Give him another chance. As long as I’m here, no one can take your place as the Mancuso family’s Donna.”
I didn’t speak. I simply opened the video Isabella had sent me. The sounds of their bodies, breathless and unmistakable, filled the hospital room.
Gasping, Isabella asked, “Don, you really don’t feel anything for your Donna after leaving her on the street?”
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Leonardo pressed his mouth against her neck, his voice thick with desire. “What’s there to feel? You’re the one I love most. Even if Sofia gives birth, she could never compare to you.”
The filth spilling from that recording made the old man tremble with fury, veins rising on his forehead. After a
long, heavy sigh, he finally yielded.
“It’s the Mancuso family that wronged you. I’ll handle the divorce. In seven days, you will be free. As for your grandmother and the baby…”
A nurse walked in just then, carrying the small, silent bundle.
It felt as if even heaven refused to watch me struggle any longer, letting the child be born without breath so I
would not stay trapped in this marriage.
I turned my head away, forcing my emotions back down.
“Entomb the child in the Mancuso vault,” I said quietly. “But I’m taking my grandmother’s ashes.”
The old man nodded, his face twisted in pain. “It was my fault. I never should have forced you into this
family. Go. You deserve a much larger world.”
He hunched over as he carried the lifeless child out of the room. And the tears I had fought so hard to hold
back finally slipped free.
Bitterness rose until it drowned everything.
My marriage to Leonardo had been arranged by the old Don himself. He needed someone capable of helping Leonardo secure his position as head of the Mancuso family.
I needed someone who could afford my grandmother’s expensive medical care. So we agreed.
I left my job and married Leonardo. Afterward, I learned of the tragedy that took his parents from him when he was young. I saw him wake from nightmares, crying out for his mother.
Two broken souls met each other in that moment. I wanted to heal him. I wanted a family with him. I worked
hard to be a good wife.
I practiced cooking until I could recreate the flavors he said reminded him of home. I traveled across states
to rebuild the little cabin from his memories, plank by plank.
I even forced myself to learn every intimate trick he wanted, trying to give him a sense of belonging. I thought we were building a happy future.
Yet on our wedding anniversary, he boldly walked into a hotel with my best friend.
I ran there in disbelief and demanded an answer. Leonardo laughed in my face and slapped our marital
contract, the one his grandfather signed, against my cheek.
“Sofia, what do you think you are? Two nights with you and you truly believed you were the Mancuso
Donna?”
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“You’re nothing more than a long-term pet my grandfather bought. What right do you have to question me? If
you upset me again, I’ll cut off your grandmother’s treatment today.”
The words struck me like lightning. I couldn’t even speak.
From then on, Leonardo pushed further. When he tired of influencers and actresses, he started on my friends. He kept tearing through every boundary I had.
On one side was my grandmother, who needed endless medication. On the other was a marriage already
rotten to the core. The two forces pulled me apart until I nearly broke.
Once, in a daze from stress and exhaustion, I fell down the stairs. That fall revealed I was pregnant.
The old Don almost begged me.
“Sofia, keep the baby. He might be the turning point for your marriage. If Leonardo doesn’t change after the
child is born, I promise I will no longer force you to stay.”
Carrying a storm of emotions inside me, I agreed.
I never imagined that after everything….
My grandmother, my baby, my marriage, my love… I would lose every single one.
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