Apache

The rejection letter from the private security school arrived on a Tuesday. It stated clearly that the single slot allocated to my son, Danny, had been filled by another boy. My husband, a high-ranking Capo, had signed away our son’s protection to make room for his mistress’s bastard. He sneered at me, calling Danny "soft," and sent him to an unguarded cabin in the north to toughen up. Three days later, the Russians took him. When the courier arrived, there was no ransom demand. Just a package containing a shred of blue cotton with a green T-Rex, soaked in black, stiff blood. Tom didn't shed a tear. He poured a scotch, stepped over me as I wept on the floor, and blamed me for coddling the boy. Overwhelmed by the silence of a house that would never hear my son's laughter again, I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills to escape the pain. But the darkness didn't last. I woke up gasping, my heart hammering against my ribs. Sunlight hit my face. "Mommy?" Danny stood in the doorway, wearing his dinosaur pajamas, whole and alive. I looked at the calendar. It was May 15th. The day the letter arrived. The grief in my chest calcified into cold rage. I knew about the skimming. I knew about the fake widow status. I knew exactly how to bury my husband. I picked up the phone and dialed the one number no wife was ever supposed to call directly—the Enforcer. "I have evidence of treason," I said. "And I'm bringing the proof."

My husband stood me up on the biggest night of my career—my first solo art exhibition. I found him on the news, shielding another woman from a storm of cameras while the entire gallery watched my world collapse. His text was a final, cold slap in the face: "Kacie needs me. You'll be fine." For years, he'd called my art a "hobby," forgetting it was the foundation of his billion-dollar company. He had made me invisible. So I called my lawyer with a plan to use his arrogance against him. "Make the divorce papers look like a boring IP release form," I told her. "He'll sign anything to get me out of his office."

I was just a placeholder, a warm body in silk sheets to keep the bed from getting cold while my billionaire "owner," Garrick Head, dreamt of another man’s wife. To the world, I was Ever Wells, the lucky girl he’d plucked from obscurity, but in reality, I was a doll on a 145-day contract, counting every second until I could disappear. Everything shattered when a burner phone buzzed in my hand with a message that turned my blood to ice: "I know your secret, Everly." My real name was the one thing I had buried to protect my four-year-old son, Leo, who was hidden in a cramped apartment in Queens. Just as the blackmailer closed in, Leo’s asthma flared into a life-threatening fever, and the medication he needed cost thousands I didn't have. When I tried to siphon money to save him, Garrick sensed my desperation and froze my credit cards, mocking my "poverty" and demanding I crawl back to his bed to earn his favor. The nightmare intensified at a high-society gala when Clarence Frazier, a dangerous ghost from my past, cornered me. He mouthed my real name in front of the cameras, his eyes promising to tear my fake life apart. Garrick’s possessiveness turned violent as he broke a man’s jaw for insulting me, yet in the same breath, he reminded me I was nothing but a "rented whore" he’d bought off a shelf. I had to smile while he kissed me and detach my mind while he touched me, all while siphoning pennies into a hidden account. He thought he could finalize my imprisonment with a twenty-million-dollar apartment on Central Park West, calling it a gift when it was really just a heavier lock on my golden cage. "I don't want to save the world," I whispered to the empty, marble penthouse after he fell asleep. "I just want to save my son." With a predator from my past watching my every move and a master who treated me like a pet, I realized I couldn't wait for my contract to end. I had to run tonight, or Leo and I would both die in this cage.

My husband, the city's most ruthless Don, left me standing at the altar to comfort a woman with a sprained ankle. I thought our marriage was a protection pact, but when a kidnapper held a knife to his childhood sweetheart’s throat on a rooftop, Cedric made his choice. He physically shoved me—his pregnant wife—toward the blade to save her. I survived the fall, but our unborn baby didn't. Yet, there was no apology. Blinded by her lies, Cedric accused me of staging the attack out of jealousy. He had me thrown into the family dungeon, where I was beaten while still bleeding from the miscarriage. He didn't know two things. First, that his "perfect" sweetheart had voluntarily sterilized herself years ago and could never give him the heir he craved. Second, that I had terminal cardiomyopathy. My heart had an expiration date, and I had only days left to live. On my 27th birthday, I asked him for one final kindness: a midnight ride on the Ferris wheel where we had our first date. He promised to be there, but he was late again, attending to her needs. So I went up alone. When the carriage came back down, it was empty. All I left behind were my shoes and a medical file that would destroy him.

I spent twenty-one years trying to be the perfect Mafia Princess, treating my illegitimate sister, Mia, with nothing but grace. That kindness is exactly what got me killed. My husband, Luca, didn't take me on a honeymoon. He dragged me into the soundproof basement of our estate. Mia was there, too. Not to help me, but to gloat. She laughed as she admitted to poisoning our mother with arsenic, watching with glee as Luca brought a serrated knife to my chest. "You were always too soft, Sera," he sneered, carving through my skin while I begged for mercy. I died in that cold, dark room, choking on my own blood and the bitter taste of betrayal. But I didn't stay dead. I woke up gasping for air, clutching a chest that was smooth and unscarred. The calendar on my nightstand read May 12, 2018. It was five years ago. The very morning I was scheduled to sign the marriage contract that would seal my fate. I looked at the paper on the vanity. In my last life, I signed it with a trembling hand. This time, I flicked open my silver Zippo and watched the flames eat Luca's name. I didn't pack a dress. I packed a pistol and a stack of cash. I was going to Las Vegas. There was only one man dangerous enough to help me destroy the New York families. I walked into the underground fight club, locked eyes with the deadliest man in the room, and smiled. "Dante Cavallaro," I said. "I'm here to make you a King."

Three years. That' s how long I spent in prison, taking the fall for the man I loved, Case Stevens, believing his promise of marriage and a future. But the moment I walked out, I discovered his sweet words were a meticulously crafted lie, a cruel game orchestrated with my university rival, Blair Kelley, to destroy me and my family. They humiliated me publicly, forcing me into a mock proposal with a dog, while my father lay dying in a hospital, his care deliberately withdrawn by Case to seize control of our family company. At my father' s funeral, I learned Blair had mixed his ashes into her "art," a twisted masterpiece she then set ablaze, burning the last physical piece of him. I was beaten by Case' s friends, left for dead, my body broken, my spirit shattered. I was dying, but a doctor, Axel Everett, offered me a chance at a new life, a chance to become a ghost in the world that had betrayed me.

I stood before my instructor, Mr. Harrison, the polished floor reflecting my tired face. I was the lead dancer at Stone Corp's prestigious company, but it felt like a prison. "I need to resign," I said, my voice quiet but steady. Then, the true reason for my discontent emerged. "I want to divorce her," I confessed, referring to Olivia, the CEO and my wife. She had stopped seeing me as a person, only a means to an end. My world shattered when I overheard Olivia tell her brother that I had "served my purpose." I was merely a distraction, a "replacement" until Derek Chen, her former fiancé and another dancer, returned. I was a ghost, a stand-in-a role painfully evident as Derek sat beside her at dinner, in the seat that used to be mine. Weeks turned into a nightmare. Derek orchestrated a scene, faking an injury and accusing me of assault. Olivia, without hesitation, believed him. "You are vile," she hissed. She then slapped me, the sting nothing compared to the ultimate betrayal. I crumpled to the floor, consumed by a familiar, dark terror, remembering her promise to never let anyone hurt me. Later, I dragged myself from the locked basement where her security team had thrown me. In the hospital, the doctor delivered the final blow: the fall had caused irreversible damage, leaving me unable to have children. The dream of a family, a home, snatched away by the woman who once said, "We are not having children." A quiet, hollow emptiness settled in me. But I wasn't broken. I was done being a victim. I would get my justice. I would escape my gilded cage.

October 12th. Another year. Another morning, another silent coffee delivered to Jake Sterling's desk, and another reminder of his glacial indifference. Three years of unrequited hope, of being invisible to the man she worshipped-her commanding officer. Then, Isabelle Vance, a new agent, arrived, and suddenly Jake transformed: smiles, patience, shared laughter. Ava witnessed a tender interaction at his parents' home, overhearing joyful whispers about "wedding venues" and a "spring wedding." The world tilted. The crushing reality that he was marrying someone else, someone he showed warmth and kindness to, while she received only cold disdain and public humiliation, shattered her. The pain was a physical wound, and the injustice burned. Why had he treated her with such cruelty, only to lavish affection on Isabelle? Why was she always the target of his harshness? The constant push and pull, the mixed signals – a sudden kind gesture out of uniform, then a brutal dressing-down back at the office – it all made no sense. She couldn' t endure it anymore. Her heart, once full of desperate hope, was now a hollow, aching void. There was nothing left. A final, desperate act: Ava requested a transfer to Cinder Peak, a remote, forgotten outpost. She was leaving. She was walking away from him, from this unit, from everything that had defined her for years. Little did she know, her painful escape was just the beginning of a far more dangerous and complicated journey.

The day I was supposed to pick up my fully restored vintage Ford Bronco, a symbol of my hard-earned success, I was blindsided. My fiancée, Gabby, whom I trusted implicitly, appeared in a viral TikTok video handing my dream car-a sky-blue masterpiece-to her ex-boyfriend, Wesley, for his 30th birthday, all for online clout. The comments section exploded with praise for her "generosity," while my world tilted. She hadn' t just given away my car; she had stolen a piece of my success and gifted it to another man, publicly humiliating me. It wasn't just the blatant theft and the shocking disrespect; it was the audacious lie, the sheer betrayal in front of the entire internet. How could someone I was about to marry be so public and brazen with her deceit, turning my private milestone into a weapon against me? But instead of despairing, a chilling clarity settled over me. I pulled up the car's title, screenshot the police report I' d just filed for grand theft auto, and commented on her viral video, "Glad you like my Bronco. The Austin PD has been notified... See you soon." The game was on.

The air was thick with the smell of barbecue, but my stomach was churning with dread. My upscale Austin life was supposed to merge with my fiancé Ryan's small-town roots this Thanksgiving weekend, finalizing our wedding plans. But then Ryan's family started a poker game, and my father, a notorious soft touch after a few bourbons, lost everything. Every cent of the $200,000 wedding fund I' d given him for safekeeping was gone, wiped out in one night. Ryan, instead of comforting me, put on a masterclass of manipulation, shaming my father and threatening to call off the wedding, using "tradition" as an excuse. His whole family watched, smug and complicit, as if I was the problem, not their pathetic, greedy scheme. The humiliation was suffocating, crushing not just me, but my parents too, turning a celebratory weekend into a public shaming. How could the man I was about to marry betray me so completely, letting his family fleece mine, then blaming us? But as my mother begged me to leave, a cold resolve settled in my gut, hardening into steel: I wasn't leaving until I' d taken back what was mine. I walked to the table, pulled out a chair, and calmly declared, "I want to play."

I was a scholarship kid, grinding daily for a shot at the Ivy Leagues, my entire future resting on those SAT scores. My best friend, Ethan, had just given me this vintage 'good luck' watch, and my other best friend, Chloe, was like family-always in my corner. Then the practice SAT results dropped. My scores, usually stellar, had crashed to zero, while Ethan, who barely passed, was suddenly top of the class. That's when I overheard Chloe, my 'sister from another mister,' confessing. She' d given me Ethan' s 'lucky' watch, not for my good fortune, but to transfer mine to him. Because I was 'in his way.' The betrayal was a gut punch. This wasn't luck-sharing; it was a score-sucking curse. First, my grades vanished, then my scholarship was revoked after Chloe framed me for plagiarism-a move that sent my already fragile mom to the hospital. To top it off, Chloe, the 'family' I trusted, dumped me in a dark alley to be beaten almost senseless by a jock and his crew, just to protect Ethan. Lying broken, abandoned, and stripped of everything, I couldn' t grasp the cruelty. My best friend, my 'sister'-how could they orchestrate such a calculated downfall? Was this just about Ivy League dreams, or something far more sinister? Was I merely a pawn to be discarded? And what kind of 'good luck charm' destroys lives? But beneath the pain, a cold resolve hardened. I found Marcus, the mysterious man who' d warned me about the watch. He promised a way to break the curse, to make them pay. My future, my mom, my very identity-it all hung in the balance. This wasn't just about getting my life back; it was about exposing the darkness, and making sure justice found its true mark.

For seven years, I was Sarah Miller, dating Senator Ethan Bailey, my life a meticulously crafted lie for a shadowy organization. I was nearing my triumph, about to secure his loyalty. Then, a shattered glass, scattered files. Ethan' s furious roar echoed: "A. God. Damn. Assignment?" Our entire relationship, a carefully woven deception, was exposed. My D.C. career turned to ash. Ostracized and radioactive, I thought hope arrived in Mark Thorne, but his 'devotion' was another twisted lie, a calculated tactic fueled by his obsession for Ethan' s new wife, Victoria. Victoria unleashed a horrifying campaign of torment: public humiliations, framed corruption, a deepfake. She called my murdered assistant, Izzy, a "loose end." Worst of all, Mark, cold and brutal, snapped the neck of my only solace, my dog Buster. How could my life become a landscape of such profound betrayal and calculated cruelty? Every supposed kindness, every bond, revealed as a sickening deception. Shattered and broken, I whispered one word to Aegis: "Extraction." My past memories were wiped clean. I awoke as Amy Peterson, free in a quiet Maine town. But the man who destroyed me, Mark Thorne, was unknowingly given an Aegis "Redemption Mandate," sent to earn my love, unaware I' m finally truly protected from his lies.

I clutched my Yale application, a symbol of hope amidst the stifling air of my own home. My parents, my brother, and my childhood friend Jake stood before me, a picture of familial expectation. But I heard their thoughts, a chaotic chorus of fear and malice. "Lock her down. Save Chloe," my father thought. Jake proposed eloping, ostensibly for love, but their true motives were horrifying: to stop me from going to college, to prevent me from 'destroying Chloe' s future' – all based on a 'prophet' s' twisted premonitions about me. My refusal ignited their true rage. They stripped me of my agency, condemning my ambition as a 'dark path' to protect their 'blessed' Chloe. Every success I had ever achieved they twisted into a tool for villainy. My chronic illness, initially dismissed as 'drama,' became their excuse for outright torture: confinement, forced sedatives, and a dog leash chained to my ankle. They genuinely believed I had to be stopped, by any means necessary. How could a family be so utterly consumed by such a delusional prophecy, twisting every fiber of their love into a suffocating paranoia? How could they view me, their own daughter, as a malevolent force simply for wanting a future? The betrayal from Jake, someone I once crushed on, cut deeper than their predictable malice, as he chose their twisted narrative over me. But even held captive, my will wasn't broken. With my last ounce of strength, I penned a desperate 'SOS,' pressing it into Chloe's hand. This was my final gamble, my last hope to break free, to expose their monstrous delusion, and to reclaim my destiny, even if it cost me everything.

Nine months pregnant, I walked into another one of my husband's lavish galas, the latest accessory in his perfectly curated, yet utterly broken, life. When premature labor struck, triggered by his blatant disregard, he simply sneered, telling me not to be 'dramatic,' while I was left to face a life-threatening delivery alone in a sterile hospital room, his phone conveniently off at a party with his secretary. Lying in the hospital bed, watching his latest public indiscretion flash across my TV screen, I made the agonizing choice to give up my newborn son, Leo, convinced he' d be better off with the Caldwell fortune than with a broken mother like me. The system failed me, and I couldn't bear the thought of my tiny, vulnerable son enduring a life of instability because of me, a mother with no resources and no family. So I vanished, changing my name and leaving behind Sarah Caldwell, believing my sacrifice was the only way to shield Leo from the poison of his father's name. But just as I' d rebuilt a quiet life, two years later, he walked into my new bakery, Leo in his arms, and a single, innocent word from our son - 'Mama!' - shattered my carefully constructed peace, demanding I once again deny the love I desperately craved.

My seven-year-old, Ethan, was my whole world, a sensitive boy whose eyes held the wonder of distant galaxies and whose laughter filled our lives. But beneath that joy lay a constant fear: his severe, life-threatening peanut allergy. Weekend handovers at his father Mark' s perfectly manicured, magazine-worthy backyard were always a tightrope walk. One scorching afternoon, a pristine ornamental tree lost a branch, triggering a terrifying chain of events. Mark, egged on by his new girlfriend Chloe, forced Ethan to dig a stubborn tree stump in the cruel sun, all while Chloe lounged nearby, casually eating peanuts. Soon, Ethan was gasping for air, clutching his throat, his face turning splotchy red. As I scrambled for the EpiPen, screaming for Mark to call 911, he grabbed my arm, dismissing it as "overdramatic," convinced I was panicking. Precious, agonizing seconds ticked by as he held me back, until my precious boy collapsed, blue-lipped and lifeless. Later that day, while Ethan lay in the morgue, Mark was gleefully celebrating a gender reveal for his new baby with Chloe, dismissing our son's death as mere "unpleasantness." He then heartlessly threw Ethan' s most treasured toy, his grandfather's vintage X-Wing, into the trash, trying to erase his existence entirely. My grief was an open wound, yet his callous detachment, his immediate celebration, and Chloe's cold triumph were an unimaginable torment. How could the man who once checked every food label now call my son's tragic death "unpleasantness"? How could I be forced to film a humiliating apology video, publicly blaming myself, just to be free? But then, a hidden surveillance video from the backyard cameras, secretly kept by his parents' housekeeper, surfaced. It laid bare Mark's fatal inaction, Chloe' s deliberate malice with peanuts, and exposed the shocking lie that Chloe's unborn child wasn't even his. Now, armed with undeniable proof, I was ready to pursue justice for Ethan, guided by the dreams he left in his cherished Space Journal.

My billionaire father, Arthur Vanderbilt II, constantly pressured me to choose a bride from the brilliant women of our Foundation Scholars program. My focus, however, was stubbornly fixed on the enigmatic and beautiful Isabelle Hayes, convinced she was the one. But then, I overheard an intimate conversation between Isabelle and her supposed younger brother, Leo, discovering their illicit affair and calculating plan to exploit our family's fortune. My heartbreak quickly turned to fury as I uncovered a web of deceit: the other Scholars were actively mocking me, and Isabelle herself sabotaged me in a polo match, causing serious injury. The public humiliation escalated at the Met Gala when Isabelle, a master hacker, froze my accounts and then mockingly covered my immense philanthropic pledge, all to elevate Leo and further disgrace me. I was left reeling from their calculated gaslighting and the profound injustice, struggling to comprehend how deeply I’d been betrayed by the very people my family had uplifted. But Leo’s final, vulgar taunt – a video flaunting Isabelle’s twisted devotion to him, followed by a crude offer of other Scholars – ignited an uncontrollable rage, solidifying my decision: they would all pay.

For three years, Jessica endured a loveless marriage while her husband pretended to be impotent. His lies unraveled when a pregnant mistress surfaced. After six months of secretly collecting proof, Jessica threw him out and built her own billion-dollar empire. After the divorce, she transformed into an irresistible figure, attracting admirers. As she left her office one day, she met Kevan, her ex-husband's brother. He stepped in, confronting her. "Was I just a tool to you?" Jessica's lips curled into a calm smile. "How much compensation do you want?" Kevan's voice softened. "All I want is you."

People in the city released orcs that nobody wanted to the countryside, and a friend notified me to go and pick one up. When I arrived after finishing killing the last pig, there was only a small little pig that nobody wanted left. He was covered in wounds and looked at me with fear. "You don't have anyone to take care of you either? I'll take you with me," I said with compassion, holding the little pig and walking towards the pig slaughterhouse. Suddenly, my arms felt damp, and I realized that I had forgotten that he had already been bitten to death by the orcs in the city.

I watched my husband sign the papers that would end our marriage while he was busy texting the woman he actually loved. He didn't even glance at the header. He just scribbled the sharp, jagged signature that had signed death warrants for half of New York, tossed the file onto the passenger seat, and tapped his screen again. "Done," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. That was Dante Moretti. The Underboss. A man who could smell a lie from a mile away but couldn't see that his wife had just handed him an annulment decree disguised beneath a stack of mundane logistics reports. For three years, I scrubbed his blood out of his shirts. I saved his family's alliance when his ex, Sofia, ran off with a civilian. In return, he treated me like furniture. He left me in the rain to save Sofia from a broken nail. He left me alone on my birthday to drink champagne on a yacht with her. He even handed me a glass of whiskey—her favorite drink—forgetting that I despised the taste. I was merely a placeholder. A ghost in my own home. So, I stopped waiting. I burned our wedding portrait in the fireplace, left my platinum ring in the ashes, and boarded a one-way flight to San Francisco. I thought I was finally free. I thought I had escaped the cage. But I underestimated Dante. When he finally opened that file weeks later and realized he had signed away his wife without looking, the Reaper didn't accept defeat. He burned down the world to find me, obsessed with reclaiming the woman he had already thrown away.

I was three days away from marrying the Underboss of the Fazio crime family when I unlocked his burner phone. The screen glowed toxic bright in the dark next to my sleeping fiancé. A message from a contact saved as 'Little Trouble' read: "She is just a statue, Dante. Come back to bed." Attached was a photo of a woman lying in the sheets of his private office, wearing his shirt. My heart didn't break; it simply stopped. For eight years, I believed Dante was the hero who pulled me from a burning opera house. I played the perfect, loyal Mafia Princess for him. But heroes don't give their mistresses rare pink diamonds while giving their fiancées cubic zirconia replicas. He didn't just cheat. He humiliated me. He defended his mistress over his own soldiers in public. He even abandoned me on the side of the road on my birthday because she faked a pregnancy emergency. He thought I was weak. He thought I would accept the fake ring and the disrespect because I was just a political pawn. He was wrong. I didn't cry. Tears are for women who have options. I had a strategy. I walked into the bathroom and dialed a number I hadn't dared to call in a decade. "Speak," a voice like gravel growled on the other end. Lorenzo Moretti. The Capo of the rival family. The man my father called the Devil. "The wedding is off," I whispered, staring at my reflection. "I want an alliance with you, Enzo. And I want the Fazio family burned to the ground."

On our fifth anniversary, my husband slid a black velvet box across the table. Inside wasn't a diamond ring, but a fountain pen. "Sign the separation papers, Aurora," Ethan said. "Ilene is spiraling again. She needs to see we are over." I was the wife of the Mafia Underboss, yet I was being discarded for the Family Ward. Before I could answer, Ilene stormed into the restaurant. She shrieked that I was still wearing his ring and threw a bowl of boiling lobster bisque directly at my chest. As my skin blistered and peeled, Ethan didn't rush to me. He hugged her. "It's okay," he soothed the woman who had just assaulted me. "I've got you." The betrayal didn't stop there. When Ilene pushed me down the stairs days later, Ethan erased the security footage to protect her from the police. When I was kidnapped by his enemies, I called his emergency line—the one meant for life-or-death situations. He declined the call. He was too busy holding Ilene's hand to save his wife. That was the moment the chain broke. As the kidnapper's van sped onto the highway, I didn't wait for a rescue that would never come. I opened the door and jumped into the dark. Everyone thought Aurora Bruce died on that pavement. Two years later, Ethan stood outside a gallery in Paris, looking at the woman he had destroyed, finally realizing he had protected the wrong one.

I was the Chicago Outfit's princess, and Luca and Matteo were my sworn protectors. We had mixed our blood at ten years old, promising that nothing would ever touch me. But that oath turned to ash the night Sofia Ricci aimed a Roman candle at my chest. The firework slammed into my shoulder, igniting my silk dress instantly. As I rolled on the concrete, screaming while the flames ate into my skin, I waited for my boys to save me. They didn't. Instead, I watched through the smoke as they rushed to Sofia. They wrapped their jackets—the ones meant to shield me—around the girl who had just set me on fire, comforting her because the "kickback" had scared her. They let me burn to keep her warm. When I woke up in the hospital with permanent scars, they brought me a letter of apology from her and defended her "accident." They even cut their palms to pay her debt, ignoring the fact that I was the one in bandages. That was the moment Elena Vitiello died. I didn't scream. I didn't beg. I simply packed my bags and defected to the one place they couldn't follow: the arms of Dante Moretti, the lethal Capo of New York. By the time they realized their mistake and came crawling back to beg in the rain, I was already wearing another man's ring. "You want forgiveness?" I asked, looking down at them. "Burn for it."

I stood outside my husband's study, the perfect mafia wife, only to hear him mocking me as an "ice sculpture" while he entertained his mistress, Aria. But the betrayal went deeper than infidelity. A week later, my saddle snapped mid-jump, leaving me with a shattered leg. Lying in the hospital bed, I overheard the conversation that killed the last of my love. My husband, Alessandro, knew Aria had sabotaged my gear. He knew she could have killed me. Yet, he told his men to let it go. He called my near-death experience a "lesson" because I had bruised his mistress's ego. He humiliated me publicly, freezing my accounts to buy family heirlooms for her. He stood by while she threatened to leak our private tapes to the press. He destroyed my dignity to play the hero for a woman he thought was a helpless orphan. He had no idea she was a fraud. He didn't know I had installed micro-cameras throughout the estate while he was busy pampering her. He didn't know I had hours of footage showing his "innocent" Aria sleeping with his guards, his rivals, and even his staff, laughing about how easy he was to manipulate. At the annual charity gala, in front of the entire crime family, Alessandro demanded I apologize to her. I didn't beg. I didn't cry. I simply connected my drive to the main projector and pressed play.

For four years, I traced the bullet scar on Chace’s chest, believing it was proof he would bleed to keep me safe. On our anniversary, he told me to wear white because "tonight changes everything." I walked into the gala thinking I was getting a ring. Instead, I stood frozen in the center of the ballroom, drowning in silk, watching him slide his mother's sapphire onto another woman's finger. Karyn Warren. The daughter of a rival family. When I begged him with my eyes to claim me, to save me from the public humiliation, he didn't flinch. He just leaned toward his Underboss, his voice amplified by the silence. "Karyn is for power. Ember is for pleasure. Don't confuse the assets." My heart didn't just break; it incinerated. He expected me to stay as his mistress, threatening to dig up my dead mother’s grave if I refused to play the obedient pet. He thought I was trapped. He thought I had nowhere to go because of my father’s massive gambling debts. He was wrong. With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and texted the one name I was never supposed to use. Keith Mosley. The Don. The monster under Chace's bed. *I am invoking the Blood Oath. My father’s debt. I am ready to pay it.* His reply came three seconds later, buzzing against my palm like a warning. *The price is marriage. You belong to me. Yes or No?* I looked up at Chace, who was laughing with his new fiancée, thinking he owned me. I looked down and typed three letters. *Yes.*

For seven years, I served as the eyes for Dante Vitiello, the blind Capo of New York. I pulled him back from the edge of madness, tending to his wounds and warming his bed when everyone else had given up on him. But the moment his vision returned, the years of devotion turned to ash. In a single phone call, he decided to marry Sofia Moretti for territory, dismissing me as just "the maid's daughter" and a "comfort" he intended to keep as a mistress. He forced me to watch him court her. At a gala, when a chaotic accident caused a tower of champagne glasses to shatter, Dante threw his body over Sofia to protect her. He left me standing there, bleeding from the glass shards, while he carried her away like she was porcelain. He didn't even look back at the woman who had saved his life. I realized then that I had worshipped a broken god. I had given him my dignity, only for him to treat me like a disposable bandage now that he was whole. He arrogantly believed I would stay in the penthouse, grateful for his scraps. So, while he was out celebrating his engagement, I met with his mother. I signed the severance agreement for fifty million dollars. I packed my bags, wiped my phone, and boarded a one-way flight to Australia. By the time Dante came home to an empty bed, realized his mistake, and began tearing the city apart to find me, I was already a ghost.

I was staring at the two pink lines on the plastic stick, trembling with the terrifying joy of carrying the heir to the New York underworld’s most ruthless faction. Then the intercom buzzed, and a voice splintered my world. "The little art student actually thinks I'm going to marry her? It was just a game to pass the time while you were in Europe, Estella." I froze. My boyfriend, Holden, was in the next room, laughing with the daughter of his rival. He explained that I was just a "clean civilian image" he needed to secure a business deal. Now that the deal was signed, he was dumping the "stray" to marry the "Queen." I tried to run, but freedom only lasted forty-eight hours. Holden didn't just break my heart; he turned my terror into content. He kidnapped me, tied me to a chair at the edge of a cliff, and forced me to choose between my life and his new fiancée's. Then, he pushed me off the edge. As gravity snatched me, I heard him laughing. I landed on a stunt airbag. It was just a "social experiment." A sick prank for his amusement. "Don't be so dramatic, Kenia," he called down. "It's just a game." He thought I was broken. He thought I was just a prop in his life. But he forgot that I knew his secrets. I dragged my injured body to a payphone and dialed the one number Holden told me to fear—the rival Don, Gael Simpson. "It's Kenia," I whispered, clutching the receiver like a lifeline. "I'm calling in the debt."

I was the spare daughter of the Vitiello crime family, born solely to provide organs for my golden sister, Isabella. Four years ago, under the codename "Seven," I nursed Dante Moretti, the Don of Chicago, back to health in a safe house. I was the one who held him in the dark. But Isabella stole my name, my credit, and the man I loved. Now, Dante looked at me with nothing but cold disgust, believing her lies. When a neon sign crashed down on the street, Dante used his body to shield Isabella, leaving me to be crushed under twisted steel. While Isabella sat in a VIP suite crying over a scratch, I lay broken, listening to my parents discuss if my kidneys were still viable for harvest. The final straw came at their engagement gala. When Dante saw me wearing the lava stone bracelet I had worn in the safe house, he accused me of stealing it from Isabella. He ordered my father to punish me. I took fifty lashes to my back while Dante covered Isabella's eyes, protecting her from the ugly truth. That night, the love in my heart finally died. On the morning of their wedding, I handed Dante a gift box containing a cassette tape—the only proof that I was Seven. Then, I signed the papers disowning my family, threw my phone out the car window, and boarded a one-way flight to Sydney. By the time Dante listens to that tape and realizes he married a monster, I will be thousands of miles away, never to return.

I died on a Tuesday. It wasn't a quick death. It was slow, cold, and meticulously planned by the man who called himself my father. I was twenty years old. He needed my kidney to save my sister. The spare part for the golden child. I remember the blinding lights of the operating theater, the sterile smell of betrayal, and the phantom pain of a surgeon's scalpel carving into my flesh while my screams echoed unheard. I remember looking through the observation glass and seeing him-my father, Giovanni Vitiello, the Don of the Chicago Outfit-watching me die with the same detached expression he used when signing a death warrant. He chose her. He always chose her. And then, I woke up. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in my own bed, a year before my scheduled execution. My body was whole, unscarred. The timeline had reset, a glitch in the cruel matrix of my existence, giving me a second chance I never asked for. This time, when my father handed me a one-way ticket to London-an exile disguised as a severance package-I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart, once a bleeding wound, was now a block of ice. He didn't know he was talking to a ghost. He didn't know I had already lived through his ultimate betrayal. He also didn't know that six months ago, during the city's brutal territory wars, I was the one who saved his most valuable asset. In a secret safe house, I stitched up the wounds of a blinded soldier, a man whose life hung by a thread. He never saw my face. He only knew my voice, the scent of vanilla, and the steady touch of my hands. He called me Sette. Seven. For the seven stitches I put in his shoulder. That man was Dante Moretti. The Ruthless Capo. The man my sister, Isabella, is now set to marry. She stole my story. She claimed my actions, my voice, my scent. And Dante, the man who could spot a lie from a mile away, believed the beautiful deception because he wanted it to be true. He wanted the golden girl to be his savior, not the invisible sister who was only ever good for her spare parts. So I took the ticket. In my past life, I fought them, and they silenced me on an operating table. This time, I will let them have their perfect, gilded lie. I will go to London. I will disappear. I will let Seraphina Vitiello die on that plane. But I will not be a victim. This time, I will not be the lamb led to slaughter. This time, from the shadows of my exile, I will be the one holding the match. And I will wait, with the patience of the dead, to watch their entire world burn. Because a ghost has nothing to lose, and a queen of ashes has an empire to gain.