You Chose Her, Now Watch Me Leave

arried to the most fear

room for one woman: my fragile,

to protect her, even forgetting my deadly

a hostage exchange with a rogue

head and demanded a one-for-one trade.

on didn't hesitate

ssio commanded, his voice

my young son scre

ess mobsters and dragged onto

ping his warm coat around Siena's shivering s

solute worthlessness. I was never a wife or a m

here I withered away in a cage, dying alone while Cassio

had met Si

ing, black ocean churning

had already prepared my n

out of the mobster's grip and steppe

chose to li

pte

Ross

I marked the fifth year of my anniversary with the most feared mafia Don in New York.

band just slaughtered an entire rival faction because they looked at your sist

le, still look. He had dismantled the Russian syndicate piece by

in custom Italian sui

lroom. Above, a constellation of crystal chandeliers cast a waveri

voice a low murmur against the chamber musi

hit on the South Side

made against Siena. My i

s on the silk of my dress. They wer

and the fragile civilian sister. They talked about how un

District to intervene?" the Consigliere a

tching my slightest gesture, an

he wants," I instru

with a fixed smile that made

at last empty. Cassio walked

ruises, and his starched white shirt

glass before turning his gaze to me. He ex

nded me of you," he claimed, his voice sm

lled the dozens of times he had invoked his

ed the exact

She is blood. I am pr

into my fingertips. The base of the tumbler clicked agains

a into the heavily guarded F

surprise in his eyes. He readily agre

tiled hallway. Leo, our young heir, ran into the

he said excitedly.

ed the syndicate-run hospital; Siena ha

p Leo without a

l," he announced. He looked

. "Go wit

by the door and instructed them to can

ot argue. He turned and walk

hut, and the silence in the p

state swimming pool, a rectangle of menacingly lit water in the

same pool in a fit of childish rage-all

tom. The near-drowning experience

where I stayed. A life where Cassio constantly shield

d away into a hollow s

hat past life. I remembered Cassio sta

whisper ha

had met Si

my face, pulling me

love. My heart was a dens

with a steady thumb, typed a singl

the fake death for fo

on the radio. He had looked at me then, really looked at me, and said, "You're the only peace I have, Tessa." The next morning, Siena called crying about a nightmare, and he rushed to her side without a word to me.