Chapter 3I Left the Don, Then Married the Head of the Five Families

The bedroom door slammed shut, and Cassian blocked my path, his expression severe.

"Valentina, are you done with this tantrum?

"Marriages in our world are business transactions. Your parents both took lovers. Did your mother ever complain? All these years, what have I not given you? And yet you keep trying to control me. Have I been too good to you?"

I bit down on my lower lip, my body trembling beyond my control.

My mother had gone from weeping in silence to outright hysteria over the years.

Every scene I had forced myself to forget, every time she had held me and sobbed, Cassian had just dragged back to the surface.

On our wedding night, I had told him this was my most painful memory.

And now he tore it open without a second thought.

Right in front of the other woman.

The reason I had rejected the arranged marriage in the first place was to prove that my choice would not repeat my parents' mistakes.

Cassian was brave. He was kind. He had been willing to lay down his life for me in a crisis. How could a man like that be unfaithful in marriage?

And what kind of man was the Don of the Bellini Family?

Women across the East Coast would have lined up to become his lovers. All I could have done was weep, just like my mother.

But now Cassian was slapping me in the face with it all over again.

So much for bravery. So much for kindness.

If he could be brave and kind to me, he could be brave and kind to every woman he kept on the side.

For ten years, he had seen me as nothing but a possessive, jealous shrew.

It had never once occurred to him that I was pouring out everything I had, trying to reach his conscience.

But today I finally saw the truth: he had no conscience.

He didn't even have a heart.

My eyes held nothing but fury and hatred.

It was the first time I had ever looked at him without a shred of love, and Cassian looked dazed for a moment.

"Shut up!"

I had already raised my arm, every ounce of my strength behind the slap that was about to land on his face.

He was a man and could easily have stopped the blow.

But Bianca suddenly rushed out and threw herself in front of Cassian. "Don't... don't hit him! It's all my fault!"

On the surface, she was the picture of fragility.

But where Cassian couldn't see, she shoved me with all her might!

I crashed into the crystal vase behind me. Searing pain tore through my body, and beneath my stomach... a rush of wet heat.

I was in too much pain to speak.

Cassian reflexively reached down to pull me up.

But in the next instant, Bianca clutched her own stomach and leaned into Cassian, wailing, "It hurts so much! Valentina is so vicious. She nearly hurt me and the baby..."

I hadn't even touched her!

Blood was already soaking through the hem of my dress.

My body felt like it was being sawed in two.

My child...

No matter what, the child was innocent.

I tried to call out, to beg Cassian to save our baby.

Bianca's voice immediately drowned mine out. "So much blood! I'm so scared! My stomach hurts so much!"

Before Cassian even noticed the blood pooling beneath me, he turned away completely, swept Bianca into his arms, and barked orders at the staff.

"Everyone, get Bianca to the Family hospital! Full examination, now!"

On his way out, he looked down at me from above. "Valentina, stop trying to use violence to make me come back to you.

"Need me to send a doctor over to check on you?

"I'm sure it's the same as always. Nothing actually wrong."

I was in too much pain to respond.

Once, in my attempts to win Cassian's heart, I really had tried every clumsy trick in the book.

But this time, love and sincerity meant nothing to me; neither did the title of Mrs. Russo.

I wanted none of it.

Cassian strode away with Bianca in his arms, and she peered at me over his shoulder. The woman who had been playing the victim just moments ago now arched an eyebrow and flashed me a triumphant smile.

Her eyes locked onto my belly, and she mouthed the words, "I win."

Yes, she won.

I had lost everything.

Like the blood spreading across the floor, there was no taking it back.

I lay there, helpless, feeling my child slip away from me little by little, with no one to call for help.

All I could do was clutch the blood-soaked pregnancy report in my pocket even tighter, as if that alone could hold on to my baby a moment longer.

But the blood kept coming, and my consciousness faded until everything went dark.