And for five years, Dante kept his word. He cherished me. Protected me. He healed me. I thought I'd never love again after Damiano, but slowly I fell hard. Dante became my everything.
Until the day I lost him.
He was killed in a contract hit on his way to a sit-down with an allied family to settle a territorial dispute. The news wrecked me. I didn't even know how to breathe anymore. On the day of his funeral, the compound heavy with flowers and armed men in black, I wasn't feeling well. I went to the family doctor and learned I was two months pregnant.
With his child.
Still in disbelief, I returned to the cemetery. That's when I saw him. Damiano. Or rather, his back. He leaned against a black sedan, smoking and talking to his cousin, unaware of my presence.
Then I heard it.
"This is crazy, Dante. What if someone finds out you're the one alive? That it was Damiano who died in the hit? What if Elena or Serafina realize you're pretending to be Damiano?"
I froze.
That voice. Dante.
He was alive.
And pretending to be his dead brother.
I couldn't breathe. My knees nearly gave out. Tears blurred my vision. He lied to me. Betrayed me. Used me. All for her.
Because they both loved her.
I was nothing but a pawn in their twisted game.
I pressed my thumbnail into the center of my palm until the skin went white, but the pain didn't anchor me. Nothing could. I decided to terminate the pregnancy. It broke me, but I couldn't bring his child into a world where it would only remind me of the betrayal.
After the procedure, I was weak, barely able to stand. That's when he found me. Dante, alive, still playing Damiano. He grabbed me, dragging me to the Family's private medical wing. Elena had lost too much blood from a miscarriage. She needed a transfusion.
And even though I was in pain, broken and bleeding, they forced me to give my blood. Just to save her.
That was the last time.
The last time I'd ever let them use me, lie to me, treat me like I was nothing.
I was done.
I went straight to Vittorio. He was in the library of the compound, reading by lamplight. He looked up, surprised to see me, then rose and crossed the room to embrace me.
"Vittorio," I whispered, voice shaking, "I'm leaving the Family. I don't want to be the Donna anymore."