Chapter 6: Chapter 6
The frantic, tear-streaked mask on her face solidified into stone.
"Bianca?" Marco asked, frowning at her strange stillness.
She didn't answer.
Her wide, bloodshot eyes stared straight at Marco. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
An eerie chill crept through the room.
Into the dead silence, a voice of cold authority echoed from the doorway.
"Where is the traitor who consorted with the Russians?"
Everyone turned in alarm.
Standing in the doorway was the final arbiter of family law.
The Council of Elders.
The sight of the Council turned Marco's fear to elation.
"Don Antonio!"
Marco scrambled toward the Consigliere like a clown begging for applause, completely missing the cold fury in the old man's eyes.
He pointed at me, his voice filled with self-righteous rage. "You've come just in time! Look! The shame of the Grimaldi family! Aurelia betrayed our sacred vows and gave birth to this filthy Russian bastard! And Bianca… Aurelia hid her child!"
Chapter 7: Chapter 7
Bianca's confession shattered what little hope Marco had left.
He knelt on the floor, his eyes vacant, watching her cradle the bastard child as if it were a treasure.
She had admitted it.
"No… this isn't real…"
Marco shook his head, trying to escape the nightmare.
He snapped his head up, his crazed eyes scanning the chaotic room.
And then, his gaze locked onto the bundle Bianca had thrown to the floor.
His last hope.
Bianca had cast it aside for that monster.
But this bundle… it held his true son. The pure-blooded heir.
Everything was out in the open. Let Bianca take the fall. She was the one who slept with the Russians, not him. As long as he had this child, it proved he had protected the family's bloodline, proved his strength was essential. The war was still on; they couldn't pin all the blame on him. The family needed a strong Don.
"My son…"
Marco struggled against the guards' hold, crawling across the floor toward the bundle.
Chapter 8: Chapter 8
As the marriage bond was forcibly severed, a raw, primal scream ripped from Marco's throat.
He collapsed, clutching his head, convulsing as the power backlash tore through him.
"No—! Aurelia! You can't!"
Blood streamed from his nose. For a Don, to be publicly revoked by his wife was a soul-shattering, authority-destroying agony.
I felt the backlash slam into me as well.
But I endured it.
My rage was stronger than any pain.
"The judgment will now commence," Don Antonio announced, his voice silencing the room.
"By order of the Council of Elders, Bianca Rossi is found guilty of colluding with the Russian mafia, betraying the family, and bearing a forbidden child."
Bianca had gone completely mad.
"No! I didn't mean to! That Russian… he said he loved me! He said we could rule two worlds together!"
"Foolish woman," the Consigliere's voice was as cold as stone. "The price for betrayal is death."
Chapter 9: Chapter 9
Two years later. The top floor of the Grimaldi Group tower.
I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing out over the jungle of steel and glass that I now commanded.
In two years, I had not only purged the corruption Marco left behind and led the family to victory in the war against the Russian mafia…
I had also absorbed three rival organizations, making the Grimaldi Group the apex predator of Chicago's underworld.
The old-guard elders who once doubted a woman could lead now bowed their heads whenever I passed.
"Donna, your next appointment is here," my second-in-command said, knocking on the door. Her voice held a trace of ill-concealed excitement. "He's… from Las Vegas. Here to discuss a strategic partnership."
I turned, a small smile playing on my lips.
This so-called "strategic partnership" was just a poorly disguised matchmaking attempt by the Council.
They still thought I needed a powerful man to "assist" me.
But I wasn't opposed to the idea.
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Chapter 5: Chapter 5
The Soldatos' eyes gleamed with malice, low growls rumbling in their chests.
In times of war, there was no greater crime than colluding with the Russians.
Marco stood at the center of it all, his back ramrod straight.
He looked at me, his face a mask of anguish, and even managed to squeeze out a few crocodile tears.
"Aurelia, I loved you. I trusted you… and you repay me with this shame."
He took a deep breath, his command as Don washing over the room, quelling the chaos.
"As the Don of the Grimaldi family, I will not tolerate a betrayal that defiles our bloodline!"
Marco raised his hand, pointing a finger at me, his voice cold and merciless.
"I hereby strip Aurelia of all her titles! She is no longer the Donna of this family! She is no longer under our protection!"
Bianca, hiding behind him with a smirk on her lips, cried out, "Marco, she must have been confused… Can't you spare her?"
"Traitors deserve nothing but death!" Marco's voice boomed with false conviction. He jabbed a finger toward the door. "Guards! Seize this traitor and take her to the chamber!"
The death sentence had been declared.
Everyone expected me to weep, to beg.
But I didn't.
I sat on the bed, my foot still pinning Bianca’s bastard.
Then, Bianca’s gaze snapped to my bed.
To the bassinet beside me.
She seemed to realize a key prop was missing from her drama. To complete the scene, she needed a baby in her arms—the perfect, innocent counterpoint to my supposed betrayal.
She gasped, her face crumpling into a perfect mask of victimhood.
"No! My baby is in the bassinet!" Bianca shrieked, her voice laced with a panic so real it was chilling.
She pointed a trembling finger at me, her acting reaching a crescendo as tears streamed down her face.
"She took my baby! Marco! She switched our babies! She's jealous that I gave you a pure-blooded heir!"
The sudden accusation stunned everyone into silence.
"She hid him! Give me back my son!"
Bianca lunged toward my bassinet like a madwoman. She shoved aside the nurses who tried to stop her, her hands scrambling desperately for the swaddled bundle inside.
"My baby…" she murmured, her hands closing around it.
But the moment she lifted the bundle—
She froze.