Chapter 1 Chapter 1

My husband, Damien Falcone, had 99 lovers. He gave them all up when he fell for me. Now, for number 100, he's dragging me to hell. My husband was missing. Right when we needed him most—the arms deal with the Castellano family. My father had no choice. He took me with him. The exchange at the docks was going smoothly. Too smoothly. Then they heard our bottom line, and the smiles died on their faces. "Five million? I thought you could go as high as ten." I frowned. "What? We never—" Before I could finish, gunfire erupted. The first bullet grazed my ear. It left a hole in the container behind me. I hit the deck, my gun already in my hand. "Isabella!" My father's voice was a roar over the gunfire. Marco and his men were already taking cover. Bullets rained down on us. This wasn't a last-minute decision. This was a setup. An ambush. I returned fire. A Castellano goon dropped. But we were surrounded. "Isabella!" My father screamed again through the hail of bullets. He clutched his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers. His face was white. "They knew our bottom line! Ten million! We've got a rat!" My blood ran cold. Only three people knew that number: my father, me, and my husband, Damien Falcone. Three hours later, the air in the private hospital stank of antiseptic and blood. My father was on the bed. The doctor said the bullet missed his heart by an inch. The truth hit me like a stray bullet. Security footage showed a call made from Damien's office right before we left. An encrypted line. The receiver was the Castellano family. The call was made by Sophia Ricci. Damien's latest pet project from some third-rate family. The family has one rule for traitors: they die. When Damien rushed into the room, he smelled like another woman's perfume. He saw my father, and the color drained from his handsome face. "God, Bella, I…""She did it." I threw the tablet at him. The call log was stone-cold proof. "Your new pet almost killed my father." He stared at the screen, his jaw clenched. A flicker of murder in his eyes. I knew that look. This was the Damien Falcone who once cut off a man's finger for stealing a thousand dollars. "I'll handle it," he said, his voice raw. "Good," I said, my voice like ice. "The family has rules. She doesn't see the sunrise. I'll handle it myself." I turned to gather my men, but he grabbed my wrist. His grip was tight. His eyes held a hesitation I'd never seen before. "Bella, wait." I stared at him in disbelief. "Wait for what? Damien, have you forgotten the rules? Or is she… different?""She…" He took a deep breath, avoiding my eyes. "She's still useful. Her family controls the ports. Moving on her now could start a war.""A war?" I laughed, a bitter, broken sound, and yanked my hand free. "My father is lying in that bed, and you're talking to me about starting a war? Damien, any of your other conquests crossed a line, you got rid of them without a second thought." I searched his face for the man I married, but he wasn't there. He said nothing. And his silence was the answer. It was a betrayal louder than any gunshot. This woman was an exception. I remembered our wedding night. He'd called it an open marriage. A promise that we could have our games, but our hearts—and our family lines—were off-limits. Untouchable. The only rule. Once, a senator we worked with disrespected me. Said something crude. Before I could react, Damien had crushed his glass in his hand. Shards dug into his palm, blood dripping down. But he smiled at the terrified senator. "The Falcone family rule is no violence in business. But my rule is, no one disrespects my wife." He used to be my shield against every storm. He gave me all his affection, all his tenderness. He made me think that open marriage pact was dead and buried. Until Sophia. Now, for this "game," he had broken our only rule. The most important one. Loyalty. This wasn't about a thrill anymore. He was falling for her.

Chapter 2 Chapter 2

The next day, Sophia Ricci waltzed into the hospital room. She held a bouquet of white lilies—funeral flowers—and wore an innocent smile. "Get out," I said. My voice was ice. She walked right in, put the flowers in a vase, and spoke softly. "Isabella, don't be like this. Damien already told me off. I just glanced at the files. I had no idea... I feel so awful." With one sentence, she turned a capital offense, leaking intel, into a little mistake. "Curiosity." I slowly stood up and walked toward her. "You think 'I didn't know' is going to keep you alive?" I pressed the cold steel of my gun to her forehead. Fear finally crept onto her face. She flinched back. "You can't… Damien, he…""He what?" I chambered a round. I sneered. The innocent act was pathetic. Damien had countless women, but none ever dared to threaten me. None ever dared to declare war. "You think he'd go to war with me over a traitor?" I asked her. The next second, Damien's voice came from the doorway. "Bella, stop!" He lunged between us, pulling Sophia behind him and grabbing my hand. I looked at him, and my heart turned to stone. We had a deal. No woman would ever upset me. If one did, he would make her disappear. Now, for another woman, he was telling me "no" for the second time. "Let. Go." Each word was a shard of ice. "Bella, don't," he said, his voice tight. "This isn't the way.""My father almost died!" I screamed. From behind him, Sophia peeked out. "Damien," she whimpered, "I just wanted to apologize…""Then apologize," Damien ordered without looking back, his tone harsh. Sophia froze, then lowered her head, looking hurt. "I'm sorry, Isabella." She lifted her eyes, and where only I could see, she mouthed two words: "He will." Just then, her body went limp, and she fell into Damien's arms. "Damien… I… I don't feel well." The performance was so transparent it was insulting. Damien hesitated for a second. He looked at me, then back at Sophia, and finally held her steady. "I'll take you home.""No," Sophia said weakly, pushing him away. "Isabella is still angry. You should stay with her." It was a reminder. A power play to show him who really needed him. "I'll be right back," he promised. A promise I knew he wouldn't keep. Then he swept her into his arms and was gone. In a moment, my phone buzzed. Sophia's number. I answered. There was no sound, just heavy, repressed breathing. "Damien…" Sophia's voice was syrupy sweet, trembling with victory. "Do you like my new tattoo? Right here on my collarbone… your initials… just like the one on your wife's wrist." The tattoo on my wrist. The one Damien designed for me on our first anniversary. "...It looks better on you." It was Damien's hoarse reply. I slammed the phone down, my body ice-cold. I had to get out of that suffocating hospital. I had to go back to our manor. My fortress. My kingdom. But when I pushed open the heavy oak doors, I found my kingdom was being invaded. A strange middle-aged woman was ordering the maids to take my mother's paintings off the wall. "This place is a museum," she sneered. "So dead. Damien wants to breathe some life into it." And it was Sophia's mother giving the orders.

Chapter 3 Chapter 3

"Stop!" I screamed, rushing forward. Sophia's mother, Elena Ricci, turned around slowly. She wore the smile of a predator that had just claimed its territory. "Isabella, you're back. Damien invited me to help redecorate. He said Sophia prefers a brighter style." My eyes swept across the living room, and my heart sank. My prized 16th-century tapestries were ripped down, tossed on the floor. In their place hung a cheap print of a giant pink rose. My collection of rare classical vinyl records was shoved into a cardboard box. Next to it was a tacky, rhinestone-covered Bluetooth speaker, blasting pop music. This home, the sanctuary Damien and I built together, was being defiled. Destroyed. "This is my house," I managed, my voice trembling with a rage so deep it barely made a sound. "Of course, dear," she said, her eyes scanning the room with contempt. "But a home should feel alive, not like a tomb. It's time to clear out the dead weight." She pulled her phone from her pocket. She clicked on a text message and flashed it in my face. It was from Damien. The words were a knife in my gut: "Do whatever you want with the house. Just make it how Sophia likes it." I couldn't believe Damien would let someone humiliate me like this. But I didn't have time to process it. Elena's gaze fell on the fireplace mantel. On it sat a delicate antique music box. It was the only thing I had left of my mother. My heart seized. "This, for example," Elena said, picking it up and tossing it casually in her hand. "Poorly made, old-fashioned. What is this piece of junk?""Put. It. Down." My voice was dangerously low. "Let me guess, a gift from your dead mother?" She laughed, deliberately opening the lid in front of me. The clear, crisp melody filled the air. It was my mother's favorite song. "I said. Put. It. Down." Murder bled into my voice. "You think you can scare me?" Elena's smile turned vicious. "Isabella, you need to face reality. Damien loves you, but he needs excitement. A boring, old-fashioned woman like you can't hold him. This junk… it represents your pathetic, abandoned past…" Crash. It shattered on the marble floor. A hundred tiny pieces of my heart along with it. The music stopped. Just like my heart. I remembered being a little girl, my mother holding me, pointing to the Moretti family crest on the box. "Bella," she'd said, "remember, you are a Moretti. You never, ever lose your pride." Now that music box, the symbol of my mother, was crushed to dust along with my pride. I launched at her like a lioness, but two huge bodyguards appeared from nowhere, grabbing me and holding me fast. I couldn't move. I could only watch as Elena ground the pieces of the music box under the heel of her shoe. The sound was sickening. "You see?" she said, looking down at me, her eyes filled with triumph. "It breaks so easily. Just like this cheap box. Just like your pride.""You will pay," I hissed, struggling against the guards. "I swear on the Moretti name, I will burn your entire bloodline to the ground." Just then, the manor doors burst open. "Isabella!" Damien's panicked voice yelled as he ran inside.

Chapter 4 Chapter 4

Damien rushed to my side. He saw my tear-filled eyes and the shattered music box on the floor. Pain filled his face. "Bella, what happened? Your hands…" He reached for me, but I flinched away in disgust. Just then, Sophia ran in after him. She threw herself into her mother's arms, crying her eyes out. "Mama, are you okay? It's all my fault, I shouldn't have asked you to help… Miss Isabella, please forgive us, we didn't mean it!" Elena immediately started her act, looking at me with fake terror. "Damien, you have to talk to Isabella. She was like a madwoman just now, she said she was going to kill us…""I just told her not to touch my mother's things!" I pointed at the broken pieces on the floor, my voice ice. Damien's eyes darted between the crying Sophia and her mother, and me. His brow furrowed. The pain in his eyes was replaced by impatience and doubt. "Bella, that's enough." His voice was laced with something I'd never heard before: disappointment. In me. I stared at the stranger wearing my husband's face. In my home. Calling me the villain for defending my own mother. It was absurd. It was laughable. It was tragic. "Damien," I said quietly. "I want a divorce." The words hit him like a bomb. His face went white. He grabbed my shoulders. "No! What are you saying? Bella, you can't do this!""Why not?" I looked at him, my face a cold mask. "I love you! I only love you!" he roared, a hint of panic in his voice he didn't even recognize. "Sophia and her mother... they're nothing! Their family cast them out, I was just... helping." Behind him, Sophia's crying stopped for a second. A flash of hatred crossed her face. "You see," I said with a mocking smile, "you can't even believe your own lies." I shook his hands off and walked toward the door without looking back. "Isabella!" He started to come after me, but then I heard that sickening voice again. "Damien, I don't feel well. My heart… it hurts." Damien's footsteps stopped behind me. It was clear who he chose. I walked out of that mausoleum he called a home and went to the only place that made sense: a bar. The whiskey didn't numb the pain. It sharpened it. My friend was passed out drunk long ago. I was stumbling to the restroom when I walked straight into a solid chest. The strong scent of whiskey hit me. I looked up with blurry eyes and saw a face that was a mirror of Damien's, but harder. The eyes were deeper, more dangerous. The alcohol amplified all my pain and rage. "Bastard!" I grabbed his tie and slapped him as hard as I could. "Damien Falcone, you're a bastard! You and your whore can go to hell!" The man's head snapped to the side. He didn't get angry. A dark, amused smile played on his lips. He caught my wrist, his deep voice a low rumble in my ear. "Look closer. I'm not your husband.""You're a Falcone," I slurred. "Close enough." The rest of the night was a blur. I remember the rich, woody scent of his cologne. I remember his arms were stronger than Damien's. I remember losing myself completely, pouring out all my pain and rage until there was nothing left. The next morning, I woke up in a guest room in the main Falcone estate. My head was splitting. The sunlight was blinding. I shot up, realizing I was naked under the sheets of a strange bed. And on the other side of the bed lay a man. He was turned away from me, his profile strong and defined. It was the man from last night. "Who are you?!" I snatched a sheet and wrapped it around myself. The man woke up. He turned over slowly. His deep eyes showed no surprise, only a hint of amusement. "You're awake?" I didn't think. I scrambled for my clothes scattered on the floor, threw them on, and ran out of the room. I fled down the stairs like a fugitive. And in the middle of the grand hall, I ran straight into Damien. He looked like he'd been up all night searching for me, his eyes bloodshot. He saw me, disheveled and panicked. For a second, hope lit up his face. "Bella, you're back! I…" His words died in his throat. Because he saw the man following me slowly down the stairs. He followed me down the stairs, his shirt half-unbuttoned, revealing the angry red marks my nails had left on his neck. The color drained from Damien's face. He stared at us, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Isabella… why are you with my uncle?"