"My Mafia boss husband let his mistress answer my call while I collapsed—until an emergency alert revealed my condition."

I lay beneath the sterile white hospital sheets, pale as polished alabaster, my dark hair fan-spread across the pillow. An IV line dripped heart-stabilizing medication into my vein, and dark circles hollowed the skin beneath my closed eyes.

Victor walked slowly toward the side of my bed. His heavy leather shoes made zero sound against the rubberized floor.

He dropped to his knees on the cold tiles beside my bed—the feared Don kneeling in the dust—taking my cold, limp hand into his broad, calloused palms, pressing his forehead against my knuckles.

"Elena..." he wept softly, tears finally breaking past his severe features, washing clean tracks through the rain on his face. "Forgive me... my God, Elena, forgive me..."

For seven years, I had been his sanctuary.

When Victor inherited the syndicate after his father's brutal assassination, it was my hand he held in the dark. When rival families sent hitmen to our gates, I stood beside him without fear. I had polished his cufflinks, edited his legal trusts, and loved him when the entire city called him a monster.

And in return, I had watched him slowly pull away over the last six months—consumed by territorial wars, corporate expansions, and the cheap, flattering poison of Selena Vale.

Marco stepped quietly through the doorway, stopping three feet behind his boss, holding a satellite phone.

"Boss," Marco whispered nervously. "Selena is on line one. She's at the penthouse. She says she's scared... she says the police are asking questions about the emergency dispatch."

Victor didn't raise his head from my knuckles. But the air in Room Eight instantly dropped below freezing.

"Marco," Victor spoke. His voice was no longer that of a grieving husband. It had transformed into the velvet, lethal authority of an absolute tyrant.

"Yes, Don Victor?"

"Take four men," Victor commanded softly, every word ice-cold and unappealable. "Remove every piece of clothing, jewelry, and luxury asset Selena Vale possesses. Seize her bank accounts, terminate her lease, and throw her out onto the street in the rain."