Carrying the Don's Child,My Ex-Fiancé Begs on His KneesChapter 1

I had lived two lives. In both, I followed Dominic Valenti into quiet exile after he stepped back from the family's operations, living in some forgotten corner of the territory, wanting nothing from the world. And in both, his adopted sister clawed her way into the Montecarlo estate and dragged us down with her. Our home was raided. Our family, executed to the last. It always started the same way. She would show up at our door, mascara streaking her cheeks, sobbing that the Don had cast her aside, that he'd chosen another woman as his wife. Dominic would set down whatever he was holding and exhale through his teeth. "You know I can't stand watching you cry." Then he'd pull his old pistol from the lockbox and follow her back to Aurelia. It took dying twice for me to understand. All that talk of sibling devotion. Every word of it was a lie.

——

Dominic Valenti was returning to Aurelia in triumph, and every eligible girl in the old borough had rushed to the gates of the social club to welcome him home.

I was the only one walking the other way.