Goodbye, Mafia Ex-Boyfriend

I stood by Franco for seven years.

I stayed with him from his days as a Brooklyn street enforcer until he became the Underboss of the Moretti family.

We promised to marry the day he fully took over the territory.

Until last month.

I saw Franco tangled up with someone else on the leather sofa of his safe house.

He said she was cold like ice and that the other woman knew exactly how to please a man.

He pinned her down.

I chose to walk away.

I heard the rumors later.

After I left.

Franco lost his mind.

Chapter 1

"Franco, aren't you done yet."

Today was his official promotion to Underboss.

We were exactly half a month away from our seven-year promise.

I canceled all my syndicate meetings.

I poured his favorite Macallan whiskey and waited for him to come home to the penthouse.

I could not suppress my joy.

Our life-and-death journey was finally bearing fruit.

"Go to sleep first. Do not wait up. A shipment went wrong at the docks and I will be back as soon as I handle it."

His words were cut off by a sweet female voice.

She asked him to help her unzip her dress.

Click.

The call disconnected.

My mind went completely blank.

Franco was cheating.

He was not at the docks.

He was in another woman's bedroom.

An encrypted message popped up on my phone.

Franco had gained too much power recently.

He was dealing with all kinds of dangerous people.

I had started paying attention to the underground intelligence network.

I never expected today's black market headline to be about him.

The alert read that the new Moretti Underboss was hiding a mistress in a luxury condo.

It detailed a five-year secret affair between the Brooklyn mobster and a Lower East Side dancer.

The attached surveillance photos showed them entangled together over the span of five years.

I stared at the expensive whiskey I had poured.

I felt entirely ridiculous.

A sincere heart could mutate in an instant.

It was two in the morning.

Franco's phone went straight to voicemail.

I did not have the energy to interrogate him.

I recalled every bullet he took for me.

I felt like I had been living in a hallucination he meticulously crafted.

My absolute trust in him bought me this exact outcome.

The secure satellite phone in his study rang.

I picked it up.

I did not make a sound.

I desperately wanted an explanation.

As long as he explained it, I would force myself to believe him.

The sounds coming through the receiver were vile and unmistakable.

I prepared to hang up.

Then I heard his familiar voice.

"Franco, what if Siena finds out you are being this reckless."

"Relax. A woman like her cannot leave me. She threw her life away to protect me back then. I would not even look at her if I did not need a smooth transition into the Moretti family."

"But Franco, Siena