I Left Him and Took Everything He Owed Me

My husband was working over the holidays, again. He’d been sent out of town to oversee one of the Family’s dock operations and a string of gambling houses.. I decided to buy a ticket and surprise him.

Only business class was left.

Staring at the five-figure price, I gritted my teeth and spent a year’s worth of savings.

Then I couldn’t even figure out how to pull down the damn tray table.

The socialite seated next to me let out a cold laugh.

“Never flown business class before?”

I forced an awkward smile. “My apologies. You must be… important. You have that aura.”

“Oh, me? No. The man who keeps me is important. He’d charter a private jet if I asked. Business class is practically slumming it.”

I blinked. “A… keeper? That’s rare.”

“Not really. I’m his secretary. I mess up a lot. Cost him a fortune. He yells at me until I cry. And then, well… crying leads to other things.” She winked. “You know how it is.”

“Funny,” I said, my voice tight. “My husband has an assistant who helps him manage accounts for the docks. She’s always messing things up too.”

“You’re married?”

She looked me over, head to toe.

“My man has a wife about your age. Says he’s sick of her. That touching her is boring. Says I’m more exciting just brushing my hair out of my face.”

She leaned closer.

“I told him I wanted to see him for New Year’s. So he told the wife he had to work.”

The diamond on her finger caught the light. It was identical to the wedding band I’d lost.

My body went cold.

No. Matteo was just a low-level enforcer. A foot soldier the Family occasionally trusted with small operations—dock shipments, backroom gambling, nothing more.

When did he become a Don?

I stared at her ring finger.

“But that’s… a wedding band. Are you married to him?”

“This?” She held her hand up, admiring it. “I told him to take it from his wife.”

The air left my lungs.

“I wasn’t going to bother the wife, you know? But then, on my birthday, the woman had a miscarriage. Demanded he run to the hospital. Left me alone on my birthday.”

My hand drifted to my own stomach.

I remembered that winter. The ice on the sidewalk. Matteo’s wages were meager back then. A car was a dream. I slipped. Fell hard.

The three-month life inside me became a dark stain on the ice.

Matteo dropped everything. Stayed by my bedside for three days.

When I woke up, my ring was gone too. Lost with the blood.

He held me. “It’s okay. We’ll have another child. I’ll get you a new ring.”

I cried, shaking my head. “You said the Family might make cuts. We need to save money. Get me a new one when you’ve made it big.”

Tears shone in his eyes then. “I’m sorry. I’m a failure. I can’t give you the life you