Taking Back an Unrequited Love

I've been with Dominic Hayes, a gang leader, for ten years.

But on the day he goes clean and leaves the underworld behind, his men address someone else as his woman.

The hands that once held guns and spilled blood now gently slip a crystal shoe onto another woman's foot.

He says, "Violet, she's not like you. You were willing to follow me through chaos without needing a title, but she can't do that."

That day, I don't look back.

What Dominic doesn't know is that I'm the only daughter of an underground mafia king. When my family found out I was running wild, they quietly prepared a good man for me. All that's left is for me to say yes.

The day Dominic Hayes decided to go straight, he took me to bed with such intensity that the world seemed to spin. I stared at the shredded lingerie on the floor, momentarily speechless.

"Dominic, is the world ending?" I asked.

His insatiable demeanor made me believe there might not be a tomorrow. Dominic was smoking, his heavy-lidded eyes giving him a distant, dreamy look.

"Violet, if I were to break things off with you, you wouldn't get all dramatic about it, would you?"

Though he spoke with the cigarette between his lips, making it sound like a casual joke, his words sent an icy chill down my spine.

After ten years with Dominic, I knew his temperament well. He liked obedience, yet appreciated defiance and rebellion.

Just like now, I took the half-smoked cigarette from his hand as I suppressed my churning emotions, and raised an eyebrow languidly.

"Dominic, do you think I'm still 18 years old?"

If Dominic had abandoned me when I was 18, I would have stormed into his club without any regard for my own life.

However, I was 28 years old now.

I felt somewhat choked up, unable to finish my sentence. Dominic ruffled my hair and stubbed out the cigarette that nearly burned my fingers.

"Violet, this is where it ends," he said. "Stop smoking. Stop treating your body like it doesn't matter. We're not kids anymore. You can't keep living like this."

In that moment, I was completely stunned. There were unspoken rules for breakups at 28 years old. The first to shed tears would lose it all, and smeared makeup would only broadcast my defeat for the world to see.

I pretended to be casual as I reached for my jacket on the floor, ready to leave. Nonetheless, Dominic's arm hooked around me, pulling me back into his embrace.

Storm clouds gathered like spilled ink across the sky outside the window. Rain hung in the air, ready to fall at any moment.

Dominic's kisses fell on my back as he skillfully adjusted the straps of my dress. He bit my earlobe just like he always used to do.

"Hear that?" he whispered.

I didn't answer, but he wasn't bothered. His tone carried the easy authority of someone used to having his