The Corleone Wife Who Died and Disappeared

Three nights ago, I was locked inside my own family’s underground wine cellar.

When my congenital heart condition hit, I called my husband, Zane Corleone, and begged him to come save me.

He didn’t come.

Instead, he stayed with another woman all night because she was afraid of the dark—and told me to stop faking it for attention.

That was the moment I finally understood.

If he cared that much about her, then I would do the one thing neither of them expected.

I would make room for her.

In three days, I would disappear from his world completely.

My steward worked fast.

He confirmed that every last piece of my plan was locked in.

He paused at the door. “Madam… if you go through with this, the Don will lose his mind.”

There was a time when Zane would drop everything just to get to me, when he held me like I was the only thing that mattered in his world.

But that was a long time ago. Now, she was the one who came first in his heart.

“I’m sure,” I said quietly.

He lowered his head and left.

Right after he left, Zane walked in.

Before I could say a word, his phone rang.

A sweet voice came through the speaker.

“Zane, when are you coming back? The power went out again, it’s so dark in here… I’m so scared…”

Zane’s voice softened instantly, this warm, tender tone he hadn’t used with me in years.

“Shh, Susan, don’t cry. I’m heading over right now, I promise.”

He frowned and headed for the door.

“Susan’s having a bad episode. I need to go. Get some sleep. If it’s about the docks, you’ve got full authority to sign off on it from now on.”

The door slammed shut before I could reply, leaving me alone in the empty villa.

Three nights earlier, at a banquet, I had been accidentally locked in the underground wine cellar.

My congenital heart condition hit.

With the last of my strength, I had dialed Zane, begging for help.

On the other end of the line, his voice had dripped with sharp impatience.

“Just sit tight. I’ll send someone to unlock the door. Seraphina, you haven’t had an episode in years, so stop faking this for attention. Susan’s having a full-on meltdown, she’s petrified of the dark. I can’t leave her right now. Just hold on.”

I had blacked out in that cellar.

It was my family’s lifelong steward who found me. When I came to, I found out Zane had sat with Susan the whole night, not once checking in on me.

That very day, I decided I was going to disappear.

The tool for my vanishing act? That same heart condition Zane swore up and down I was faking.

Zane didn’t stumble back home until noon the next day.

He’d just hung up from a call with Susan, and was flipping through the docks’ financial reports on the couch.

His hand drifted to