The Don and His Arranged Wife Had Three Kids Together, So I Ran

I spent eight years raising Dante's children. Three of them, and every single one belonged to him and his arranged wife Bianca. Not one was mine.

I fought against it. I really did.

But the Costello family needed heirs, and my background was too ordinary. The family would never accept me.

Dante always had something to say about it.

"Nora, once Bianca has the baby, I'll take you to the States. You can go to art school, open your own gallery. It's what your mother always wanted, isn't it?"

Then Bianca had a son, and suddenly the family needed a daughter too, someone they could marry off to another faction. When the daughter came, the elders stepped in and said the mob was a bloody business and you needed enough children to guarantee the line would continue.

Eight years. I went from Dante's lover to something worse than a servant.

Then I got pregnant. I was so happy I could barely breathe when I told him. I thought this baby would finally be our way out.

But there was no smile on his face. Just a look that was pained and apologetic, like he already knew what he was going to say.

"Nora, you don't have a place in this family. Neither does your child. He'd disrupt the line of succession. We can't let him be born."

I pressed my hand to my stomach, just barely starting to show. Hot tears hit the floor.

Fine. If we couldn't leave together, I would leave alone.

I was in the nanny's room packing my bag, crying and talking to the baby at the same time.

"It's okay, sweetheart."

"Even if your daddy doesn't want you, Mama will raise you on her own."

Dante pushed the door open. He was holding a necklace, the Heart of the Ocean.

He wiped my tears gently, then stepped behind me and clasped it around my neck.

"Nora, don't cry."

"Just wait a little longer. Once I take over the family business, things will go back to how they should be."

"Then I can go with you to the States..."

Same line. Always the same line. I couldn't stand it anymore. I shot to my feet and shoved him back.

The breakup speech was already on my lips when a wave of dizziness crashed over me.

Dante's face went soft and blurry. My fingers found the necklace at my chest without thinking.

Slipping unscrupulous drugs into a piece of jewelry was nothing new for Dante.

I laughed bitterly. I'd thought it was an apology gift. Instead, it became the ticket that ended my baby’s life.

I went down fast. Dante caught me before I hit the floor.

"Nora, we'll have our own children. I promise."

No, Dante. We won't.

When I came to, I was in the Costello family's private clinic. Pain tore through my body in waves, so sharp I couldn't tell if I was alive or in hell.

A nursing intern was asking the surgeon