The Don I Housebroke After Divorce

The violent vomiting had left me weak and barely conscious. In the end, I was rushed to the family's private clinic. As soon as my parents heard, black armored cars piled up at the entrance, nearly blocking it entirely.

Fate, as always, had a cruel sense of irony. Damiano's car pulled up, too.

He carefully helped Bianca out. A tiny adhesive bandage on her knee was the only damage—a scratch, but I was the one lying on a gurney, hooked to an IV.

Mom's face paled. She might care about the family business, but at that moment, her maternal instinct overrode everything. "Grab her!"

Her hand flicked toward the bodyguards behind her. Two of them lunged forward, yanking Bianca roughly into their grip. Then, Mom slapped her harshly across the face.

"Puttana! How dare you destroy the alliance between our families!"

Clutching her swollen cheek, Bianca trembled violently, screaming as she shrank into Damiano's arms. "I'm scared, Damiano… Help me…"

Damiano looked down at his shaken mistress, the brutality in his eyes erupting all at once. He wrapped an arm around her and soothed her softly. "Don't be afraid. I'm here. No one gets to touch you."

She lifted her tear-streaked face, voice breaking as she played her part. "It's all my fault… I shouldn't have shown up… You and Isabella should just live your lives in peace. I'm willing to sacrifice myself…"

That was all it took to light the fuse.

Damiano spun around, yanking a gold-plated pistol from his waistband. The black muzzle was leveled straight at my parents.

"Get the hell out of here, all of you!" he roared. "You're forcing an innocent life to death! She's just a woman! Do you people have any humanity left?"

Right there, in front of everyone, he barked an order to the underboss, "Cut off every single air route tied to the Cappas—now! I want them to understand the price of laying a hand on my people."

The place erupted in chaos. I forced myself upright, climbed off the gurney, and grabbed the barrel of his gun. "Are you insane? That's my family's lifeline! You're declaring war!"

Damiano's eyes turned frosty. He shoved me aside with a sharp push. I stumbled back, slamming into the gurney, bones aching.

"No amount of profit matters more than Bianca's tears," he said, looking down at me like I was nothing.

Dad's phone buzzed instantly with a confirmation that the air routes had been cut. His face darkened, fury burning behind his eyes, and he ended the call. "Fine! Very well! You act without mercy, so don't expect me to play fair!"

He spun to his bodyguards, bellowing, "Get ready. We're going to war!"

Beside him, Mom trembled with rage. "This marriage was a mistake! You'll pay for this!"

I took in the scene before me, then reached up and tore the ruby necklace—once a symbol of my status as the Madre—from my neck. Hurling it at Damiano's feet, I seethed, "Let the war begin."

I turned my back on him. "I'll make him pay for this. I'll strip him of everything he has and use his ruin as an offering to my dead child."