Chapter 1

My Sicilian crime boss boyfriend, Dante Volkov, and I had been together for ten years.

I shielded him from blades ninety-nine times.

On the hundredth time, he was finally moved.

He decided to go straight and immigrate to the US to marry me.

But on the day we were supposed to leave, he suddenly tore up the immigration papers.

He wanted to stay with that woman who always timidly clung to his side, Willow.

One of his men cautiously asked:

"What about Sera?"

"Didn't you two agree to go to the US and start fresh, under new identities, after you went straight?"

It was as if he’d just remembered, he slowly flicked ash from his cigarette, saying casually:

"So what? Her life belongs to me."

"Without me, she would have been torn apart by rivals long ago. She'll come around once she knows I've changed my mind. She’ll have no choice but to stay."

My nails dug deep into my palms, barely stopping myself from crying.

That night, I destroyed all the secret codes and signals related to him, as if I had never known him.

I didn't stop my plans to immigrate.

He didn’t know.

I had walked through a decade of blood and chaos with him,

But going straight, going overseas, was the only path I had chosen for myself to survive.

He used to be my whole world, but now, I didn't want him anymore.