From Discarded Wife To The Don's Successor

I was tightening my husband's tie for the photographers at the gala when my phone buzzed against my thigh.

A single notification stopped my heart dead.

Julius had just wired five million dollars-capital I had secretly stolen from my father to build his company-to an account named 'K. Drake'.

When I confronted him later that night, he didn't apologize. Instead, he lured me to an empty warehouse and detonated a rigged gas line.

I woke up in a hospital bed, my body broken and my mind racing.

Julius stood over me, checking his watch, looking terrifyingly calm.

"The baby is gone," he said dismissively, referring to the pregnancy I hadn't even told him about yet. "But Kenzie needs a bone marrow transplant. You're a match."

He was holding our daughter, Ava, hostage. He told me if I didn't give his mistress my marrow, I'd never see my child again.

He looked at me with total contempt. To him, I was just a boring, civilian housewife. A prop he had used and was now ready to discard.

He had no idea who I really was.

He didn't know that the "bank loans" I secured for him were actually laundered syndicate money.

He didn't know that the father I "didn't talk to" was Horacio Horton, the most feared Don on the East Coast.

I let them take the marrow. I let them believe they had broken me.

Then, as soon as Julius left the room, I reached for the phone and dialed a number I hadn't used in ten years.

"Papa," I whispered into the receiver. "Send the army."

The civilian Florence died in that bed.

The Mob Princess had just returned to take her throne.

Chapter 1

Florence Horton POV

I tightened the knot of my husband's silk tie for the photographers, forcing a smile as the flashbulbs flared like lightning storms.

Then, my phone vibrated against my thigh. A single notification.

It stopped my heart dead in my chest: a five-million-dollar wire transfer from our corporate reserve to an account named 'K. Drake'.

I looked up. Across the ballroom, Julius was smiling at his secretary. It wasn't a professional smile. It was a possessive one.

In that second, the air left my lungs. He wasn't just sleeping with her. He was financing my replacement with the very capital I had stolen from my father to build him.

"Smile, Florence," Julius whispered, his hand gripping my waist tight enough to leave a mark. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I have," I said, my voice trembling-not with fear, but with the violent, sudden death of my own naivety. "I'm looking right at him."

He laughed, a charming, hollow sound that the press ate up. He had no idea.

He didn't know that the woman standing next to him, the boring civilian wife he treated like a prop, was the daughter of Horacio Horton. He didn't know that the money he just stole wasn't bank loans, but laundered syndicate capital.

He thought he was a king. He was about to find out he was just a peasant stealing from the crown.

I pulled away. The gala was suddenly suffocating, thick with the stench of expensive perfume and desperate ambition. I needed to scream.

I walked straight to the open bar, grabbed a bottle of sparkling water, and downed half of it. My hand went to my stomach. Eight weeks. He didn't know yet. I was going to tell him tonight.

Then I saw her.

Kenzie Drake stood across the room, draped in a red dress that cost more than her annual salary. My salary. She caught my eye and smirked, raising her glass in a silent toast.

That smirk. It was the match that lit the fuse.

I didn't cause a scene there. I was trained better than that. I waited until the speeches concluded, until Julius was busy charming the investors I had secured for him.

I slipped out of the gala and took the town car to the gallery downtown. The one Kenzie had been bragging about. She had bought three 'modern masterpieces' with company funds last week.

I walked in. The gallery owner, a nervous man named Pierre, hurried over.

"Mrs. Carroll! We weren't expecting you."

"Unlock the display," I said.

"I... pardon?"

"The Drake collection. Open it."

He hesitated. I picked up a heavy bronze bust from a nearby pedestal. The weight of it felt good in my hand. Solid. Cold. Unlike my marriage.

"Open it, Pierre, or I start with the windows."

He scrambled to unlock the glass partition. There they were. Three twisted shapes of glass and metal. Hideous. Expensive.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just swung the bronze bust.

*Crash.*

The first sculpture shattered into a thousand diamonds.

*Crash.*

The second one exploded.

*Crash.*

The third turned to dust.

It felt like exhaling after holding my breath for ten years.

I went home to the penthouse, my hands shaking. Not from adrenaline, but from clarity. I packed a bag. I went to Ava's room.

Her bed was empty.

Panic, cold and sharp, pierced my chest.

My phone rang. It was Julius.

"You embarrassed me at the gallery, Florence," his voice was calm. Terrifyingly calm. "Pierre called."

"Where is Ava?" I screamed into the phone.

"She's with me. We're at the old warehouse on the docks. The one we're renovating for the new port deal."

"Bring her home, Julius."

"You're hysterical. You need to calm down. Come meet us. We need to discuss your temper."

I drove like a maniac. The warehouse was a skeleton of steel and concrete by the water. A place for mob executions, not family meetings.

I ran inside. Julius stood on the second-floor catwalk. Ava was sitting on a chair, looking small and terrified.

"Mommy!" she cried.

"Let her go, Julius!" I yelled, my voice echoing in the vast, empty space.

"You froze the contracts, Florence," he said, looking down at me. "The investors called. You told them Kenzie was incompetent. Do you know how hard I worked for that deal?"

"You didn't work for anything! I built this! I bought this!"

"You're a housewife, Florence. You draw pretty pictures. I make the deals." He pulled a small remote from his pocket. "I need you to understand your place."

He pressed a button.

A boom shook the ground. Not near them. Near me.

A gas line. He had rigged the gas line.

The force of the explosion threw me backward. I hit the concrete hard. Darkness swallowed me instantly.

*

I woke to the smell of antiseptic and the rhythmic beep of machines. The light was blinding.

My stomach.

My hands flew to my belly. Flat. Empty.

A doctor stood there. And Julius.

"You're awake," Julius said, checking his watch. "Good."

"My baby," I rasped. My throat felt like it was full of glass.

"There was a complication," Julius said dismissively. "The blast caused trauma. You lost it."

I stared at the ceiling. A single tear leaked out, hot and burning.

"It's for the best," he continued. "Kenzie... she's sick, Florence. She has leukemia. She needs a bone marrow transplant. The doctors tested you while you were under. You're a match."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. He wasn't grieving. He was negotiating.

"You want my marrow," I whispered. "For your mistress."

"She's dying, Florence. Don't be selfish. We can have another kid later. You're young."

The world stopped. The air left the room.

"Selfish?" I asked.

"The doctor is prepping the room. Since you're already here, we'll do it today."

He turned to leave. He didn't even kiss my forehead.

Something inside me snapped. It wasn't a loud snap. It was the quiet sound of a lock clicking open. The lock on a cage I had built around myself ten years ago.

The civilian Florence died in that bed.

I waited until the door closed. I reached for the phone on the bedside table. My fingers were trembling, but my mind was ice.

I dialed a number I hadn't called in a decade. A number that didn't exist in any phone book.

It rang once. Twice.

"Speak," a voice graveled. Old, powerful, dangerous.

"Papa," I said.

Silence on the other end. Then, a shifting of weight. The sound of a cigar being crushed.

"Florence?"

"I'm coming home, Papa."

"Who hurt you?" The voice was no longer just a father's. It was the Don's.

"Everyone," I said. "Send the car."

"I will send the army," he replied.