Rejected by the Mafia Don, Claimed by His Rival

For eight years, I was raised to be his queen. My entire world was built on the promise that I would marry Dante Moretti, the future Don of the city's most powerful family.

But on the eve of our betrothal, I overheard his plan. He was going to cast me aside for another woman, Isabella, and a street orphan he would pass off as his heir.

He publicly humiliated me at his party, introducing her as his true queen. When a crystal chandelier fell from the ceiling, he used his own body to shield her, leaving me to be crushed beneath it.

Later, after falsely accusing me of attacking her, he shoved my head under the freezing water of a pool, hissing that my love for him was "disgusting."

But the truth that finally destroyed me was worse. For ten years, Dante had been obsessed with a scent he thought was mine. It was all a lie-a custom perfume Isabella had been wearing all along. I was never the one he wanted; I was just a case of mistaken identity.

After he broke my bones and shattered my spirit, I finally made a choice. I accepted my brother's offer to escape to the rival Falcone territory. As our jet prepared for takeoff, I blocked Dante's frantic calls without looking back. This time, I was leaving for good.

Chapter 1

Alessia POV:

I was raised to be his queen. For eight years, that fact was the foundation of my world. But on the eve of our betrothal, standing outside his office, the truth arrived as a physical blow.

I'd come to give him my gift, a sculpture I'd spent months carving for his eighteenth birthday. But a strange scent stopped me at the door. Cheap perfume and the faint, cloying smell of baby powder. A scent that had no place here, in the heart of the Moretti empire.

Then came the voices. His, and his Capo, Jax.

"She'll bow out gracefully," Dante was saying, his voice a low rumble. "When I present my real family, she'll have no choice. It's cleaner this way."

"And the child?" Jax asked.

"Isabella found a street orphan that looks enough like her. We'll pass it off as ours. A ready-made heir. It solidifies her position."

His words were a betrayal, but it was his next thought that truly destroyed me. It wasn't a sound. It was a feeling, a vicious snarl that uncoiled in the back of my skull, cold and sharp. It wasn't my own. It was his.

Isabella is mine! I will not have some soft, pathetic virgin as my Queen!

My fingers went numb. The velvet-lined box I was holding slipped, hitting the marble floor with a sickening crack. Inside, the sculpture of two figures entwined was shattered-a perfect mirror of the promise I'd cherished for a lifetime.

It had all started when I was ten. Rival enforcers had invaded our home, and a young Dante Moretti, already a force of nature, had appeared like a vengeful god. He had eliminated them without a flicker of emotion. The scent of him-leather and cold steel-had filled my senses as he'd pressed a piece of his mother's rosary into my trembling hand. "For courage," he'd murmured. That single bead became my anchor, the proof that our families' betrothal pact was destiny.

For eight years, I loved a ghost, a memory. I sketched his face from the shadows and worshiped the idea of him, the future Don of the Moretti Family. I was the perfect, promised bride from a respectable but faded bloodline; a piece of beautiful, fragile porcelain meant to adorn his throne.

The crack of the box echoed in the sudden silence from his office. The pain wasn't a sharp sting. It was a cold, heavy thing that settled in my bones, a premature hardening of a spirit that had only ever known how to be soft.

I didn't wait for them to open the door. I turned and fled, my feet carrying me out of the grand estate and into the rainy night. The cold drops soaked through my thin dress, but I couldn't feel them. All I could feel was the chilling void where my heart used to be.

I found a secluded bench under the dripping trees and pulled out my phone. My fingers trembled as I composed a text to my brother, Luca.

I'm fine. Just needed some air.

A lie. A necessary one.

But that trip you mentioned... to Falcone territory. I'd like to take it. Soon.

Luca was Dante's most loyal Soldier, his best friend. But he was my brother first. He'd offered me an escape route weeks ago, a "visit" to our distant cousins, the Falcones, sensing a tension I'd refused to see.

I limped back to my rooms, my body aching. My phone buzzed. A new message. It was from him.

Party tomorrow night. To announce my chosen woman and heir. You are invited to attend.

It wasn't a request. It was a command. A final, public degradation.

My fingers moved on their own, typing a reply that felt like it was written by a stranger.

Yes, my Don.

Then, I walked to the fireplace. I took out the rosary bead. The dried rose he'd given me once. The book of poetry. One by one, I fed them to the flames. I watched the girl who had loved Dante Moretti burn away, leaving nothing but ash.