The Don’s Secret Wife Chapter 02

The Don’s Secret Wife Chapter 02

I knew that face like I knew my own name. But standing there, looking at him, he could have been anyone.

He took one look at me, filthy and crumpled on the ground, and his jaw tightened. He reached down and eased me to my feet.

Then he dropped to one knee and fitted the prosthetic back into place, hands careful, clinical.

My throat clenched. I swallowed hard, forcing the tears back. “Why?”

His hands tightened without warning, and pain shot up from the place where the prosthetic met what was left of my leg. I gasped.

His voice went flat. “You shouldn’t have stalked Ruby.”

He thought I’d done this on purpose, tracked her down to start something.

I stared at him, stunned. Tears pooled but wouldn’t fall.

“If I knew you were faking being broke, do you think I’d have spent five years begging on the streets just to survive?”

I shoved him, blind with rage, but he caught my wrists, scooped me up off the ground, and dropped me into the passenger seat of his trailing SUV.

A framed photo of him and Ruby glowed on the car’s infotainment display.

Joseph leaned across me to buckle the seatbelt, and when he spoke, every word froze me a little more.

“I took back the family two years after the fall. The debts were cleared a long time ago. The whole broke-and-struggling act? That was just to keep you out of my new life.”

“Ruby’s a Mantle, from Mantle Shipping. Marrying her gave me the East Coast. I’m the Don of New York now, Ina.”

“You don’t forget what it feels like to have nothing, Ina. I wasn’t going to throw away the empire she brought me just to rot in poverty with you.”

Tears blurred my vision, and the memories came rushing in, every one of them sharp enough to cut.

When the syndicate collapsed, a rival family cornered him in a warehouse. I threw myself in front of him. The bullet tore through my right leg.

I hit the ground in a pool of my own blood, and Joseph, Joseph dropped to his knees in front of the men who’d shot me. I’d never heard him beg before. “I’ll pay the blood debt. Every cent. Just let me get her to a hospital. Please.”

After I got out of the hospital, I swallowed the grief whole. Taught myself to live in a body that didn’t work the way it used to. I skipped the painkillers because we couldn’t afford the prescriptions. Ate out of dumpsters when the money ran dry.

And all this time, Joseph was commissioning a ten-million-dollar ring for Ruby’s birthday.

Every sacrifice I’d ever made was a sick joke.

Something broke loose inside me. I lunged at him, fists flying, hitting whatever I could reach.

“You piece of shit! I took a bullet for you! I gave you my life!”

Joseph slammed the brakes. When he turned around, his face was pure fury.

“What did you expect me to do? Throw away my crown? So we could play house in a rat-infested basement for the rest of our lives?”

“Wake up to reality, Ina!”

The tears came, and I couldn’t stop them.

I watched, helpless, as Joseph leaned over, threw my door open, and shoved me out into the street.

The prosthetic came loose on impact. What was left of my leg dragged across the pavement, skin shredding against asphalt. I couldn’t stand.

Joseph stared down at me from the driver’s seat. His eyes were dead. Empty. Then he drove off.

“You overstepped tonight. Stay away from my wife.”

He said it like it was nothing, like I was nothing. And it hit harder than anything I’d ever felt.

Pain everywhere. Exhaustion dragging me under. The world went black.

I came to in the gutter, shivering against the damp pavement. A small crowd had gathered, whispering and pointing.

I opened my mouth to ask for help, and someone spat on the ground next to me. “Someone posted the video online. That’s the homewrecker who tried to throw herself at Don Maranzano. Disgusting.”

I tried to say something back, but my phone was buzzing like it was about to shake apart. Mom. Her voice was shattered before she even got the first word out.

“Ina, tell me the articles are lying. Tell me you’re not the Don’s secret mistress. Your father saw the news broadcast, and he… his heart gave out… he’s in the ICU, Ina!”