For Five Years, He Took Revenge on the Wrong Woman Chapter 01

For Five Years, He Took Revenge on the Wrong Woman Chapter 01

After I got pregnant, my husband suddenly started behaving himself.

He stopped setting foot in members-only lounges or nightclubs, and all his young, beautiful female assistants were replaced by bald male consiglieres.

The Boston tabloids spent three straight days mocking him under the headline:

[Playboy Turns Family Man: Reformed—or Just Past His Prime?]

They also dug up photos from the past five years—me cutting off a mistress’s hair, or showing up with men to set fire to the garage of the Newport villa where he kept another one.

Less than an hour after the photos ran, the Serrano family paid to have them pulled. Silas Serrano brought the copies home as if he expected praise and burned them in front of me.

“Baby, don’t let any of this stress you out—it could affect the baby. I promise I’ll do whatever you say from now on.”

Then Silas was photographed accompanying Caterina De Luca to a prenatal appointment.

She refused to let him out of her sight, and Silas obediently stayed at her side the entire time.

All of Boston believed the Serrano heir had finally settled down. The wives of the other crime families kept asking me how I got my husband to settle down.

I stared at the photo for a long while, remembering how Silas had dropped me off at the hospital entrance that morning and hurried away.

So he hadn’t suddenly started behaving himself.

Someone else had simply taken over the job of keeping him in line.

…

He was Silas Serrano, heir to the Serrano crime family that controlled Boston Harbor.

He was muscular, with captivating pale green eyes and a dimple in his right cheek whenever he smiled. Many women in Boston society had lost their heads over his looks. He seemed born for the playboy life.

But I was tired of letting that break my heart.

When Silas opened the door, the male model had one hand cupping my left cheek, his thumb brushing across my lips.

Silas’s breath caught. Then he rushed over to the couch like he’d lost his mind and kicked the man off me.

He drove fist after fist into the man’s face and even reached for the brass knuckles lying nearby.

“Didn’t we agree to an open marriage?”

I sat up, lightly rested a hand on my lower belly, and spoke calmly enough to cut through his rage.

Silas gritted his teeth.

“When did I ever—”

Then he seemed to remember the first time he cheated, when he’d laughed and told the tabloids that he and his wife had an open marriage.

I’d taken a fish cleaver to his bedroom door, chopping it apart until he retracted the claim.

Still seething, Silas kicked the cowering model at his feet.

“Get out!”

The door slammed shut.

He pulled out a handkerchief and scrubbed my left cheek. The skin he’d scrubbed turned red and prickled painfully.

“I’ve had nothing but you on my mind lately. What more do you want? You hired some guy just to make me look like a cuckold?!”

I looked up. The dried tear tracks left my skin feeling slightly tight.

“Caterina finally let you come home?”

His grip tightened on my cheek, and I knew his fingers had already left marks.

“Playing the devoted husband for her these past few days must have been exhausting. So I thought I’d see whether another man could satisfy me better. How about this? From now on, we really will have an open marriage—”

Silas scooped me up before I could finish.

The world spun. A second later, the shower was pounding down over my head.

I stared through the sheet of water into his icy eyes.

Ridiculous as it was, he didn’t throw me into the tub. Instead, he kept one arm around my waist, as if he were afraid of hurting the baby I was carrying.

For one second, I almost believed he loved me.

But I knew he didn’t.

Caterina was the one who made him stop sleeping around, so he stayed out of every club.

Caterina was jealous, so he replaced every woman around him and checked in with her like clockwork every day.

Caterina had even gotten pregnant before I did.

That was how I ended up with the devoted husband I’d spent years waiting for.

Anger surged through me. I slapped Silas hard enough for my nails to rake a bloody line across his handsome face.

“Is this your latest tactic?”

I pushed myself upright, wincing at the pain in my lower abdomen. I gave a humorless laugh.

“Yes. I’m letting you go now. Is that enough?”

My soaked clothes clung to my skin, and I shivered uncontrollably.

A bath towel dropped over my shoulders.

Silas’s mouth curved in a lazy, careless smile, his pale green eyes fixed on me with open mockery.

“Not a single word you say is believable.”

Fair enough.

The first time he cheated, I hacked his door apart with a knife.

The second time, I had gasoline poured around the entire villa three times over.

The third time, I climbed onto the roof and threatened to jump.

Even when Silas put a stock-transfer agreement in front of me, I refused it.

Divorce was out of the question.

Sometimes I wondered what cheating felt like—how it could become an addiction for someone who had once loved me so much.

But it wasn’t until yesterday that I uncovered an even crueler truth.

Silas had cheated on me again and again, all because of one woman: Caterina De Luca.

All those different women had been stand-ins for Caterina.

She was the woman Silas truly loved.

The Silas I’d pulled from the sea onto our fishing boat—the man who’d promised to love me forever—didn’t love me anymore.

I wrapped the towel around myself and staggered to my feet. From the corner of my eye, I saw him start to reach for me, but in the end, he did nothing.

I went to the nightstand and pulled out the divorce papers he’d given me three years ago.

Silas’s signature was already on them.

I had been naive enough to think I could win him back, so I’d never signed.

I signed my name and handed the papers to him.

“Go be with Caterina.”