To end the war, Don Enzo Castellano had no choice but to offer the most coveted woman in the underworld as a bride to the Valente Don: his only daughter, Seraphina Castellano.
Seraphina, emboldened by her status as Enzo Castellano's princess, answered to no one. She forced her way into the Forbidden Wing with her personal guard at her back:
"What filthy outsider dares hide in the Forbidden Wing? Spreading her legs for Valente soldiers and getting herself pregnant?"
"Today, I'll clean house for the Don myself!"
She ordered her guards to hack off my limbs. Then she tore open my belly with bare hands and ripped the child from my womb.
As I lay dying, Dominic arrived with the most powerful figures in the underworld to witness the birth of the Valente heir.
Seraphina dragged me before him and held up the infant she had tortured to death, her face bright with triumph:
"I discovered a filthy outsider whoring herself out to your soldiers. This is the bastard she was carrying!"
"I humbly beg the Don to find the wretch who fathered this thing and grind his bones to ash, so the dignity of the Valente name remains unsullied!"
——
Three full years I had carried the child. The old women who read the signs had spoken of strange omens, patterns in the cards that hadn't appeared in generations.
The movements in my womb had grown fiercer by the day, the unborn stirring with signs that its arrival was imminent.
I was lying in bed, preparing for the birth, when a commotion broke out beyond the doors.
"The Don keeps coming here every other day. Today, I'm going to see for myself what precious little secret he's hiding!"
"But, my lady, I've heard that this wing is part of the Forbidden corridor. No one is permitted to enter without leave!"
"That's right, Seraphina. They say that when Ciro Marchetti merely wandered in here by accident, the Don executed him on the spot and it sparked a war between the Castellanos and the Valentes. Barging in like this... isn't it a bit reckless?"
"Reckless? I am the only woman in the entire underworld worthy of the Don's attention. He would never blame me."
Listening to the noise outside, I frowned. A cold sense of dread settled in my chest.
Dominic guarded me and the child with obsessive devotion.