I Married You For Your Brother’s Face

I Married You For Your Brother's Face

Nero Daniels

5.0
Comment(s)
61
View
28
Chapters

I married the most ruthless Don in Chicago, but not for love, money, or power. I married Luca Falcone because he was the only man on earth who carried the same DNA as his dead identical twin, Dante-the love of my life. For three years, I played the role of the submissive, obsessed wife. I endured his coldness. I cooked for his mistress, Sofia. I even stayed silent when Sofia pushed me down a flight of stairs in a jealous rage, nearly killing me. Luca thought I stayed because I was weak. He thought the way I stared at his face was adoration. He never realized I was looking right through him, seeing the ghost of the brother he could never live up to. But the moment the second pink line appeared on the pregnancy test, my mission was complete. I had secured the heir. I had brought a piece of Dante back to the world. The vessel was no longer needed. I signed the divorce papers, packed my bags, and vanished into the night while Luca was busy with his mistress. When he finally tracked me down months later, broken and begging on his knees for me to come home, I didn't feel a thing. I looked down at the man who thought he was a King and delivered the final blow. "I never loved you, Luca. I married you for the sperm."

Chapter 1

I married the most ruthless Don in Chicago, but not for love, money, or power.

I married Luca Falcone because he was the only man on earth who carried the same DNA as his dead identical twin, Dante-the love of my life.

For three years, I played the role of the submissive, obsessed wife.

I endured his coldness. I cooked for his mistress, Sofia. I even stayed silent when Sofia pushed me down a flight of stairs in a jealous rage, nearly killing me.

Luca thought I stayed because I was weak. He thought the way I stared at his face was adoration.

He never realized I was looking right through him, seeing the ghost of the brother he could never live up to.

But the moment the second pink line appeared on the pregnancy test, my mission was complete.

I had secured the heir. I had brought a piece of Dante back to the world. The vessel was no longer needed.

I signed the divorce papers, packed my bags, and vanished into the night while Luca was busy with his mistress.

When he finally tracked me down months later, broken and begging on his knees for me to come home, I didn't feel a thing.

I looked down at the man who thought he was a King and delivered the final blow.

"I never loved you, Luca. I married you for the sperm."

Chapter 1

The instant the second pink line materialized on the plastic stick, my marriage to the most ruthless Don in Chicago was effectively over.

I didn't cry.

I didn't smile.

I simply placed the test on the marble vanity, right beside the diamond ring that weighed heavier than a shackle, and washed my hands.

The water ran ice-cold, numbing my skin, mirroring the frost that had settled permanently in my chest three years ago.

"Mrs. Falcone?" The voice drifting from the study was trembling.

I dried my hands on a plush towel and walked out.

Mr. Rossi, the family consigliere, was ensconced behind the massive mahogany desk.

He was sweating.

The thermostat read a crisp sixty-eight degrees, yet beads of perspiration gathered along his receding hairline.

He looked at the documents before him as if they were a death sentence.

"Have you drafted them?" I asked, my voice smooth, devoid of the tremors dismantling his composure.

"Elena... Mrs. Falcone," he stammered, adjusting his glasses. "These are annulment papers. If Don Falcone sees this... if Luca sees this..."

"He won't," I said, gliding over to the window.

Outside, the Falcone estate sprawled like a fortress, patrolled by men with assault rifles and hollow, dead eyes.

Luca Falcone.

The man who severed the head of a Russian Bratva leader with piano wire simply because they insulted his family name.

The man who ruled the city's underworld with a brutality that made grown men weep.

My husband.

"He is busy," I continued, turning back to the lawyer. "He is currently at the Ritz-Carlton with Sofia. I doubt he has time for administrative work."

Rossi flinched at the mention of the mistress.

"But protocol... the Omertà..."

"Sign it for him," I ordered. "You have his power of attorney for domestic affairs. He told me last night he wanted this marriage dissolved as much as I did. He said I was a ghost haunting his hallways."

It was a lie.

Luca never spoke to me about feelings.

He didn't speak in sentences; he spoke in commands.

But Rossi didn't know that.

Rossi only knew that Luca spent every night in Sofia's bed, leaving me to rot alone in this mausoleum of a mansion.

"I... I need verbal confirmation," Rossi whispered, his hand hovering shakily over the pen.

I didn't hesitate.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the number saved simply as 'Him'.

It rang once.

Twice.

"What?" Luca's voice was a low growl, rough with irritation.

Background noise filtered through.

The clinking of silverware.

A woman's high-pitched, grating giggle.

Sofia.

"I'm with the lawyer," I said, staring at the framed photo on the desk. "We are finalizing the estate management papers. He requires your authorization to proceed with the... restructuring we discussed."

"I don't have time for this, Elena," Luca snapped.

"Just tell him to sign, Luca. It will get me out of your hair."

"Baby, who is that?" Sofia's voice purred through the speaker. "Is that the wife? Tell her to stop bothering us."

I heard the rustle of fabric.

"Sign whatever she wants, Rossi," Luca barked. "Just make sure she stops calling me."

The line went dead.

I looked at Rossi. "You heard him."

The lawyer let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for ten minutes.

He signed.

The scratch of the pen against the paper sounded like a key turning in a lock.

"Leave the papers," I said. "I will file them."

Rossi gathered his briefcase and fled the room as if the devil himself were nipping at his heels.

When the door clicked shut, the silence rushed back in.

I walked to the desk and picked up the framed photograph I had been staring at.

It was a black and white shot of a man laughing, his head thrown back, eyes crinkled with pure, unadulterated joy.

To the world, this was Luca Falcone.

They were identical twins, after all.

Same sharp jawline.

Same raven hair.

Same towering height.

But I knew the truth.

I ran my thumb over the glass, tracing the curve of the smile.

"I did it," I whispered to the photo. "I secured the heir."

This wasn't Luca.

This was Dante.

Dante Falcone. The Prince. The light to Luca's shadow.

My first love.

The man who was murdered three years ago, leaving me with nothing but a promise and a cold, gaping void in my soul.

I didn't marry Luca for power.

I didn't marry him for money.

I married the monster for one reason only: he was the sole biological vessel capable of bringing a piece of Dante back into this world.

I needed his DNA.

I needed his face.

I played the submissive wife. I endured his coldness. I swallowed the humiliation of seeing his mistress plastered on every tabloid cover.

All for the positive test sitting on the bathroom vanity.

Now, I had what I wanted.

I looked at the photo of Dante one last time.

"I'm bringing you home," I promised.

Continue Reading

Other books by Nero Daniels

More
Genius Wife's Revenge: Too Late For Regret

Genius Wife's Revenge: Too Late For Regret

Modern

5.0

For two years, I played the role of the "Midwestern mistake," the mousey wife Julian Ford-Sterling IV kept hidden like a shameful secret. I hid my true self behind thick glasses and ashen foundation, acting as the perfect, cowed charity case while he lived a life of marble and indifference. The day our marriage contract ended, the headlines were already screaming about his affair with Hollywood’s sweetheart, Lana Vane. Julian didn't even grant me a final conversation; he simply sent his legal team to hand me divorce papers that gave me nothing—no alimony, no shares, just a non-disclosure agreement and a one-way ticket out of his life. I signed the papers and walked away, but a drugged encounter in a dark club that same night led me back into his arms. We collided in the shadows, two strangers stripped of their titles, but I fled before dawn, accidentally leaving behind my vintage silver locket. By the time I reached my secret design studio the next morning, I discovered Julian had executed a hostile takeover of my entire life’s work. To my horror, Lana Vane was already there, clutching my stolen locket and shamelessly claiming she was the woman Julian had spent the night with. Julian stood before me in his charcoal suit, looking at me with total lack of recognition. To him, I was just a "gold-digging" architect he had bought along with the furniture. I watched them together, the man who had discarded me and the woman who had stolen my identity, realizing that Julian was obsessed with the genius of "Rose" while despising the woman who stood right in front of him. He had no idea that the wife he’d just divorced was the very person he was now desperate to control. I straightened my spine, my violet-blue eyes cold and lethal behind my new designer frames. "Mr. Ford-Sterling, you wanted the best designer in the city? You’ve got her. But you should know—I don't just build empires. I know exactly how to tear them down."

Five Years Too Late, Ryan

Five Years Too Late, Ryan

Horror

5.0

My daughter Lily hadn't seen her father in five years, so her joyful cry of "Daddy!" echoed through the sterile mansion as she ran to him. But his eyes were not for her. Jessica Hayes, his "one true love," stood beside him, her feigned trip and cry sending him into a panic. He scooped her up, his face contorted with concern, then shot a venomous look at our innocent five-year-old. "Lock her in the master bedroom closet. Three days. No food." My blood ran cold. "Ryan, no! Please, you can't!" "She has asthma, Ryan. She'll suffocate!" He scoffed, accusing me of lies and manipulative ploys. The guards, impervious to my pleas, ripped Lily from my arms. "Mommy! Mommy, I'm sorry!" she shrieked, carried away. That night, her terrified cries faded to desperate whimpers. "Please, Mommy... can't... breathe..." I pounded on the door until my fists were raw, screaming for them to let her out. The whimpers stopped. The closet door opened. Lily lay there, blue, not moving, not breathing. Unconscious from lack of oxygen. The ambulance siren wailed as I sank to the waiting room floor. My phone buzzed. It was Instagram. Jessica Hayes, pouting in a hospital bed with a tiny scratch. Her caption: "Mr. Peterson is so generous! I only scraped my knee and he gave me two luxury apartments as compensation. I guess I'll forgive you now~" Geotagged from a luxury hospital across town. Where our daughter wasn't. He gifted her apartments for a scraped knee, while our child suffocated. A cold numbness spread through me. "Grandma," I whispered, bowing my head to Mrs. Peterson. "Love cannot be forced. Please... let him be with Jessica. I just want to take Lily and leave." My fresh wounds throbbed, tears mixing with blood. I showed her the post, the address of our marital home given away. Mrs. Peterson's face blazed with fury. "That scoundrel! That worthless boy!" "Call that bastard and tell him to get his ass to this hospital immediately!" But it was too late. If Grandma's scolding worked, Lily would never have been locked in that closet.

The Unwanted Son, The Unwanted Mother

The Unwanted Son, The Unwanted Mother

Modern

5.0

The world ended on a Tuesday afternoon. One moment, I was building blocks with my five-year-old son, Leo; the next, our home bucked and collapsed around us, trapping us in a coffin of splintered wood and concrete. Pinned in the darkness, I whispered reassurances to Leo, my body shielding his, even as I felt the immense weight above us. But then Leo whimpered, his voice thin: "My leg hurts." My heart seized. His left leg was caught, crushed under a concrete beam, and I was utterly helpless. Every scream for help was swallowed by the tons of debris. Just as despair threatened to consume me, I heard it: familiar voices. Sarah was there, my wife, a top ER physician, coordinating the rescue. Hope surged, a dizzying, wild thing. "SARAH!" I bellowed with every last ounce of breath. "SARAH, IT'S DAVID! LEO IS WITH ME!" Through a tiny crack, I saw her, ten feet away. But then another voice, closer to her, cried out: "Sarah… over here…" It was Mark Johnson, her "soulmate" from college, the reason our marriage had been a hollow shell. I watched, disbelieving, as she rushed to him, ignoring my desperate pleas, prioritizing his broken arm over our son' s crushed leg. She commanded rescue workers to save him, then scooped his uninjured son into her arms, walking right past us without a second glance. The child, Ethan, even lied to her face, confirming we weren't there, and she believed him. The betrayal was a cold, hard blow, leaving me with a terrifying realization: she had heard me, chosen him, and now, my son might pay the ultimate price for her choice. My son was going into shock, and I knew, with chilling certainty, that this act of abandonment would shatter our lives forever.

You'll also like

Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

Too Late: The Spare Daughter Escapes Him

SHANA GRAY
4.3

I died on a Tuesday. It wasn't a quick death. It was slow, cold, and meticulously planned by the man who called himself my father. I was twenty years old. He needed my kidney to save my sister. The spare part for the golden child. I remember the blinding lights of the operating theater, the sterile smell of betrayal, and the phantom pain of a surgeon's scalpel carving into my flesh while my screams echoed unheard. I remember looking through the observation glass and seeing him-my father, Giovanni Vitiello, the Don of the Chicago Outfit-watching me die with the same detached expression he used when signing a death warrant. He chose her. He always chose her. And then, I woke up. Not in heaven. Not in hell. But in my own bed, a year before my scheduled execution. My body was whole, unscarred. The timeline had reset, a glitch in the cruel matrix of my existence, giving me a second chance I never asked for. This time, when my father handed me a one-way ticket to London-an exile disguised as a severance package-I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart, once a bleeding wound, was now a block of ice. He didn't know he was talking to a ghost. He didn't know I had already lived through his ultimate betrayal. He also didn't know that six months ago, during the city's brutal territory wars, I was the one who saved his most valuable asset. In a secret safe house, I stitched up the wounds of a blinded soldier, a man whose life hung by a thread. He never saw my face. He only knew my voice, the scent of vanilla, and the steady touch of my hands. He called me Sette. Seven. For the seven stitches I put in his shoulder. That man was Dante Moretti. The Ruthless Capo. The man my sister, Isabella, is now set to marry. She stole my story. She claimed my actions, my voice, my scent. And Dante, the man who could spot a lie from a mile away, believed the beautiful deception because he wanted it to be true. He wanted the golden girl to be his savior, not the invisible sister who was only ever good for her spare parts. So I took the ticket. In my past life, I fought them, and they silenced me on an operating table. This time, I will let them have their perfect, gilded lie. I will go to London. I will disappear. I will let Seraphina Vitiello die on that plane. But I will not be a victim. This time, I will not be the lamb led to slaughter. This time, from the shadows of my exile, I will be the one holding the match. And I will wait, with the patience of the dead, to watch their entire world burn. Because a ghost has nothing to lose, and a queen of ashes has an empire to gain.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book