The Substitute Wife Escapes Her Gilded Cage

gelo, New York's most feared Don. But I was just a place

dinner. A waiter tripped, sending a turee

ation, Marcus threw himse

t me e

agony was watching him cradle her face, checki

er, ignoring my burns, "her death is an in

rting her over a bruise, I was in emer

k about the baby he didn't know existed. instead, he

moment the

vorce papers wi

legal documents, I tucked a sin

taneous Abortion

desk and disappea

his own heir to save his mistress, I w

pte

v

marriage wasn't during a fight, but in the silence of my husband's private

n drawer, while the sounds of the gala downsta

t ruthless crime family in New York, a man whose nam

foot soldier, the girl he had plucked fr

ed to think the way he looked at me-i

He had fastened it around my neck, his calloused fingers brushing my pulse, and whispered that it wa

s a

head hurt, to ask him to take me away from the noise. I found him slumped in

a machine, a weapon of precision. Alcoho

epping into the dim light

softened. He reached out, pulling me

la," he

froze, my hands hover

aid, my voice

ved me

ainst the bookshelf. The softness was gon

ed, rubbing his tem

shadows of the hallway, my heart hammering against

Isab

, dangerous. She was Marcus's cousin, a woman of the family, forbidde

her-not with the protective, stifling gaze he used on me, but with a raw, desperate h

physical blow, a hand squeezing my

e party, Marcus fixing his tie and Izzy smoothi

pulled open the drawer

ney. It wasn

was

his sharp, angular handwriting, detailing a love that was sick, twisted, and enduri

letter dated t

I will find someone who has your eyes, Izzy. I w

rinkled und

ll. I looked at my reflection. The dark hair.

was a tool to breed an heir that woul

ket. A text from my fathe

wer. I could

lked to the fireplace where the embers were

, I droppe

d blacken in the heat. I watc

of whiskey and her perfume. He sat on

time," he said, referring to the sh

red at the wall, my eyes dr

aid, my voice so calm it s

had burned in the fireplace along with his secrets. He just nodded, laid his

s breathing, and for the fir

r. And I knew, with a terrifying clarity, t