Too Late For Regret, Underboss

For two years, my world was circumscribed by the biometric lock on our penthouse and silent prayers for my husband, Vincenzo, the most feared Underboss of the Cosa Nostra.

But when he finally returned from a brutal three-week smuggling route, he tossed me a cheap five-dollar tourist scarf, while his ex-lover Camilla flaunted the flawless pearl necklace he had just bought her.

He abandoned me with a bleeding hand to rush to her side, ignored my severe medical emergencies to comfort her over trivialities, and publicly humiliated me at a Syndicate banquet by seating her in my rightful place at the head of the table.

Camilla cornered me in the powder room, her fragile victim facade dropping instantly as she smirked at my reflection.

"The thing a powerful man fears most isn't a wife who screams. It's a useless one who refuses to bow out gracefully."

I endured his blatant disrespect and broken Omertà, wondering why my unwavering loyalty meant nothing compared to the manipulative tears of a woman who was actively leaking his classified safehouse coordinates.

I didn't understand why he treated his sacred vows like garbage, eagerly feeding her Syndicate intel just to play the big, strong hero while leaving me to face cartel death threats entirely alone.

But I was done being the neglected mafia wife waiting in the shadows.

I calmly activated the covert audio recording device hidden inside my designer clutch.

It was time to present this irrefutable evidence to the Don's Tribunal, strip my husband of his title, and build my own empire.

Chapter 1

Elena POV

I sat at the custom mahogany dining table, my gaze fixed upon the decrypted logs of my husband's thirty-one late-night video calls to his ex-lover. Our marriage was a strategic alliance between two powerful families, forged to cement the east coast shipping operations-one he had spent two years treating like an afterthought. A moment passed, then the sound of brass tumblers engaging within the heavy penthouse door lock gave a dry, metallic click. The most feared Underboss of the Cosa Nostra walked in-unaware that I had, only that morning, retained the Syndicate's most incisive counsel to sever our union.

Vincenzo dropped a heavy canvas duffel bag onto the marble of the foyer.

Dark red stains, still damp in places, bloomed across the thick fabric-a testament to the brutal overseas smuggling routes he commanded. He rolled his broad shoulders, the seams of his tailored suit jacket straining against his muscles. He exuded power-a dangerous, suffocating kind that made grown men lower their eyes.

For two years, my world had been circumscribed by the biometric lock on this apartment and the watchful radius of two armed guards. I had kept his home pristine, laid out his clothes, and offered silent prayers to any god that might listen to bring him back to me in one piece. My devotion had been a silent, unwavering vigil.

And it had been entirely one-sided.

Vincenzo stripped off his leather gloves and tossed them onto the console table. His dark eyes found me sitting at the far end of the room, and a deep line formed between his brows.

He did not smile.

Ordinarily, I would have gone to him. I would have checked his body for wounds, asked if he was hungry, and poured his whiskey.

Today, I didn't move. I just rested my hands over the thick manila folder containing the irrefutable evidence of his betrayal.

"You stopped sending messages," Vincenzo observed, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that once stirred something in me. Now, it was merely a sound that displaced the air in the room.

I did not lift my head, my eyes fixed on the metal staple binding the folder's edge. I waited until the paper's sharp corner had pressed a white line into my fingertip before I spoke, my voice low. "I had nothing to say."

He worked a finger under his tie and unbuttoned his collar, a flicker of irritation in his expression. "I was on a secure ship for three weeks, Elena. My men were dodging coast guards and rival cartels. I come home, and my wife can't even bother to ask if I'm alive."

He walked toward me, pulling a small, crumpled paper bag from his coat pocket, and tossed it onto the table in front of me.

"Happy delayed anniversary," he muttered, his back already turned as he moved toward the bar.

I reached out and opened the bag. Inside was a cheap, mass-produced silk scarf-the sort one might buy for five dollars at a tourist stall near the docks. I looked at the thin, frayed material, and then I looked at my phone resting next to the folder.

The screen was lit up; Camilla's private social media page was open.

Camilla. His former flame, and the woman he claimed was just a business associate.

Thirty seconds ago, she had posted a new photo. In the image, she was wearing a flawless, deep-sea pearl necklace. The caption read: "Only the best from my protector."

I had found the post through a backdoor access Dominic had arranged-her account was set to private, visible only to an approved circle that included Vincenzo. She had no idea I was watching from the shadows, cataloging every slip.

Barely visible in the corner of her photo, resting on a table, was the distinct cuff of Vincenzo's tailored suit.

I looked up at my husband. "How long are you staying?"

"A week. Before the next shipment." He poured himself a heavy measure of whiskey at the bar. "My Capos are hosting a welcome-back sit-down tomorrow night. You need to be there."

"You bought this scarf at the port?" I asked, tracing the cheap fabric with a detached finger.

Vincenzo took a sip of his whiskey. "Yeah. Caught my eye. It suits your quiet lifestyle."

"And the pearls?" I asked, my tone even.

The glass halted in mid-air. A tremor ran through his hand, sending a ripple across the surface of the whiskey and spilling a few drops upon his cufflink. He set it down slowly, a muscle in his jaw beginning to twitch.

"Camilla needed them for a photoshoot," he said, his tone instantly hardening. "Her media front is vital to the Family's money laundering interests. The pearls are a loan. Don't start with the jealousy, Elena. Not today."

Before I could respond, his burner phone rang.

It was a specific ringtone-the one assigned exclusively to her.

Vincenzo snatched the phone from his pocket, turning his back to me as he answered. "What is it?" There was a pause, and then his entire posture stiffened. "Where are they? Did they breach the lobby?"

He turned back around, his eyes sharp with a protective urgency I had never seen him direct at me. He grabbed his keys and unholstered the heavy Glock from his waistband, checking the chamber with practiced economy.

"I have to go," he said, already heading for the door.

"You just got home," I said, my voice a hollow thing in the massive room. "Stay."

"Camilla has a security emergency. A rival crew is circling her building." He didn't even look at me. "Lock the doors. I'll send two guards up."

The heavy door swung shut, its latch catching with a final, definitive crack that cut the air, leaving me alone with the cheap silk and the quiet hum of the building's ventilation.

I remained in the crushing silence of the penthouse. I picked up the cheap silk scarf and slid it into a clear plastic evidence bag I had procured from my counsel's office. I grabbed a black marker and wrote across the label: Discrepancy in Marital Tribute.

I picked up my phone and opened a secure messaging app. I typed a message to Dominic, the Family's Consigliere and my newly retained legal counsel:

"Add a new piece of evidence to the dossier for the Don. He just left me to play bodyguard."

A breath later, my phone buzzed in my hand. It was a text from an unknown number. But I recognized the phrasing instantly.

It was a picture of Vincenzo standing by Camilla's apartment window, his gun drawn, looking out into the street like a lethal guardian. Under the photo, a message: "Hope you don't mind I borrowed him for the night. He gets so worried about me."

I stared at the text, and I felt a cold clarity settle over me, sharp and clean as a shard of glass. She thought she was taunting me with a burner number that couldn't be traced. She didn't realize that every message she sent was being logged, timestamped, and added to a file that would bury her.

"I don't mind at all," I typed back.

I set the phone down, opened my designer clutch, and calmly activated the covert audio recording device hidden inside the lining, its small mechanism whirring to life.

Vincenzo's message came through a second later: "Banquet is at eight tomorrow. Wear the red dress. Maintain the dignity of our marriage. Don't embarrass me in front of my men."

I closed my clutch, my thumb resting over the warm plastic of the recorder. Tomorrow night, he would learn what happened when a man broke a blood vow and pushed his quiet wife too far. Tomorrow, I would not be the demure Donna he could dismiss. I would be his reckoning.

Tomorrow, he would realize that the quiet wife he had ignored was the only one in the room who knew exactly what Camilla was doing to his empire-and I was done protecting him from the truth.