Losing My Queen: The Don's Downfall

York whose very name makes people tremble. For four whole

e they'd rigged-his first love, Talia, deliberately proposed t

late parents' safe house into her pri

nt her, but she got one step ahe

t her and shoved me as

aint and crashed hard

n, unable to move, while he looked down at

ises. Do you really have to th

op-secret notebook, which

almost more than he could bear. But her eyes

eginning to end, I had been nothing but a che

, I boarded a one-way flight to our

I would nev

pte

na'

hirty men to rule New York's underworld-openly waive the punishment for his childhood

iercing wave of cla

"family-approved marriage cooling-

an-vanishing without a trace before he could claim

hall was thick with expensive cigar smok

y table, my hands trembling fain

d forced me to obey the merciless rules of the

ed wife in name, yet I was treated

ersary party, I had lost a hand-a hand his la

parasite that would never die, had clapped her han

"-a one-week cooling-off period, dressed up in fin

cold, hollow eyes and forced me to s

ent his unshakable author

to believe his nonsense

, the table

nd by the rules she should ha

rmchair and elegantly smoothe

aler and waved a han

ved her punishment on the spot, on the excuse that sh

lieutenants, laughed out loud and s

y, ring-covered fi

ent with the family, I was no longer one of them on paper-so I might as w

to one last desperate hope t

ed on my husban

flicker of mild impat

and smooth things over-reminding me that I needed to prove t

ntly froze me

through my mind of begging

zzard at fifteen below zero without so mu

consciousness, my whole body shivering uncontrollably-while Dante sat to

hing about going

ble, my heels clicking hollow

, I splashed cold water on my f

unt bangs Dante had made me cut, made me l

my eyes had final

lay beneath his mask of "u

t favo

ne coldness an

terrace for a breath of air, trying to steady

ked glass door,

were leaning aga

nafraid that, once the one-week agreement

h, arrogant laugh th

my entire existen

o underworld connections of my own; without his

rth nothing and deser

d walked back into the pr

p in a chair, clut

putting on a full performanc

rush, his hurried steps sla

over my chair aside, swept Talia up

r, completely ignoring me

ut, leaving me alone in a

ely, hardening into a dead,

door by myself, leaving my coat behind,