Losing My Queen: The Don's Downfall

na'

our spacious penthouse, the

l weight-heavy, suffocating, like a

yer and went straight into th

oup I had spent six painstaking hours maki

eavy cast-iron pot, carried it to the sink, tipp

; I watched four years of my blind, ridiculous

rypted, unregistered burner phone and contacted a rut

and within ten minutes m

te headquarters. My old mentor, Lorenzo, had been patiently waiting for my r

k-in closet and dragged the battered tactical du

without a sound, methodically erasing e

er dresses Dante had bought to r

, forged passports, and the plain clothes th

e corridor to Dante's private study and pulled

ate intelligence, my fingertips br

ge photo-booth picture fluttered out a

radiant, beaming bril

t seized up: I found a handwritten entry of Dan

ance at her is almost more than I can bear. But h

te laugh scraped

and chosen my clothes exactly as he demanded, fooli

but a cheap stand-in for a

front door shattered the

ying with him the pungent smell of hospital disinf

mmediately on the pack

osening his silk tie, that arrogant smirk

lking at me, Elena?" he said, his tone

g in its cooling-off period-and my packi

is tailored trousers and tossed it

en show up at the registrar next Tu

steady-reached out

visibly flawed blood diamond. I recogniz

ess centerpiece set he had bought at any cost las

at inferior, humili

t with icy calm, snapped the box shut,

inside my heart, I couldn't be

long gone. I had slipped out of the penthou

rty my late parents had bought for me outright-I walked straight into

tion, I signed a binding

-nosed buyer with the full purchas

that enormous sum, the buyer wante

r out to the safe house that had once

or, I braced myself, expecting the quiet comf

or open, I froze dead in place

ry had been vandalize

ly against the walls, its polished surfaces gouged with

ing Dante's oversized white shirt, openly treating m

as he gently wiped paint from her cheek-utterly indiffe