The Syndicate's Ghost: Don's Forgotten Queen

of our dead son. My husband, Eli, held me through it all. But a trip to the rec

ith his mistress the day our son died, having dismissed the secur

ming me as a madwoman. His mother accused me of hurting the boy, and Eli punish

d my baby's grave dug up. On a yacht, Eli held me d

mistress was waiting to deliver the final, soul-crushing blow.

ith an experimental procedure and made my request: wipe the last ten years. I

pte

er's

ead son's death certificate was the day

rief so deep I'd forgotten the very rhythm of my o

ery year on the anniversary of his death. The fluorescent lights of the government bu

er to the clerk, a woman with tired eyes

name, then

St

ross New York, hidden beneath a veneer of legitimate businesses. To the world, he was a titan of industry. To those who knew, he was the Don of the

so you need a copy of the certificate for Leo Stark. I can do that. But the system

veins; it sloshed, cold and s

"Yeah. Says here Eli Stark has anot

ar

e woman who had tried to crash my wedding, her eyes burning with a desperate hunger as she watched Eli. The woma

in my purse. A

, my love. I kn

I snatched the printout from Brenda's hand without another word and moved t

d. A brownstone in a nice neighborhood. A nei

y hands shaking on the steeri

e child's giggles echoing in the quiet street. Kasey stood in the doorway, her hand resting on El

ly was

n life. The windows were open to the mi

asey was saying, her voice a low purr

e the same deep timbre that

loser to him. "That business trip excuse. You, dismissing yo

sto

told me he was closing a deal, that he needed his top men with him. He had dismissed th

a business call

e I was inside for five minutes. He had slipped into the wat

shroud, holding me while I cried, telling me we would get through it together. He

burden. It was my priso

reen and gray. I knelt at Leo's grave, the sma

rk. Bel

ed my adult life, didn't just fade. It curdled. It twisted into s

Eli this time. The scre

, a life of science and labs and quant

y voice a raw

as

calling to see how you we

eft began to fall. Tears no

earing from my soul. "The procedure. T

the line. "Harper, we're not

d on my son's name carved in stone. "I wa