Chapter 1

A month into summer break, I'd already spent all the grocery money my parents had left me, and I didn't dare ask them for more. With no other choice, I texted my own brother, Louis Rivers.

"Louis, can I borrow a hundred bucks?"

I even added a cute emoji.

Five minutes later, he replied.

"Have some self-respect. Do you call every guy you meet 'brother'?"

I stared at the screen, completely confused.

"Fine, Brother," I typed back.

I figured he was in a bad mood and didn't think much of it.

The next day, my best friend called to tell me I'd been doxxed.

A relationship influencer had posted screenshots of my chat with Louis and pulled photos from my Instagram, putting all of it into one of her videos.

"Ladies, watch out for girls like this. They call taken men 'brother' and pretend it's innocent. She doesn't even have a hundred bucks to her name, yet she's already asking someone else's boyfriend for money. I seriously wonder how her parents raised her."

The comment section was full of people piling on, and some of them quickly turned sexual.

[A hundred bucks? That's cheap. I'd pay for ten rounds.]

Instead of shutting the comment down, the influencer joked back.

"Aren't you worried about catching something?"

My hands started shaking.

I opened her profile and finally realized who she was.

Hailey Morton.

Louis's new girlfriend.

I immediately took screenshots and sent them to the family group chat.

"If this woman ever sets foot in our house, I'll consider my entire life a joke."

***

The screenshots had barely gone through when Louis, the group admin, deleted them and kicked me out of the family group chat.

I sent him a question mark privately.

A red error icon popped up.

He had blocked me.

Not just on social media, either. My calls wouldn't go through.

Chapter 1

The white lilies I'd ordered for my mother's funeral arrived as a sea of red roses instead.

Furious, I called the flower shop.

"How do you mess something like this up? Is this how you treat your customers?"

The owner sounded young. She couldn't have cared less.

"So I sent the wrong flowers. Mine cost a hundred times what you paid. You should be thanking me, not yelling at me."

"Oh, I get it. You're trying to scam me, aren't you?"

I didn't waste my breath.

As soon as the funeral ended, I called the police.

At the station, she glared at me with her chin raised.

"So you ordered some cheap bouquet and think you're so high and mighty?"

"Just wait till my husband gets here. You'll be sorry."

A man walked through the door and held out a black card toward me.

"Take it. And leave my wife alone."

His voice made me freeze. A shiver ran through me.

When our eyes met, panic flashed across his face.

"Seren... why are you here?"

***

The woman slipped her arm through his and frowned.

"You know each other?"

Know each other?

I swallowed every bit of bitterness rising in my throat.

After seven years together, you owed me a life. It was time to pay it back.

He stayed silent. His face was a mask of panic.

I looked at him without a trace of warmth.

"Of course we do."

My phone screen was still open to our chat before it went dark.

[I'm at the city police station. Something came up. Can you come?]

[Seren, I've got a meeting at work. I'm busy.]

Now the man who claimed he was too busy stood right in front of me. Calling someone else his wife.

He suddenly cut in.

"Seren and I grew up in the same old neighborhood. Never thought I'd run into her after all these years."

My chest tightened so hard I could barely breathe.

The man I had loved for seven years reduced us to nothing more than childhood neighbors.

The woman reached out her hand with a proud smile.

"I'm Vivica Whitmore. I'm his wife."

"Since you know Nolan, I'll let it slide. But don't go around trying to shake people down."

"If you're that hard up for cash, you can just ask me."

My legs nearly gave out. I said nothing.

Vivica added herself to my contacts anyway before linking arms with him and walking away.

He kept looking back at me, again and again.

Like he wanted to say something but couldn't.

After I signed the paperwork and left the station, I crouched by the side of the road.

I couldn't bring myself to believe any of it.

My hands shook as I sent him a message.

[Nolan, don't you have anything to explain?]

Unlike before, there was no instant reply.

Almost ten minutes passed before his message finally came.

[Seren, don't overthink this. I'll explain everything when I get home, okay?]

[Go home first. It's about to rain. I don't want you getting sick.]

Those words used to fill me with warmth. Now they tasted like ash.

I didn't answer. Neither did he.

My phone died. I stayed where I was, drowning in grief, unable to move.

A passerby stopped beside me.

"Miss, it's about to pour. You should head home. Whatever you're going through, you'll get through it."

The weather in Havenport changed without warning.

Rain came crashing down.

A car stopped in front of me.

Nolan rushed toward me with an umbrella, shielding me from the storm.

"Seren, didn't I tell you to go home? Why weren't you picking up? What do you want from me?"

Seven years earlier, after school, I'd been stranded outside a convenience store without an umbrella.

Everyone else had already gone home.

Then he appeared.

"Seren. Let's go home."

"From now on, whenever it rains, I'll be right beside you."

I looked at him in despair.

He pulled me into his arms.

My voice trembled. "When did it start?"

Nolan didn't answer.

Half an hour earlier, I'd imagined this confrontation a thousand times.

I thought I'd scream, break down, lose myself completely.

But standing here, I couldn't force out another word.

"Today was my mother's funeral."

"You didn't even show up. You said work kept you busy. I believed you."

"So why could she call, and you'd come running? Tell me."

I stepped out of his embrace and swallowed my tears.

"She's had it rough. Her parents were trying to force her to marry some rich loser. I just wanted to help. That's it."

"Seren, I've never stopped loving you."

So love could be explained away with one word. Help.

The tears finally fell.

He reached up to wipe them away, but before he could, they landed on the back of his hand.

His phone rang, sharp and urgent.

Without a second's hesitation, he pulled his hand back and answered.

"I'm on my way. I'll be there soon."

He glanced at me. Just for a moment.

"Her power's out. She's claustrophobic, and she's alone. I have to go."

I watched him walk away. A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

If my tears couldn't make you stay... what could?

In a single day, I lost the two people I loved most—my mother, and you.

Late that night, new messages from Vivica appeared on my screen.

My heart shattered.

Chapter 1

Five years after our breakup, I changed my name and left Chicago.

With a right hand that could no longer hold a scalpel for long and legs that could barely keep me on my feet, I opened a small clinic near Vancouver General Hospital.

I thought I would never see Adrian Moretti again.

Until one day, a man from Chicago walked through my door.

He wore a black overcoat, with the Moretti Family's silver wolf insignia pinned to his cuff.

After picking up his medication, he didn't leave right away and stood there watching me for a long moment.

"Doctor, did you ever live in Chicago?"

I lowered my eyes and continued sorting the prescriptions.

"A long time ago."

The man hesitated before lowering his voice.

"Adrian still hasn't married. The old Don has pushed him to marry more times than I can count, and even the Family council tried arranging marriage alliances for him, but he turned every one of them down. Everyone says he's waiting for a woman."

I said nothing.

...

Five years ago, my name was still Erin Carter.

I was the youngest trauma surgeon at the Moretti Family's private medical center and the most unwelcome outsider in the entire Family.

I didn't have a powerful last name, a capo willing to protect me, or a Don for a father.

Scholarships, my medical license, my own skill, and a little luck were all I had when I joined the Moretti Medical Center.

Adrian, on the other hand, was the Moretti Family's underboss and the strongest contender to become the next Don.

Everyone said standing beside him was the luckiest thing that could ever have happened to me.

They also believed I should spend the rest of my life grateful to the Moretti Family for allowing me that privilege.

What none of them knew was that Adrian had been the one who chased me for an entire year.

Just then, the bell above the clinic door chimed again.

The man in front of me suddenly went rigid.

I looked up.

Adrian stood in the doorway.

Five years had passed, but the moment he appeared, the entire room still fell silent.

His black suit was sharply tailored, his shoulders straight.

But the hard, intimidating edge that had once made people afraid to get too close to him had faded, leaving only obvious exhaustion and tightly buried strain on his face.

He stood there staring at me for so long that he seemed to forget how to breathe.

Finally, he walked to the counter.

"Erin."

His voice was hoarse.

"It's been a long time."

I looked at him calmly.

"Yeah. It has."

The sight of him dragged me straight back to that night five years ago.

Chapter 2

It all started when Selena Moretti returned to Chicago.

She was the old Don's adopted daughter and Adrian's adopted sister, the girl he had protected since they were children.

On her third day back, she burst into my office in tears.

"Erin, after I used the medication you prescribed, my wound got infected! And now I have HIV!"

She rolled up her sleeve.

A strange patch of angry red swelling covered her arm.

I frowned and pulled up her medical records.

The medication I'd prescribed was routinely used at the medical center, and there was nothing wrong with the batch number, manufacturer, or dosage.

More importantly, she had contracted HIV long before I ever treated her.

The lab results made that perfectly clear.

I had barely opened my mouth to explain when the office door was kicked open.

Adrian walked in with two Family enforcers behind him.

Selena's eyes instantly filled with tears.

"Adrian, I really don't blame her. Maybe Erin just looks down on me because I'm adopted. She doesn't think I'm a real Moretti, so she didn't care what medication she gave me."

"She ruined my life!"

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Selena, you know that's not what the test results say."

Adrian didn't even look at the report.

He only looked at me.

"You admit you prescribed the medication?"

"Yes, but the HIV infection wasn't caused by it."

"Enough."

He lifted one hand.

One of the enforcers stepped forward and seized my right arm.

A terrible feeling hit me.

"Adrian, what are you doing?"

His expression was ice cold.

"Isn't this the hand you're so proud of? You're a doctor on the Moretti payroll, with no Family name and no protection of your own, and you still thought you could go after a daughter of this Family. Let me make one thing clear. You don't have that right here."

The next second, a heavy metal baton came crashing down on my right wrist.

The crack of bone came almost at the exact same moment as my scream.

The pain dropped me to my knees.

Adrian only looked down at me.

"This is a lesson. Once you learn how to respect her, I'll have the best orthopedic surgeon treat your hand."

I looked up at him through the pain.

"You didn't even read the test results, and you've already decided I'm guilty?"

Selena burst into tears and wrapped both arms around his.

"Forget it, Adrian. She's going to marry you soon, after all."

That sentence didn't protect me.

If anything, it only made everyone around us look at me with even more contempt.

In their eyes, I wasn't arguing because I was a doctor defending a medical judgment.

I was arguing because they thought I was about to become Mrs. Moretti.

By that evening, everyone at the Family's private bar had already heard the rumors, and they drank and laughed as they tore me apart.

"An outsider thinks she gets to throw her weight around in the Moretti Family?"

"She can't seriously think getting engaged to the underboss means she can start ordering Family members around."

"She's just some broke doctor with no Family behind her, and she's already acting like she's Mrs. Moretti."

"I heard she's almost burned through what little her father left her, and she still acts like she's too good for the rest of us."

I stood outside the bar and heard every word.

After looking into it, I discovered the rumors had started with Adrian's personal assistant.

I called him, and he answered.

"Did you tell people to spread those rumors about me?"

"Yes."

His answer was perfectly calm.

"You've crossed the line too many times lately. I just wanted to make sure you don't do it again."

I stared down at my splinted hand as a chill slowly spread through me.

"Shut the rumors down."

"Apologize to Selena first."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

There was silence on the other end for two seconds before Adrian gave a quiet laugh.

"Erin, did you forget who pulled strings for you at the medical center? Who helped you go from an unknown resident to a lead surgeon at the Family's medical center? Without the Morettis, you're nothing."

That was the first time I truly understood.

Everything Adrian had ever done to help me had never been love in his eyes.

They were resources and privileges, things he believed he had given me and could take back whenever he wanted.

Chapter 3

The next day, Adrian took me to the Drake Hotel.

The Moretti Family was holding a private reception there, and almost every important capo in Chicago was in attendance.

Selena sat near the head table, her arm wrapped in an exaggerated amount of white bandages.

The moment I walked into the ballroom, every eye turned toward me.

Someone deliberately raised his voice.

"So that's the incompetent doctor? I heard she even had the nerve to botch the Family's own daughter's treatment. Give an outsider too much status, and sooner or later she starts thinking she's one of us."

Adrian acted as though he hadn't heard a word.

He walked up to Selena, then turned to me.

"Apologize."

I didn't move.

"I already sent you the complete lab report. Her infection had nothing to do with the medication I prescribed."

Selena shook her head, her eyes red.

"Forget it, Adrian. I don't want you two fighting because of me."

The more she said things like that, the angrier everyone around us became.

One of the capos slammed his glass down on the table.

"Miss Carter, this isn't your hospital. Miss Moretti is willing to accept your apology, so don't keep testing the Family's patience."

Another man gave a mocking laugh.

"She probably thinks a medical license makes her more qualified to speak than those of us who actually came up on the streets."

The whole thing was absurd.

They looked down on me because of where I came from, then turned around and accused me of looking down on them.

Adrian finally lost his patience.

"Erin, don't make me have someone hold you down and force you to bow your head."

I looked straight at him.

"What exactly do you want me to admit? That I hurt her on purpose? That because you skipped our engagement party, I took revenge on your adopted sister? That I'm not good enough to be a Moretti?"

His brow tightened.

"If you keep talking back like this, you're only going to make everyone here hate you more."

I suddenly laughed.

"So none of you care about the truth. You just want to hear me say whatever you've already decided you want to hear."

The words had barely left my mouth when Adrian's head of security grabbed my shoulder and pinned me against the edge of the table.

My injured right hand slammed into the corner, and pain tore through me so violently that all the color drained from my face.

Selena immediately ducked behind Adrian.

"Don't do that. She'll hate me."

Adrian patted her hand.

"She has no right to hate you."

Then he looked at me.

"Say you're sorry."

I clenched my teeth.

"No."

The ballroom went silent.

A few seconds later, Adrian ripped the medical center ID badge from my chest and threw it onto the floor.

"Then for the rest of tonight, you don't get to speak as a doctor from the Moretti Medical Center. Go stand by the door. Come back when you've thought it through."

That night, still wearing my evening dress, I stood outside the Drake Hotel ballroom for three hours.

Every Family member who entered or left could see me.

Some deliberately spilled wine on my shoes, while others shoved empty glasses into my hands and told me to clear them away.

One man laughed as he passed.

"That's more like it. A woman with no Family behind her should learn to serve the Family before she starts giving orders."

I didn't cry.

Not until a drunken young enforcer cornered me in a service hallway.

He waved an old needle he'd taken from a first aid kit, grinning viciously.

"Heard you're obsessed with hygiene. Want to guess who used this before you?"

My expression changed.

"Put it down."

Instead, he moved closer.

"A woman who only got this far because the underboss propped her up thinks she can order me around?"

I took a step back and hit the wall behind me.

"I said put it down."

He suddenly grabbed my arm.

During the struggle, the needle broke the skin on my arm.

My entire body went rigid.

Footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor.

Adrian and several capos were coming out of one of the private rooms.

I called out almost instinctively.

"Adrian!"

He stopped and looked from me to the man beside me.

The young enforcer immediately released my arm, but there wasn't much fear on his face because he knew Adrian wasn't going to punish him harshly over me.

Sure enough, Adrian only said flatly, "If you're drunk, get the hell out of here."

Then he turned to me.

"Don't make a scene over this and ruin the whole reception. These people already don't like you. The more you talk to them like you're giving orders, the more they'll make a point of targeting you."

I looked down at the bead of blood forming on my arm.

"So this is still my fault?"

Adrian frowned.

"I didn't say that. But maybe you should ask yourself why they never treat Selena this way."

After that, I didn't want to explain another word to him.

I went to the ER alone.

The doctor on duty cleaned the wound and prescribed HIV post-exposure prophylaxis.

Before I left, she handed me a document.

"Erin, I didn't want to tell you this right now. Someone from the Moretti Family met with the hospital board this afternoon, and your surgical privileges have been suspended."

I looked up.

"On what grounds?"

"A professional conduct investigation."

Her eyes turned red.

"Adrian personally signed off on it."