A Bullet for the Don's Protection

Ethan sighed, turning to Cassandra with a look of weary adoration. "You're too kind," he murmured. Then his eyes hardened as he looked at me. "Ingrid, she's right. You're not dead, so what's the big deal? Give Bianca to her and stop making a scene over nothing."

I stared at Ethan, unable to believe what I was hearing. I was carrying his child and had nearly been murdered, but as long as I was alive, I had no right to complain.

It was insane.

But back then, I still loved him. I thought he was just being deceived by Cassandra. As his wife, I believed I had to be magnanimous.

Until I overheard him speaking to Cassandra, his eyes full of doting affection. "Next time, make sure your work is cleaner. If you get caught again, I won't be able to cover for you."

Bianca stood beside them, smiling.

The three of them looked like a happy family, while an icy dread washed over me. From the very beginning, Ethan had known everything. He had protected them.

Seeing Bianca again, a towering hatred surged through me, and my body trembled with rage.

Bianca mistook my trembling for guilt. Her initial hesitance vanished, replaced by brazen insolence.

"Mrs. Gallo, Mr. Gallo says he's busy with Miss Thorne," she sneered. "As for you, as long as you're breathing, you're fine. If you bother him again, he'll divorce you. And he'll make sure your bastard child grows up calling Miss Thorne 'Mamma'!"

She continued, her voice dripping with venom. "Mr. Gallo also said he never liked you. He only married you for your father's connections. Now that he's a Capo, keeping you around is an act of charity. If you don't learn your place, you won't even know what hit you."

After Bianca finished, the Don's expression turned thunderous. He slammed his whiskey glass on the floor, shattering it.

At the sound, his men dropped to their knees.

Bianca, however, was completely oblivious. She sauntered over to me and sneered, "Mrs. Gallo, I'd save your breath. This little sympathy act is wasted on Mr. Gallo. And as for this 'other man'? If you're trying to make my boss jealous, you've made a grave mistake."

She leaned closer. "And if I told Mr. Gallo the truth... that you risked your own baby to save this lover of yours... do you think he wouldn't tear you limb from limb?"

The Don had changed out of his bloodied suit jacket into simple, unmarked clothes, leading her to mistake the most powerful man in the city for a common lover.

The Don's expression was terrifying. He let out a cold, sharp laugh and gestured to the newly arrived bodyguards.

Bianca panicked. The moment she opened her mouth to scream, a hand clamped over it, and she was dragged out.

"Dispose of her. Cleanly. Dump the body in the Hudson and send the photos to Ethan Gallo. I want to see what makes that man so special that he'd let Miss Costello be humiliated like this."

The Don's choice of my name was not lost on me. He was deliberately severing my ties to Ethan.

My gamble had paid off.