I Heard His Mind: The Don's Regret

I was naked in the bed of the most dangerous Capo in New York when I heard his mind whisper the name of the woman he actually wanted. It wasn't me. My husband, Dante, moved over me with cold precision, but his thoughts were screaming for Sofia, a soldier's widow he claimed to protect out of "honor." I possess a secret that makes me a freak: I can hear the thoughts of men. And Dante’s mind was a torture chamber of devotion to another woman. I found the deed to a luxury penthouse he bought for her. I watched her parade around in a dress he bought for me, hearing her mental triumph as she thought about rubbing her scent all over it. Refusing to be a placeholder in my own marriage, I left my wedding ring on his desk and fled to Las Vegas to build my own empire. I thought I had escaped. Until the divorce papers arrived in the mail, signed by him. I stood in my shop, heartbroken, believing he had finally discarded me to be with his true love. But then the phone rang. "Dante didn't sign those papers, Elena. He’s in the ICU." My blood ran cold. "He took two bullets to the chest. He started a war to distract the enemy from finding you." He hadn't chosen her. He was dying for me. I tore up the papers and booked a private jet. If the Grim Reaper wanted my husband, he would have to get through me first.

Chapters

Chapter 9

Dante Cavallaro POV

Twenty-four hours had passed without sleep.

I sat in my study, a glass of whiskey resting untouched on the mahogany desk.

The house felt massive around me, hostile in its silence.

Every shifting shadow looked like her.

Every groan of the floorboards sounded like the phantom echo of her footsteps.

The door clicked open.

I looked up, expecting Vitale with news from the trackers.

It was Sofia.

She strolled in with an air of possession that made my stomach turn.

She was wearing a silk robe.

My wife's robe.

Red rage flooded my vision, tinting the world in violence.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice a low, vibrating growl.

"I heard she left," Sofia said softly.

She rounded the desk, invading my personal space.

She placed a hand on my shoulder.

Her fingers felt like spiders crawling over my skin.

"I'm sorry, Dante. But maybe... maybe it's for the best."

"For the best?" I repeated, the words tasting like ash.

"She wasn't right for you," Sofia cooed, her voice dripping with false sympathy. "She was too hard. Too cold. You need someone who appreciates you. Someone who needs you."

She leaned down.

The scent of vanilla was suffocating, cloying and artificial.

It made me want to gag.

"I'm here, Dante," she whispered against my ear. "I've always been here."

She moved to settle onto my lap.

I stood up so abruptly that my chair flew backward, crashing against the wall with a deafening crack.

Sofia stumbled, barely catching herself on the edge of the desk.

"Dante?"

"Take that robe off," I commanded.

Sofia smiled tentatively, her fingers drifting to the belt. "Of course, I-"

"Take it off and put on your own clothes," I roared, the sound tearing from my chest. "And get out of my house."

Sofia froze.

Her face crumbled, the mask of seduction slipping.

"What? But... she's gone! We can finally-"

"There is no 'we'!" I shouted. "There never was!"

"But you chose me!" she screamed, her voice shrill. "You defended me! You bought me the penthouse!"

"I bought the penthouse for Elena!" I slammed my fist onto the desk, rattling the glass of whiskey. "I used your name to keep it off the books so my enemies wouldn't blow it up with her inside! You were a signature! A pen! Nothing more!"

Sofia recoiled as if I had struck her physically.

Her eyes narrowed, hurt morphing into venom.

"And the dress?" she hissed. "You let me wear it."

I narrowed my eyes, the non-sequitur catching me off guard.

"What?"

"The green dress," she said, malice leaking into her voice, desperate to claim a victory. "I tried it on. I rubbed my perfume on it. I told her I had worn it. That's why she slapped me."

The world stopped spinning.

She told me she wore the dress. She told me-

Elena's desperate words from that night echoed in my mind, haunting me.

I hadn't listened.

I had looked at the crocodile tears on Sofia's face and ignored the burning truth in Elena's eyes.

I walked around the desk.

I towered over Sofia, letting my shadow consume her.

She shrank back, real, primal fear finally entering her eyes.

"You provoked her," I said, the realization settling like lead in my gut. "You staged the accident in the kitchen. You poisoned my marriage."

"I did it for us!" Sofia cried.

"Get out," I said. My voice was deadly quiet, far scarier than the shouting.

"Dante, please-"

"If you are not out of this house in two minutes," I warned, "I will forget the debt I owe your dead husband. And I will treat you like the enemy you are."

Sofia scrambled back, tripping over her own feet.

She turned and ran out of the room.

Moments later, the front door slammed, shaking the house.

I was alone.

Truly alone.

I looked at the empty desk where Elena's resignation letter had lain.

I had chosen honor over love.

And now I had neither.

I pulled out my phone.

I dialed Rocco.

"Did you find them?"

"We got a hit on a credit card," Rocco answered immediately. "A burner account Aria set up years ago. They bought tickets."

"Where?"

"Las Vegas."

I hung up without another word.

I walked to the window and looked out at the dark, sprawling grounds.

Las Vegas.

The city of sin.

She thought she could run.

She thought she could hide in the neon lights.

She was wrong.

I wasn't a husband anymore.

I was a hunter.

And I was coming to claim my prize.

Continue to next part

I was guiding the blade through a slab of A5 Wagyu for our seven-year anniversary when a burner phone vibrated against my knee. It was a photo of a manicured hand resting on the tuxedo I had bought for Dante three weeks ago. On the finger sat a massive diamond ring. The caption read: Mrs. Isabella Gallo. Finally legal. For seven years, I wasn't just his lover. I was the architect of his legitimacy, the woman who wrote the code that cleaned his dirty money. Yet, while I was here cooking his favorite steak, he had married a mob princess to secure her father's territory. When Dante walked in smelling of expensive scotch and another woman's perfume, he didn't apologize. "It's just politics," he said, loosening his tie. "You keep your allowance, your position. You just stay in the shadows a little longer." He looked at me like I was a piece of high-end furniture. When I told him I was leaving, his face darkened. "You can't resign from the Mafia, Seraphina," he sneered, blocking the door. "If you leave, I will burn everything you have." He truly believed he was the King on the chessboard. He forgot that I was the one who built the board. I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I simply walked out, opened my encrypted laptop, and dialed the number of the one man Dante feared most. "I'm cashing out," I said. "And I'm bringing the entire Gallo empire with me."

Mafia Modern Romance

8.1

He Faked Amnesia To Break Our Vows

8.1

I was sealing our wedding invitations with crimson wax when I heard my fiancé through the slightly ajar study door. Ethan wasn't reciting the poetry he’d written for me over the last seven years. He was outlining the logistics of his betrayal. "If I fake amnesia after the 'accident' tonight, I can delay the wedding without the family stopping the merger," Ethan laughed, ice clinking in his glass. "And Ava? The Canary?" his friend asked. "Ava is property. You maintain property; you don't have fun with it. While she plays nurse, I get a medical exemption to sleep with Chloe." My world shattered. I fled into the rainy night, blinded by tears, until headlights turned my world upside down. I woke up in the wreckage, my arm shattered, tasting blood. Ethan arrived moments later. But he didn't run to me. He stepped right over my bleeding body to comfort Chloe, who had a minor scratch on her forehead. "I've got you, baby," he cooed to his mistress, looking at me with nothing but cold annoyance. "Don't worry about her. She's tough." He left me in the street. By the next morning, the narrative was set: The tragic Don had lost his memory of his fiancée, but miraculously remembered his 'true love,' Chloe. He evicted me from our penthouse while I was still in surgery. He thought he had won. He thought the Canary would just die in the cold. He forgot one thing. I knew where he hid the bodies—literally. I walked into his staged public proposal, slammed my ring on the table, and left a note under it. *I remember everything. And so do you.* Then I boarded a plane with his secret incriminating journal in my bag. The empire was about to burn.

Mafia Modern Romance

8.1

Inked by the Mafia King

8.1

Sloane Avery built her life on control — a rising tattoo artist in Austin, a stable boyfriend, a five-year plan pinned to her apartment wall. Then she catches her boyfriend cheating at their anniversary dinner, and the night spirals into the orbit of Rhett Caraveo — inked, magnetic, and the heir to a cartel empire she didn't know existed. Rhett doesn't ask permission. He doesn't negotiate. When he decides Sloane belongs in his world, he simply rearranges reality until she has nowhere else to go. But Sloane isn't the kind of woman who breaks — she's the kind who bends the cage until it fits her shape. As her ex-boyfriend becomes dangerously desperate to win her back and a rival family threatens everything Rhett has built, Sloane discovers that the most dangerous man in Texas has one weakness: her. The question isn't whether she'll survive his world. It's whether she'll want to leave it.

Mafia Modern Romance

8.1

La viuda de mi amigo

8.1

Florencia esta huyendo de un pasado que la destrozo, pero en especial de Manuel un narcotraficante que esta obsesionado con ella, sin saber que se encontraría con el amor de su vida a mitad de camino; Leonardo escapa de un matrimonio arreglado por sus padres, ya que no tienen la fuerza para imponerse, hasta que la ve, su hada como la llama, ambos viven un amor verdadero y único, jurándose amor eterno, sin tener en cuenta que el ser humano tienen fecha de caducidad. capos narcos, muerte, un bebé, una promesa, una suplica, un buen amigo y muchas verdades que saldrán a la luz. EL AMOR, DESPUÉS DEL AMOR ¿existe?

Action Mafia Romance

9.6

Pampered By The Rival Mafia Boss

9.6

Ten years ago, I saved the life of New York’s most dangerous mob boss with a sewing kit. I gave Ethan Reed my youth, my loyalty, and my heart. But the moment his ex-girlfriend Chloe returned, I became disposable. It didn't matter that she had abandoned him. It didn't matter that she poisoned me, killing the unborn child Ethan didn't even know we had. When Chloe needed a kidney transplant due to her drug abuse, Ethan didn't protect me. He strapped me to a gurney. "It's just one kidney, Ava. You owe me." He harvested my organ to save the woman who murdered his heir. And when he was done, he decided I was a loose end. He dragged me to the edge of a bridge in the pouring rain. "This is how it ends," he said, his eyes devoid of love. "A tragic suicide." He pushed me into the freezing water, watching me drown to secure his happy ending. He thought I was dead. He thought the canary had sung its last song. But he forgot one thing. I was the chemist who built his empire. When his greatest rival pulled me out of the river, I didn't pray for salvation. I prayed for revenge. Three months later, I walked into his charity gala on the arm of his enemy, wearing a white suit and a smile sharp enough to cut glass. Ethan dropped to his knees when he saw me. But I wasn't there to forgive him. I was there to burn his house down.

Action Mafia Modern

9.1

Reborn To Ruin: The Mafia Queen's Revenge

9.1

I spent twenty-one years trying to be the perfect Mafia Princess, treating my illegitimate sister, Mia, with nothing but grace. That kindness is exactly what got me killed. My husband, Luca, didn't take me on a honeymoon. He dragged me into the soundproof basement of our estate. Mia was there, too. Not to help me, but to gloat. She laughed as she admitted to poisoning our mother with arsenic, watching with glee as Luca brought a serrated knife to my chest. "You were always too soft, Sera," he sneered, carving through my skin while I begged for mercy. I died in that cold, dark room, choking on my own blood and the bitter taste of betrayal. But I didn't stay dead. I woke up gasping for air, clutching a chest that was smooth and unscarred. The calendar on my nightstand read May 12, 2018. It was five years ago. The very morning I was scheduled to sign the marriage contract that would seal my fate. I looked at the paper on the vanity. In my last life, I signed it with a trembling hand. This time, I flicked open my silver Zippo and watched the flames eat Luca's name. I didn't pack a dress. I packed a pistol and a stack of cash. I was going to Las Vegas. There was only one man dangerous enough to help me destroy the New York families. I walked into the underground fight club, locked eyes with the deadliest man in the room, and smiled. "Dante Cavallaro," I said. "I'm here to make you a King."

Action Mafia Modern

I Heard His Mind: The Don's Regret

Chapter 9

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