The Mafia Boss Forced His Enemy’s Sister Into a Marriage—Then Learned She Had Saved Him Years Ago

Three days later, the fever had broken, and Dominic’s wound was beginning to heal properly under Clara’s round-the-clock care.

The dynamic in the penthouse had transformed completely. Clara no longer slept in the guest room. She moved her things into the master suite, though Dominic treated her with a gentle, reverent respect that surprised everyone in the Rossi organization. He listened to her, he protected her, and for the first time in seven years, the ruthless mafia boss smiled.

But peace in the underworld never lasted long.

It was two in the morning when the secure landline in Dominic’s office rang.

Clara woke up to find Dominic standing near the window, wearing a dark silk robe, listening quietly to the receiver. His face had hardened into the cold, terrifying mask she had grown to fear during her first months in the house.

“Where?” Dominic asked into the phone.

A pause.

“Is she secure?”

Another pause.

“Get the strike team ready. I’m coming down.”

Dominic hung up the phone. He turned to look at Clara, who was sitting up in bed, clutching the duvet to her chest.

“What happened?” she asked, her heart pounding.

“The Moretti family,” Dominic said calmly, walking over to his closet and pulling out a shoulder holster. “They realized they couldn't break our shipping lines while I was alive. So they found another way to pressure the family.”

“Ethan?” Clara guessed, a cold dread filling her stomach.

“Worse,” Dominic said, checking the magazine of his custom silver firearm. “Your brother sold information to Julian Moretti. He told them where you were going when you thought you were leaving me three days ago. Moretti thinks you’re still my hostage... and he just took your brother and staged a team near your old nursing clinic downtown.”

Clara stood up from the bed, her face pale. “Ethan gave them the clinic’s schedule?”

“He traded your safety for his own debt, Clara,” Dominic said, stepping toward her and placing his hands on her shoulders. “He thought if Moretti captured you, Moretti could force me to surrender the waterfront in exchange for your life.”

Clara felt a sickening mixture of rage and betrayal wash over her. Her own brother—the man she had sacrificed her life to protect—had used her as bait once again.

“What are you going to do?” Clara asked, looking into Dominic’s dark eyes.

“I’m going to end the Moretti family,” Dominic said smoothly. “And then I’m going to deal with your brother.”

“Dominic, wait,” Clara caught his arm, her fingers sinking into the fabric of his sleeve. “Don't kill Ethan.”

Dominic stared at her in disbelief. “He betrayed you, Clara! He set you up to be taken by men who would have executed you on camera to hurt me!”

“I know what he is!” Clara yelled, tears of anger stinging her eyes. “He’s weak, he’s selfish, and he’s a coward! But if you execute him in cold blood, you become the monster he thinks you are! I didn't save your life seven years ago so you could turn around and use those hands to murder my blood!”

Dominic went completely still. He looked at her hand on his sleeve, then down at the scar beneath his shirt.

“He has to pay a price, Clara,” Dominic said softly.

“Then ruin him,” Clara said, her voice turning as cold as ice. “Take his company. Strip his name. Send him out of this city with nothing in his pockets. Let him live with the knowledge that the sister he sold was the one who bought his life.”