The Mafia’s Divorced Queen

After I had stood by Don Theo Vitale through the hardest seven years of his life, he asked me for a divorce on our anniversary. He wanted me to step aside for the daughter of one of the Five Families. “Caterina and I grew up together. Our backgrounds are a better match, too. You’ve killed too many people. Keeping you as my Donna is too dangerous.” “Here’s twenty million dollars. Leave New York.” Before we married, I had used my beauty countless times to get close to the men he wanted dead. Until his position as Don was secure. He used to tell me that every person I killed brought us closer to having a warm, loving home. We had been married for barely three years, and there was already no room for me in that home. My eyes filled with tears. He grew impatient. “Enough. You’ve used those tears on me too many times. I’ll throw in a seaside villa. Will that do?” A single tear slipped down my cheek. “…You can have the Rolls-Royce Phantom, too.” Now tears streamed down both cheeks. I simply couldn’t stop them. “Enough already! What else do you want?” If I couldn’t have love, money would do. I wanted everything the Vitale family owned. Chapter 1 Theo watched me sign the papers without hesitation, surprise showing in his eyes. He knew I loved him more deeply than anyone else ever could. Over the years, I had risked my life for him again and again. When he disappeared and no one knew whether he was alive, I slipped into an enemy’s party in a low-cut evening gown, smiling over drinks with the man until I learned where Theo was being held. By the time I brought Theo out that night, the hem of my dress was soaked in blood. He held me tight and promised he would never make me do anything like that again. He had prepared himself for accusations, for desperate pleas. My behavior today unsettled him. After a long silence, he let out a quiet sigh. “I’ll leave you your favorite armored sedan, too. Antonio will be reassigned as your personal driver.” “I want us to part on good terms.” He didn’t even give me another chance to cry. He was avoiding me—the Nightingale, the woman men all along the East Coast fell prey to. Watching him walk away, I struggled to hold back the hurt. The next day, Theo sent over Antonio’s employment contract. With it came the ownership papers for the customized armored Rolls-Royce Phantom, worth more than forty million. Its exterior had been made less conspicuous, but every component was extravagantly expensive. That car had protected me for five years. Whenever Theo was busy, Antonio was usually the one driving me around in it. I had no real fighting skills. Getting close to those men depended entirely on being beautiful and knowing how to coax them. The closest call came after I had killed one of Theo’s enemies. We were ambushed on the way back, more than a dozen bullets striking the car, and Antonio kept his foot on the accelerator for miles. Those enemies were all waiting for a chance to tear the Nightingale apart. I needed that car. Theo was gone. At least the car was still mine. I had barely put away the documents when Antonio told me I couldn’t take it just yet. Caterina Bellano had just called. She wanted to borrow it for a trip to the south side that afternoon and would return it before nightfall. I swallowed my discomfort and agreed. I didn’t want to start a fight with her over something so small. At three that afternoon, Caterina arrived at the estate with her men and walked straight toward my Phantom. She tapped the heavy door, looking pleased. “Keys.” Antonio didn’t move. His gaze passed over her and instinctively settled on me. Caterina turned. When she saw me, one eyebrow lifted. “Theo really must be worried you can’t survive without him. He even gave you an estate.” My expression darkened. She took the keys anyway and sat in the car for a while. When she got out, she had apparently changed her mind. “Nice car. I’m keeping it.” For a moment, I thought I had misheard. “No.” Caterina stopped dead. She turned and, for the first time, looked directly at me. “What did you say?” My fingers curled into my palms. “The title has already been transferred. It’s mine.” After a brief silence, she laughed. “Evelyn, have you forgotten what you are?” She patted the car, her voice growing more contemptuous. “A car like this is meant for a Don’s wife. Not a whore.” “Theo let you wash off the smell of other men and play wife for three years. Did you really think everyone had forgotten how you used to work for him?” Her words pierced my chest. To get close enough to shoot those men, I had to use my body to lure them in. But the moment they came closest to me was the moment they died. It had been Theo’s idea. He said that whenever he saw me, all he wanted was to lie in my arms. That I made men forget themselves. And now it was being used to humiliate me. I clenched my teeth. “Miss Bellano, my name is on the title.” “A few pieces of paper.” She cut me off impatiently, looking me up and down. “You got a few estates and cars. Does that make you think you’re still part of the Vitale family?” Anger flared in my chest. Sensing the tension, Antonio stepped forward to smooth things over. But before he could speak, Caterina turned her attention to him. “I hear you’ve been with the Vitale family for nine years. You’re staying, too.” Antonio stiffened. Caterina lifted her chin. “I want the car and the driver. There’s nothing here I can’t have. What exactly is your problem?” I was about to answer when brakes screeched outside the gates. Theo was back. He sensed the tension as soon as he stepped out. His gaze passed over my strained expression before settling on Caterina. She walked over and slipped her arm through his. “I want this car and this driver.” Theo was silent for a few seconds. Then he withdrew his arm. “They’ve already been transferred to Evelyn. If you want a car, I’ll order you a new one.” Caterina’s face darkened. “You’re telling me no?” The next instant, she snatched a gun from the guard beside her. Bang. Bang, bang. The shots left my ears ringing. The finish on the steering wheel splintered. Fragments of metal flew, and bullets tore scorched holes through the leather seats. Looking at the bullet-riddled car, she gave a cold little smile. “If I can’t have it, no one will.” Then she turned and walked away. I stood frozen. After a long while, I approached the car, one step at a time. I stared at the ruined interior. The control system had been destroyed. It wouldn’t even run. Tears stung my eyes. Theo stood behind me, watching my trembling hands. For the first time, guilt appeared in his eyes. He was about to speak when several sharp blasts of a car horn interrupted him. Caterina was telling him to hurry. I turned toward him, my eyes already wet. “Theo, this car can’t be fixed.” He hesitated, then sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ll have someone take care of it. They can replace the system…” Then he hurried away. I closed my eyes. The flicker of hope I had felt when he defended me went out. “Then it won’t be the same car anymore…” Late that night, a new armored car pulled into the estate. A basic model. It wouldn’t even stop rifle fire. The tires couldn’t withstand the friction at high speeds. “Miss Evelyn, the Don says the other car couldn’t be repaired, so he bought you a new one.” I looked down at the new documents and almost laughed. He couldn’t protect what I wanted to keep. He couldn’t even be bothered to replace it properly. Chapter 2 The day after Katerina shot up my car, her people came back with an empty crate. They wanted every contact file I'd put together for the Vitale family over the past seven years: lawyers, bankers, business associates, the wives of other family heads. There were also the people who'd arranged Theo's private meetings and covered for me afterward. “Ms. Bellano will be taking over the Donna's duties,” the woman at the door said. “She'd like you to hand over the remaining files.” I opened the notebook on top. The first page was in my handwriting, from seven years ago. Theo hadn't secured his position then. Plenty of people still refused to give him the time of day. I went with him to dinner after dinner, sometimes to help close a deal, sometimes to get close to a man he wanted dead. Which flowers a wife liked. Where her children went to school. Who hated whom. Theo never remembered any of it. I did. At first, I collected those details to work out who could introduce me to a target. Once, the night after a job, an infected wound left me running a 102-degree fever. I put on a dress and went to dinner anyway. The man we needed to do business with had brought his wife, and she would only deal with me. That contract was crucial to the family's expansion. We couldn't afford to lose it. The deal went through. Everyone congratulated Theo. No one knew the bandage under my dress was still seeping blood. When we got home, I collapsed on the bathroom floor. I hadn't resented it then. I was his wife. What he gained, we gained. Now I had the settlement, and the income from businesses I'd acquired years ago. I could live comfortably for the rest of my life. But if I wanted control over that life, I had to stop leaving my own interests to hired managers while I took care of Theo's. I packed the family files into the crate. The woman reached for it, then noticed the three thick address books I'd kept aside. “Those too.” “No.” I closed the drawer. “These people are my friends. Whether they choose to deal with Katerina is up to them. She can make her own introductions.” Some of those contacts had first known me only as the Nightingale. After a few successful jobs for Theo, they'd approached me themselves. Theo wanted their families' support, so he'd let me take the work. One had paid me with a small dock on the North Shore. Another had given me shares in a freight company. After I became the Donna, I'd left the dock to a manager and collected my dividends. I was too busy running Theo's household to do much else. The woman left without another word. That evening, Theo sent a car for me. He wanted me at the family's annual banquet, where he would announce his engagement to Katerina. He stood at the front of the brightly lit hall in a black suit. He looked tired, but it was his bare ring finger that caught my attention. A pale band marked where his wedding ring had been. Katerina stood beside him, wearing the obsidian Donna brooch I'd returned with the files that afternoon. “As of today, the Vitale and Bellano families are entering a lasting alliance.” The room applauded. I clapped with everyone else, swallowing the ache in my chest. Halfway through the evening, the family lawyer stepped forward to discuss the education fund. I'd proposed it three years earlier, to help children whose fathers had died in family wars. Theo had put me in charge. At every annual banquet since, he'd made a contribution from his personal account. The lawyer had barely said my name when Katerina turned to Theo. “She's still in charge?” “It was Evelyn's idea. The arrangement stands.” Katerina laughed. “Divorced, and still using the family's resources to buy goodwill.” The conversation around us stopped. “Evelyn, you got the estate, the money, the cars. Theo gave you everything he promised. Isn't that enough?” My fingers tightened around the glass. “Or did sleeping with a few powerful men make you think you belonged at the same table as their wives?” “Katerina.” Theo's voice was low. She looked at him. “Am I wrong?” After a pause, he said, “The older members here know what Evelyn used to do. She shouldn't represent the family anymore.” Katerina smiled. I set down my glass. Before I could speak, Theo turned back to the lawyer. “Register the fund in Evelyn's name. She'll run it independently. I'll continue making the same annual contribution from my personal account.” Katerina's smile disappeared. “She isn't the Donna! Why should she keep control of our charity?” “I said she wouldn't handle Vitale affairs. I made her a personal promise about that fund. Her position has nothing to do with it.” Then he addressed the lawyer again. “One more thing. The family council approved it last night. Evelyn will receive an eight-percent stake in South Port, along with the management rights.” South Port was the most sought-after waterfront property in the area. Money, business connections, influence. Everyone wanted a piece of it. I looked up. I hadn't expected that. The room went silent. Katerina stared at Theo, white-faced. “Give me the papers,” I said. “I'll sign now.” Theo held my gaze. “Seven years, Evelyn. I owe you this.” I thought of what he'd just said about my past making me unfit to represent the family. The man who'd tried to take South Port from him was one of the men he'd sent me to kill. The lawyer handed me the documents, and I let myself smile. Eight percent of the port. Management rights. My own foundation. And the contacts I'd kept for myself. Eight percent wasn't enough. But it got me a seat at the shareholders' table. Chapter 3 After the banquet, I threw myself into running South Port. I called the manager of my North Shore dock and the freight operators I knew. I had businesses and contacts of my own. It was time to put them to work for me. Within a month, revenue had climbed and we'd recovered all the old bad debt. For the first time since I'd stepped back from work, I was running my own business. The profits no longer had to cover Theo's shortfalls. That afternoon, I'd just finished dealing with a shipment that had been held up. Ten minutes into the drive back, I glanced in the rearview mirror. Only one of the two escort cars was still behind us. Before I could ask what had happened, two black cars shot out of the intersection and blocked the road. The collision threw me against the door. I was in the cheaper armored car Theo had sent to replace the Phantom. The first impact had already buckled the door. Glass burst across my arm and stomach. The driver swerved, and we slammed into the guardrail. Pain tore through my chest. My vision began to go dark. “Go!” The driver forced his door open. He was bleeding too. I stumbled after him into a narrow passage between the freight buildings, blood soaking my clothes from the wound in my shoulder. We found an abandoned warehouse and slipped inside. I slid down the wall. My phone had been smashed in the crash. While I sat there trying to stay conscious, Marco interrupted Theo's family council. “Don. Ms. Rossi is missing.” Theo stopped turning the page in front of him. “Her guards?” “One escort car was ordered to the south side during the drive. We found the other in the old freight district at West Harbor. The guards are all injured.” Theo got to his feet, leaving the meeting behind him. “Seal the exits at West Harbor. Search every building. Find her.” He kept calling. My phone never answered. At the scene, his men found blood on the ground and followed the trail to the warehouse. The door burst open. Light flooded in, and someone came running toward me. Theo. He looked at my blood-soaked clothes, and his face changed. “Don't look like that,” I managed. “I'm not dead yet.” He crouched beside me, pulled off his jacket and pressed it against my shoulder. “The doctor's coming.” His voice was steady. His hands weren't. In seven years, I'd never seen him so frightened. “Theo. It hurts.” “I know.” His voice broke a little. “Just hold on.” He helped lift me onto the stretcher, my blood all over his hands. Marco came over with the security assignment log. “The order to divert her escort came through at the last minute. Nobody told Ms. Rossi.” Theo looked up. “It came from Ms. Bellano.” His bloodied hand closed around the edge of the stretcher. Chapter 4 I woke the next afternoon. Every movement pulled at my shoulder, and breathing hurt my ribs. Theo sat by the window in yesterday's shirt, dried blood on one cuff. When he saw I was awake, he came straight to the bed and poured me some water. He tried to help me sit up. I flinched away. His hand stopped. Then he put the glass within reach. “No damage to your organs. But your shoulder needs rest, and you have a cracked rib.” He sat beside me. “I checked the assignments. Katerina diverted one escort car. That left you with only half your guards. I never should have given anyone else control of your security.” He paused. “Evelyn, I'm sorry.” I'd never heard him apologize like that. Theo usually dealt with mistakes by finding someone to punish. I was too tired to be grateful. “It's all right.” He looked at me, hopeful. “Katerina will be your Donna,” I said. “The family's affairs are hers to manage. I understand.” His face tightened. Before he could answer, heels clicked outside the room. Katerina walked in with flowers, set them on the table and looked me over. “You seem to be recovering.” Theo stood. “Why are you here?” “To visit Evelyn. Is that a problem?” “You know why she's in that bed.” He threw the assignment records at her feet. She glanced at them, then put her bag on the sofa. “I changed a security assignment. I didn't order anyone to attack her. Besides, she isn't the Donna anymore. Why is she still using family guards?” “So you pulled half her escort without even telling her?” “She used to go out and kill men on her own. Now she needs an army for a trip to West Harbor? And somehow it's my fault?” “From now on, you have no say in her security.” Katerina's eyes filled with angry tears. “You're punishing me over your ex-wife? Both families know we're getting married. Humiliate me, and see what happens to the alliance.” Theo's fingers tightened around the glass. For a long moment, he said nothing. “Go home.” Katerina gave me a small, satisfied smile on her way out. I didn't ask him to stop her. When he had to choose between the alliance and my safety, he chose the alliance. He sat down again. “I'll have Marco replace your guards. It won't happen again.” I pulled the blanket up and closed my eyes. “Evelyn?” I didn't answer. Eventually, he tucked the blanket around me and left. After that, he rarely visited. One of his men brought lunch each day. Theo had wedding negotiations and family meetings to attend. The night before my discharge, he texted. Something came up. I can't collect you tomorrow. The driver will be there at nine. I wrote back: Fine. At seven the next morning, I checked myself out. A company car was already waiting. My North Shore manager had arranged the new security team. I paid them from my own account. No one at Vitale could give them orders. “All the family guards have been replaced, Ms. Rossi,” the driver told me. “The estate staff who wanted to stay have signed contracts with you directly.” “Good.” We pulled away. A bank notification appeared on my phone. Ten million dollars. From Theo. The memo read: Personal gift. I checked that the money had cleared, forwarded the notice to my lawyer and had it added to my private funds. I'd take the money. That didn't mean I had to see him. He could keep paying as long as he liked. What I did with my life was my decision.