Five Years of Lies:My Husband Sacrificed My Mother for His First Love

But I could no longer feel any warmth from him.

That one person could go this far for another.

The moment my eyes closed, the tears slid down.

I helped him onto the bed and pulled the covers over him.

The liquor took hold, and he sank quickly into sleep.

I sat at the head of the bed and quietly picked up his phone.

One try at the passcode, and it unlocked.

It was Bianca's birthday.

I dug out every blood oath he'd signed over these years, every pact sealed in the Family's name.

Without exception, all of them were dealings funneled to the Gallo Family.

I'd never set foot in the affairs of the Moretti syndicate, but even I could see it. For Bianca's sake, he had surrendered no small fortune in tribute, rackets bled quietly into Gallo hands.

The face the Family put forward in public was Bianca's favored darling.

The territory the deals touched was the ground Bianca loved best.

Even the final count on every arrangement was a number bound to her.

Her birthday. Her wedding day. The day she first laid eyes on Lorenzo.

With trembling hands, I opened his private photo album.

Every single picture was Bianca's smiling face.

Either her gracing some affair as a daughter of the Gallo line, or her toasting a sealed deal beside Marco.

Marco's face had been cropped out by Lorenzo, leaving only Bianca in the frame.

A full thousand photos, a record of these past five years.

Beyond those, there were countless records of jewels claimed at auction, the kind that passed through the Family's clean-money houses.

Every time, he'd sent them to Bianca under the syndicate's name.

Calling them a gift of goodwill to an allied bloodline.

A man's hidden love was loud and quiet all at once.

Tucked into every little detail.

It stung at my chest in wave after wave.

I'd seen these jewels before.

They were nothing but throw-ins from the auction house, yet he'd told me they were gifts he'd prepared for me.

I gave a bitter little smile to myself and didn't keep looking.

I only bought myself passage abroad for three days from now, a quiet road into distant territory.

And set in motion the renunciation of every paper that tied me to his name.

Three days, to say goodbye to five years. That was enough.

I didn't sleep all night.

When the sky lightened, I went out to wash up.

My phone rang.

Lorenzo's puzzled voice followed right after:

"Adriana? What papers did you cancel?"

I quickly grabbed the phone and explained without missing a beat. I smoothed the fabric of my sleeve flat against my wrist, once, slowly, forcing my hand to lie still.

"It's nothing. My documents lapsed. I arranged to have them seen to."

"Don't you have a sit-down today? Go on. See to your business."

He didn't think any more of it. He only wrapped me tenderly in his arms, his cheek brushing against mine.

"Thank you, tesoro. Having a wife as devoted as you is my good fortune."

I smiled and said nothing.

"As a reward, how about your husband brings you a big gift tonight?"

"Sure. I'll be waiting for you at home."

No sooner had Lorenzo left than one of his men brought me an exquisite breakfast.

He knew I liked that hotel, one of the Family's own legitimate fronts, and for five years, like clockwork, he'd had my breakfast carried from there.

I once took it as nothing but his love for me.

Now, it looked like a brush-off.

If he truly loved me, how could he go five years without learning to cook a single dish?

To keep me from straying too near Bianca, he'd truly spared no thought.

I dumped the breakfast into the trash and turned to walk out the door.

This charade, five years running, it was time to end it.

There weren't many waiting where I went to renounce my papers. I filled out the application and headed to the consigliere's office.

A severance of the union that left me with nothing came from a worn template, and before long the consigliere handed me two copies.

I took the document to the heart of Lorenzo's Family business.

The moment I walked in, I heard the men and women of the house buzzing with gossip.

"Was that woman today Mrs. Moretti? Her presence is just stunning! No wonder the Don guards her like a treasure and won't let anyone near her!"

"She has to be! That necklace at her throat, I delivered it myself a week ago! I heard it went for a fortune at auction! I couldn't earn that if I worked since the dawn of man! I'm so jealous!"