The True Heiress They Replaced and Then Tried to Erase

"You still don't know, do you? Mateo has always loved me!"

Pain shot through me as I clenched my fists. "What… what did you just say?" My voice shook.

"These past two years, do you even know why Mateo spends all his nights locked in that study? Because that room is full of his love and longing for me."

"He even swore that even if you could carry a child, he'd find a way to make you lose it. He'd never let anyone stand between my blood and the Graciano succession. Hahaha!"

Shock and fury surged through me. "Aren't you afraid Lorenzo will find out?"

At that moment, Lorenzo's footsteps echoed from the stairwell, slow and deliberate, the kind of tread that made soldiers straighten in doorways.

Valentina's face changed in an instant. Her practiced smile held a beat too long, then snapped flat. She seized my hand and slammed it against her own cheek. Then, as if losing her balance, she stumbled backward and fell straight into Lorenzo's arms.

Almost at the same moment, Mateo and my parents' furious voices rang out from the doorway.

"Adriana! Are you out of your mind?!"

Valentina clutched her reddened cheek, tears streaming down her face like a fragile, weeping flower. Her fingers brushed the pendant at her throat, checking it the way a man checks a weapon is still there.

"Lorenzo, I never thought… after two years, my sister would still hate me for taking you from her."

"But it was never like that. You only bound yourself to me to seal the pact between the Falcone and Graciano Families. And still she's jealous that I carry your blood… She told me she wanted me to suffer the way she has. To know what it is to never bear a child."

Before I could even speak, Lorenzo, Mateo, and my parents all looked at me with the same cold contempt.

"Adriana, if anything happens to Valentina's child, you'll regret the day you were born." Lorenzo didn't hesitate. He scooped Valentina into his arms and swept her out the door.

Mateo slammed his fist against the frame, his eyes burning red. "Adriana, I never thought you could be this cruel. Everything that was done to you had nothing to do with Valentina. Why take it out on her?"

Even my parents scolded me, calling me reckless, childish, a danger to the alliance.

Nothing to do with her? Mateo actually had the nerve to say that?

Rage surged through me. I wanted to scream at him, to tell him everything, to name the names this Family had buried under Omertà. But before I could, my vision blurred and darkness swallowed me whole.

When I woke, I was in a hospital bed, the kind the Family kept on quiet retainer where no questions were ever logged. Mateo was gripping my hand tightly.

"Adriana, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

A cold glint flickered in my eyes.

So he found out after all.

Well then… I might as well make this surprise even bigger.

Tears welled up as I whispered, my voice trembling. "The doctor said it's barely a month along, and with my health… there's no guarantee I can carry to term. I didn't want to say anything until things were stable."

My eyes reddened and tears slid down my cheeks.

"Why would I be jealous of Valentina? Why would I hurt her? I'm carrying your child, Mateo. She set me up."

Mateo's hand tightened over mine, and he nodded furiously. "I'll go to Lorenzo and my parents myself. Valentina has crossed a line this time."

I closed my eyes and murmured, "I'm tired. I don't want to see you right now."

Mateo understood. I was still upset.

Without another word he rose. By the bedside table his fingers found the water glass and the prayer card someone had left, squaring them, aligning them with the edge. "Don't worry. I'll talk to Lorenzo and my parents right away. I'll clear your name."

A few hours later my parents arrived at the hospital, all smiles, heaping praise on how fortunate I was.

Right in front of me they even scolded Valentina, calling her reckless, a liability to the truce.

Then, as casually as men discussing tribute over wine, they mentioned that if I safely delivered this child, the Graciano bloodline would have another heir.

Watching their false, greedy faces made my stomach turn.

I used my health as an excuse and had Mateo send them away. The moment they left, I called my consigliere and had him draw up the papers to dissolve the alliance pact.

I slipped them between my prenatal reports and sweet-talked Mateo into signing without a second thought, his pen scratching where I pointed, his eyes already somewhere soft and far away.

In one month, after the mandatory waiting period, the dissolution would be final.

The effective date? Mateo's birthday.

The same day I planned to vanish from this house, and both Families, for good.

For the next month, Mateo was ecstatic.

He couldn't stop talking about the baby, about our future, completely blind to the fact that soon both would be gone.

He went so far as to gut two of the bedrooms in the estate and remake them into nurseries, one pink, one blue.

"That way," he said, "boy or girl, everything's ready."

He even began talking about a second child, already dreaming of a perfect famiglia, a son and a daughter.

I sneered inwardly. Mateo, I hope you'll still be smiling on your birthday.

The day finally came.

Early that morning he wrapped me in his arms, saying he wanted to take me out to celebrate. But before we could leave, Valentina called.

For the past month she had used the pretext of visiting me to linger near Mateo, working him at every turn.

To my surprise, he had refused her each time. He told himself that since he had chosen me and the child, he owed it to us to keep faith.

Just as we'd started to believe he had truly changed, Valentina played her last card.

She said she only wanted to drop off a birthday gift for Mateo. On the way, though, there had been a wreck. Her stomach hurt. She was terrified.

As expected, Mateo panicked. He turned to me and lied straight to my face, saying urgent Family business had come up and he'd be back soon.

I smiled at him sweetly. "When you come back, I'll have a special surprise waiting for you."

His gaze softened when he noticed the small gift box in my hands. With a look full of devotion, he kissed my forehead.

"I can't wait. Let's open it together when I get back."

The moment he walked out the door, my phone rang.

Valentina.

"Adriana, two years ago, I was the one who paid the men to take you."

"I only learned the rest a few days ago. It wasn't your parents who got you back. It was Mateo. He spent a fortune to bury my name in it, and he bound himself to you to keep you from digging any further."

"Back when I was staying in your house, he came to that study every night and took me, again and again. He said he found you disgusting, that he had to picture my face just to endure you."

"Did you really think he'd ever love the child you carry?"

Valentina let out a sharp, taunting laugh before the line went dead.

"You will never take his love from me."

I recorded the call, then glanced at the message I had scheduled to send at the perfect moment. In the silence after her laughter, the truth of Omertà settled over me at last. It was never the secrets you kept that cost you everything. It was the ones kept from you.

A smirk tugged at my lips. My thumb pressed against the bare band of skin where my ring used to sit.

Valentina, you won't be laughing like that for much longer.

Then Mateo called. I let it ring. Then I blocked his number, and every other way he could reach me.

I headed straight for the airport, my plane ticket clutched in my hand.