Unlovable Beyond Smoke

Alicia’s wedding once made headlines across all of New Yorke.

The man who put the ring on her finger was Matteo Vitale, the youngest Don of the Vitale family.

She was not a socialite heiress. She was a lawyer who had won countless cases for powerful families.

She was also five years older than her husband.

When Matteo was thirty and at the peak of his career, Alicia was already thirty-five.

Back then, Matteo told her that age would never be a problem between them.

As long as she wanted him, he would never let her go for the rest of his life.

But in the fifth year of their marriage, a young woman burst into her office and dropped a divorce agreement on her desk.

“I heard you’re the best divorce lawyer on New Yorke’s East Side. There isn’t a divorce case you can’t win, right?

“I want to hire you to help my boyfriend get a divorce from his wife.

“My boyfriend says his wife is thirty-five now. She smells old. Every time he touches her, he feels sick.”

She opened the divorce agreement with practiced ease. She looked first at the names, as she always did.

[Husband: Matteo Vitale

[Wife: Alicia Leon]

Her fingers paused for a brief moment.

She was Alicia Leon!

Alicia Leon stayed calm and looked at the young woman in front of her.

She was very young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three. She was like a flower just starting to bloom. She was bright and full of life. She was definitely the type Matteo Vitale would like.

But if he was having an affair, why did he not come and talk to her himself?

Why let this homewrecker barge into her office?

Alicia gathered the papers in front of her and said calmly, “Divorce is something that needs to be discussed by the people involved.”

Sophia Moretti leaned back in her chair and smirked. “He’s not available right now. Actually, he just doesn’t want to make a scene.”

She lifted her chin and added slowly, “It’s not because he loves her. He said that when he was with his wife, she was only twenty-six. They dated for four years and were married for five. She gave him the best years of her life. Asking for a divorce now would be too cruel.”

“But people have to move on.” Sophia smiled. “Especially when a man has already lost interest in his wife.”

Alicia dug her fingers into her palm without making a sound. “Tell me, did he only just realize that his wife is five years older than him?”

“You can’t really tell when you’re young.

“But once a woman is over thirty-five, her looks, her smell, and the way she feels… it all changes. She just smells old, and it’s unpleasant for him.”

She smelled old.

Alicia took a deep breath. Those three words felt like they were stabbing at her lungs.

She forced herself to continue, “May I ask how you met him?”

Sophia looked at her smugly. “At a charity auction dinner. I made a bet with my friends that I’d have a drink with the most untouchable man in the room. I chose him.”

“And did he drink it?”

“He didn’t accept the drink.”

Sophia smirked. “I found him later on the terrace. He was smoking while someone delivered the merger papers to your firm. The more restrained a man is, the more I want to win him.”

Her tone was soft, as if she were talking about a fun game. “Coincidentally, someone spiked his drink that night. I took the chance to get into his room.

“The next day, he gave me money and told me to disappear from his life. I refused. Later, I showed up whenever he let his guard down.

“When he finally stopped pushing me away, I knew I had him.”

Alicia fought the storm in her mind and asked, “When did you sleep with him for the first time?”

Sophia gave her a date.

Alicia felt her heart skip a beat. That date hit her like a poisoned ice pick and stabbed straight into her chest.

It was the same day as her father’s funeral.

She had waited for him all night at the funeral home. He arrived late, exhausted, and held her as he apologized. He said there had been an emergency at the family’s port, and he had to handle it personally.

The so-called emergency was another woman.

Sophia said tauntingly, “Over time, he wanted me more and more. I figured his wife wasn’t enough for him anymore. When I asked him, I found she was five years older than him. He said he didn’t know why, but once a woman is over thirty-five, she just smells old. He didn’t want to touch her anymore.”

She tilted her head. Her eyes were practically dripping with provocation. “He couldn’t stand that old woman. I don’t think it went unnoticed on her part. Don’t you agree, Alicia? Or should I call you… Mrs. Vitale?”

She bit out the last words.

Alicia finally understood. Sophia had known who she was all along. Today’s request was nothing but a carefully planned humiliation.

She should have noticed it.

Matteo had never been satisfied in bed.

One look from her was enough, and he would cling to her like a young, dangerous beast.

He always liked to whisper in her ear, “Alicia, I love you so much. I wish I could swallow you whole.”

But ever since he officially became the Don, he came home later and later. Even when he was with her, his attention was always elsewhere. She had always thought it was just the fatigue that came with power.

She had even handled a few of his legal troubles that could not be made public. She made sure every loose end was tied up.

It was not fatigue.

He was just tired of her.

“So,” Sophia leaned forward and asked, “Mrs. Vitale, do you think this divorce will actually happen?”