The Principessa and the Shattered Bottle
I bloomed early.
The year I turned eighteen, my overprotective brother, Ronan, worried I would be preyed upon by the wolves in a city like Chicago. So, he entrusted me to his most trusted ally—Sterling Valeriano, the Underboss of the Valeriano family—to "look after" me.
But from our first meeting, his predatory gaze left me feeling completely exposed.
After I graduated from college, he pushed me to cross one line after another.
By day, he was my boss at the art gallery. By night, I was his secret lover.
For four years, we kept our illicit relationship hidden.
He molded me into the woman he desired, and the worst part? I let him.
One day, his former fiancée, Scarlett, returned from Europe. He slipped out of my bed in the middle of the night to rush to the docks to meet her.
Ashamed and furious, yet unwilling to give up, I followed him, only to watch him tenderly kiss another woman under the moonlight.
He turned to me and said, "Juliana Callahan, four years ago, you were the one who climbed into my bed while I was drunk. The way you look right now... it's truly pathetic."
The same eyes that held such tenderness for her now held only mockery for me.
I suddenly realized he was right. None of this had any meaning.
So I lowered my head, sent a text to Ronan telling him I accepted the marriage alliance with the Hawthorne family, then looked up at that man and smiled.
"So be it. Goodbye, Sterling."