I Took Half, He Kept His Queen

For five years, I was the loyal shadow behind Dominic Falcone, the ruthless Don of the Cosa Nostra.

But for the third year in a row, he forgot my birthday.

Instead, I watched him scrape my untouched birthday cake into a thermos.

"This is for Elena. She is having a severe panic attack."

With those cold words, he rushed off to comfort his Consigliere's fragile daughter.

He always claimed Elena was just a ward he was sworn by blood to protect.

Yet, he gave her the custom armored SUV he bought as my compensatory gift.

He shared a drink from her straw in front of his soldiers, letting her publicly mock my place in his life.

During cartel shootouts or when I was burning with a severe fever, his fierce protection was solely reserved for her, leaving me to fend for myself.

I used to think his emotional distance was simply the heavy burden of a Mafia Boss.

I couldn't understand how a man who once claimed me with terrifying devotion could now completely erase my existence for another woman's trivial whims.

Why did I have to bleed out in a one-sided war just to fight for second place?

Sitting in his cold marble penthouse, I finally realized it is not difficult to surrender something that was never truly yours.

So, on the day my security lease expired, I packed a single black canvas bag.

I transferred my exact half of the living expenses to his illicit offshore account.

Then, I blocked the Don's number and vanished without a trace.

Chapter 1

Serena POV

As I watched the silver spoon in his hand scrape the last smear of my birthday cake into a tactical thermos, its metallic rasp against the porcelain setting my teeth on edge, I knew I had precisely three days to vanish before his particular brand of loyalty consumed what was left of me.

Dominic Falcone was not a man who made mistakes.

He was the Don of the Cosa Nostra, a man who once calculated the depreciation cost of bloodstains on a Persian rug before ordering the extermination of a rival family. His authority was a physical pressure, and when he entered a room, the air thickened, as if the building's ventilation system had seized and the barometric pressure had dropped to the bottom of a mine shaft.

But for the third year in a row, he had forgotten my birthday.

I stood by the cold, veined Carrara marble of our penthouse kitchen island, my silence a weapon I had long since stopped sharpening. I watched him pack the meal I had spent three hours preparing-a pale, delicate assembly of poached fish and steamed vegetables, a monument to my own erased preferences. I had suppressed my love for the searing heat of chilies, the sting of pepper, just so he and his fragile ward could eat without complaint.

He moved with the rushed, mechanical precision of a soldier packing a field kit, his gaze never once intersecting with the space I occupied.

He shoveled the expensive imported ice cream cake into a plastic container. The delicate frosting smeared against the sides, the elegant script of my name melting into a pathetic, sugary slurry. I never indulged in such things, but I had bought it for myself today.

"This is for Elena," Dominic said, the words not an explanation but a decree. He snapped the lid onto the thermos, the sound unnaturally loud in the quiet kitchen.

"She is having a severe panic attack," he added. "Do not wait up."

He finally turned. His dark eyes were hard and unreadable; there was no apology in their depths, only the flat, sterile glint of duty.

Elena was the Consigliere's daughter. Her father had died saving Dominic's, and with that act, a blood debt was forged, an oath Dominic wore like a second skin.

I watched his broad back disappear into the private elevator. The heavy metal doors slid shut with a final, pneumatic hiss and a dull, echoing thud that seemed to vibrate up through the soles of my feet.

A strange lightness washed over my skin, leaving behind a profound emptiness, the kind that follows a long fever. The anger was gone, replaced by a weariness so deep it felt geological.

I had resolved to break my silent endurance. I was done waiting for a man who would always put me second.

The chime of the front door, a soft, electronic bell, cut through the heavy silence like a shard of glass.

I walked over and opened it. The Family's Estate Manager stood in the hallway, clutching a leather binder to his chest as if it were a shield.

"Good evening, Miss Serena," he said, his respect a practiced veneer. "My apologies for the late hour. I came about the penthouse security lease. It expires at month's end. Will the Don be renewing, or are you relocating?"

I looked around the massive, luxurious space. Dominic had always treated this penthouse like a temporary barracks, blind to the small, warm touches I had tried to graft onto its cold skeleton.

"I will be moving out," I said.

The manager blinked, a flicker of surprise crossing his disciplined features before he masked it. He cleared his throat.

"Understood. Where shall I direct the security deposit refund?"

"Transfer it to Dominic's offshore accounts," I instructed.

The manager shifted, the leather of his shoes squeaking on the polished floor. His brow furrowed. Protocol dictated such matters were the Don's domain.

"Please ensure all personal belongings are cleared before the extraction day," he reminded me, his tone cautious.

I nodded and closed the door.

I walked to the living room and picked up my encrypted phone. I scrolled through my contacts to find the name of a discreet underworld fixer who moonlighted as a realtor.

"I need a new safehouse," I typed, my thumb pressing firmly against the cold glass. "Two-bedroom layout. I will be living alone."

The reply was almost instantaneous.

"Severing ties with the Falcone Family?" the fixer asked.

I stared at the glowing screen, a sudden vertigo washing over me. Five years were woven into the fabric of that name, and to unpick the threads felt like stepping off a cliff in total darkness.

I ignored the question.

"Can you find the place or not?" I typed back.

"I can," the fixer replied. "I also recommend a crew of trusted cleaners. They act as movers. They leave no trace."

"Book them for extraction in three days," I confirmed.

I set the phone down, the decision finally settling in my bones like a piece of cold iron.

The phone buzzed. It was Dominic.

I answered.

"Have the private chef prepare a clear broth for Elena," Dominic ordered, his voice tight with a stress that had nothing to do with me. "No scallions. Absolutely none. She cannot stomach them."

I listened to his demands, the oxygen in my lungs feeling thin and used, as if I were breathing recycled air.

"Dominic," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "Do you know what day it is?"

Silence stretched over the line, thin and humming with static.

I remembered the first year, when he had claimed me. He had celebrated my birthday with a fierce, terrifying devotion, locking us in a hotel suite for two days as if to prove to the world, and to me, that I belonged to him.

Now, by the third year, the date had been erased from his memory.

"Today is the twenty-third anniversary of the day Elena and I met," Dominic said, his voice suddenly thick with a misplaced solemnity, completely oblivious to the agonizing weight of my question. "The day we bonded under the Family's wing. It always makes her anxiety flare."

The line went dead. I stood in the silent kitchen, the phone still pressed to my ear, staring at the empty cake box on the counter. He had not even paused to think. My birthday-the one day that was supposed to be mine-had been overwritten by a date that belonged to her. And in that moment, I understood with perfect, crystalline clarity that I would never be first in Dominic Falcone's life. I would always be the second name on a list he never even bothered to write.