You Chose Her, Now Call Me Queen

eived a video of him bleeding in a clinic. He wasn't there for me; he was paying

day he'd come home in a body bag. Today, he'd emptied our wedding fund to buy Lucia an armor

just a debt of honor. He laughed off my threats to leave, c

blind to the fact that my patience had finally turned to ash. I had survived his b

another woman's vanity? Why had I stayed so long, waiting

look back as I signed the papers to disappear into a high-security black site in Iceland. I was fi

pte

nna

iting for the man I was to marry. He was meant to be finalizing our wedding date; ins

med me he had just purchased a purse for her-one fashioned from blood diamonds, paid for with

ts and brawls this very night, I would end up as colla

fying Boss who governed the Syndicate's legitimate i

nce-a stark contrast to the chaotic, street

its cold light swimming in my eyes

Ciro six times befo

ruises and split skin, swearing a blood oath that he would s

sight of his broken body, my

day he met my parents to se

on until the city's electric veins began

ever s

ing the name of Matteo-a fellow Soldie

the silence h

he told me Ciro had been rushed to a Sy

re he could launch

xpensive wallpaper as I informed him I alrea

speaker. He explained that Lucia had demanded a p

n the background of the call, complaining abo

my bones, a leaden blanket that ma

teo I was not com

e separation from Cir

he table, letting out

monotone-that Ciro was at this moment bleeding ont

ng support as she reached out

an living a life of terror, waiting fo

their car, hugging them tig

to handle the final business of

en Lucia se

ng in a sterile clinic bed, his

ords, looking of

ave I ever broken a promise

immediately, dripping with fa

he bag. Don't be mad at him, an

n't r

rkness swallowing the imag

apartment Ciro and I shared, mov

m drawer of the wardrob

nuckles brushed again

y Ciro had won in his first il

me, a suffocating wav

Omerta to fight in the pits, and I

in, Ciro had dragged his brok

collapsed unconscious at my feet,

loor, a tremor running through me as the last of

st my thigh, pulling me

as C

the phone to my ear

g his severe injuries, his voice

g like a panicked Associate and

rents were insult

flat, emoti

Ciro let out a ragged exhalation

could delay the we

luxury vehicle, and he had transferred our e

reciting the same tired

streets, it was a blood debt he must re

o desire

ears was suddenly starved of air, leaving only

hat he could do w

is arrogance blinding him

nt I had surrendered and wo

, a bitter, hollow

him I w

d with him again-because there

an octave as he swore on his life tha

afia wedding and swore I

es echoing in the hollow space wh

hrill, excited voic

elivered to the clinic's rear entrance a

ssion to me snapp

s battered body could not manage the stairs tonight, but p

ed th

of gratitude, and Lucia was the vine strangling

my lungs with the stale air

he Consigliere-level s

at the Iceland extreme-tra

d it was, his voice

ecurity Syndicate black site o

ld not return to the

d of hesitation, I tol

must be tonight. The word "free" settled on my tongue l