I was married to the city's mafia heir for ten years. I endured blood and fire with him. My piano hands grew calloused from guns, stained with unforgivable sins. At 28, he became obsessed with a slum girl named Daisy. I discovered them at a prenatal clinic. "Daisy's Catholic," he said coldly, handing me divorce papers. "She needs my name. Sign this for 40% shares." I refused. So he destroyed me—piece by piece. Finally, he strapped my paralyzed brother into a hydraulic press. "Sign," he threatened, "or watch him crushed." The machine roared. Blood and bone painted my nightmare. Then darkness swallowed me. I awoke back in that hospital hallway—before discovering them. This time, I vanished silently. But after I disappeared... he was the one who lost his mind. 1 I huddled behind the wall, my hand clamped over my mouth to stifle the tremors that wracked my body. The horrific image of my brother's final moments was seared onto the inside of my eyelids. I could hear Adrian's voice, soft and reassuring, as he spoke to Daisy. "Once your pregnancy is stable, we'll get married." Hearing those words a second time, I didn't lose control. In my last life, I had stormed out, demanding answers. He, fearing Daisy would discover she was merely his kept woman, had shattered my jaw with the butt of his gun. The memory made me shrink further into the shadows. Adrian wrapped an arm around Daisy's shoulders and led her away. Only when I was certain they were gone did I step out, clutching my own medical report, and walk into the doctor's office. "Ms. Winston," the doctor said gently, his eyes full of sympathy. "Your uterine wall is dangerously thin. If you terminate this pregnancy, you may never be able to conceive again." I stared silently at the report in my hands. Two months pregnant. My mind flashed to the look in Adrian's eyes as he'd pressed his ear to Daisy's belly—a tenderness so profound it seemed to overflow. Ten years ago, I had drowned in that same gaze, abandoning a scholarship to Juilliard, abandoning my dreams of the concert stage, all for him. Step by step, the hands that once danced over ivory keys learned the cold weight of a gun, becoming accustomed to a life lived on a knife's edge. But the moment Daisy appeared, all my sacrifices became a bitter joke. The doctor, seeing my silence, continued. "Ms. Winston, given your unique circumstances… does your husband know about this?" I looked up, meeting his gaze, my voice eerily calm. "My husband is dead." An hour later, I stumbled out of the hospital, my face as white as the sterile walls, one hand braced against them for support. Once the color had returned to my lips, I pulled out my phone and called my brother's caregiver. "Leo, I need you to arrange a transfer for my brother to a private facility in Switzerland this week. Be discreet. Mr. Winston is not to know anything about this. Absolute secrecy." Next, I messaged my most trusted subordinate, asking him to draw up a set of divorce papers. Just as I finished, a file containing all of Daisy's information arrived on my phone. In my past life, I had despised her so much I couldn't even bear to look at her picture. Reborn, my heart was strangely peaceful. For the first time, I was curious about this woman who had so completely captivated Adrian, a man who had seen and discarded countless others. I opened the compressed file. A video popped up. Inside a dilapidated church, a young woman played "Dreaming of the Wedding" on an old, out-of-tune piano. Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, illuminating her faded dress. She looked as pure and fragile as a daisy after a spring rain. Adrian was visible in half-profile, a soft, mesmerized smile on his face. I slammed the pause button. And ran to the bathroom, dry-heaving over the toilet. It was too absurd. The woman he had fallen in love with… was the ghost of me from ten years ago. 2 Dusk was settling as I left the hospital. I drove in a daze, my mind a chaotic whirl. As I rounded a corner, an out-of-control truck suddenly barreled toward me. I wrenched the steering wheel, but it was too late. The world spun violently, and then there was only the screech of metal and shattering glass. I was pinned in the driver's seat, unable to move. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. This was one of Adrian's rivals, coming for revenge. My phone was smashed, useless. Just then, a familiar black Maybach glided past the intersection. It was Adrian's car. "Adrian!" I screamed, my voice raw, struggling against the wreckage to catch his attention. The car slowed for a heart-stopping second. My breath caught in my throat. He saw me. He saw me! But in the next instant, the Maybach accelerated, pulling away from the intersection without a hint of hesitation. Through the window, I saw him raise a hand to shield Daisy’s eyes. The strength to scream again vanished. Daisy was in the car. He wouldn't stop. The violence, the blood, the mangled steel of a revenge hit… he couldn't bear for her to see it. The last of my adrenaline faded, and my consciousness began to flicker. When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the stark white ceiling of a hospital room. The door was ajar. I could hear one of Adrian's men speaking to him. "Sir, what if Mrs. Winston saw Miss Miller in the car? If she starts digging, I don't think we can keep it from her." I heard the hiss of a cigarette being extinguished, then crushed. "You don't need to worry about that," Adrian's voice was cold. "Your only job is to protect Daisy." "She's too clean for our world. She's not like us." "Wendy… she plays dirty. Daisy is too innocent to stand a chance against her. If you have to, use her brother as leverage. The cripple is the only family she has left. She'll have no choice but to back down." My fingers clenched the thin hospital sheet, my teeth sinking into the soft flesh of my cheek until I tasted blood. The day he proposed, he had sworn to me, "I will always protect you, Wendy. I'll never let anyone hurt you." The same vow of protection, the same words, but now they were for Daisy. And I, the woman he once shielded with his own body, had become the dangerous, dirty schemer in his story. Hearing footsteps approach, I closed my eyes, then slowly opened them as he entered. "You're awake," he said, his tone business-like. "I had my men look into it. It was the Wang family's people." He placed a document on my bedside table. "This is a settlement agreement. Sign it, and they've agreed to hand over the West Side territory." He stood before me, our eyes meeting. I was speechless. My near-death experience had become a bargaining chip in his business. An icy chill spread through my chest. "Adrian, when did you decide this?" The moment you saw my car crash? Or the moment you knew the Wangs were coming for me? His brow furrowed, annoyed by my probing. I knew better than to press the issue. Forcing the truth would only hurt me. As if to placate me, Adrian worked from my hospital room for the next two days. He was always wearing his earbuds, a small, familiar smile occasionally gracing his lips. He was talking to her. While he was on a call with Daisy, I slid the divorce papers I'd had prepared in front of him. I thought he would notice. It was so obvious. But he didn't even glance at the header. He flipped to the last page and scrawled his signature, his eyes never leaving his laptop screen. My hand trembled as I took the document back, staring at the still-wet ink of his name. Suddenly, I was back in the moment we first met, ten years ago. He was being hunted by his enemies, lying bloody and broken under a derelict iron bridge. He was only eighteen, but his eyes burned with the ferocious light of a wounded lion cub. I was on my way to piano practice, but one look into those eyes, and my heart broke for him. I turned and walked toward him. One step, and I had plunged into the abyss. Later, he took a bullet to the chest to protect me. He was in surgery for eighteen hours. That was the first time I understood that in his world, kindness and innocence were weaknesses that got you killed. In ten years, I transformed from a girl who trembled at the sight of blood into Mrs. Winston, the woman who handled his dirty work without flinching. I thought we had finally become equals, standing side-by-side. But to him, I had just become one of them. Just as tainted. I rubbed the calluses on my fingers, the ghosts of a thousand trigger pulls. I thought of Daisy at the piano. And suddenly, it all felt so pointless. The burning resentment, the gnawing injustice… it all dissolved into a vast, empty ache. After I was discharged, Adrian used a "business trip" as an excuse to be gone for the entire one-month divorce cooling-off period. But I never expected that I would be the one to see Daisy. 3 To pray for the soul of my lost child, I went to the old cathedral to ask a priest for a requiem mass. I wasn't religious, but I hoped my baby could find its way to heaven. As I pushed open the heavy doors, I saw Daisy at the piano, accompanying the children's choir. The final chord rang out, marred by a single, jarringly wrong note. On impulse, I walked over, reached out, and pressed the correct key. "It should be like this." Our first real meeting was far calmer than I could have ever imagined. Daisy's eyes lit up. "You know piano? I've been practicing for ages, but I always get that part wrong." I offered a cool, distant smile, but she was unabashedly friendly, striking up a conversation. When she learned I was there for a lost child, she knelt before the statue of the Virgin Mary and prayed with a sincerity that stunned me. "Dear Lord, please welcome this pure soul into your kingdom, and bring comfort to his grieving mother." I stared, lost in a trance. She was so much like the girl I used to be that it was disorienting. A strange sense of pity washed over me, a desperate urge to save my former self. Leave Adrian, I wanted to scream. Getting close to him is like embracing a curse. But my gaze fell to her swelling abdomen, and I sealed my lips. If Daisy knew about my relationship with Adrian, she would surely break up with him. And then, Adrian would hunt me down with a furious, vengeful rage. The bloody memories of my past life flooded my mind. I made the excuse of needing to confess and slipped into the confessional booth. I pulled up the security feed from my brother's care facility, my heart only steadying when I saw him sitting peacefully, painting. After our parents died, he was all I had left. This time, I would never let him be dragged into my world with Adrian again. When I had composed myself and stepped out of the booth, the cold, black muzzle of a gun was pressed against my forehead. Every muscle in my body went rigid. I glanced toward Daisy. She was already slumped on the floor, unconscious. I cursed my luck under my breath. The next second, the butt of the gun slammed into my head, and the world went dark. I woke up in a derelict warehouse, tied back-to-back with Daisy. Her voice was choked with sobs. "We already paid you back! What more do you want? Adrian warned you…" A loud slap cut her off. The man leading them, a thick scar bisecting his eyebrow, grabbed her by the hair. "You paid the money, sure. But he broke three of our boss's ribs for it. In our line of work, you don't just let that go." He sneered. "He treasures you, doesn't he? Well, today, I'm going to enjoy breaking you, piece by piece." So, they were low-level loan sharks. No wonder they didn't recognize me. I took a few steadying breaths and popped the tiny blade out of the setting of my ring, beginning to saw at the ropes. I'd been tied up a few times before; I had some experience. Seeing that I was awake, the scar-faced man rifled through my Hermès wallet. "Well, Ms. Winston, looks like it's your unlucky day. Three million. Call your family and have them wire the money." Daisy turned her head, tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. But don't be scared. My boyfriend is very powerful. He'll come save us." Her eyes shone with a blind, heroic worship of Adrian. My hands faltered for a second. I didn't reply. Suddenly, Scarface cursed, holding up his phone. "That bastard. He doesn't believe me. Looks like I'll have to send him a little gift." He threw a wicked-looking knife onto the floor between us. "Someone get over here. Cut the baby out of her and send it to him."
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