He Never Saw Me

For ten years, I labored in the shadows to build a massive underworld empire for Cassius, the mafia Underboss I secretly loved.

He promised me marriage and the title of Capo over the smuggling network I created with my own blood. But at the syndicate banquet, he handed my throne to Serena, a sheltered mafia princess who had never touched a gun.

I was publicly shoved to the bottom of the structure I built, named a mere soldier under her command.

Cassius warned me not to make a scene, telling me the family needed a bloodline representative.

He offered me a hidden payoff and a secret wedding, expecting me to keep cleaning up Serena's bloody messes in the dark.

Serena looked at me with innocent eyes, claiming my life's work as her own territory.

I looked at the man I had taken three bullets for.

I remembered biting down on a leather strap in an underground clinic to protect his secrets, while he stood there reducing a decade of my devotion to a dirty little secret.

I didn't cry or beg. I simply unclasped my family crest and dropped it onto the marble floor.

Then, I pulled out my phone and accepted the absolute autonomy offered by the rival Sicilian syndicate.

"I am permanently severing all ties."

This time, I would build an empire that belonged solely to me.