The Mafia Heir Begged After I Left

In the fifth year of my secret marriage to Dante Greco, a notorious Los Angeles mafia heir, I became pregnant.
While I was at the family hospital for a prenatal checkup, I happened to see Vivienne Sarti's Instagram.
"He says I'm still pretty even when I'm pregnant!"
In the photo, she was lying lazily in a man's arms.
My chest tightened at once.
On his finger was the lion-head ring worn by the Greco Don.
I tapped the "Like" button.
Seconds later, Vivienne called me.
"Ana, I wasn't trying to upset you. I was—"
Before Vivienne could finish, Dante snatched the phone from her.
"Anna Reid, who gave you permission to monitor our social media accounts? I've explained it to you plenty of times. We grew up together, and our families work together. If you keep getting jealous like this, how are the rest of us supposed to function?"
I gripped my phone.
For five years, Vivienne had used their childhood bond as an excuse to insult me. I had endured it every time.
Dante would spend whole nights with Vivienne under the pretext of discussing family business.
The moment I asked about it, he refused to say a word.
He always said it was because I had no mafia background of my own.
It wasn't my world, and I was done trying to force my way into it.
I took off my wedding ring and dropped it in a trash can on the street.
Then I called the private hospital. "Hello. I want today's prenatal record deleted. No one can know about it."
Chapter 1
Back at the estate, I packed a few of my things. I was staring at the prenatal record from three years ago when Dante came home.
"Angry?"
The impatience from the call was gone, and his tone was gentle.
"Ana, you know this. The Sarti family has plenty of influence too. If we want to keep growing, we need them.
"Besides, the mafia world is complicated and dangerous. You don't understand anything. Keeping you out of it is for your own protection.
"Vivi has been spoiled since she was a child. She isn't tough like you. You've been through far worse. Why pick a fight with her?"
Right. Vivienne is the pampered princess everyone has to indulge and give way to.
Me included.
My parents had abandoned me when I was young. I had endured more than my share of hardship to finish school and make it to the top.
I worked my way through school and earned a master's degree. With my expertise in finance, I solved countless problems for Dante's company.
That was how I caught his eye.
Everyone thought marrying Dante was the best thing that could ever have happened to me.
So apparently, I was supposed to accept every humiliation without complaint.
I nodded and forced the tears back before they could fall.
When I said nothing, Dante took an elegant gift box out of his bag.
"Vivi knows she upset you. She asked me to bring this back as an apology."
I took it and opened it carefully.
Inside was a blue diamond bracelet.
And all at once, I remembered a post Vivienne had made not long ago.
"A birthday present from him and I asked for a freebie too. What do you all think?"
The photo showed an extremely rare pigeon-blood ruby ring.
The blue diamond bracelet had been tossed carelessly to one side.
I smiled coldly. I put the bracelet back in the box and set it on the table.
"I don't need it."
Dante looked at me and sighed.
"You're my wife. Can't you be more generous?"
I took a breath, and a dull pain spread through my lower belly.
"I'm petty? We've been married for five years, and you've never once acknowledged me to anyone. Yet you and Vivienne go everywhere together like a couple.
"You said I couldn't get pregnant and that you urgently needed an heir. You said the Sarti family could help, so I turned a blind eye to you two sleeping behind my back. I never imagined this was how she'd help: by having your child herself.
"Have you forgotten how we lost our first child? Have you forgotten that gunfight three years ago? Have you forgotten—"
"That's enough. Stop."
Dante cut me off.
"What's past is past. Don't bring it up again."
My breath caught in my chest. My face turned red, but I couldn't get a single word out.
Three years ago, Dante got into a gun battle on the docks with his worst enemy over territory. I was taken hostage while protecting him and tortured for three days and three nights.
By the time his people got me out, blood had soaked through my clothes.
The baby was gone.
And my body was ruined for good.
Back then, Dante stayed at my bedside for two weeks.
He said he would love me forever and cherish me for the rest of his life.
He also said he wanted only me, that he was happy to spend his life with just the two of us, and that he didn't care about having a biological heir as long as he had me.
And in three years, he had forgotten every word of it.
"Ana, we should be looking forward to a better future, shouldn't we? Now we can have the best of both worlds, can't we?"
Dante's patience was running out.
I felt a chill running down my spine.
A stabbing pain ripped through my lower belly. I slowly sank into a crouch and squeezed my eyes shut against it.
Dante's phone rang.
"Vivi? What is it? Your stomach hurts again? Don't do anything. Wait for me to get there. Understand?"
Vivienne's sweet voice came through the line.
"But I know I upset Ana today. Maybe you shouldn't worry about me. You should stay with her."
"Nonsense!"
Dante was beside himself with panic.
"You're carrying an heir to the Greco family. You're the hope of this whole family! Right now, you're what matters most. As for Ana, I'll explain everything to her later. Wait for me. I'm coming now."
The words were barely out before he hurried toward the door.
I looked up, sweat beading at my temples.
"Dante!"
He turned back impatiently.
"What? Don't tell me you're still jealous. Ana, are you going to keep treating me like I'm some kind of criminal?"
I gritted my teeth, clutched my belly, and got to my feet, cold all the way through.
The words "I'm pregnant" reached my lips, but I never said them.
I said quietly, "Vivienne is allergic to antibiotics. Don't forget about this."
The front door slammed, and my heart sank with the sound.
I took an agreement out of the study and signed my name at the bottom right corner.
Chapter 2
Five years ago, Dante proposed to me.
"Ana, I'm sorry. Because of who I am and what my family does, I can't make our relationship public and I can't give you a grand wedding. But I'll give you my heart and all of my love. This agreement is the last protection I can give you. If I ever betray you, I'll give you everything I own."
Then he signed his name with a flourish.
"Marry me, Ana."
I was moved to tears. I threw my arms around him and kissed him.
For five years, I kept that agreement safe and never once took it out.
I even imagined that years from now, when our hair had turned white, I would show it to our children or grandchildren and tell them about the love between Dante and me when we were young.
Back then, their father had risked so much to be with their mother.
The agreement would stand as proof of our love.
Now it mocked my helplessness and grief.
After I signed it, I contacted the legal team that handled the family's affairs and sent it to them.
Once that was done, I took a hot shower.
The pain in my belly eased.
I lay down, uneasy.
My poor baby must have sensed that Dante didn't love him enough and reacted to it somehow.
Just as I was drifting off, a message alert woke me.
It was from Vivienne.
"Ana, your husband really is something. Handsome, with plenty of stamina. Though... what a shame. He's lying next to me right now."
Then a photo came through.
There was Dante, eyes half closed, sleeping peacefully with Vivienne in his arms.
I could picture exactly what Vivienne looked like at that moment.
She must have expected me to react the way I always did—call her like a madwoman, scream at her, and make a scene, only for the whole farce to end with Dante taking her side.
But this time, I was completely calm.
"If you like my leftovers, you can have him."
I sent the reply and blocked her immediately.
All at once, the world seemed to go quiet.
The next day, I went to the family's company to hand in my resignation.
I had just stepped out of the elevator when I saw Dante sweep a woman up into his arms and carry her into his office.
Seeing them behave so brazenly in front of me still made my chest ache.
When he saw me, Dante set Vivienne down on the sofa and explained, "Vivi just twisted her ankle. She can't walk."
I murmured an acknowledgment and asked no questions.
After all these years, I should have been used to it.
In five years, apart from a few people at the very top of the family, nobody knew we were married.
I served publicly as the finance director, laundering money for the Greco family, balancing the books, and handling audits.
Although Dante depended on me at work, he deliberately kept his distance and treated me coldly in front of everyone.
Once, my anemia flared up, and I nearly collapsed in the elevator.
To avoid any appearance of impropriety in front of the company's middle managers, Dante shoved me aside with a look of disgust and had a bodyguard take me to the hospital.
Yet time after time, I watched him carry Vivienne in his arms over something as minor as a headache or a fever.
"Of course. She's a Sarti. Look how the Don dotes on her."
"Well, of course. They grew up together."
I saw the tenderness and affection in his eyes, and my heart ached too much to speak.
I walked up to Dante and put my resignation on the desk.
He picked it up and frowned.
Then, without so much as reading it, he dropped it straight in the bin.
"Resign? Are you joking? I don't like you mixing personal matters with business."
When I refused to back down, he changed tactics.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind, his tone gentle.
"Still angry with me? All right, I'll make it up to you. At tonight's charity gala, I'll buy you that jewelry set you like so much. Come with me."
An unfamiliar feeling stirred in me.
My body instinctively recoiled from his touch.
"I'm meeting with a headhunter tonight. I can't go. Besides, you've got Vivienne. That's enough. How would it look if you brought two women?"
My voice was cold.
Dante often attended important events, but as his secret wife, I had never once accompanied him to one.
At first, I was disappointed and hurt.
After a while, I got used to it.
I stopped expecting anything from him.
Dante thought I'd be overwhelmed with gratitude for this rare favor.
My cold response made his expression darken at once.
"Anna Reid, don't think that just because you control all of this company's accounts, you can do whatever you please. You know the family's rules. Nobody resigns. The only way out is by death."
My heart sank. I looked up and found myself staring into Dante's bloodshot eyes.
Chapter 3
Dante's family company had extremely strict rules.
From the moment I walked in as finance director, it was settled that I would never walk out alive.
"Ana, don't do this just because you're angry with him. You two are husband and wife. If anyone should leave, it should be me."
Vivienne blinked and walked over to Dante with tears in her eyes.
"Honestly, Ana, you've misunderstood. I was careless and twisted my ankle, and I'm the one who called him to come and help me. If you're angry, be angry at me. Stop making things hard for him. He can't do without you."
Dante frowned and turned to Vivienne.
"Nonsense. You've done nothing wrong. Some people have important positions but none of the grace that should come with them. You're coming tonight. Don't make me say it twice."
My chest tightened so sharply that I could barely breathe.
That evening, the gala went ahead as planned.
When I got there, Dante was seated up front, holding Vivienne's hand as they whispered to each other, looking every bit like a couple.
"Next up is a Victorian tiara. Starting bid: five million dollars."
Dante, determined not to be outbid, jumped straight to twelve million dollars and won it.
The room erupted.
Dante stood.
"I'm giving this piece to the most important woman in my life."
I was sitting in a corner, and my heart felt like it had taken a blow.
Reporters started guessing who the most important woman was.
Dante wouldn't say.
When the bidding ended, soft violin music filled the room and the dancing began.
By the time Dante and Vivienne left the dance floor, it was already late at night.
Vivienne, wine glass in hand, stood beside Dante as he raised a toast to a business mogul. Just as she was about to drain her glass, Dante caught her wrist.
"Vivi, you're pregnant. You can't drink."
With everyone egging him on, he turned and looked at me.
"Anna, come here."
I froze. My legs felt like lead, and I couldn't make them move.
"You drink it for Vivi."
The room went quiet in an instant.
With every eye on me, I walked over to them and said, "I'm sorry. I can't drink. Mr. Greco, I'm allergic to alcohol."
Dante raised an eyebrow.
He leaned close to my ear and said quietly, "Since when do you lie in public? The doctor is right here. If you have an allergic reaction, he'll treat you immediately. This is important, and you're part of the family. Don't embarrass me in front of everyone."
My mind went back three years to a party where I had been forced to drink until I nearly suffocated.
Dante tore into several of his uncles and his younger brother like a madman.
Then he carried me to the hospital himself.
In that moment, I knew this man would protect me for the rest of my life.
Three years later, everything had changed.
Dante, who had once been willing to shield me with his life, forgot I was allergic to alcohol.
That man was gone for good.
My hand rested on my belly for a moment.
"But I'm pregnant too. I'm carrying your child."
Dante went still.
After a long, stunned silence, he laughed.
"You'd lie about being pregnant just to get out of drinking for Vivi? Anna, you've really outdone yourself."
As soon as he'd finished, Vivienne hurried to smooth things over.
"If Ana doesn't want to, don't force her. I can drink. She isn't from our world. She doesn't understand what this means."
Then she turned and looked at me.
There was a complicated look in Vivienne's eyes.
Challenge and contempt flashed through them at once.
At some point, her bodyguard had come to stand beside me.
Then I was shoved hard and fell to the floor.
I tried to get up despite the pain, but I had no strength.
Someone shouted nearby.
"Oh my God! There's blood!"
Amid the chaos, I heard Dante shout, "Protect Vivi!"
Chapter 4
As several people lifted me into the ambulance, one image stayed burned into my mind beneath the bright lights.
I saw Dante frantically shielding Vivienne.
Both hands were pressed protectively over her belly.
I closed my eyes.
In the emergency room, the doctor inserted a long needle into my vein.
"Ma'am, we can't save your baby."
I stared blankly at the ceiling as my last emotional defense finally crumbled.
I opened my cracked lips and said quietly, "Then don't let anyone know my baby ever existed. Please."
Violent pain swept over me, and I quickly lost consciousness.
When I woke, the doctor told me the procedure had gone well.
But it had been difficult for me to get pregnant in the first place, and because the miscarriage was caused by trauma, I would never be able to have children again.
It felt as though someone had ripped my heart apart.
I nodded, pulled the blanket over my head, and sobbed uncontrollably.
My phone chimed several times.
It was Dante.
"Are you feeling better? Vivi got quite a scare. I'll stay with her tonight and come see you tomorrow."
I bit my lip and didn't answer.
On my second day in the hospital, I felt a little stronger. I got up and drafted my resignation again.
When I returned, Dante was buried in problems with an arms-smuggling deal.
Seeing me, he asked coldly, "So you finally remembered your way back?"
I walked up to him and handed him my resignation and a USB drive.
"Let me go."
I spoke softly, but my resolve was absolute.
I didn't want to remain the nameless woman hidden in his shadow.
For years, I had risked my life for his family.
I wanted to be myself again.
Dante's face darkened.
"I said nobody resigns. Was I not clear enough for you?"
I pointed at the drive.
"I'm not here to negotiate. You'd better take a good look at what's on that drive before you make a decision. That drive contains backups of every account from the last several years. If you dare lay a hand on me, copies will be sent automatically to the FBI and several major financial news outlets."
Dante stared at me for a long moment. Then he pressed his gun to my forehead.
"Why do you have to go? Why?"
There was the faintest tremor in Dante's voice.
Strangely, I heard a trace of pain in it.
I said coldly, "You know exactly why."
The words were barely out when his phone chimed.
The email I'd scheduled had been sent to the family's internal inbox.
"All these years, you've been keeping backups of every account for this exact moment, haven't you?"
Dante drew a deep breath, fury blazing in his eyes.
"You've never truly loved me. You've been protecting yourself from me this whole time, getting ready to cut every tie between us. Anna, I had underestimated you."
I took the agreement out of my bag and set it on the desk.
"Do you remember this? When you signed it, you said you would love only me for the rest of your life. And now?
"Can you swear that every kindness you showed Vivienne was only because you needed an heir? Can you swear you never felt anything for her?"
Dante fell silent.
After a long moment, he removed the gun from my forehead.
He closed his eyes.
"Go. I'll have the lawyers transfer your share of our assets into your account. The gift I bought for you at the auction will be sent as well."
I turned away and finally let out the breath I'd been holding.
Anna, you're free.
"If you never trusted me from the start, why did you agree to marry me?"
Behind me, Dante's voice drifted over, hollow and faint.
I didn't answer him, and I didn't look back.
The office door slammed behind me. The confrontation had left my knees so weak that I nearly fell.
That was when I realized several of the medical records were missing from my bag.
At the same time, Dante picked up the agreement and leafed through it.
When he reached the last page, his eyes widened.
It was a medical record.
"Eight weeks pregnant. Fetal demise caused by external trauma. Surgical evacuation completed. Follow-up required in one month."
Dante's heart jolted.
He rushed out of the office, but I was already gone.
He called his assistant at once.
"I don't care how you do it. Bring Anna back to me right now!"
By the time they came after me, I was on my way to the airport.
I recognized them at a glance. In the car behind me were Dante's best enforcers and bodyguards.
He only deployed that team for armed confrontations with rival families.
He regrets it. He wants me dead.
They forced my taxi to stop, chambered rounds, and aimed their guns at me.
Bang!
The shot went off.
I plunged headfirst from the bridge into the sea, blood from my shoulder turning the water red.