

"When a powerful earthquake struck the city, Evelyn, the adopted daughter, was trapped beneath the ruins. Liam, the brother who had grown up with her for years, and Sebastian, her childhood sweetheart and fiancé, both chose without hesitation to rescue Cecilia, the biological daughter who had only recently been acknowledged. As a result, Evelyn’s right leg was crushed and fractured. When she was rescued, she happened to overhear the two of them saying she was an outsider and planning to call off the engagement, and she passed out from the pain on the spot. During her hospitalization, Evelyn was treated coldly by everyone. Her heart died completely, and after realizing that she was nothing more than an outsider, she resolved to leave. After being discharged and returning home, faced with her adoptive mother’s favoritism, Cecilia’s targeting, Sebastian’s wavering, and Liam’s belated guilt, Evelyn remained calm and distant, quietly preparing to leave. In order to appease her biological daughter, her adoptive mother even tried to introduce Evelyn to a notorious playboy, and slapped her in public over a misunderstanding. On the day of the birthday Evelyn and Cecilia shared, Evelyn went to Miami alone and completely cut off all ties with the past. Five years later, under her aunt’s guidance, Evelyn had built a successful career. She returned to New York to accompany her aunt for medical treatment and encountered the Ford family again. By then, the Ford family was no longer what it used to be. Faced with their belated apologies and attempts to keep her, Evelyn had long since let go of the past and now possessed a real and vibrant life of her own."

In the Valenti Family, you're born with a chip. It's fused into the bio-watch on your wrist, its digital face counting down every second you have left to live. Everyone could see the numbers ticking down on my twin sister's watch. And on mine. They all knew she would die on our 18th birthday. So Vivian became the untouchable princess of our brutal world. Every diamond-stitched gown was hers. The rarest jewels were hers. Even our father's last shred of humanity was hers. That single sliver of warmth he showed only after his gun was holstered. I used to pity her. Her time was running out. But God, I envied her. She had everything I never did: our parents' love. Then, the night of her 18th birthday party. My parents worried I'd make a scene. That I'd piss off the Don of an allied Family. So they locked me in the cellar. Damp. Cold. While a deadly fever burned through me. I pounded on the heavy oak door, my voice cracking. "Mamma, please! Let me out! I'm burning up. My head is splitting open…" Outside, my mother's voice was a steel trap. "Enough, Sienna! Today is your sister’s 18th birthday. Her last day alive! Stop the theatrics! Can't you suffer in silence for the Family's honor?" "But I'm really sick..." Her footsteps clicked away, fading into nothing. Then the darkness swallowed me whole. And on my wrist, the bio-watch was flashing a critical alert. CRITICAL ALERT: Vital signs mismatch. Paired chip data incompatible. Please verify user.

I’m the Chief Counsel for Donatello Vexille, the Godfather of the Vexille family. I’m also his secret wife. At night, he’d pull me close, take me with a ragged violence, leaving his marks on me, a brutal claim I couldn’t refuse. But by day, I was just his lawyer. All he had for me were cold commands. We lived like that for three years. I decided I was done. But he couldn’t know. When I handed him the divorce papers, disguised as a bill of lading, and he signed his name, a breath I didn’t know I was holding finally escaped me. I chased him for seven years and was married to him for three. Whatever was left of my heart finally flatlined. I knew I could never have his. Because it already belonged to someone else: Angelina, his underboss’s sister. He remembered her favorite restaurant. He got blind drunk with joy when she filed for divorce. He even posted his personal guards outside her door. Those were honors I never had. So I tricked him into signing the papers, packed my things, and vanished. What I didn't expect was what he did after I left. He put a king's ransom on my location, and even announced to the whole world that I was his wife.