Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN HE CHOSE
Claire Rinaldi had always known her husband was dangerous.
Roman Rinaldi controlled an empire that stretched through Miami freight yards, hotels, construction firms, and darker businesses respectable people never mentioned aloud. Men feared him.
Claire knew another version.
The husband who peeled oranges for her when pregnancy made her nauseous. The man who drove across Miami after midnight because she wanted a chocolate milkshake. The man who slept with one hand over her pregnant stomach as though even in dreams he could protect their unborn son.
Then Serena Cross appeared.
Photographs began circulating through Miami.
Roman leaving a hotel with Serena.
Roman helping Serena into his car.
Roman sitting too close to her during a private dinner.
When Claire finally confronted him, Roman denied having an affair.
Instead, he gave her an answer that hurt almost as much.
He needed Miami to believe Serena was his mistress.
A ruthless rival named Victor Kane was moving against the Rinaldi organization. Serena had access to Kane, and Roman insisted the illusion of an affair was part of something he could not fully explain.
Claire wanted to trust him.
But trust became harder each day Roman allowed society women to whisper behind her back. His own men avoided her eyes. Serena appeared beside Roman publicly while Claire, eight months pregnant, was expected to endure the humiliation quietly.
Then everything exploded.
Gunmen attacked the Rinaldi mansion.
Bullets tore through the walls. Smoke filled the foyer. Glass covered the floor.
Claire was wounded.
Blood ran down her legs while contractions seized her body.
Across the ruined foyer, Roman saw her.
But Serena was injured too.
Roman made his decision.
“Get Serena out!”
Claire watched her husband lift Serena into his arms and disappear through the smoke.
In that moment, she decided whatever explanation Roman had no longer mattered.
By sunrise, Roman still possessed his mansion, his fortune, and his criminal empire.
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But Claire was gone.
And so was the son she carried.
