You Said Die Quietly, So I Did

The doctor told me I had thirty days to live. Exactly ten minutes later, my husband told me his mistress was pregnant. I sat in the cold marble living room of the Vitiello estate, watching Dante pace. He was the Capo of Chicago, the man I used to stitch up in a bathroom when we had nothing. Now, he looked at me with dead eyes. "Sienna is moving in," he said casually. "She carries the heir. You will raise him." He treated the destruction of our marriage like a business arrangement. I tried to tell him about the pain eating my insides, the Stage IV cancer that made standing agony. But he just rolled his eyes, calling my weakness "jealousy" and my silence "theatrics." He even gutted our first home—the safe house where we fell in love—to build a nursery for her. When I finally asked him, "What if I'm dying?" he didn't even pause on his way out the door. "Then do it quietly," he said. "I have enough headaches today." So I did. I burned every photo of us. I signed the divorce papers. And I went to a civilian cemetery to buy a plot under my maiden name, far away from his family mausoleum. I died alone on a cold stone bench, just as he asked. It wasn't until he stood in the morgue, holding my skeletal hand and realizing I weighed nothing but bones and grief, that the King of Chicago finally broke. He found my journal in the trash, where I had written my final entry: "I wish I never met Dante Vitiello." Now, he is on his knees in the dirt, begging a headstone for forgiveness that will never come.

Chapters

Chapter 8

Dante Vitiello POV

My first thought was that it was a wax doll.

It had to be. It couldn't be Elena. Elena was soft. Elena was warm. Elena had cheeks that flushed pink when I kissed her.

But this thing on the table was grey. It was skeletal. The skin was stretched too tight over sharp cheekbones, and the lips were a bruised shade of blue.

I stumbled back, hitting the wall hard.

"It's a trick," I said. My voice sounded like it was coming from underwater, distant and distorted.

"It's not a trick, Dante."

Giulia was standing in the doorway. She wasn't screaming anymore. The hysteria had been replaced by a terrifying, hollow calm.

"Look at her," she said. "Really look at her."

I forced myself to look.

I saw the faint scar on her chin from when she fell off a bike at twenty. I saw the small mole on the curve of her neck.

It was Elena.

But she looked... starved.

She looked like she had been dying for a long time.

"Why is she so thin?" I asked, the words scraping against the bile rising in my throat.

"Cancer," Giulia said. "Pancreatic. Stage four."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "She was fine. She was just... tired. She was jealous of Sienna."

"She has been dying in your house for months," Giulia spat, her voice cracking the air. "And you were too busy fucking your mistress to notice she couldn't eat. You were too busy building a nursery to notice your wife was fading away."

I fell to my knees. The impact cracked against the tile floor, but I didn't feel it.

I crawled to the table. I took her hand.

It was ice cold.

"Elena," I whispered. "Wake up."

Silence.

"Elena, please. I'm here. I'm home."

Nothing.

I tried to lift her. I needed to warm her up. If I just warmed her up, she would wake up.

"Sir, you can't do that."

A man in a suit tried to pull me away.

"Get off me!" I roared. I shoved him across the room with a burst of frantic strength.

I wrapped my arms around her body. She was so light. Too light. Like a bird with hollow bones.

Giulia walked over. She didn't try to pull me away.

Instead, she raised her hand and slapped me.

The sound was like a gunshot in the quiet room. My head snapped to the side.

"She is gone!" Giulia screamed, the hollowness shattering. "You killed her! You killed her with your indifference! Now let her go!"

I looked at Elena's face. Her eyes were closed. She looked peaceful. More peaceful than she had looked in years.

The funeral director approached cautiously, holding a clipboard like a shield.

"Mr. Vitiello," he said, his voice trembling. "We need a signature for the death certificate. And the release for cremation."

"Cremation?" I asked. "No. She goes in the family mausoleum."

Giulia snatched the clipboard.

"She didn't want the mausoleum," she hissed. "She didn't want to be near you."

I looked at the paper. Cause of Death: Pancreatic Cancer. Cardiac Arrest.

I picked up the pen. My hand was shaking so hard the ink blotted against the page.

I signed my name.

It felt like signing my own death warrant.

Continue to next part

She sells flowers. He spills blood. And he will stop at nothing to make her his. Elena Rossi has always lived quietly among roses and lilies, dreaming of love as gentle as the petals she arranges. She thought she found it in Daniel, the man she planned to marry. Until her wedding day when a dangerous stranger walked into the church and shattered everything. Adrian Volkov is a king in the underworld, a man feared for his ruthlessness and power. But to him, Elena is not just a prize. She is an obsession. A storm he cannot live without. And he will burn the world and anyone in it, to claim her. Torn from the life she knew, Elena resists him, manipulates him, and even runs from him. But Adrian is relentless. His love is dark, his touch both punishing and tender, and his obsession inescapable. When betrayal and bloodshed close in, Elena must face the truth: She doesn't just fear him. She doesn't just hate him. She loves him. Petals and Blood is a haunting, passionate tale of obsession, betrayal, and the dangerous kind of love that blooms in shadows.

Action Mafia Romance

7.5

Falling For The Most Hated Hollywood Girl

7.5

I was the adopted daughter of the wealthy Ruiz family, but the moment their true heir appeared, I was thrown away like trash. Not long after being kicked out, my adoptive father and uncle hired a hitman to stage a fatal car crash on Mulholland Drive. Pinned under an overturned Porsche with a shattered leg, I watched the hitman point a suppressed pistol between my eyes. "The Ruiz family sends their regards." Before this, my reputation had already been completely destroyed by a director, a pop idol, and a reality TV star, leaving me blacklisted and universally hated. My adoptive family didn't just want me ruined; they wanted me permanently silenced to tie up loose ends. The hitman pulled the trigger, and the original Alicia died in despair, tasting only rain and blood. Until her last breath, she didn't understand. Why did the family she loved treat her like a disposable object? Why did those three men maliciously frame her and turn the world against her? Opening my eyes again, the fear was gone, replaced by an ancient, cosmic indifference. I, the Arbiter, had taken over this deceased vessel. Moving faster than the human eye, I crushed the hitman's steel gun with my bare hand and turned his soul into dust. Looking at the memories of those who wronged this girl, I signed a contract for the very reality show they were starring in. Since I borrowed this body, taking out the trash is a required courtesy.

Action Mafia Modern Sci-Fi

7.1

I Married You For Your Brother’s Face

7.1

I married the most ruthless Don in Chicago, but not for love, money, or power. I married Luca Falcone because he was the only man on earth who carried the same DNA as his dead identical twin, Dante—the love of my life. For three years, I played the role of the submissive, obsessed wife. I endured his coldness. I cooked for his mistress, Sofia. I even stayed silent when Sofia pushed me down a flight of stairs in a jealous rage, nearly killing me. Luca thought I stayed because I was weak. He thought the way I stared at his face was adoration. He never realized I was looking right through him, seeing the ghost of the brother he could never live up to. But the moment the second pink line appeared on the pregnancy test, my mission was complete. I had secured the heir. I had brought a piece of Dante back to the world. The vessel was no longer needed. I signed the divorce papers, packed my bags, and vanished into the night while Luca was busy with his mistress. When he finally tracked me down months later, broken and begging on his knees for me to come home, I didn't feel a thing. I looked down at the man who thought he was a King and delivered the final blow. "I never loved you, Luca. I married you for the sperm."

Mafia Modern Romance

9.6

Pampered By The Rival Mafia Boss

9.6

Ten years ago, I saved the life of New York’s most dangerous mob boss with a sewing kit. I gave Ethan Reed my youth, my loyalty, and my heart. But the moment his ex-girlfriend Chloe returned, I became disposable. It didn't matter that she had abandoned him. It didn't matter that she poisoned me, killing the unborn child Ethan didn't even know we had. When Chloe needed a kidney transplant due to her drug abuse, Ethan didn't protect me. He strapped me to a gurney. "It's just one kidney, Ava. You owe me." He harvested my organ to save the woman who murdered his heir. And when he was done, he decided I was a loose end. He dragged me to the edge of a bridge in the pouring rain. "This is how it ends," he said, his eyes devoid of love. "A tragic suicide." He pushed me into the freezing water, watching me drown to secure his happy ending. He thought I was dead. He thought the canary had sung its last song. But he forgot one thing. I was the chemist who built his empire. When his greatest rival pulled me out of the river, I didn't pray for salvation. I prayed for revenge. Three months later, I walked into his charity gala on the arm of his enemy, wearing a white suit and a smile sharp enough to cut glass. Ethan dropped to his knees when he saw me. But I wasn't there to forgive him. I was there to burn his house down.

Action Mafia Modern

8.5

Pregnant With My Boss's Twin Brother's Baby

8.5

After a night of mistaken identity, a woman discovers she is pregnant. She believes the father is her billionaire boss, but the truth is far more dangerous. The biological father is actually her employer's estranged twin, a powerful figure in the criminal underworld. Trapped between two identical men with vastly different lives, she must navigate a world of mafia secrets and corporate power while protecting her unborn child from their rivalry.

Billionaire Mafia Romance

7.8

The Beast Redemption

7.8

After a brutal betrayal leaves him for dead, a powerful mafia heir returns from the shadows to reclaim his stolen throne. Fueled by a cold desire for vengeance, he navigates a world of lethal secrets and shifting loyalties. However, his path crosses with a woman from his past whose presence threatens to soften his hardened heart. In this dangerous game of power and passion, he must decide if love is a weakness or his ultimate salvation.

Mafia Modern Romance

You Said Die Quietly, So I Did

Chapter 8

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