Chapter 5 - THE MISTRESS WHO WANTED EVERYTHING
Valentina Russo had never accepted losing Dante.
Even after he married me, she remained close to his family's business.
She attended private dinners.
Appeared at charity events.
Smiled at me with perfect white teeth.
And occasionally touched Dante's arm just long enough to remind me that she had known him first.
I had spent years pretending not to notice.
Now I was finished pretending.
One afternoon, Valentina appeared outside Sofia's apartment building.
She wore a cream designer coat and enormous sunglasses.
Sofia saw her first.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
I looked through the window.
Valentina stood beside a black Mercedes.
Waiting.
I didn't go downstairs.
Instead, I called Elizabeth.
Twenty minutes later, Valentina received a formal notice directing her to stop contacting me.
She responded by sending another photograph.
This time, it showed Dante asleep in a hotel room.
The timestamp was from the night before Leo's birth.
I stared at it.
My chest tightened.
I had suspected the worst.
Now I had evidence that Dante had been in a private hotel room while I was in labor.
I forwarded the photograph to Elizabeth.
Then sat beside Leo's crib.
For several minutes, I couldn't move.
Sofia came in quietly.
“Bella?”
I looked up.
“Seven years.”
My voice broke.
“Seven years, Sofia.”
She sat beside me.
“I know.”
“I gave him everything.”
Tears streamed down my face.
“And he couldn't give me one night.”
Sofia pulled me into her arms.
I cried until my chest hurt.
Then Leo began fussing.
I wiped my face.
Picked him up.
And held him close.
“It's okay, sweetheart,” I whispered.
He settled against me.
And I realized something.
My marriage might be ending.
But my life wasn't.
I still had a reason to get up every morning.
A reason to keep going.
May you like
A reason to become stronger.
His name was Leo.
