But I needed this moment alone to reflect on the last few years of my life.

Somehow, I’d gone from deeply embittered and broken to living a happier life than I ever could have dreamed for myself. In the past, I would have doubted how much I deserved such happiness, but now I knew better.

I’d earned it.

I had fought for my man and won. Battled for my position at the top of New York City’s legal heap and come out victorious, with more wins under my belt as a criminal defense attorney than anyone else my age in the history of the city.

It might not have been the life I envisioned—the wife of a notorious mafia boss, the mother to a beautiful adopted child while I seemed unable to bear children myself, and a lawyer with a reputation for fiercely defending known criminals—but it was mine.

And no could take that from me.

After thirty-two years of hardship, peace might have seemed boring, but a happy life with Dante was never dull for long.

“A woman shouldn’t stay alone after dark in abandoned offices.”

A shiver rattled my shoulder blades, the strange male voice summoned like the devil by my thoughts.

No, life was never boring.

Fear skittered through me, but it only proved to bolster my confidence. Whoever thought they could break into my own offices and intimidate me was in for a rude surprise.

I knew how to defend myself, six years of self-defense training and daily practice with the Camorra outfit coupled with the gun strapped to the inside of my right thigh meant that I was a force to be reckoned with.

Adriano, my driver and bodyguard, was waiting for me in the lobby. If I wasn’t done in the allotted fifteen minutes, ten of which were already up, he would come for me.

So I wasn’t scared.

But I was curious.

“A man shouldn’t break into the offices of a woman with an infamous, overprotective husband,” I countered sweetly enough without turning to face the intruder.

It was a power move, and the thrill of it made my pulse kick into a faster beat.

There was a beat of silence.

“It is a good thing, then, that the front door was unlocked.”

I almost laughed at his audacity, but instead, I schooled my features to placidity and turned to face him.

At first glance, he was terrifying.