They whisper about Don Fera in the dark: a man who turns violence into art and makes mercy bleed.
I know another side of him, the one who has knelt, begged, and accepted a collar in exchange for a crown won in blood.
Gunfire destroys the private life we had and drags us into the open, where no one can mistake me for a Don's arm candy.
I am his queen, his equal, and his salvation, even as a rival family comes for blood and the past my own family tried to burn away refuses to stay buried.
The safe life I abandoned is still there, but so is the darkness that comes with loving him. I will not run from this war.
