---- Chapter 5 Katarina POV: When Alex woke up in the clinic, | was sitting by his bedside. The sight of me seemed to surprise him. He expected hysterics, accusations, a fight. | gave him none of it. | was calm, my face a placid mask. My tranquility unnerved him, but it also made him careless. "| feel like hell," he mumbled, rubbing his temples. "You gave too much blood," | said, my voice even. He propped himself up, his eyes avoiding mine. "Listen, Kat ... | have to go to the West Coast. Urgent family business. The Five Families are getting restless." It was another lie, so transparent | almost pitied him. | knew he had no intention of leaving the city. He was staying to watch over Aria, to continue building their secret future in the Como villa he thought | knew nothing about. This marriage wasn't just dead; it was a grotesque theater performance, and he was the star fool. The honor of the De Luca name was being tarnished by his cheap affair, and he was too blind to see it. "She's just a tool, you know," he added, as if reading my mind. ---- His attempt at reassurance was pathetic. "A means to an end. Once the baby is here, she's gone. We'll send her away with a nice payout. Everything will go back to the way it was." He still believed he could control it all. He still believed | was the same naive girl who thought his protection was a form of love. Just then, Capo Giovanni, one of his most trusted men, appeared at the door. "Boss," he said quietly. "Aria is awake. She's asking for you." Alex was on his feet in an instant. All pretense of "family business," all empty promises to me, evaporated. He rushed out of the room without a backward glance, leaving me alone with the hum of the hospital machines. In that moment, the last vestiges of pain vanished. There was no anger, no sadness, no grief. There was only the cold, clean feeling of release. The chains had rusted through. | was free. | went back to the penthouse one last time. It no longer felt like my home. The silence was different now-it was hollow. While | was at the clinic, Donato's "cleaners" had been here. My closets were empty. My personal photographs, my books, my art supplies-all of it was gone, already on its way to a new life in Paris. | sat at my laptop and methodically erased myself. My ---- social media accounts, my email, my cloud storage. Every digital trace of Katarina De Luca was deleted. | left only one thing: my maiden name. Jensen. A final goodbye to the woman | used to be. The front door opened. It was Alex. He was on the phone, his back to me. "No, baby, don't worry about a thing," he was saying, his voice low and intimate. "I'll make sure the fridge is stocked before you get there. Just think of it. You, me, and the baby. Our own little secret in Como." He walked to the refrigerator, still on the phone, and began pulling out food, presumably to take to his mistress's new secret home. He finally hung up and turned to me, a strained smile on his face. "Sorry about that. Just finalizing some... logistics for the West Coast trip." | looked at him, the man | had once loved, now a stranger tangled in a web of his own pathetic lies. | didn't challenge him. | didn't expose him. | just nodded. "| understand," | said. And for the first time in a long time, it was the absolute truth. | understood everything perfectly. Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!