Bloodlines were everything in the underworld, but for Esmeralda Larosa, they were a curse. Her family’s loyalty to the Corleone dynasty had always been unshakable, but loyalty wasn’t love. It wasn’t freedom. She never expected her life to change at Carlos Corleone’s welcome party. The man who would become her husband didn’t woo her with charm or devotion—he took her future with a single, cruel act. The pregnancy that followed was her prison sentence, locking her into a loveless marriage designed to protect the reputation of two powerful Mafia families. Carlos didn’t love her, and Esmeralda didn’t want him. His dangerous world suffocated her, and his ex-lover, Giulia Giordano, promised to make her life hell. Yet, as much as Esmeralda tried to escape, Carlos refused to let her go. And she wondered why the mafia want her so badly.