---- Chapter 11 Alessia POV: | stood on the Italian balcony, the warm sea breeze on my skin, and listened in stunned silence as Damien Costa, my loyal protector, sincerely proposed a new family covenant. He was asking me to marry him. A part of me was surprised, but another, deeper part was not. His loyalty had been a steady anchor in the storm of my life. But | wasn't ready. "Damien," | said, my voice gentle. "| need to heal first. | need to find myself again before | can be a wife to anyone." My priority now was my own reconstruction. A flicker of worry crossed my face. "Besides, would your family even accept the daughter of a Don who has endured such a public shame? A broken family bond?" He gave me a small, reassuring smile. "My parents, who lead a family as powerful as your own, already admire you. They have seen your strength, your resilience. They fully support you becoming their family's future Queen." We returned from Italy together, our companionship easy and respectful. He gave me space, a quiet support that was the exact opposite of Santino's suffocating possession. ---- Back at my father's estate, he gave me the final news. The Moretti family was financially obliterated. Under the crushing weight of my father's bloody revenge, Santino had been forced to liquidate everything to pay the massive reparations demanded of him. Then came the final, devastating truth. "We got the DNA results," my father said, his voice flat "Valentina's child has no genetic link to Santino. Or to Marco." The deception had been total. A carefully orchestrated fraud She had violated the code of Omerta in the most profound way possible. "What happened to her?" | asked. "When Santino found out, he threw her out," my father replied. "He cast her out as a pariah for betraying the family's trust. She has nothing and no one." The final court hearing for my annulment was a cold, sterile affair. Santino was there, a ghost of the powerful man he once was. He tried to offer another desperate, hollow apology. | met his gaze with eyes of ice and turned away, severing the last, tainted thread of our family bond. As we walked out onto the courthouse steps, a free woman, | felt a new sense of purpose. My life was my own. Damien was waiting for me. He simply held out his hand. ---- | took it. "Dinner?" he asked. | looked up at him, at the unwavering loyalty in his eyes, and a genuine smile, the first in years, touched my lips.