Part 2Silent Snowfall

The next day was the anniversary of my mother’s death.

I cooked my parents’ favorite dishes and brought them to the cemetery. I arranged the food, knelt on the cold stone slab, and, as I always did, began to speak softly to the headstone.

"Mom, Dad, brother… I'm here to see you."

The wind chilled my cheeks. I reached out and gently traced the cold, carved names on the stone, as if I could still feel the warmth of my parents’ hands.

"Dad, Mom," I whispered, a faint smile touching my lips. "I saw Kane yesterday."

"But don't you worry. He can't hurt me anymore."

"I'm on my own now, and I'm doing just fine…"

Now, I was just Clara, the owner of a small dessert shop tucked away in a Southport alley. My life was simple, steady.

I was no longer the woman of the North Harbor crime boss.

I would no longer have blood on my hands for his sake.

And I would never again be the crazy woman who, unable to accept his betrayal, threatened to take his mistress down with her.

...

The year I met Kane, he was just an orphan on the streets of North Harbor, fighting dogs for scraps in a dumpster. He was young, and to get a mouthful of food without being beaten or starved to death, he was always covered in a patchwork of fresh and faded bruises. Not a single inch of his skin was unmarked.

That winter, a blizzard buried the city for three days and three nights. Kane, who hadn't eaten in days, collapsed from hunger right on our doorstep.

Looking at this boy, who was my age but thin as a skeleton, I couldn't bear it. I begged my father, the head of the North Harbor syndicate, to take him in. My parents couldn't refuse me. They adopted Kane and began to train him.

"Boss, I, Kane, will remember this debt for the rest of my life. I will repay you."

Kane was a man who honored his debts. And he did.

In five years, he went from a low-level street punk to the undisputed king of North Harbor, climbing his way to the top over the blood and bones of his rivals.

Throughout North Harbor, everyone addressed him with respect as "Boss Kane." The same people who once looked down on him now scrambled to get on his good side, but he kept them all at a polite distance.

Only with my father was his respect genuine, coming from the heart. Even after my father got out of the game and stepped away from power, Kane's loyalty never wavered.

"If it wasn't for the Boss back then, I'd have died in some gutter. I wouldn't be here today."

"You and Ma'am are like my own parents."

"I will always be a good son to you, and I will take care of Li."

And in the days that followed, two young hearts, spending every day together, began to fall in love.

The old guard in the organization, who resented his rise, constantly tried to undermine him. During those years, I stood by his side through countless sleepless nights, shielded him from schemes at the negotiation table, and patched up his knife wounds in the dead of night. From internal power struggles to violent clashes with other factions, we walked the most dangerous path together.

Until no one in North Harbor dared to challenge him again.

But the higher he climbed, the more women threw themselves at him. Though I trusted him, I couldn't help but feel a tremor of insecurity.

He saw my anxiety and held my hand tightly. "Li, in my heart, no one compares to you."

"You're the one who stood by me when I was bleeding, the one who walked through fire and blood with me. No one can ever replace that."

To put me at ease, he took me with him everywhere he went. He knew I loved the pan-fried dumplings from an old shop on the west side, and no matter how late he finished his business, he would drive across town to buy them for me. If I so much as burned a finger while cooking, he would frown for ages, carefully applying ointment as if it were a mortal wound.

Everyone said I was the woman Kane loved to his bones, that you could cross anyone but me.

I believed our bond, forged in hardship, was unbreakable.

I never imagined reality would deliver such a savage slap to my face.