The Don Married My Sister, I Had One Day Left

After I gave myself the last dose of painkiller, I stood outside the hotel all afternoon in the vintage couture gown Lucian had chosen for me himself.

The black Bentley motorcade that was supposed to come for the bride never arrived. What I heard instead was the chatter of people passing by.

"Did you hear? The youngest Don in New York is getting married. He and the bride have been together ten years."

That stopped me, because Lucian and I had only been together seven.

"They say he bought a blue diamond, the only one of its kind in the world, just to set it in her ring. He's proposing at the church today."

The moment I pushed open the church doors, Lucian looked straight at me.

"Cassie, I knew you'd come. Ten years ago you lost Elena, the true blood of this Family, and left her to be ground down at the bottom of the world. You had the safety and glory of the Family name while she endured ten years of hell. I let you believe in that engagement for exactly this day. I want you to feel what it's like to be thrown away by everyone."

Three people I knew better than anyone sat in the front pew. Marcus spoke first. "You took the life that was supposed to be Elena's. She's back, so it goes back to her. You owe her that."

My heart felt like a cold gun barrel was pressed against it. I couldn't get air.

Nobody knew that a month ago I had been diagnosed with end-stage neurological failure, and that I had one day left. For my last hours all I had wanted was to hold the hand of the man I loved, with my family around me.

I walked out of the church calmly and dropped the keepsake he had given me into a trash can.

But now I'd changed my mind. I wasn't going to spend my last day intruding on any of them.