The Ninety-Ninth Time He Broke My Heart

For five years, Adriana Valente has kept her husband Lorenzo Falcone alive. As heir to the Falcone bloodline, Lorenzo carries a stomach condition that could get a made man killed, and Adriana has stood at the stove twelve hours a day, simmering healing broths and rising in the dead of night whenever his weakness flares — usually because he has been chasing street food with Gemma Riccardi, his little errand-girl.

This time, his ninety-ninth relapse, Adriana does not cook. She orders takeout, smiles, and says nothing. What Lorenzo does not know is that his mother, Serafina Falcone, once struck a pact with her: if his condition relapses more than ninety-nine times while the marriage holds, the alliance dissolves. Today is the ninety-ninth. Her flight leaves tomorrow.

Yet when Lorenzo, pale against the pillows, asks her to cover one more watch and head home at noon, the words she meant to say catch in her throat — and the matriarch's message is already waiting on her phone.