He Gave My Throne to the Woman I Saved.

"Why should I apologize?" Hazel's voice rose sharply. "Aren't these stamps something you had made for me because you were afraid I'd get bored?" "You were the one who said I could stamp whatever I wanted. You said it was just for fun. And now you're standing there letting her humiliate me and force me to apologize?" Andrew caught her wrist, his brows pulling together. "Hazel." She jerked free, tears spilling down her face. "Don't touch me!" "You're both ganging up on me because I'm nobody, aren't you? It was one stupid joke, and suddenly I'm the villain!" Her voice cracked between sobs. "Fine. It's my fault. A girl like me should've known better than to joke around with people born into powerful Families. I'll leave. Is that what you want?" She turned and rushed toward the door. "Hazel!" Andrew strode after her and caught her before she could leave. He stared at her tear-streaked face, his expression shifting before he finally sighed. "Enough. It was a small thing. Why are you crying like this?" Then he looked at me. "Hazel's young. She doesn't understand the rules yet. I'll apologize for her." His voice carried a trace of exhaustion. "Jade, don't make more of this than it is, alright?" A bitter smile touched my lips. The blue ink stamped across my face seemed to burn against my skin. Andrew let go of Hazel and came toward me. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, his voice gentler now. "Come on. Don't be angry." He paused. "Weren't you the one who asked me to look after Hazel when you brought her into the Family? She's still childish. She doesn't always know when she's gone too far." My nails dug into my palm. The pain was nothing compared to the ache spreading through my chest. He was right. I was the one who had brought Hazel into our world. Years ago, Hazel had come to me desperate for help. She'd grown up in a forgotten town controlled by men who decided everything for the women in their families, and she had been desperate to escape. I took pity on her. I paid for her schooling, gave her a place under Moretti protection, and eventually asked Andrew to find her a harmless position at the Family's legitimate import business. Back then, Andrew complained about her constantly. She couldn't keep the shipping ledgers straight, spilled coffee over sensitive paperwork, and once delivered a sealed envelope meant for one capo to another. Every time he mentioned her, he'd rub his temples in frustration. "Jade, you handed me a walking disaster. I spend half my day fixing her mistakes." I'd laughed and told him he was too impatient. Everyone needed someone to give them a chance. At least, that was what I'd believed. I never imagined the girl I'd personally pulled out of the mud would one day use my kindness as a ladder, then step on my face to reach for everything that belonged to me. Andrew sighed and stepped closer. He lifted the handkerchief and tried to wipe the words from my face. But the blue ink was oil-based. The more he rubbed, the worse it became. Blue streaks spread across my cheek and down my chin, smearing into my hairline and the corner of my mouth. I didn't need a mirror to know what I looked like. My carefully styled hair was ruined. My makeup had dissolved into ugly blue-black stains. I must have looked ridiculous. Hazel covered her mouth, but a laugh still escaped. The satisfaction in her eyes was impossible to miss. "Andrew!" She suddenly glanced at the clock. "I almost forgot. The Russo Family auction starts in twenty minutes. We need to go." Andrew's expression changed. He checked his watch, then looked back at me. "We really don't have time." He hesitated. "Jade, I was going to take you to the jeweler before the auction, but we'll have to do it another day." His eyes lingered on my stained face. "Go back to the estate and clean up, alright?" Then he turned toward the door. "When I get home tonight, we'll talk."

When Andrew reached the door, he turned back to me. "Jade. Be good and wait for me at home." Hazel stood beside him. Just before turning away, she glanced back and curled her lips into a quick smile. There wasn't a trace of apology in it. Only provocation. And victory. The door opened. I watched Andrew leave with her without the slightest hesitation, and the last trace of warmth in my chest disappeared. "Andrew." He stopped. "If this is how you intend to handle this, then I'm not satisfied." I looked straight at him. "I'll deal with it myself." Andrew finally turned around. His expression remained calm, almost amused, as if he thought I was throwing another harmless tantrum. "Alright, Jade." He gave a quiet chuckle. "Don't overthink it. Wait until I get back." Then he left with Hazel. The door didn't close completely. Their voices drifted back from the hallway. "Andrew..." Hazel sounded nervous now, her earlier arrogance replaced by carefully measured fear. "Jade is a Moretti by marriage, and her own Family is powerful too. If she really decides to come after me, what am I supposed to do?" Andrew's answer came a moment later. "She's angry. She'll calm down." Then his voice softened. "Besides, I'm here. Who would dare touch you?" He laughed quietly. "You use all that temper on me, but the second someone else gets angry, you panic." Their footsteps gradually faded. I stood alone in the office. The young women by the doorway hadn't left. They stared at me awkwardly, pity creeping into their eyes. I raised a hand to cover the humiliating words stamped across my face. "Could one of you lend me a mask? Or a hat?" One of them hesitated, then quickly pulled a new mask from her bag and handed it to me. "This one's clean, Mrs. Moretti." I glanced at the name on her badge. "Thank you. I'll remember that." Her cheeks flushed, and she quickly stepped aside. I put on the mask, pulled a hat low over my face, and walked out of Moretti headquarters. The moment I got into the car, I sent a message to the Russo Family, the hosts of tonight's private auction. "Andrew Moretti will be arriving tonight with a woman named Hazel Garcia." I paused before typing the final sentence. "Bring Hazel to me." Among New York's most powerful Families, plenty of people would gladly trade a favor for my goodwill. Hazel had just handed the Russos the perfect opportunity. Then I made another call. "Find someone who makes inspection stamps. I want one hundred pork-grade stamps." My fingers tightened around the phone. "Use the darkest red permanent ink you can find. Something that won't wash off easily." By the time the car pulled up outside the Moretti estate, our longtime steward, John, was already hurrying down the steps. "Mrs. Moretti." His expression was tense. "Mr. Moretti came back earlier. He said he was taking Miss Garcia to the Russo auction tonight, but she didn't have anything suitable to wear." He hesitated. "So he took her into your private dressing room." Something inside me sank. But my voice remained steady. "Which dress did she take?" John drew a breath, visibly suppressing his anger. "Star Sea." For a second, I forgot how to breathe. Star Sea. The gown I'd worn the night Andrew and I became formally engaged before both Families. It had never come from some famous designer. Andrew had sketched it himself. He'd commissioned one of Italy's finest ateliers to make it by hand, every stitch and every stone placed exactly as he'd instructed. Hundreds of natural sapphires covered the skirt like fragments of a midnight sky. That night, Andrew had looked at me in the gown and said he'd taken every star he could reach and laid them at my feet.

The value of that dress could no longer be measured in money. Star Sea wasn't just a gown. It was a promise. A beautiful dream Andrew had once created for me with his own hands. I closed my eyes. For a moment, I could still see the night of our engagement, Andrew staring at me in Star Sea as though I were the only person in the room. He'd taken my hand and said, "Jade, I think I used up a lifetime's worth of luck the day I met you." I'd never doubted that Andrew had loved me once. Only now did I understand that even the sincerest love could change. Exhausted, I sank onto the sofa. One of the maids immediately brought warm water and a soft towel and began carefully cleaning the ink from my face. The water had to be changed several times. My skin grew raw from the rubbing, but the blue ink refused to disappear completely. A pale stain remained across my cheek like a bruise. My phone suddenly began vibrating. More than a dozen messages had arrived from one of my closest friends. [Has that Garcia girl completely lost her mind?] Below it was a photo that had already been passed around half of New York's underworld circle. My face was turned slightly to one side. The shock and anger in my expression hadn't faded yet, and the words stamped across my skin were painfully clear. [MORETTI PORKHOUSE: GRADE A] My hair was disheveled. My makeup was smeared. I looked humiliated. Hazel herself had posted the photo. Her caption consisted of only two lines and a laughing emoji. [Some women get awfully sensitive when they realize they're not the youngest woman in the room anymore. It was only a joke.] [Being young is better. No rules, no burdens, and no need to take everything so seriously.] My friend's call came through almost immediately. "Jade, it's everywhere. Every Family in the city has seen it by now. What she wrote isn't exactly vicious, but..." She stopped. She didn't need to finish. The damage was already done. In our world, humiliation traveled faster than bullets. Hazel hadn't simply mocked me. She'd publicly trampled on my dignity. I wanted to tell my friend I was fine, but my throat felt blocked. After a moment, I forced my voice to remain steady. "I'll handle it." Then I hung up. Almost at the same moment, footsteps sounded outside the room. More than a dozen men in black entered first. Two Russo soldiers followed behind them, dragging Hazel between them before shoving her onto the floor. She stumbled, then snapped her head up at me. "Jade!" Her face twisted with anger. "Is this all you know how to do? Hide behind your Family and use their power to crush people beneath you?" She struggled against the men holding her. "Without your name, what are you?" I slowly sat upright and looked at her. Then I laughed. "Hazel, do you actually know who I am?" She froze. "My full name is Jade Elizabeth Davis." Her expression remained confused. "The Davis Family isn't simply wealthy. My grandfather built one of the Five Families that controlled the East Coast long before Andrew Moretti inherited his first territory." I paused. "I was the only granddaughter born into the Davis bloodline in three generations." The smile faded from my face. "I wasn't raised to fight for a seat at the table. I already had one from the moment I was born." Hazel's face gradually lost its color. "And you know exactly what the Davis name means in this city." Of course she did. Everyone in our world did. The Davis Family stood at a height Hazel couldn't reach no matter how desperately she climbed. Her lips began trembling. She forced herself upright, but her voice had already lost its earlier confidence. "I... I only borrowed one of your dresses. What's the big deal?" Her hands flew to the zipper of Star Sea. "I'll give it back!" "No." She stopped. I rose from the sofa. "I don't want it back." I walked toward her slowly, my eyes moving over the gown Andrew had once made only for me. "I don't wear things after they've been dirtied." Then I stopped directly in front of her and looked down at her.

"Anything that's been dirtied..." I looked straight at Hazel. "I don't want that either." Hazel froze. Her hand was still gripping the zipper of Star Sea when the color slowly drained from her face. A moment later, one of my men carried in a large cardboard box. Inside were one hundred inspection stamps. I gave a slight nod. One of the men picked up a stamp, pressed it into the dark red ink, and brought it down against Hazel's calf. Hazel screamed. Another stamp followed. Then another. Her arms. Her neck. Her face. Crimson marks appeared one after another across her skin. At first, Hazel cursed me. Then she cried. Then she begged. By the end, all that remained were broken sobs. One hundred stamps. Not one less. When the final mark was pressed onto her skin, Hazel collapsed onto the floor, covered in ugly red lettering. I calmly wiped my hands. "I forgot to mention something, Miss Garcia." I looked down at her. "That ink is permanent. It won't come off easily." A faint smile touched my lips. "But relax. I was only joking with you." I tilted my head. "You're not angry, are you?" Hazel was still sobbing when my men dragged her out. Just then, the familiar sound of an engine came from outside the estate. Andrew was back. He walked into the room wearing the gentle smile he'd always used whenever he wanted to coax me out of a bad mood. "Jade." He lifted a velvet jewelry box. "The auction ended, and I came straight back. Guess what I brought you." He opened it. Inside lay an exquisite emerald necklace. Andrew stepped toward me and lifted the necklace from the box. "You told me you liked this kind of setting." His voice softened. "The moment I saw it, I thought of you. Come here. Let me put it on." He moved behind me and reached around my neck. The moment he leaned closer, a familiar scent drifted toward me. Sweet gardenia. Hazel's perfume. Nausea surged through me. I shoved Andrew away. Before he could react, hurried footsteps came from the hallway. "Andrew!" Hazel stumbled into the room and threw herself into his arms. "Jade's insane! She had her men cover me in those disgusting stamps!" She clung tightly to his shirt. "Didn't you promise you'd protect me?" Andrew's expression changed when he saw her. His eyes swept over the red marks covering her skin, then turned toward me. "Jade." His voice dropped. "When did you become so cruel?" I said nothing. "Hazel is young. You had your men do this to her. How is she supposed to show her face anywhere after this?" His tone hardened. "Do you really have to destroy her before you're satisfied?" I stared at the way he held Hazel behind him. For a moment, I remembered the Andrew I'd known years ago. The young man who had stood before both our Families and sworn that one day he would build an empire powerful enough to deserve me. He had promised that when he married Jade Davis, he would make certain no one in our world could ever humiliate me. I forced down the ache in my chest. "Then did you ever think about me?" Andrew went still. "If those marks on my face had never come off, what was I supposed to do?" His lips parted. For once, he had no answer. Hazel saw his hesitation and immediately buried herself deeper in his arms. "Andrew!" Her voice broke into a hysterical cry. "I'm pregnant with your child!" My entire body went cold. For a second, I couldn't move. Then I saw it. The flash of uncontrollable joy in Andrew's eyes. He looked down at Hazel as if nothing else in the room mattered. "Our child?" His face lit up. "You're pregnant?" Hazel nodded through her tears. Andrew immediately lifted her into his arms, holding her with a tenderness that made something inside me finally break. "That's wonderful." He looked almost overwhelmed with happiness. "We're going to the hospital. Right now." He carried her toward the door. When he passed me, he didn't even slow down. "Jade, calm yourself down." His voice was cold now. "And remember what it means to be the wife of the head of the Moretti Family." He took another step. Then stopped. More than a dozen men in dark suits had entered the estate. They weren't soldiers. They were attorneys and financial advisers from the Davis Family. They spread across the entrance, blocking Andrew's path. The middle-aged man at the front stepped forward and placed a thick legal notice in Andrew's hands. "Mr. Moretti." Andrew frowned. The attorney continued calmly. "Under the terms of the marriage agreement you signed with Miss Davis, the Davis Family has formally suspended your access to all assets transferred to you through this marriage." He opened the document. "The shares in Moretti Shipping held through Davis-controlled trusts have been frozen." Andrew's expression changed. The attorney turned another page. "Your access to the Davis banking network has also been suspended, along with the credit lines securing the Moretti Family's legitimate businesses." The room fell silent. He pushed the papers toward Andrew. "Effective immediately."