The Don Tore Up Our Divorce (Gemma and Cassian) novel Chapter 7

**Before Rain Touches Earth Memories Return With Gentle Warmth by Eli Dane Crest**

**Chapter 7**

**Gemma**

As a child, I often found myself enveloped in solitude. In those quiet moments, the world around me faded, and I discovered talents I never knew I possessed.

Computers became my sanctuary. By the age of fifteen, I had stumbled into the thrilling realm of hacking—a secret world that felt like home.

When I finally tossed my cap into the air at high school graduation, I had mastered the art of breaching firewalls and unearthing hidden back doors in any software. It was a skill set that felt almost magical, and I wielded it with a sense of power.

With time, I assembled a crew—a ragtag group of like-minded individuals who shared my thirst for revenge against my father and the powerful mafia families that had haunted my childhood. I knew my way around their operations, and I had my own methods of striking back.

By hitting them where it hurt—right in their wallets.

That became my clandestine mission. The business I had cleverly crafted in the shadows began with a simple revelation: infiltrating the bank accounts of these underworld dynasties was easier than I had ever imagined. A few thousand dollars here, a couple of thousand there, siphoned away from their profits from weapons and drugs. I redirected those funds into anonymous donations for schools, libraries, and hospitals, ensuring that my actions would ripple through the community in a positive way.

I kept my operations discreet, careful never to draw too much attention. I learned the ins and outs of their businesses, their shell companies, and their intricate money-laundering schemes.

Of course, it wasn’t long before they caught wind of my activities. Yet, despite their extensive resources, they never managed to track me down. I was simply too skilled for that.

They knew me only by my hacker alias, MOONL16H7—or Moonlight, as those too lazy to type the numbers called me.

During my college years, my crew flourished, and I began to take on jobs that involved testing security systems and assisting people in reclaiming the money that dishonest relatives had pilfered from them. I was on the brink of constructing my own empire, a digital fortress built on the ruins of my past.

But then, life took a cruel turn. My father passed away, my mother fell ill, and the relentless debt collectors came knocking at our door. Suddenly, I found myself in a race against time, needing to conjure a substantial amount of money in an instant or risk losing everything, including my mother’s life.

When Donovan Blackwell, the notorious godfather of crime, proposed a marriage alliance with his grandson—the very man I had secretly harbored feelings for—I seized the opportunity without a second thought. Who could blame me?

Once I donned the wedding ring, I severed ties with my past.

Zina reached out during that tumultuous time, but I was so consumed with the desire to win Cassian’s love that I vanished from her life without a trace.

Three long years slipped by. I let go of all my dreams, save for one: Cassian.

Yet, that singular dream morphed into a haunting nightmare.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify