Through the car window,Adriana noticed a cake box sitting on the passenger seat.

It was vanilla-flavored,Gianna's favorite.

She had heard that cakes from that bakery needed to be ordered a week ahead,the kind of place that turned scarcity into a price.Once,Adriana had paused outside its window,admiring the work behind the glass.

But Marco had dismissed her interest then,saying,"There's nothing special about that bakery.They just use the waiting list as a hook to reel people in.If you want cake,I'll take you to the shop next door.They've got plenty ready."

In the end,Adriana hadn't bought any cake at all.

Now,she realized that while the bakery might not have been special,people certainly could be.

She wasn't special enough.Not even for a simple cake.

"Adriana,Adriana?"

When she didn't respond,Marco frowned,impatient."If I came looking for you,it means I've already forgiven you for last time.You should know when to back down."

Seeing that she still wasn't responding,he reached over and pulled her into the car.His expression stayed sour.

Since their last bad parting,he had been waiting for her to lower her head and apologize.That was what Adriana always did,after all.But this time three days had passed without so much as a call or a word.

An unexplainable unease crept over him,as though something precious was slipping out of his grasp.The signet ring of the Fontaine alliance sat heavy on his finger,and without meaning to,he turned it.

He had gone to the Castellano estate,needing to see her in person,convinced her presence would quiet the alarm he couldn't name.

Yet she hadn't been there,and even the household staff claimed they didn't know where she had gone,eyes lowered the way the help always lowered them when the truth was inconvenient.

So he had driven through every street the territory allowed him until he finally spotted her outside the hospital.

Now,glancing at her in the rearview mirror,he felt some of it ease.As long as Adriana was within arm's reach,the bells in his mind seemed to quiet.

But during the drive,Adriana remained silent,not a single word.

That had been impossible,before.

The unease surged again.Marco hit the brakes hard,stopping the car in the middle of the road.

The route up to the Castellano villa was usually empty,but Adriana was startled.She instinctively grabbed his sleeve.

Seeing her still clinging to him,his panic melted into satisfaction.

But he masked it,keeping his tone distant and commanding."Since you know you were wrong,you should give that account to Gianna."

Adriana understood at once why Marco had come looking for her.

Since childhood,Adriana had loved the work of her hands.Even after she was banished to that remote outpost,where there was no money for instruction or proper supplies,she practiced every day with nothing but a pencil.

To keep herself going,she had built a name no Family knew belonged to her."Rosa,"she signed it,and through that name she let her work move quietly through the underworld's finest circles.

Her technique and her style drew a following fast,until even the legendary Maestro Vesari sent word for her.

The Maestro was a towering figure,the most respected mentor of forgers and artisans alive,and his summons was as good as a declaration that he meant to take her as his last protégé.

But before Adriana could even answer him,Gianna wept and said she wanted to train under the Maestro too.

Of course,a man like Vesari would not take just anyone.

The Castellanos had moved a fortune through every channel they owned,laundered favors and quiet envelopes alike,and still the old man would not bend.At first Adriana assumed Gianna would let it go.Instead Gianna made a move she hadn't seen coming.She turned Marco into her messenger.

And Marco kept talking,the way men talk when another's pain has stopped mattering to them."Look,your account's anonymous.You hand it to Gianna,and Maestro Vesari takes her on.No question."

"Gianna has the gift.She trains under Vesari,she'll be a name the whole circle whispers one day."

There was a pride in his face he didn't even know he was wearing,the signet ring of the Fontaine alliance catching the dashboard light as his fingers worked it slow against his thumb.Adriana watched it turn and couldn't stop herself."And what about me?"

Vesari hadn't summoned a single protégéin decades.This was the one door that would ever open to her.Miss it,and there would be no other.

"You?"Marco looked at her,genuinely confused."I already gave my word to marry you.You'll be my wife.What more is there to want?"

She felt as though she'd heard the funniest joke of her life.A short,bitter sound left her."Impossible."

The flatness of it made him still."What did you say?"

"I won't give my account to Gianna,"she said again.

He looked into her eyes,and what he saw there,something close to hatred,lit an anger in him he couldn't account for."Adriana,let me make this clear.I know every password you've got.The'Rosa'account included.So whether you like it or not,you'll hand it over."

There had been a time when nothing stood hidden between them,not even the keys to the name the underworld coveted.Now that old closeness drove into her chest like a thorn worked deep,the intimacy itself turned weapon.

Furious,Marco pulled the car onto the shoulder and shoved her out into the dark without warning.

"Go think about what you've done,"he snarled.

He left her there on the remote mountain road.Then he ground her phone under his heel against the gravel until it cracked apart,severing her last means of reaching anyone.

There was no one for miles,no car to flag down.She had no choice but to drag her injured leg and run for the Castellano estate.

She had to change the"Rosa"password before Marco could.

But in the blackness the pain was so vicious she could barely stay upright.A few steps and she went down onto the ground.

Her body screamed at her.She ignored it and forced herself forward.

How long she crawled,she couldn't say.When she finally had nothing left,she reached the gates of the estate just as the dawn broke gray over the wall.

It was already too late.

The household staff were trading the news in excited murmurs,how the young miss of the Family had been formally taken on by Maestro Vesari himself,how the Castellanos would soon claim an artisan the whole circle bowed to.One of them,sensing something,lowered her eyes and folded her hands into her apron.

Adriana snatched a phone from one of them and saw it.Last night Gianna had logged into the"Rosa"account and posted a video thanking Vesari.

The followers were cheering,praising Gianna's gift,praising her face,tagging the Maestro and begging him to make her his final protégé.

And ten minutes ago,Vesari had posted the formal summons accepting her.

Adriana felt her heart shatter into countless pieces,beyond repair.

Salvatore was the first to find her,collapsed on the stone,sobbing in a way she couldn't control.He looked away.He couldn't meet her eyes.His thumb dragged over his right knuckle,the hand that had once shaken on a promise to her.

Then the Donna came.

She had meant to scold Adriana for vanishing the whole night.But the sight of that pale,ruined face stopped the words in her throat.

Adriana looked at the two of them and asked,her voice trembling,"You both knew Gianna was using my account.Didn't you?"

Neither the Donna nor Salvatore spoke.Their faces had gone stiff and wrong.

Adriana wiped the tears away and limped toward her room.On the way the Donna reached out as if to steady her.Adriana drew aside from the touch,quiet,deliberate.

There had been a time being near the Donna would have been enough to make her happy.

Salvatore's brow knotted.He started to say something.The Donna stopped him.

They watched in silence as Adriana packed what she owned.

Only then did they see how little there was.So little it was a shock to look at.

A wave of sorrow swept over the Donna's heart.Her fingers found the heavy mourning ring and turned it,slow,unconscious circles.

Salvatore grabbed for the suitcase,his voice gone awkward."Why are you taking these old rags?When you come back,I'll get you new things."

"Let go."Her voice was so cold he actually released it.

When the packing was done,Adriana took out two documents and held one toward the Donna.

"This is the renunciation,"she said,the words flat and even."After I leave the Family,I cut my ties to you.I no longer carry the Castellano name.Sign it."

The Donna's face went white in an instant.By reflex she refused.

Salvatore stormed over."Adriana,what is this?It was a small thing,a favor for your sister.Do you have to take it this far?"

"If you don't sign,I won't go to the Morettis.And I imagine—"she let the word trail,something acid threading under it,"the Moretti car is already waiting outside the gate.Isn't it?"

That was when Gianna appeared from somewhere,throwing herself into the Donna's arms,weeping."Mamma,how can you stand to send me to the Morettis to answer for this?"Her hand fluttered to her collarbone,the small wounded gesture coming a beat too fast.

Vito Romano walked in then,his face cold.He took the renunciation from Adriana's hand and signed it without a moment's hesitation.

"We ask you for one favor for your sister,and you make this kind of scene over nothing."He cracked the knuckles of one hand slow against his palm,the sound from his street days that no tailoring had ever ironed out."I never did think you deserved to carry the Castellano name."

Adriana held out the second document at once."This is my annulment of the blood-alliance pact with the Fontaines.Give it to Marco,with the pact token."

This time Gianna took it eagerly."Don't worry,Sis.I'll make sure it reaches Marco."

Adriana drew her hand back,took up her luggage,and walked out without a backward glance.

As she got into the Moretti car,she looked at the Castellano estate one last time.

Live or die,she would never come back to them.