The sharp, stinging scent of antiseptic woke me.

I blinked against the unforgiving glare of a fluorescent light. White ceiling. White walls. The steady, mechanical hum of machines.

I tried to sit up, but a sharp blaze of pain in my ribs pinned me back down.

"Easy, Miss Vitiello," a nurse said, rushing over to put a steadying hand on my shoulder. "You took a nasty fall. Minor concussion, bruised ribs."

"Who brought me in?" My voice was a rasping croak.

"A bouncer from the club. He found you."

Not Dante. Of course not.

I lay there for an hour, staring at the IV drip. Every drop was a second of my life I had wasted on Dante Romero.

"Did you hear?" voices drifted from the hallway. Nurses gossiping in conspiratorial whispers.

"Room 304. Mr. Romero. Apparently, things got too wild with his... mistress. He dislocated his shoulder."

"Mistress? I thought he was marrying the Vitiello girl."

"Men like that always have spares."

Anger, hot and clarifying, surged through my veins. I sat up. Pain flared, a white-hot brand against my side, but I ignored it. I ripped the IV tape off my hand, wincing as the needle pulled free from the vein.

I slid off the bed. My legs were shaky, but I stood. I smoothed down my ruined black dress and washed the blood from my lip in the sink.

I walked out into the hallway.

Room 304 was just down the corridor. The door was open.

Dante was sitting on the edge of the bed, his arm in a sling. Sofia was hovering over him, feeding him ice chips.

They looked like a happy couple.

I walked in.

Dante looked up. His face went white. He scrambled to stand, pushing Sofia away with a sudden jerk, as if her touch had become poison.

"Elena! My god, what happened to you? You're bleeding!"

He reached for me. I stepped back, recoiling as if he were diseased.

"I fell," I said simply. "Down the stairs at Inferno."

Dante's eyes widened. He realized. He realized I had been there.

"Elena, I..." He looked at Sofia, then back at me, raw panic swimming in his gaze. "This is... this is Sofia. An old friend. She... she had a medical emergency. I was just helping her."

Sofia smirked. She stepped forward, extending a manicured hand. "Hi. I'm Sofia. The 'Friend'. Nice to finally meet the furniture."

Dante hissed. "Sofia, shut up."

I didn't shake her hand. I looked past her, at Dante. "Is this the business that delayed the wedding?"

"Elena, please. It's complicated. I was going to tell you."

"Are you marrying her?" I asked.

"No!" Dante shouted.

"Yes!" Sofia shouted at the same time.

Sofia crossed her arms. "On the first. Same day as yours. Funny, right? Dante says he can handle two ceremonies. He's a multi-tasker."

Dante looked like he wanted to die. "Elena, she's crazy. She's... she's sick. She has cancer. It's a dying wish thing. I'm just humoring her."

The lies were so thick I could feel them coating my throat. Cancer. Dying wish.

I laughed. It was a dry, hollow sound.

"You're busy that day, Dante," I said.

"I can make it work," he pleaded. "I'll be at the altar for you. I swear."

"No," I said, backing toward the door. "I mean I am busy that day."

He frowned. "What do you mean? You're the bride."

I held his gaze. My eyes were dry. My heart was a piece of dead iron in my chest.

"I am getting married that day, Dante. I will be walking down an aisle. I will be saying vows."

"Right. To me."

I smiled, but the expression felt sharp, like the baring of teeth.

"I am getting married," I repeated. "But you might want to check the invitation I gave you."

"Elena, stop talking in riddles! You're hurt. Let me take you home."

"Don't touch me," I snapped. The command cracked like a whip. Even Sofia flinched.

"I have to go," I said. "I have a wedding to plan. And a groom to meet."

"Stop joking!" Dante yelled as I turned my back. "You can't marry anyone else! You're mine!"

I didn't look back. I walked down the sterile white hallway, leaving the dead weight of my past behind in Room 304.

I pulled out my phone. I dialed a number I had memorized from my father's old ledger. I needed to confirm the pact. I needed to know the monster was coming.

It rang once.

"Moretti Residence," a deep, gravelly voice answered.

"This is Elena Vitiello," I said. "Tell the Don the date is set. The first of the month."

A beat of charged quiet passed over the line. Then, a low chuckle that sounded like stones grinding together.

"The Reaper is listening, Miss Vitiello."

"Tell him," I said, staring at the exit sign, "I'll see him at the altar."

Elena Vitiello POV

The penthouse was no longer a home; it was a sterile display case, meticulously arranged and devoid of life.

I moved through the rooms with mechanical precision, erasing all evidence of my existence. I didn't pack everything. Just the essentials.

My grandmother's rosary.

The pearl earrings my mother gave me for my sweet sixteen.

The Glock my father insisted I learn to shoot when I turned eighteen.

Everything Dante bought me stayed.

The diamond tennis bracelet on the vanity? Refuse.

The fur coat in the closet? A dead animal's skin.

I walked to the kitchen island where the dead roses still sat. They were brown now, brittle as old bones. I picked up the vase and hurled it into the sink.

Crash.

Glass exploded. Water and rotting stems splattered against the stainless steel. It was a satisfying sound-the clean, final fracture of something that could never be mended.

My phone buzzed on the counter.

Unknown Number.

I swiped the screen. A photo loaded.

It was explicit. A tangle of limbs, sweat-slicked skin, and Dante's distinctive tattoo-a cross on his shoulder blade-clearly visible. He was asleep. She was awake, smiling at the camera, her tongue teasing her upper lip.

Text: He's sleeping like a baby. Don't worry, I kept him warm for you. See you on the 1st, Princess.

I didn't delete it. I saved it. I backed it up to the cloud.

I felt a numbness spreading through my chest, a sensation like novocaine seeping into my veins, freezing the tears before they could form. This wasn't heartbreak anymore. This was fuel.

The front door beeped. The lock turned.

Dante walked in. He looked exhausted, his arm still in the sling from the "accident" at the hospital. He spotted me standing by the island, the suitcase by my feet.

His eyes flicked to the bag, a flash of irritation crossing his face before his features reassembled themselves into that boyish, lying expression I used to adore.

"Elena," he sighed, dropping his keys. "Thank god you're home. I was worried after you ran off at the hospital."

He walked over, his good arm reaching out to pull me close, choosing to ignore the luggage as if his presence alone could compel me to unpack.

I stood rigid.

He hugged me. He pressed his face into my hair. He smelled of antiseptic and... her. Underneath the sterile hospital scent, that cloying vanilla clung to him like a sickness.

"I'm sorry about the confusion," he murmured against my neck. "Sofia is... she's unstable. But I can't just abandon a dying woman. You understand, right? You've always been the compassionate one."

Compassionate.

That was his polite word for 'pliable'.

"She's a friend," he continued, pulling back to look me in the eye, his gaze attempting an earnestness that made my stomach roil. "Just a friend. I promise."

I looked at him. Really looked at him.

I searched for the man who saved me from the fire. I searched for the man who held my hand at my grandfather's funeral.

He wasn't there.

The man standing in front of me was a stranger wearing Dante's face. A stranger who thought I was stupid enough to believe a lie that didn't even try to be clever.

"You're right," I said, my voice eerily calm. "I understand everything now."

He smiled, relieved. "I knew you would. You're my rock, Elena. My queen."

He leaned in to kiss me.

I didn't move away. I just stared at his lips, thinking about where they had been. Thinking about the photo on my phone.

The man I loved died a long time ago. This was just his corpse, still moving.

Slap.

The sound of flesh on flesh was a sharp, ugly crack that echoed through the penthouse like a gunshot.

Dante's head snapped to the side. A violent, red handprint began to bloom on his cheek.

He froze. The shock on his face was so profound it rendered him momentarily immobile. Elena Vitiello, the perfect mafia daughter, the silent wife-to-be, had just struck the Underboss of the Romero family.

"Elena?" he whispered, his fingertips tentatively grazing his cheek as if to confirm the injury.

Slap.

I hit him again. Harder this time. My palm stung, vibrating with the force of the impact.

"That," I said, my voice trembling with a lethal, contained rage, "is for the 'friend'."

Dante stared at me, his eyes darkening as shock gave way to a frigid warning. "You're upset. I get it. But don't ever hit me again."

"Or what?" I stepped into his space, tilting my chin up in a direct challenge I knew he wasn't expecting. "You'll kill me? You'll have your soldiers dispose of me like you dispose of your honor?"

"I have honor!" he shouted, his voice fraying at the edges.

"You have nothing," I spat. "Do you remember the oath, Dante? The one you swore when we got engaged?"

He rubbed his jaw, looking away with a dismissive frown. "We were kids."

"'If I betray you, I forfeit my claim. If I betray you, you are free to marry another.'" I recited the words with perfect, chilling precision. They were burned into my memory.

Dante let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "That was poetry, Elena. Not a contract. And I haven't betrayed you. Helping a sick friend isn't betrayal."

He was still lying. Even with the red mark searing his face, he was lying.

"I'm leaving," I said. I grabbed the handle of my suitcase.

Panic flickered in his eyes. He moved to block the door with a sudden, menacing stride. "Leaving? Where? The wedding is in three days. You can't leave."

"I'm going to my parents' estate," I lied smoothly, arranging my features into an expression of haughty indignation. "My mother wants to do a traditional blessing before the ceremony. I need space, Dante. If you want me at that altar on the first, you will let me walk out that door right now."

He hesitated. He looked at the suitcase, then at my furious face. He calculated. He figured if he pushed me now, I might actually snap. But if he let me go to my mother, he was certain the dutiful daughter would return, calmed down and ready to serve.

"Fine," he said, stepping aside with a sigh of put-upon patience. "Go see your mother. Get this... tantrum out of your system. I'll see you at the altar."

"Yes," I said, walking past him without looking back. "You will."

I took the elevator down without making a sound. I got into the waiting town car. As the city blurred past the window, I didn't look at the skyline.

I looked at my phone.

My father had sent a text.

He accepted. The Reaper will be there.

When I arrived at the Vitiello estate, the atmosphere was thick with a palpable, choking dread. My mother was pacing in the foyer, wringing her hands until her knuckles were white and bloodless. My father, Alessandro, looked like he had aged ten years in a single phone call.

"Elena," my mother gasped, rushing to hug me as if she were checking for wounds. "Are you insane? Valerio Moretti? Do you know what they call him? They say he cuts the tongues out of liars. They say he has no heart."

"Better a man with no heart than a man with two faces," I said, pulling away with a gentle but absolute finality.

"This is war," my father muttered, pouring himself a stiff drink, the crystal decanter clattering against the glass. "If Dante finds out..."

"Dante thinks I'm a fool," I said. "He won't find out until it's too late."

I walked up the grand staircase to my old bedroom. It looked exactly the same as when I left it five years ago. Innocent. Naive. Untouched by the decay of my current reality.

I sat on the edge of the bed.

"I'm not marrying for love, Papa," I called down to him, my voice carrying through the hollow expanse of the house. "I'm marrying for revenge. And Valerio Moretti is the only weapon sharp enough to kill a Romero."