After I washed my face, my phone began to buzz nonstop.

Lucas sent video call after video call, as if he was sure I would soften by the tenth ring.

"Little shadow, pick up. I want to see you."

I did not answer.

Then he texted, "The usual place. Raven Club. Everyone's here. Have your driver bring you."

Once, one word from him would have put me in a dress. Tonight, I looked at my red-rimmed eyes and felt only exhausted.

"Not coming. I'm tired."

His reply came at once. "Are you sick? I'll come over."

"No. Don't."

The moment I sent it, Vivian's message arrived.

"Evelyn, I'm sorry. I was the one who begged Lucas to bring me. I didn't know you would be upset. I'll leave right now. As long as you come, I don't matter."

I stared at the words and almost choked on the fake sweetness coming through my phone.

Before I could answer, the family group chat went mad.

"Evelyn, what is your problem? Lucas can't have any woman near him?"

"Vivian just wanted to have a good time. Stop using your fiancee title to bully her."

"Jealousy has limits."

For one insane second, I wanted to explain. Then Lucas's message popped up.

"I invited Vivian. If you're angry, take it out on me. Don't make trouble for her."

"Forget it. Come or don't. We have more fun without you anyway."

Then came the photos: wine, cigars, poker tables, and Vivian sitting beside Lucas in his jacket, smiling like a rescued stray.

Someone added, "Dinner tastes better without all the vinegar."

A bunch of lunatics.

I left the group, deleted Lucas, and blocked him in one smooth motion. It felt as neat as taking apart a gun.

No matter how badly we fought, he had always been pinned at the top of my contacts. Now he could rot in the blacklist.

The funny thing was, when Vivian was first brought to New York, I was the one who took care of her. Her father had betrayed the West Side Alliance and died owing everyone. She arrived at the Rossi estate in a washed-out black dress and ugly glasses, saying she only wanted to survive.

Back then, Lucas warned me, "Her eyes are too clean. So clean it looks rehearsed. Stay away from her."

I ignored him. I brought her to dinners, chose gowns for her, and shielded her from the nastier tests. Then, at a charity auction, she took off the glasses and stood under the lights in burgundy velvet, fragile in the exact way men love to protect.

Lucas never told me to stay away again. Soon he had given her guards, friends, and a place at his side. By the time I noticed, my fiance had become her personal shelter.

Once, I fought with Lucas so hard that we did not speak for three months.

I told him, "If you like her, I'll step back."

He held me with red eyes and said, "The person I care about most is you. Vivian has no family behind her, and she has trauma. I just pity her. I'm helping her."

I believed him.

Looking back, I was an idiot.

Friendship was their cleanest cover. Protection was the prettiest excuse for betrayal.

At ten, my father's underboss knocked.

"Miss Rossi, the Council wants every heir at the old chapel to confirm their trial seals. Last step before the list locks."

I changed into black and went. Countless alliances had been sworn there under stained glass saints, roses, and guns. Beside the DeLuca seat was an empty chair. It had always been mine.

When I walked in, Vivian was already sitting in it.

She handed her clutch to Lucas. He took it naturally, like he had done it a hundred times.

He only glanced at me, waiting for me to storm over, waiting for me to lower my head, waiting for me to free him from the blacklist.

Too bad he had misread me.

I turned and sat at the other end of the table.

Noah Winter sat there. Heir to Winter Biotech, and the outside research lead hired for the Marseille lab. He looked up at me, his gaze calm and clear.

"Miss Rossi. See you in Marseille?"

I heard myself laugh softly.

"See you in Marseille."

Across the long table, Lucas's face darkened inch by inch.

"Check everything one final time."

The Council secretary stood on the chapel steps, his voice as cold as a sentence.

"Once sealed, the three-year trial cannot be changed privately. Anyone who withdraws forfeits their place in the line of succession. Anyone who breaks the contract will answer to family law."

Everyone lowered their heads to review their seal pages. Noah leaned slightly toward me, his eyes on my file.

"Looks like we are both going to Marseille. You're leading the neurotoxin reversal project?"

Before I could answer, a hand pressed down on my shoulder.

Lucas stood behind me, fire trapped behind his eyes.

"Outside."

I did not move.

He grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the chapel side door.

Night wind moved through the rose wall, carrying salt and tobacco. Lucas pinned me at the end of the corridor, his voice low and dangerous.

"Evelyn, are you done? You block me, then sit beside Noah. Are you trying to piss me off?"

I looked up at him and realized that the face I had known for more than ten years had become terribly strange.

"So you do understand that people can be hurt on purpose."

His face turned uglier.

"Unblock me. Otherwise, don't expect to add me back later."

"I wasn't planning to."

For a second, he looked stunned. Then he tightened his grip on my wrist and softened his tone just a little.

"The list is sealing soon. Check your file again. Don't make a mistake."

Then, as if it meant nothing, he added, "Check mine too, while you're at it."

I almost laughed. He thought that if he said the word, I would open the seal page, see London, swallow my pride, and follow him again.

I only looked at him in silence.

The air stiffened. Then Vivian came through the side door, her voice soft enough to drip.

"Lucas, I don't understand this clause. Can you help me?"

Lucas let go of me almost by instinct. "I'll come now."

Watching him walk away, I realized even anger would be a waste. He called after me to check carefully, as if his words were law. I did not look back.

After the process ended, Noah took me through the back gate to a harbor jazz bar. Music, waves, and strangers' laughter felt safer than the chapel's malice.

When the set ended, we turned into a narrow alley and ran into Lucas, his face dark enough to start a war.

The moment he saw Noah, his eyes went cold.

I knew he had misunderstood. But I did not care enough to explain.

I treated him like air and walked past him. At the next corridor, I heard one of his friends speak.

"Lucas, you're really not telling Evelyn? Marseille and London are half a continent apart."

Lucas gave a short, dismissive laugh.

"What does she have to do with me?"

"Besides, she must have changed it already. She's just throwing a fit. I can't shake her off even if I try. It's annoying as hell."

I stopped. Then we came face-to-face.

Everyone froze.

Lucas told the others to leave and forced Noah back with a look. Then he cornered me against the wall.

"You went to see a show and called someone else instead of me?"

He leaned down, lazy in tone but taut around the eyes.

"Little shadow, you've gotten bold. You think this is enough to make me jealous?"

He caught my hand and gave it a little shake, the way he always did after our fights.

"Fine. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you that night. Can we stop fighting now?"

I said nothing.

A flicker of real impatience crossed his face.

"Did you check your file? Did you check mine too?"

I looked at him and felt only sadness.

Even now, he refused to tell the truth. He still expected me to finish the lie for him.

That was when Vivian appeared.

"Lucas, they're laughing at me. Come help me."

As if only then noticing me, she widened her eyes.

"Oh, Evelyn, you're here too. Did you follow my location post? Please don't misunderstand. I just love this band, so I begged Lucas to come with me."

I had no interest in playing along. I pulled my hand free, but Vivian blocked my path, eyes red. "If my being here upsets you, I'll leave. As long as you and Lucas don't fight, I'll do anything."

Then she bent as if to apologize. Lucas caught her at once and pulled her into his arms like she was glass.

"Evelyn, can you stop losing your mind every time you see Vivian?"

I looked at his hand on her shoulder, and my voice went cold.

"Do you think the distance between you two is what friends should have?"

Lucas froze. Then, as if I had exposed something he did not want named, he sneered.

"What, finally done pretending? Weren't you the one who said she was pitiful and told us to take care of her? Why are you jealous now?"

I stared at him until the last warmth inside me went out.

"If you love taking care of her so much, marry her."

Then I turned and left.

Behind me, Lucas shouted, furious and panicked, "If you walk away tonight, don't ever come back."

I did not even slow down.

Back at the estate, I had just taken off my jacket when Vivian updated her feed.

In an underground room at Raven Club, they were playing truth or dare. Vivian had been dared to kiss anyone in the room.

The video swept across the poker table, the glasses, the cigar smoke, then landed on Lucas. Vivian bit her lip and looked at him as if begging for rescue.

"Lucas, you're the only one here I really know."

The room erupted.

"Miss Castor, how are we strangers? Other than the DeLuca heir, are the rest of us invisible?"

Vivian stammered, nearly crying. Lucas sat on the sofa, unreadable.

"Forget it." Vivian picked up a glass. "If he doesn't want to, I'll drink the penalty."

Just before the rim touched her lips, a hand reached out and stopped her.

Lucas frowned. "You're allergic to hard liquor. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Vivian's voice trembled. "What else can I do? If I don't finish the dare, I have to take the punishment."

The whistles grew louder. Lucas watched her for a few seconds, then lifted her chin.

"No one but me?"

"No one."

Vivian grabbed his collar and rose on her toes to kiss him.

This time, Lucas did not push her away.

He even caught her by the waist, turning a dare that should have stopped at a joke into something everyone in the room understood.

"That's our DeLuca heir!"

"Now that's a bet."

The screen filled with laughter and the clink of glasses. My heart felt dropped into boiling oil.

I had told myself I did not care. But ten years of love is not a splinter you pull out clean. It is a nail grown into bone.

The video was not over when someone asked, "Lucas, aren't you afraid Evelyn will be mad?"

Lucas leaned back on the sofa and wiped his thumb over the corner of his mouth, completely careless.

"So what if she is? Once midnight passes and her seal locks into London with mine, it won't matter how much she fusses. She'll come back to me in the end."

Someone laughed. "You're that sure?"

"Of course," Lucas said. "My little shadow can't survive without me."

The room burst into laughter again.

Then someone who had been quiet looked at his phone, and his voice changed.

"Wait. The Rossi seal just locked into Marseille."

The room went dead silent.

He refreshed the page as if he could not believe it.

"Evelyn didn't change it! She chose the Marseille coastal lab. Neurotoxin reversal project. Lead candidate."