“I understand, Mrs. Vitali. You have my word.”

Getting Luca to never see me again was easy.

After the ambush all those years ago, Interpol and Europol had put him on a permanent watchlist, a lifetime ban from leaving the European Union.

If I got on a plane to Argentina, to Buenos Aires, the Vitali family’s reach could never stretch that far.

He’d never find me.

Suddenly, an Instagram notification popped up.

From Sofia.

I tapped it open.

There were photos of her and Luca’s stamped, signed marriage certificate and shots of their hands intertwined, the Vitali family crest glinting on a ring on her finger.

They had already married, and I had become the other woman.....

I was in excruciating pain.

But it was also good this way.

My leaving would give them exactly what they wanted.

I knew Luca better than anyone.

He’d never let her post this, not if he wanted to keep it from me.

She was rubbing it in my face, plain and simple.

The second I backed out of Instagram, a text from Luca popped up.

Isa.

Isa. Heading to Naples on family business, won’t be back for a few days. Watch yourself.

I replied with a single Okay, set the phone down.

The next morning, I was up before the sun, at the consulate to file for an expedited immigration visa.

The clerk promised it would be processed in two weeks, and for the first time since that night in the Lincoln, the tight knot in my chest loosened a little.

In the cab on the way back, I saw another post from Sofia.

This time, half of Luca’s broad frame was in the shot, their hands laced together, the geotag pinned to a cliffside villa on the Amalfi Coast.

On the third day, I walked into the Vitali family’s underground casino headquarters, and handed in my resignation.

This was the operation I’d run for five years, the one that had made him over a hundred million euros. I didn’t want a single thing to do with it anymore.

I carried my box of things back to the estate, and opened Instagram again.

Sofia’s new post was up: her in a custom couture wedding gown, the Vitali family heirloom diamond ring on her finger. The same ring Luca had promised me, a hundred times, said he’d put it on my finger the second he’d wiped out all his enemies.

I let my silent tears soak the bedsheets beneath me.

On the fourth day, I woke up to another post.

This time, it was a full wedding portrait, Sofia curled into Luca’s chest, smiling like she’d won the world.

I stared at the wedding photo for a long time, and then my phone received an encrypted message.

How’s it feel seeing the wedding license? You’d look pretty in this dress, too. Shame the other woman always stays the other woman.

I didn't reply, because I knew it was Sofia’s blatant provocation.

But she was right, I was just a third party.

All I could do was leave, leave forever.

That evening, I cleared every last thing of Luca’s from my room.

The custom crest bracelet he’d had made for me, the 9mm with my name engraved on the grip he’d given me for protection, the matching leather wallets we’d bought together.

I left nothing.

It was well past midnight by the time I finished.

I was just about to turn off the lights when the front door clicked open.

Luca was home.

He froze the second he stepped into the room.

“Where did all your things go?”

“I didn’t like them anymore. Threw them out. I’ll buy new ones.”

He nodded, but his gaze locked on the resignation papers sitting on the desk.

“You quit the casino?”

“I’m tired. Wanted to take a break.” I spoke calmly, tucking the immigration paperwork peeking out from under the file into my bag.

He didn’t push it. He just stepped forward, wrapped his arms around me, and pressed his chin to the top of my head.

“I’m sorry I was gone. It’s your birthday in two days. Tomorrow I’m taking you to closed-door private auction house in Palermo. Anything you like, it’s yours.”

I didn’t say no.

I knew he had another reason for taking me to the auction.

He’d never let Sofia come to harm, and he’d be there to buy whatever she took a liking to.

The next night, we’d just sat down in the auction hall’s private box when Sofia sauntered in, and dropped herself into the seat right next to Luca.

Just as I’d suspected, Sofia showed up.

All night, Luca kept his head turned to me, didn’t glance at Sofia once.

The second the auction ended, he took my hand and led me quickly toward the stairs.

Before we could leave, I ducked into the ladies’ room.

When I walked out, I found Sofia cornered by three young men, heirs to a rival family that had hated the Vitalis for generations.

“Well, look who it is. The Lombardi princess. You ran off and left Luca for dead when he couldn’t speak, and now your family’s broke, you’re gonna get sold to a don old enough to be your grandfather. Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?”

One of them stepped closer, grabbing her wrist.

“You’re still pretty. Why don’t you come with us? We’ll treat you better than that old fuck.”

He never finished the sentence.

A single, deafening gunshot rang out.

Luca stepped out from the stairwell, his gun still smoking in his hand, his face black with rage.

“Fuck off.” The word was ripped from his throat, rough and gravelly, his gun aimed straight at the men’s heads.

“You so much as breathe the same air as her again, you’re dead.”

The men scattered, tripping over themselves to run.

The stairwell was packed with onlookers.

Luca turned to Sofia.

“Are you hurt?”

Sofia threw herself into his arms.

“My ankle. It hurts so bad, Luca.”

Without a word, he lifted her into his arms, and pushed through the crowd toward the exit.

To keep Sofia shielded, he threw his elbow out, and it slammed hard into my chest.

I lost my balance, and tumbled backward down the marble stairs.

My forehead cracked against the edge of a step.

White-hot pain exploded through my skull, and warm blood poured down my face, blurring my vision.

The crowd gasped.

Someone yelled for a doctor.

I lay there, cold sweat breaking out across my skin, my fingers brushing the blood on my forehead. I looked up.

All I saw was Luca’s back, carrying Sofia away, without a single glance back.

He vanished around the corner, and the bitter taste in my mouth was worse than the pain in my head.

Once, when I’d taken a bullet for him, a graze along my arm, he’d panicked so bad he’d carried me through every clinic in Palermo, screaming for the best doctor in Sicily.

He’d refused to leave my side for a week, even when the doctors said I was fine.

Now I lay there, blood pouring down my face, and he didn’t even glance back.

The ring he’d promised me was glinting on Sofia’s finger.

An ambulance took me to a private clinic.

I sat there alone, getting stitches in my forehead, until well past midnight.

When I got back to the estate, it was empty.

Luca never came home that night.

The next morning, I picked up my phone, and the first thing I saw was Sofia’s latest post.

A video.

Luca was on one knee, his head bowed, carefully dabbing ointment on her ankle.

I watched the video on loop, over and over, until my eyes burned.

Eventually, I passed out, slumped against the pillows.

When I woke up, it was dark outside.

My phone was buzzing nonstop on the pillow beside me.

I picked it up, and heard Luca’s familiar gravelly voice on the line.

He gave me an address, and nothing else. “Marina Club. Get here now.”

I got up, washed my face, changed my clothes, and headed over.

The second I pushed open the private booth door, my eyes locked on Sofia.

She sat on the couch, her eyes red and puffy.

Luca was sitting across from her, his gaze fixed on the white bandage wrapped around my forehead.

He said nothing.

The silence stretched on, thick and suffocating.

Finally, I spoke first.

“You called me here. What do you want?”

Luca’s voice was cold, sharp.

“The men who cornered Sofia in the stairwell. You hired them, didn’t you?”

I froze.

My gaze flicked to Sofia, and I caught the flash of triumph in her eyes, gone as quickly as it came.

In that second, I understood everything.

The whole thing had been a setup, from start to finish.

I huffed a bitter laugh, and looked back at Luca.

“No. I didn’t. I don’t know those men.”

But Luca’s face didn’t soften.

“You’ve been with me for seven years. You know who’s in my heart. The Lombardi family is broken, and everyone’s lining up to kick Sofia while she’s down. But it shouldn’t be you. You don’t need to stoop to this, not for me.”

It felt like a hand had closed around my heart, squeezing until I couldn’t breathe.

I thought of those seven years in the countryside.

Of holding him while he screamed into his pillow, unable to make a sound.

Of the nights I’d stayed up, poring over the family’s ledgers, finding the evidence that took down the traitors who’d tried to kill him.

Of the bullets I’d taken, the blood I’d spilled, the life I’d given him.

All of it, every single second, wiped away with one careless sentence.

Finally, I thought of that marriage contract, stamped and signed, and the tears spilled over.

“Seven years, Luca. And I’m only just now finding out who’s really in your heart.”

Luca’s eyes went wide.

His voice cracked, rough and broken.

“What… what did you just say?”

I shook my head, a bitter smile on my face.

“I’m just a servant’s daughter, Luca. What power, what connections, would I have to hire rival family soldiers to go after the Lombardi princess?”

It didn’t matter. He didn’t believe me.

I was tired. I took a deep breath, and let go of every last bit of hope I’d been clinging to.

“If you’re so sure I did it, then tell me. What do you want me to do? What will make this right?”

“Apologize.”

The voice came from Sofia, who’d been sitting quiet, playing the victim, this whole time.

She looked at me, a smug, victorious smile on her face.

“Well, an apology isn’t enough. If you’re really sorry, you’ll drink every bottle of whiskey on that table. All of them.”

On the table in front of us, twenty full bottles of amber whiskey sat lined up.

My eyes snapped back to Luca.

I searched his face, desperate for a single flicker of protest, a single spark of the care he’d once had for me.

But I couldn’t read his expression.

In the silence, I couldn’t breathe.

I thought of that old estate in the countryside.

Back then, he’d drunk himself into a stupor every night, trying to numb the pain of losing his voice, his power, his family.

I’d begged him to stop, again and again, but he’d never listened.

Until one night, he’d been so drunk he could barely see.

He’d shoved three bottles of whiskey in front of me, and typed on his phone.

Now even a servant’s daughter thinks she can tell me what to do? Fine. Drink all of this, and I’ll listen.

I’d only wanted to save him.

So even though I knew I was allergic to alcohol, even though I knew what would happen, I’d picked up the bottle, and drank every drop.

Ten minutes later, I was in the emergency room.

When I woke up, he was sitting beside the bed, staring at me like he’d never seen anyone else in the world.

I’d only said one thing to him.

“I’m scared for you, sir. Your voice will come back. Even if it doesn’t, I’ll stay with you forever. So please. Stop hurting yourself.”

After that day, Luca never touched a drop of alcohol again.

But now, he sat there, and watched as another woman told me to drink twenty bottles of the same whiskey.

A bitter, broken sob escaped me, tears streaming down my face.

I leaned forward, grabbed a full bottle of ghost pepper extract off the bar cart, and poured the entire thing into a whiskey glass.

My voice was cold, sharp, final.

“Twenty bottles? That’s not nearly enough to prove how sorry I am. I’ll add this. Is that good enough for you?”

I lifted the glass to my lips.

Before I could take a sip, Luca shot to his feet.

He slapped the glass out of my hand, and it shattered against the floor, glass and liquor spraying everywhere.

“ENOUGH!” He roared the word, his voice shredded, almost unrecognizable.

I looked up at him, laughing through my tears.

“I didn’t even drink it yet. Is my apology over? Did I make your little girlfriend happy?”

Luca’s face turned black with rage. He grabbed my wrist, his grip so tight I thought he’d shatter the bone.

“There is nothing between me and Sofia! You know how brutal the family’s rules are! If you’d done this, the capos would have used it against you forever! The family would never accept you! I was trying to protect you!”

He spoke like every word was for my own good. Like he cared.

But I just laughed.

The Vitali family would never accept me, a servant’s daughter? But they’d accept Sofia, the woman who’d abandoned their future don and run off with his enemies? He’d broken every rule in the book to sign that marriage contract for her, hadn’t he?

It was all just an excuse. He just didn’t love me enough.

I didn’t say another word. I wrenched my wrist out of his grip, turned, and walked straight out of the booth.

I barely made it to the door. The last few days of grief, the splitting pain in my forehead, the blood rushing from the reopened wound, all hit me at once. My vision went black, and I collapsed.

“ISA!”

I heard Luca scream my name, raw and desperate. The next second, I was in his arms. He lifted me up, and ran for the door.

Sofia came sprinting after him, grabbing his arm, sobbing. “Luca, my head hurts, I don’t feel well—”

Luca ripped his arm away from her, and kept running, holding me tight to his chest.

His voice was cold, final, over his shoulder. “Call my assistant. She’ll take care of you. I’m taking Isabella to the hospital.”

When I woke up, I was in the VIP wing of the private clinic.

Luca was sitting in the chair beside the bed. He hadn’t slept. The second my eyes opened, his whole body relaxed, like he’d been holding his breath for days.

We stared at each other for a long time. Neither of us spoke.

He poured me a glass of warm water, handed it to me, then stepped out to call the doctor. He stood by the door the whole time the doctor checked me over, listening to every word like his life depended on it.

His phone buzzed a hundred times, his secretary blowing up his line, begging him to come to the family’s emergency capos meeting. He ignored every single call.

Finally, I spoke. “You should go. I can take care of myself. This isn’t your job.”

Luca knelt down beside the bed. He took my hand in his, his voice rough, broken, quiet. “It is my job. Isa, don’t you remember? You did this for me. For seven years. You took care of me.”

My eyes stung.

For a second, I was back in that old estate, holding him while he cried.

But it was too late. We could never go back.

That afternoon, the nurses took me for a full body scan.

When they wheeled me back to my room half an hour later, I pushed the door open, and froze.

Luca was standing in the middle of the room, holding my personal cell phone to his ear, screaming into the receiver.

His voice was shaking with rage. “I told you, I will never marry anyone but Isabella! I don’t care about her bloodline, her family, any of it! You will stop wasting your time! She’s not leaving me! Ever!”

Then I heard Anna’s voice, shrill and screaming, loud enough to carry through the phone, even from across the room.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You’re being played for a fool! She already signed...”

The line cut out mid-sentence, my phone dying mid-call.