I followed Dante's car across the bridge into the old district.

He parked outside the converted apartment building. I parked a block away, hands steady on the wheel, eyes fixed on the entrance.

She came out wearing a white dress.

Of course she did.

Elena Abate was exactly what I'd expected from the photographs—delicate, wide-eyed, the kind of girl men wanted to protect. Dark curls spilled over her shoulders. Her smile when she saw Dante was incandescent.

He caught her at the bottom of the steps.

His hands went around her waist. His mouth moved against her hair. He lifted her like she weighed nothing and carried her up the stairs.

I sat in the dark car and watched.

Something calcified in my chest.

-

I drove to my father's estate in the hills. Security let me through without question—they still thought I was the favored daughter, the princess, the heir apparent.

They didn't know I'd just signed myself into exile.

The mansion was lit up like a wedding cake. I pushed through the front doors and found them in the parlor—my father, my stepmother Chiara, and a girl in a pale blue dress.

Elena Abate.

She looked different than she had an hour ago in the cathedral district. Sweeter, somehow. More deliberate.

"Serafina," my father said, rising. "I didn't expect you tonight."

"Clearly."

Chiara's smile was razor-thin. "Darling, this is Elena. My daughter. She's just returned."

Elena rose gracefully and extended her hand. "It's so wonderful to finally meet you. Mother has told me everything about you."

I looked at her hand. I didn't take it.

"Everything?" I said. "Then you know I'm not in the mood for introductions."

"Serafina." My father's voice carried warning.

I turned to him. "The emancipation papers. I want them signed tonight."

"Now? It's nearly midnight."

"Now."

Chiara placed a gentle hand on my father's arm. "Perhaps this is for the best, caro. If Serafina is determined to go through with the Agosti arrangement, legal separation protects the family from any. complications."

Protects the family.

She meant protects her. Protects Elena. Ensures that when I was shipped off to play nurse to a dying man, there would be no messy inheritance disputes.

"Fine," my father snapped. "But you'll keep your end. You marry Emilio Agosti by the end of the month."

"The end of the month," I agreed.

I signed the papers on his desk. My name, over and over. Serafina Leone, renouncing all claims. Serafina Leone, severing blood from blood.

When I straightened, Elena was in the doorway.

"Was that Dante Moretti's car you arrived in?" she asked softly.

My blood stopped.

"I saw it from my window," she continued, innocent as a blade. "You know him?"

"No."

"Strange. He's an old friend." She tilted her head. "I thought perhaps he'd mentioned me."

I walked past her without answering.

In the car, I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles went white.

She knew. She'd known exactly who I was. She'd known I'd been following him.

And she'd wanted me to see.

-

Dante texted at 3 AM.

Where are you?

I stared at the message for a long time. Then I typed: Home. Where are you?

Working. Come over tomorrow.

Can't. Busy.

Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

What's going on with you?

I didn't answer.

I spent the next week preparing. I sold my jewelry. I emptied my private accounts. I bought a wedding dress so expensive it made the saleswoman's hands shake—not because I cared about the marriage, but because I wanted my father's creditors to choke when they saw the bill on his soon-to-be-frozen accounts.

The five hundred million from the Agosti family would go directly into an account under my sole control. Not my father's. Not the family's.

Mine.

My mother had trusted my father with everything—her inheritance, her heart, her life. He'd rewarded her by moving his mistress into their home while she was still warm in her grave.

I would not repeat her mistakes.

On the eighth day, I ran out of hotel rooms to hide in.

I was standing on the curb, suitcase in hand, when the black Escalade pulled up.

The window rolled down.

Dante's gray eyes met mine.

"Get in the car, Serafina."

"No."

"I wasn't asking."

A man appeared at my elbow—Marco, one of Dante's enforcers. He took my suitcase with exaggerated gentleness.

"The hard way, then," Dante said. "Fine. I've always preferred it."

He took me to his penthouse.

I stood in the foyer, arms crossed, while he dismissed Marco and poured himself a scotch.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I don't know what you mean."

"You've been dodging me for a week. You cleared out your apartment. Your father's people are saying you've gone off the rails." He took a slow drink, watching me over the rim of the glass. "And I just pulled a bank alert showing you liquidated half a million in assets."

"You're monitoring my accounts?"

"I'm monitoring everything about you." He set the glass down. "Start talking."

"I'm getting married."

Silence.

Dante's expression didn't change. Not a flicker. But the air in the room went cold.

"To whom?"

"Emilio Agosti."

A pause. Then: "The dying man. The coma case." His voice was flat. "Your father sold you."

"I volunteered."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to."

He crossed the room in three strides, backing me against the door. His hand braced beside my head, his body a wall of heat and anger.

"You're lying."

"Am I?"

"Emilio Agosti has been in a vegetative state for six months. You'd be a widow before your first anniversary." His breath was hot against my temple. "This isn't a marriage. It's a payoff. So I'll ask again—why?"

I looked up at him. Watched the muscle flex in his jaw. Thought about the locked drawer in his study. The photographs. The white dress in the cathedral district.

"Why do you care?"

"I asked first."

"I asked second."

He kissed me.

It wasn't gentle. It wasn't asking permission. It was punishment and possession and desperation tangled together, his hands in my hair, my back against the door, teeth catching on my lower lip.

I let him. For a moment. Then I shoved him back.

"No."

"Sera—"

"I'm not your plaything anymore, Dante."

"Anymore?" He stared at me. "Is that what you think you were?"

"What else would I be? You've never introduced me to anyone. Never taken me anywhere public. I'm the woman you hide in your penthouse while you—"

I stopped.

"While I what?"

I thought about Elena Abate's dark curls and innocent smile. I thought about her standing in my father's parlor, knowing exactly who I was.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter. I'm marrying Emilio Agosti at the end of the month."

"The hell you are."

"You can't stop me."

"Can't I?" His voice dropped to something dangerous. "I could have Emilio Agosti unplugged from his machines by morning."

"Then I'd be engaged to a corpse instead of a coma patient. Either way, I'm leaving."

I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the guest room.

Dante caught my wrist. "Sera. Please."

The word stopped me cold.

Dante Moretti did not say please. Dante Moretti gave orders. He made demands. He killed men who disappointed him.

He did not beg.

But I remembered the photographs in his drawer. I remembered Elena Abate's knowing smile.

I pulled free.

"Goodnight, Dante."

I locked the door behind me.

-

I woke to voices in the living room.

"—can't just keep her here, Dante." Marco's voice was strained. "She's not a prisoner."

"She's not leaving."

"You're not hearing me. The Agosti family is already moving assets around. The deal is in motion. If you interfere—"

"I'll handle the Agostis."

"And the girl? She seems pretty determined."

Silence.

Then Dante said, very quietly: "I know. That's what worries me."

I pressed my ear to the door, hardly breathing.

"What about Elena?" Marco asked. "She's been calling. She wants to see you."

"Later."

"Dante—"

"I said later."

Footsteps. A door closing. Then nothing.

Elena. Calling. Demanding.

And Dante saying "later" instead of rushing to her side.

I didn't know what to make of that. I didn't want to make anything of it.

But it was the first crack I'd seen in the story I'd told myself.