My mind snapped back to the present.

Luca was rubbing Lila's back, patient and coaxing. There was a time when that kind of gentleness was only ever for me.

He turned to look at me, jaw tight, eyes hard.

"Sofia. You've completely lost it."

I almost laughed. The bitterness rose slowly and settled at the corner of my mouth.

Lila bit her lip and looked at Luca, just once — shy, red-eyed — then started in:

"It's my fault. I'm the reason things went wrong between the two of you. I'll leave today. I won't bother you anymore."

She pulled herself free from Luca's arm and started toward the door.

She made it two steps before he pulled her back.

"And go where, exactly?" he said, low and sharp. "The roads around here are rough. You run into the wrong people out there and they won't stop to ask questions."

It was meant to scare her, and it did. She shrank back like a startled bird.

I stood there watching the two of them wrapped up in each other and felt like I was the one who didn't belong.

I let out a short, quiet laugh and turned to leave.

Then Lila came crawling toward me on her knees and grabbed my wrist.

"Please don't be angry at me anymore."

The pull on my wrist was sharp enough that the pastry flew out of my hand.

"Ah!" She screamed and went down, clutching herself like she was dying.

Luca crossed the room in three strides, shoved me out of the way, and pulled her into his arms to check her over.

The shove sent me stumbling backward. I caught my hip on the edge of the stone table, and the pain hit hard — a deep, wrenching kind I knew well.

I had a serious old injury in my lower back.

Years ago, during a hunting trip with the Ferrara boys in the hill country, Luca had decided for some reason to push his horse at full gallop down a steep slope. He never could ride, even as a kid. The horse panicked and threw him toward the edge of a cliff.

I went after him. In the chaos he grabbed onto me and we both went down together. I hit the ground back-first, and the injury never fully healed.

Every time the weather shifted, the pain came back. The constant damp of the hills had made it worse over the years.

When we first arrived here, he used to rub it for me himself, slowly and carefully, every night.

The pain blazed up my spine now and I couldn't hold back the tears.

"Luca — I'm your—"

What was I? Since Lila arrived, the wedding had been put off once, then again. We still hadn't married. I was nothing.

Luca scooped Lila up into his arms and turned to look at me, his eyes barely holding back rage.

"Sofia. I've been way too easy on you."

I bit back the pain and slapped him across the face.

"Get out."

Luca took Lila to the village doctor and didn't come back for three days. Three days of peace — I was grateful for it.

I dug out the letter from the bottom of my suitcase, thoughts turning it over from every angle.

The truth was, a month after Lila arrived, the Ferrara family had sent someone.

The messenger was Donato's chief counsel, a woman with a face that didn't invite argument and a voice that meant every word. She read me the letter start to finish, not missing a syllable.

I stared at her. "You want me to... marry Donato Ferrara?"

"Miss Caldwell," she said, crisp and precise, "it would be Don Ferrara now."

That's when it clicked.

The previous Don had been killed last month, betrayed by someone inside his own organization and found dead in the basement of his own estate. Donato Ferrara had stepped into control of the most powerful crime network on the island.

Lila had probably run when the power shift happened. The Caldwell family's network of outside connections had collapsed overnight and she had nowhere to turn.

I read through the letter again. And again.

The counsel had explained: yes, this was a family arrangement, but Donato understood the weight of it. He was giving me a full year to consider. If I refused, he would not force the matter and would guarantee me an independent place of protection, no strings.

When I first heard that, I exhaled quietly with relief.

But now. Maybe it was time to end this.

Rain had been coming down in the hills for a solid month.

I asked Addie to go into town for some herbal medicine, since my back had been acting up. But it was Luca who brought the bowl in, still steaming.

He blew on a spoonful and held it out to me. "You're taking medicine again? Is it your back?"

His voice was a little rough, but there was warmth underneath it.

I turned away. "Like you actually care."

He hesitated, then set the spoon down. A small smile. "You're getting more stubborn every day, Fia. Still upset because I haven't spent enough time with you lately?"

I said nothing.

He kept going, as if he hadn't noticed. "Lila got hurt, and you scared her pretty badly on top of that. As your man, it's only right that I look after her."

He patted my back and sighed like he was the one being reasonable. "You're the older one here. Don't make it into such a big thing."

I was so tired of watching him perform. I knocked his hand away. "Is there something else you need? If not, you can go."

His expression flickered, then smoothed back into something soft. "I know you're still angry. I know you don't want to see Lila. She's been scared too; she came back and won't leave her room because she's afraid of running into you."

I took a few sips of the medicine and looked up. "Just say what you came to say."

He hesitated. "Lila's not healing well if she stays cooped up, but she's scared to go out because she might see you. So how about you stay in the cellar for a few days and give her some space."

I stared at him.

The cellar. The Galvani estate cellar, where they kept enemies for interrogation.

He wanted to lock his own woman in a room built for prisoners, just to make room for the half-sister he'd brought into their lives.

He looked away and rubbed his temple. "I'll have it set up just like the bedroom, I promise. The moment Lila's a little better, I'll come get you. She's your sister, Sofia."

I couldn't hear another word. I threw the bowl of medicine in his face.

He lurched back, looking ridiculous.

"Sofia, do you think you're still the Caldwell heiress? That family's gone. This estate, every stone of it, I built with my own hands. I tell you to go, you go. Someone get her bags."

I looked at him steadily. The snarling face in front of me had nothing to do with the Luca I remembered.

"Finally showing me who you are?" I said.

He stormed out.

I watched his men scrambling to pack my things and wiped my eyes quietly. "Don't bother," I said. "I'll go myself."

I took the letter and a few changes of clothes and walked out.

When I was far enough from the house, I found one of the estate's carrier pigeons — the kind kept for urgent messages — and sent one of my own.

[Sofia agrees.]

It was past time to leave these hills behind.

The cellar was damp and dim, but it was quiet, and that was enough.

After a few days, Luca had my things sent down anyway.

I arranged everything neatly, then lay down and drifted off.

In the dream I was back at the Ferrara estate.

There was a time someone had accused me of stealing a ring — an heirloom — from Elena, the Don's third daughter. Elena had me kneel on the courtyard stone in the middle of winter for two hours straight, then had someone beat my palms with a belt strap until they bled.

Luca came by chance, black coat moving through the dark. He crouched down and pulled me up.

"Elena, you don't have the authority to do this," he said. "The Don doesn't allow that kind of thing here. You need to watch yourself."

Even with Elena furious at him for it, he brought me somewhere warm. He found liquor to clean my palms and wrapped them carefully himself.

In the candlelight, his eyes were steady.

"Don't be scared. I'll look out for you from now on."

"Okay," I said.

The dream ended.

Still half-asleep, I saw Luca sitting there in front of me, real and close. He wiped the tears from my face with a patient expression, voice almost gentle.

"Bad dream again? It's okay. I'm here."

I looked around, remembered where I was, and whatever warmth I'd had left for him went cold.

I sat up and moved away. "What do you want."

His expression went still for a moment, then softened again.

"Word came in from the Ferrara organization. Don Donato's hosting a major oath ceremony in Naples and he's called for me to attend. I figured you and Lila haven't been back to the mainland in a while, so why not come along?"

I watched the slight guilt in his face and understood exactly what this was. He wasn't inviting me. He was covering for himself.

"No thanks," I said. "Wouldn't want her getting scared sick from seeing me."

Luca let out a quiet breath. His voice relaxed. "You're being dramatic. Lila's doing much better. Let it go."

Afraid I'd change my mind, he kept going. "Lila and I leave tomorrow morning. While we're gone, you can move back into the main room. When we get back and she's mostly healed, let's stop doing this. We're family, just like before."

I didn't care enough to argue. I just wanted him gone. "Fine. Go pack. Don't be late."

He left, satisfied.

They set out the next morning.

I went back to the bedroom to get my things together. I opened the door and something hit me immediately — a smell that didn't belong.

The room was in disarray, things knocked over and out of place. I followed the smell to the window.

My clothes had been torn and tossed in a heap, and underneath them was a dried stain on the floor.

I had never been with a man, but I knew what I was looking at.

The blood rushed to my head all at once.

I opened the window and looked out. It faced directly onto the cellar entrance.

While I was locked in that cellar, they had been in my bed.

I was shaking with the force of how angry I was.

Luca Galvani. There is nothing decent left in you.

I called for the escort who was supposed to bring me to Naples.

We leave tomorrow.