Celeste, Luca’s first love, and I were trapped in the Romano docks fire on the same night.

He saved me first.

By the time he went back for Celeste, the warehouse had already collapsed. She died in the fire and became the regret he carried for the rest of his life.

Luca never said he blamed me.

But after that night, my birthdays, our anniversaries, even private family dinners became days for him to mourn Celeste.

He often said, “It should have been me.”

Years later, the Chronos Project opened to the powerful families of the underworld. For a brutal price, it could send someone back to one moment in the past.

Luca signed the waiver without hesitation.

Before entering the machine, he said to me, “I saved you first because you were my wife. If I had saved Celeste first, the families would have called her my mistress and destroyed her. This time, I’ll save her properly.”

After he vanished, the Romano elders turned all their grief on me.

“If Luca had chosen Celeste first, he would have had the life he wanted.”

“She died because of you.”

“You should have been the one the fire took.”

I did not explain.

I signed the Chronos waiver too.

This time, I would give them what they wanted.

When the sickness from the Chronos jump faded, I woke to smoke.

The Romano docks were burning again. The old shipping office had half collapsed, fire crews shouted beyond the ruined gates, and water from the hoses ran black across the ground.

I opened my eyes and saw Luca standing near one of the black SUVs.

For one second, he looked at me.

Then he turned away.

Celeste was trapped on the second-floor balcony of the customs building, her white dress stained with ash. Luca took a fire blanket from one of his men and crossed the burning yard without hesitation.

In the last life, he had saved me first.

This time, he chose her.

I forced myself up and tried to reach the outer gate alone. Smoke burned my throat, and every breath felt like swallowing fire. Before I could get far, Luca had already brought Celeste down from the balcony.

She slipped on the wet steps.

Luca caught her at once. At the same time, a burning storage rack collapsed near me, and an iron-edged case slid from the stack, slamming hard into my side.

Pain cut through me.

I fell to my knees, but Luca did not look back. He wrapped Celeste in his coat and took her to the SUV first.

By the time I dragged myself past the gate, my dress was soaked with hose water and blood. I coughed until my throat tasted of smoke.

Only after Celeste was safe did Luca come to me.

His face was cold.

“You got out by yourself,” he said. “So why did you stay where I could see you? Did you want me to turn back for you again?”

I looked at him quietly.

He did not know I had come back too.

“You can tell the elders whatever you want,” he continued. “Say I left you in the fire. Say Celeste needed me. But if you try to blame her, I won’t protect you from the family.”

My hand pressed against my side. Warm blood spread beneath the torn silk.

I said, “Then divorce me.”

Luca stopped.

Surprise crossed his face, but it lasted only a moment before impatience replaced it.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“I mean it.”

“No, Elena. You want to punish me.” He glanced toward the SUV where Celeste sat wrapped in his coat. “The elders aren’t here. You don’t need to perform.”

He had crossed time to save Celeste first. Now that he had done it, he still thought I was fighting for his attention.

“I want the marriage dissolved,” I said.

Before Luca could answer, Celeste pushed open the car door and stumbled toward him.

“Luca,” she cried, clutching his sleeve. “Bianca is hurt. She was in the office with me when the blast hit. She swallowed smoke, and now she can barely breathe.”

Bianca was the white Persian Luca had given Celeste years ago, back when everyone in the Romano estate still thought she would become its mistress.

One of Luca’s men brought the cat over in a soot-stained towel. Bianca trembled weakly, her white fur gray with smoke.

Luca’s expression changed at once.

Celeste turned to me with tears in her eyes.

“Elena, please. You can still talk. Bianca can’t. Let Luca take her to the family vet first. She’s all I have left.”

Only then did Luca seem to remember I was bleeding.

“I’ll send one of the men to take you to the clinic,” he said. “After Celeste and Bianca are settled, I’ll come.”

I looked at him for a moment and understood the order before he finished speaking.

Celeste first. Everything else later.

I lowered my eyes.

“All right.”

Luca paused, as if he had expected me to argue.

Celeste cried his name again, and that was enough.

He took Bianca himself, helped Celeste into the black SUV, and left through the smoke-hazed drive without looking back.

Only after the taillights disappeared did I look down.

Blood had soaked through my dress, dark and steady beneath my hand.

In the last life, Luca saved me first.

I survived the fire with injuries, but nothing fatal. During the days I stayed in the Romano private clinic, he sent flowers, private nurses, and whatever the doctors ordered for my recovery, but he never came to see me himself.

He was busy mourning Celeste.

He arranged her funeral, chose the flowers for the chapel, received every mourner, and stood beside her coffin as if part of him had been buried with her.

Once, I asked him if he regretted saving me.

If he regretted marrying me instead of her.

He wiped my tears and said, “No, Elena. I love you. What I feel for Celeste is grief. She was once part of my life, so I owe her sorrow.”

I tried to believe him.

Then one night, I passed the chapel and heard him speaking to the elders.

“I will never forget Celeste,” he said. “When my time comes, I will find her again.”

His mother cried beside him.

Luca opened a narrow silver locket. Inside was a strand of Celeste’s pale hair.

“I saved Elena first because she was my wife. If I had gone to Celeste first, every family in the city would have called her my mistress and ruined her name.”

His voice lowered.

“If time ever gives me another chance, I will protect Celeste properly.”

The memory faded as I lay in the clinic bed.

From the moment I returned to this life, I had already decided to leave him.

After the doctor cleaned the wound at my side, I asked the nurse for paper, a pen, and access to the family legal office. By the time Luca arrived, the dissolution agreement was folded beneath my blanket.

He came in with one of his men behind him.

The man placed a cream-colored box on the table and left without a word.

Luca said, “I had them send a few things over from the estate. You’ll be more comfortable here.”

Inside were a wool recovery blanket, a silver-handled brush, and a small velvet case.

For a moment, he almost looked like the man I remembered. Calm, careful, faintly guilty.

Then I saw the order slip tucked beneath the blanket.

It was from the family vet.

The blanket was part of Bianca’s recovery kit. The silver-handled brush was for grooming. The velvet case held a collar charm engraved with the cat’s name.

He had not brought them for me.

They were leftovers from Bianca’s emergency order.

I looked up.

“How is Bianca?”

His expression stiffened.

“The vet says she’ll recover.”

“Good.”

He sat beside the bed, but his mind was clearly elsewhere.

“About tonight,” he said. “Don’t tell the elders that Celeste asked me to leave with Bianca first. They already misunderstand her place in this family, and I don’t want them using this against her.”

So that was why he had come.

Not because I was hurt, but because he needed me silent.

I looked away.

“You said you would agree to anything if I helped keep this from the elders.”

Luca nodded. “Within reason.”

I pulled the folded papers from beneath the blanket and covered the title with my hand, leaving only the signature line visible.

“Then sign this.”

His eyes narrowed.

“What is it?”

“An agreement.”

“For what?”

“A promise that you will never love another woman more than your wife.”

He stared at me for a moment, then gave a tired laugh.

“Elena.”

In his eyes, I had always been sentimental enough for things like this. Years ago, I made him sign little vows on napkins, dinner menus, and scraps of paper tucked into books. Back then, he found it charming.

Tonight, he only wanted the matter finished.

He took the pen and signed.

The moment his name touched the page, something inside me finally settled.

Luca had once saved me from more than one kind of ruin.

My family had once stood close to the Romanos. Then my father trusted the wrong ally, backed the wrong shipment, and lost everything in one winter. By spring, our accounts were frozen, our men had scattered, and our name became something people avoided saying aloud.

The same families who once toasted my father began treating me like a stain. At the academy, the daughters of capos whispered that ruined blood should not sit at their table.

Luca was the first person who refused to look away.

When a boy spilled wine across my dress and called me a beggar princess, Luca put his jacket over my shoulders and had him removed in front of everyone.

Later, when my father’s last creditor sent men to frighten me outside the old villa, Luca arrived before they could force me into their car. He stood between us with a gun in his hand and told them the Romano family had claimed me.

For years, those memories made me stay.

Now his name was on the papers that would let me leave.

By the time I returned to the Romano estate, Luca’s signature was already hidden inside the dissolution papers.

He sat beside me in the car, silent all the way back from the clinic. Smoke still clung to his coat, and every turn of the road pulled at the wound beneath my bandage.

When the gates opened, he finally spoke.

“My parents asked us to join them for dinner. My mother had the kitchen make what you like.”

Before I could answer, one of Celeste’s men crossed the drive and bent close to Luca’s ear.

Luca’s expression changed.

“Celeste is still shaken from the fire,” he said. “She can’t stand the smell of smoke. I’ll check on her first.”

He left before dinner began.

The Romano dining room was quiet without him. Donna Sofia sat across from me, her eyes fixed on the empty chair at my side until her face slowly hardened.

“He went to Celeste again.”

I lowered my fork.

The old Don said nothing, but the look he gave her was warning enough. Donna Sofia ignored it.

“That woman has never been as helpless as she pretends. If Luca knew she was once promised to Matteo Vitale, he would not keep rushing to save her.”

“I know,” I said.

Donna Sofia looked at me.

Celeste had once been promised to Matteo Vitale, heir to a rival family. The Romanos had kept it from Luca because they feared he would cross into Vitale territory and start a war for a woman who had already chosen another house once.

In the last life, I had used that secret to comfort myself. I told myself Luca only mourned Celeste because he never knew the truth.

This time, the truth no longer helped me.

Donna Sofia’s voice softened.

“Elena, we thought Luca felt differently about you. That was why we accepted this marriage.”

I looked at the empty chair beside me.

“If he did, he would be here.”

The old Don finally looked up.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m leaving him.”

The room went still.

I folded my hands in my lap and kept my voice calm.

“The dissolution papers are signed. Once the family lawyer files them, Luca and I will no longer be married.”

Donna Sofia’s eyes widened. “Luca signed?”

“He thought it was another sentimental promise.”

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Ash drifted against the windows, and far beyond the estate walls, sirens still echoed from the docks.

“Please don’t tell him yet,” I said. “Let the lawyer file it first. After that, whatever he chooses will no longer trap me.”

That night, I returned to my room early.

The wound at my side had started to throb, and I had just taken off my coat when the door was pushed open.

Luca stood outside, soot on his coat and anger hardening his eyes.

“So you did complain to them.”

I looked at him. “What happened?”

“My mother went to Celeste. They argued. Bianca ran out during the shouting and disappeared.” His voice turned cold. “Are you satisfied now?”

For a moment, I said nothing.

Then I reached for my coat.

“I’ll find her.”

Luca gave a short, bitter laugh.

“Don’t pretend to be kind. If Bianca is hurt, that is on you.”

I walked past him without answering.

Celeste had been placed in the guest house near the lower garden. The lights were still on when I arrived. Through the smoke-stained window, I saw Luca holding her while she cried against his chest.

I looked away and kept searching.

The fire crews had left the garden paths slick with water and foam. My side hurt with every step, and the night air worked through my dress, but I checked the hedges, the fountain, the servants’ path, and the storage rooms behind the kitchens.

Near dawn, I heard a faint cry from the ruined greenhouse beyond the lemon trees.

Bianca was trapped beneath a fallen shelf, soaked and shivering. A pale ribbon was tangled around one paw.

It was the same ribbon Celeste had worn earlier.

I freed the cat and carried her back against my chest.

Celeste rushed out as soon as she saw us.

“Bianca!”

She took the trembling cat from me, then turned to Luca with fresh tears in her eyes.

“She’s freezing. Luca, please, we have to take her to the family vet. Cats can die from shock, can’t they?”

Luca looked at me then.

For one brief second, his gaze stopped on my face, then moved to the blood seeping through my bandage.

I held the doorframe and said, “I’m fine. Take them.”

Celeste sobbed his name.

The hesitation in his eyes disappeared.

Luca took Bianca from her, helped Celeste into the black SUV, and left without another word.

When the car disappeared down the drive, the strength I had been holding together all night finally broke.

I woke in the clinic after sunrise.

No one from the Romano family was beside the bed.

I did not call Luca, and I did not wait for him to remember me. I signed the discharge papers myself, returned to the estate for my passport, the dissolution papers, and one small suitcase, then left before anyone came looking.