I stood against the door for a long, long time. My legs went numb before I finally managed to calm down.

Since I couldn't get out, I might as well start packing what was mine.

I threw every dress, every handbag Luca had ever given me into the trash. Silk from Milan, calfskin clutches bought during territory visits, jewelry boxes stamped with the names of shops that only opened their back rooms for Family wives. All of it went in.

It wasn't until I was done that I realized.

All I could actually take with me was an ID card and my personal documents.

Nothing else.

Luca didn't let me out until the following evening, for dinner.

He noticed the things in the trash. I saw him pause. His gaze swept the pile of discarded gifts, then lifted to me. In the Barone compound, waste was a statement. Throwing away what a man had given you was either grief or defiance, and both required an answer.

"What kind of tantrum is this?"

I just smiled faintly.

"They got old. I stopped liking them. So I tossed them."

That shut him up. He was quiet for a beat, and when he spoke again, it was in that tone of his, the one that made everything sound like charity:

"I'll buy you new ones in a couple days. Consider it an apology."

"Come eat. And be nice to Arianna. She's only staying a few days."

"Stop being jealous and picking fights with her."

He paused at the end, just slightly. His signet ring sat motionless on his finger.

"Burning those things... I may have gone too far."

"But people need to move forward. Sister Bellandi's been gone a long time now."

I nodded. My voice was flat.

"Fine."

He'd gotten what should have been my forgiveness, but something about it made Luca uneasy. I was standing right in front of him, yet he felt like I was already far away.

Tomorrow was the last day of my arrangement with the Falcone family.

My plan was simple: wake up, go through with the surgery, and leave.

But in the dead of night, the bedroom door slammed open. Before I could even register what was happening, Luca hauled me out of bed and dragged me down the hall to the room next door. Past the guard stationed at the landing, who looked once and looked away. No one in the Barone compound intervened when the heir moved with that kind of fury.

His grip was brutal, like he wanted to break me apart. The moment he let go, I slammed into the wall. Pain exploded across my back and my vision went black.

Before I could recover, his voice came down from above, raw with fury.

"Bianca, is this how badly you can't stand Arianna? You're so jealous you'd drug her?"

My ears rang. My vision swam, then slowly focused.

On the bed, Arianna's cheeks were flushed, her clothes disheveled. She was practically draped over Luca, whimpering and pressing herself into his arms. Her fingertips hovered near the inner corner of her eye, just for a heartbeat, before the first tear slipped free.

"It wasn't me."

My voice was hoarse, but I forced the words out. "I didn't do anything like that."

The moment I finished speaking, Arianna flinched as though she'd been struck. The tears came instantly.

"Bianca... the only thing I ate tonight was the dessert you had the housekeeper bring me. I didn't touch anything else..."

"I had someone bring you dessert?" I stared at her, my expression ice cold.

"You burned Sister Bellandi's keepsakes, and you think I'd send you a treat? Arianna, do you really think that highly of yourself?"

My voice dropped lower, shaking with barely contained rage. "And what would I even gain from drugging you? If you're going to frame someone, at least come up with a believable story."

"Enough with the excuses."

Luca cut in, irritation thick in his voice.

"The housekeeper already admitted you told her to do it."

"Witness and evidence, both accounted for. How am I supposed to believe you?"

The cold seeped into my chest, inch by inch. I hadn't imagined that in Luca's mind, I was someone capable of this.

"What witness? What evidence?"

I bit down hard on my lip, the words grinding out between my teeth.

"This house has security cameras everywhere. If you really think I did it, then check the footage. One look and you'll know the truth."

I held his gaze, stubborn, refusing to bend.

I would not confess to something I didn't do.

Luca hesitated. Just for a second. The signet ring twitched once against his knuckle.

But then Arianna let out a soft, shuddering gasp and clung to him tighter, her voice trembling and paper-thin.

"Luca, it hurts so much... please help me, please..."

Her collar had slipped. Pale skin spilled into view.

Luca's hand froze. Instinct told him to push her away.

But Arianna ducked her head and sank her teeth into her own arm without a moment's hesitation. Hard.

Blood welled up instantly.

Bright red, streaming down her skin. Impossible to look away from.

"I know you only see me as a little sister, Luca. I know this whole marriage these past few days was just an act. It's my fault for letting myself get lost in how sweet it felt, for letting myself imagine you might care about me, even a little..."

Her voice shook. The tears fell harder.

"I'll handle it myself. Don't worry about me. I don't want to be a burden to either of you anymore..."

Luca's expression changed completely. He grabbed her arm to stop her from biting down again, pulling her into his arms to hold her still. When he spoke, his voice was rough and strained.

"Stop hurting yourself. I'll help you."

I stared at Luca, almost certain I'd misheard him.

But there was no guilt on his face. Only disappointment. In me.

"Bianca, I thought you were different from all those petty, scheming women. Above using dirty tricks to bully people. But I was wrong."

My throat clenched. It felt like someone was carving my chest open, one slow cut at a time.

"Since you're the one who drugged her," Luca said, refusing to meet my eyes, "then the consequences are yours to bear."

Arianna nestled obediently against his chest, but her gaze found mine over his shoulder, bright with undisguised triumph.

A violent cramp tore through my lower abdomen, something twisting and churning inside me. The pain nearly buckled my knees.

I gritted through it, my voice cold and cutting. "Luca, where is your brain? I drugged Arianna and then sent my own man to be the cure?"

"And when you could've just called a private doctor..."

Before I could finish, Arianna let out a soft whimper and pressed her hand to her wound.

"Luca, just go. Don't worry about me. I'm afraid if you actually help me, my sister will hate me even more."

"And don't blame her, either. She just loves you too much. That's why she did something like this."

I'd already decided to let go of Luca, but I still couldn't stand there and let Arianna spew lies that dragged my name through the mud. Not in the Barone house. Not where the walls had ears and every whisper fed the machine that decided who mattered and who got buried.

"Arianna, have you no shame? You drugged yourself, then threw yourself at my man and pointed the finger at me. Were you raised by wolves?"

The crack of his open hand against my face split the room in half.

The force whipped my head to the side. A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears.

"Bianca, Arianna never once said she wanted anything done to you, but you haven't stopped attacking her. Guess that's what happens when you grow up in a parish home. Not an ounce of class."

"Since you love drugging people so much, tonight you're going to sit here and watch exactly what that costs."

Before I could react, he'd dragged me to a chair and bound me to it with strips of clothing.

As he pulled off his shirt, he left me with one last sentence: "You brought this on yourself. Don't blame me."

His signet ring caught the bedside light as he turned away. It wasn't moving. It sat dead still on his knuckle, and I understood then that he hadn't made a decision in anger. He'd made it the way he made all of them. Quietly. Without appeal.

A bone-deep chill spread through me.

The entire night, I watched the man I'd loved for ten years sleep with another woman.

Panting. Wet kisses. The sounds circled my ears like a curse that wouldn't break.

And the whole time, my abdomen screamed with pain. Cold sweat soaked through every layer I wore.

I tried to call for help, but Luca dismissed it as another ploy for attention. Moments later, Arianna's moans grew louder, drowning me out.

At first I still cried. Then the tears ran dry, and all that was left was numbness.

Every image seared into my eyes was the same reminder: this is what happens when you love the wrong person.

The last shred of feeling I had left died that night.

The moaning lasted until dawn. Only then did Luca finally untie me.

"Learned your lesson?"

He looked down at me from above.

When no answer came, he glanced down and saw my face drained white, my consciousness slipping.

Panic flickered across his features. He checked beneath me and found a pool of red soaking through.

He bent to scoop me up, ready to rush to the hospital, but Arianna's voice drifted from the bed.

"Luca, you were too rough last night. I think I'm bleeding down there. Could you come take a look?"

"If not, you could just send one of the housekeepers. That's fine too."

Her voice was hoarse, fragile. She looked utterly pitiful. Her fingertips hovered near the inner corner of her eye, and even through the haze of my pain I recognized the gesture for what it was. The tears hadn't arrived yet. The calculation had.

Luca hesitated. His resolve softened. It had been Arianna's first time, after all, and he hadn't exactly held back.

So I watched him set me down, watched him tell me to wait.

But I was in so much pain.

I forced myself upright, called a car on my own, and staggered toward the door one lurching step at a time. The hallway of the Barone estate stretched long and unforgiving, the portraits of old family men watching me bleed past them.

"Where are you going, sis?"

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, Arianna rushed over and seized my wrist.

"I'm so sorry, sis. This is all my fault. I'm the reason you and Luca never got to make things official."

She tilted her face up at me, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Hit me, yell at me, I'll take it all. Just please don't break up with him over me..."

My head swam. A low buzz filled my ears.

"Let go." My throat was so dry it burned.

Arianna only gripped tighter, stepping closer, as if terrified I'd slip away.

"Please don't leave, sis. Luca really does love you. He's just soft-hearted. What he feels for me is only habit. Don't misunderstand him..."

Love me?

The pain in my abdomen clenched like a fist. My legs nearly gave out, and a wave of nausea surged up with the irritation.

"Enough." My voice went cold. "Arianna, who exactly are you performing for?"

I yanked my hand back.

I barely used any force.

But in that instant, her body went limp and she tipped backward.

"Ah!"

Her shriek split the stairwell open.

I froze for a fraction of a second, then reached for her on instinct.

My fingertips grazed her sleeve, but she was already falling.

Weightlessness seized me.

Arianna's grip dragged me down with her.

The world flipped.

My back, my elbows, my knees slammed against the hard edges of each step, over and over.

Thud.

I hit the ground floor hard. My vision went black.

Then I heard footsteps, fast and frantic.

"Bianca!"

Luca's voice.

He came tearing down the stairs, steps uneven, more rattled than I'd ever heard him. In this house, a Barone heir did not run. He was running.

Through blurred vision, I saw him reach me.

But before he could get close, a hand caught his sleeve.

"Luca..."

Arianna's voice, thin as thread.

"I lost my footing. It wasn't her fault. She grabbed for me and got pulled down too..."

"Go check on her first. She fell harder than I did..."

Luca's movement stuttered.

He'd been about to come to me. But that pause was all it took. His eyes landed on Arianna's disheveled state instead.

Her collar had shifted, exposing the marks he'd left on her skin the night before.

His throat bobbed.

I thought, even if Luca had no conscience at all, he'd at least check on me first. I was carrying his child. I'd just tumbled down an entire flight of stairs in the Barone compound, bleeding through my clothes where anyone with eyes could see.

He didn't.

I watched him gather Arianna into his arms.

Careful. Gentle. Like she was something precious and breakable.

"Let me take you to the hospital first. You're already fragile, and yesterday I... nothing else can happen to you."

Luca didn't look at me once when he said it.

Arianna clutched the front of his shirt, her voice small. "But what about Bianca..."

"I'll come back for her."

He carried Arianna out without looking back.

His footsteps faded down the hall.

I was the only one left, lying on the cold floor.

I stared at the ceiling. My vision blurred, slowly, then all at once.

I laughed.

It came out hoarse and hollow.

My hand found my stomach. My fingers were shaking.

"Baby, did you see that?"

"Your daddy doesn't love Mommy. He doesn't love you either."

"How could Mommy... ever dare bring you into this world."

I don't know how long I lay there before my phone buzzed beside me.

The car I'd called earlier had arrived.

I pressed my palms against the floor and pushed myself up, inch by inch. My body felt like it had been taken apart and put back wrong. Every movement sent tremors of pain through me.

But I stood up.

One step at a time, I walked toward the door. Past the chair where the rope still hung loose. Past the threshold that smelled of his cologne and her perfume and something copper underneath.

Blood ran down my legs. I couldn't feel it anymore.

By the time they wheeled me into the operating room, my consciousness was already slipping.

Voices drifted in and out.

"Miscarriage... she needs a D&C..."

"Where's her family?"

"There's no family."

I don't know how much time passed before I opened my eyes again.

Before I could figure out where I was, the door slammed open.

"Bianca!"

Luca stormed in, breathing hard. Two of his soldiers flanked the doorway but didn't follow. They knew the look on his face. Everyone who worked for the Barone Family knew what that look meant.

He crossed the room in three strides and seized my wrist. His grip was so tight I thought the bones would splinter.

"You have the nerve to just lie here?"

His voice was low, but the fury in it was unmistakable. His signet ring dug into my skin where his fingers locked around me, and it wasn't moving. It wasn't rolling. The ring was perfectly, terribly still.

"Arianna's spleen ruptured because you pushed her. Massive hemorrhaging. She's in emergency surgery right now. You're the same blood type. You're giving her a transfusion."

The fog in my head cleared instantly.

What he was accusing me of was so absurd that for a moment I forgot the pain entirely.

"I didn't push her." I wrenched my hand free, my voice raw and cold. "Luca, have you lost your mind? You want me to give blood? I just had a—"

"You're still denying it!"

He cut me off, his eyes darkening with something vicious.

"I saw it with my own eyes. You pushed her down those stairs. Arianna is the one covering for you because she's too kind, afraid I'd blame you. She protected you, and you won't even save her life?!"

I watched him construct his own version of reality and convict me with it. It was so ridiculous I almost laughed. "Who asked for her kindness? I didn't do it, and I didn't do it!"

"If something happens to Arianna, how are you going to keep your place with the Romanos? Is that what you want? For them to cut you off? Would that make you happy?"

He wasn't listening to a single word I said. His brow furrowed like he genuinely believed he was looking out for me.

"You and Arianna have the same blood type," he said. "You're donating. Consider it your apology."

Something lodged in my chest. I couldn't breathe.

"I told you. I didn't push her." Every word was deliberate. "And I just—"

"Stop pretending to be sick." Luca's frown deepened, his patience visibly fraying. "Bianca, when did you become like this? You won't own up to what you did, and now you're playing the victim?"

I lost every last shred of desire to communicate with him.

When someone has already decided you're guilty, nothing you say will ever be the right thing.

Luca grabbed me and dragged me off the bed, hauling me toward Arianna's operating room. The soldiers in the corridor flattened against the wall as we passed, eyes down, mouths shut. Omertà ran both ways in the Barone house. They saw nothing. They would say nothing.

A doctor stood by the entrance. The moment he saw Luca, he straightened. A bought physician knew which family paid his salary and what the cost of hesitation was.

"Draw her blood." Luca didn't waste a single word.

The doctor glanced at me, hesitation flickering across his face. "But this young woman's complexion..."

"She's fine." Luca cut him off. "Draw it."

I was pushed into a chair. My sleeve was rolled up. When the needle pierced the vein, the cold spread up my arm like ice water filling my veins.

The blood left me drop by drop.

I'd just had a miscarriage. I had no strength to fight back. All I could do was let my head fall against the chair and stare up at the white light overhead, watching the halo pulse and expand, pulse and expand.

My consciousness began to drift.

Luca suddenly took my hand. His voice softened. His signet ring rolled once against his knuckle, slow and deliberate, as the words came.

"Bianca, as long as Arianna pulls through, everything that happened these past two days... we'll pretend none of it ever happened."

I didn't look at him.

"I know you have a problem with her. It's because she has feelings for me."

"But I've told you so many times. What I feel for Arianna is the bond of growing up together. She's no different from a little sister to me."

"My wife will only ever be you."

"Once you're feeling better, we'll have the ceremony. I'll give you the grandest wedding. The Barone name, the feast, all of it."

"So, Bianca, be good. Stop making trouble."

A sister he'd slept with and still called pure?

What if Arianna got pregnant with his child?

Still a sister then?

But those thoughts barely flickered through my mind.

They were gone almost as soon as they came.

None of it mattered anymore.

I was leaving.

Seven years of propping Luca up, plus this blood I was giving now. That was more than enough to repay the debt of him pulling me out of the parish home.

After this, whoever Luca loved, married, or took to bed had nothing to do with me.

When the transfusion was over, I could barely stay on my feet.

My vision went black. I nearly collapsed right there on the floor.

But Luca didn't notice. He was already gone, checking on Arianna.

I pulled out my phone. My fingers trembled as I sent my location to Serafina.

"Can you come get me?"

The reply came almost instantly.

"On my way."

I turned and walked back to my hospital room.

I left the miscarriage report on the bed.

All I took was my ID, my personal documents, and the broken watch that had belonged to Sister Bellandi.

One step at a time, I climbed to the hospital rooftop.

A private jet was already waiting. Its engine hummed low against the night, the Falcone crest barely visible on the tail fin.

The cabin door opened. A doctor Serafina had arranged stood inside and rushed over the moment she saw me, checking my vitals.

Clouds churned outside the window.

When I arrived at the private hospital on Falcone-controlled ground in New York and saw my new husband lying there in his coma, the first thing I did was hold our ring-bearing hands together, take a photo, and post it with a caption:

"Taken."

From that moment on,

Luca Barone had nothing to do with me.