"Twice? Try more than that. A dozen men at a time, and you do the math. The Don's got enough horns on his head to knit a sweater. He must be blind, taking a woman like that into his bed. Just holding her at night would turn your stomach."

"Who knows if she was forced or willing. Probably no better than she should be, anyway. Why else would it always be her getting into trouble, and on the Don's own vessel? This time the kid's gone too. Any baby cursed with a mother like that is better off in the sea."

…

I stood off to the side, my legs nearly giving out under me. The salt wind off the deck did nothing to steady them.

Lorenzo had heard the commotion carry down the corridor, and this was the scene he walked into. Conversations cut off the moment he appeared. The made men nearest the door straightened without thinking.

The color drained from his face in an instant.

A second before I hit the floor, he caught me and pulled me into his arms.

"Adriana? What are you doing here?"

"You're not feeling unwell, are you? Let me take you back."

I said nothing. My eyes followed past his shoulder to Bianca.

Afraid I'd seen, Lorenzo rushed to explain:

"Don't read too much into it. Bianca only just came back across the water. I ran into her by chance and came to see how she was."

"That whole business was five years ago. Bianca was afraid you'd be upset, so she stayed abroad all this time. She finally managed to come home, and we are all the same famiglia in the end, so maybe we could just—"

"Don't worry. As long as I draw breath, that bastard Salvatore won't set foot near you again."

"Mm. It's in the past. I won't speak of it again."

I knew what he was trying to say.

Better to put myself in a corner.

No. Better to be the one who said it first.

At least that way I could keep my dignity.

The same men and their wives who'd been sneering a moment ago saw the Don step out onto the deck. In an instant they scattered, the way they always did when his shadow fell across a room.

"Adriana. Long time no see."

Bianca smiled and greeted me, the limited-edition piece on her wrist catching the deck lights as she let it show.

I gave a silent nod, swallowing the hurt as I spoke:

"I came out for some air. Since you're busy, I'll head back first. I wouldn't want to cause you any trouble out here, in front of everyone."

Lorenzo thought I was angry and trailed after me all the way back to the private lounge.

His eyes went red with tenderness.

Watching how eager he was to play the part, the heat of his desire still not faded from his gaze. His thumb moved slow along the edge of his wedding ring.

I suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

To clear the way for Bianca.

He had drugged me and destroyed my whole bloodline without a second thought. He had let the Vitale name be looted down to the bone.

Now that he'd gotten what he wanted, I lived buried under the contempt of every made man and his wife, unable to lift my head.

So who was the act for now?

"Don't worry. It was five years ago. I forgot about it long ago. The lounge was just stuffy, and being shut in there kept dredging up things I'd rather not remember, so I went out for air."

Lorenzo let out a breath of relief.

He wiped the tear tracks from the corners of my eyes himself.

After feeding me the drug, he went out the door again.

This time he headed toward the dining hall.

Ten minutes later, an associate slipped an invitation to the family banquet through the crack of the door.

I knew this was Bianca's doing.

But I went anyway.

Before I left, I threw the suitcase I'd brought with me into the sea, down to where the Don sent the things he wanted gone.

At the banquet, Bianca appeared in a haute couture gown. Every gesture radiated poise, as though she had been bred for this floor.

She used the name Donna Falcone.

Every made man in the room was speculating about her standing beside the Don. Murmurs drifted between the tables.

Guests came forward, lifting their glasses, praising what a perfect match the two of them made, an alliance written in the stars.

Lorenzo hurried over, busy working the room the way a Don must, and didn't notice me there.

Bianca, however, came up to me and led me outside the lounge. Her gaze swept over the bruises mottling my neck. She lifted her face into a smile.

"Adriana. Five years, and you're still nothing but garbage."

"Well? How did it feel, getting dragged in there? You couldn't protect the Vitale family back then, and now you can't protect your child either. You're a joke."

"You still don't know, do you? Those men weren't an accident. Your beloved husband arranged the whole thing. While you were being stripped bare, he stood right there and watched. I feel sorry for you, I really do."

Hatred surged up inside me.

Before I could move, Bianca struck herself across the face. Twice.

The instant the scream tore out of her, she pitched forward over the brass railing of the Don's private vessel and dropped straight down into the sea.

Her thin body thrashed in the black water.

I hadn't even registered what was happening before Lorenzo shoved me hard to the ground.

He didn't spare me a single glance. He just turned and dove in after her.

The moment he pulled Bianca out, she buried herself against his chest, sobbing without end. The made men along the deck went quiet, every one of them watching their Don cradle a woman who was not his wife.

When Lorenzo finally looked at me, not a trace of the old love was left in his eyes.

"Adriana, have you lost your mind?"

"So this is what you meant by 'it's in the past'? Bianca heard what happened to you. She came over out of kindness, to see you, to clear up the misunderstanding from back then, and you raise a hand to her? What gives you the right?"

I lay sprawled on the deck, my clothes twisted open, the red marks on my skin laid bare for every silent partner aboard to see.

My expression only went colder.

"A misunderstanding? The misunderstanding from back then. Shouldn't you be the one owing me an explanation!"

"If it weren't for you, how would I have ever sunk low enough to need her charity visit!"

His brows knotted. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes. His thumb moved once along the edge of his wedding ring.

"Explain what? You knew the Vitale bloodline was finished, the tribute looted, the name dishonored. I took you in out of the goodness of my heart!"

"And tonight, if you hadn't disobeyed and gone wandering off, how would you have ended up. I'm not God, I can't be glued to your side every second. You went looking for trouble. What right do you have to pin it on Bianca? Blame yourself for having no self-respect!"

"Adriana, apologize to Bianca!"

Before I could say a word, the tears were already sliding down Bianca's face.

"Don't, don't be hard on Adriana. The fall of the Vitales was all my fault. I didn't stop Salvatore in time. I'm the one who wronged her. Tonight, let it count as my way of making it up to her." She laughed, a small bright sound a half-beat too soon. "Since she hates me this much, let's just not see each other anymore. I don't want to put you in a difficult position."

My nails dug deep into my palms, and blood slid down, drop by drop.

Watching the two of them walk off in each other's arms across the lamplit deck, I knew. We were finished.

Five years of love turned to ash in that single moment.

All around, the gathered wives and made men kept the insults coming.

"So that's the Falcone woman who got ruined twice? She's a fallen thing herself, and she still has the nerve to give Signora Marchetti grief? Has she no shame? At least Signora Marchetti is pure. Not like her."

"No wonder the Don never brings her out before the Families these last few years. Afraid of the embarrassment, isn't he? A man like Lorenzo Falcone, and he weds a slut. Who even knows whose baby it was that she miscarried. Tsk, tsk. If word got out, the Falcone name would never live it down."

"Signora Marchetti is the one who suits the Don. I hear they were together since they were children. If she hadn't gone overseas, this one would never have gotten through the door. No one but the Don could be blind enough."

"..."

I stumbled back into the private lounge below deck.

The blood beneath me had already soaked through my dress.

It was only after I'd cleaned myself up that Lorenzo sent a message to explain:

"Don't read too much into tonight. Bianca is my brother's wife in name, after all, and half the men on this vessel are silent partners of the Family. You hurt her. It made me lose face before them. Making you apologize was only a show for outsiders."

"Once I've seen to her injuries, I'll come back and make it up to you, all right? I told you I'd give you a gift. Don't be upset, okay?"

But I knew this show was never for outsiders.

It was for me.

This devotion. He'd faked it for five years.

And now it was time for it to end.

I let my hands lie still in my lap and did not touch the ring on my finger. Then I signed my name on the dissolution of the alliance, the release sealed where it counted, and along with the video screenshots lifted from his phone, I set them all to send on a timer.

I took the medicine, sat at the head of the bed, and waited until the small hours.

He still never came.

Only the attendant came, bearing news.

Word ran through the vessel that the Don of the Falcone Family had moved heaven and earth tonight for the woman he loved.

Bianca had only caught a chill from falling in the water, and he'd summoned every last physician aboard.

For that, he'd thought nothing of throwing away a fortune.

At daybreak, I called him.

He was too busy auctioning jewels for Bianca to spare me a moment.

They released paper lanterns into the dark above the water.

All around, the envious murmurs of the guests rose and fell.

Only then did he remember the call he'd picked up.

"Adriana? I'm getting your gift ready. Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Let me send the doctor over to you first. I'll be there right away."

I lowered my head and watched the countdown on the screen tick down, second by second, to the moment the message would send.

Down in the great hall, Lorenzo held Bianca tight against him.

"It's nothing. You go ahead, then. I won't keep you."

"All right. Be good and wait for me in the room. Your husband will be there soon."

The call ended.

I turned and walked away from all of it.

The auction wrapped up.

As always, Lorenzo gave the jewels to Bianca.

He left behind that gift, took the gift box, and headed back toward the private lounge.

But the room was empty.

A faint unease stirred in him.

He was about to call and ask when Matteo burst in from the doorway, his face ashen.

"It's bad, Lorenzo. Something's happened to Adriana. Those men from before, I don't know what went wrong, but they never went ashore the way they were supposed to. Someone saw them leave the vessel, and they took Adriana with them."

The words had barely landed when Lorenzo's phone rang.

A message had come in.