The next day, I was wheeling Lorenzo to a private clinic for his physical therapy session.

Just as we neared the consultation room, I saw Dante.

He saw me, and his gaze fell on Lorenzo behind me. His face instantly darkened like a thundercloud.

Dante yanked me into the fire escape stairwell.

"Isabella Rossi, what is the meaning of this?"

"You were so agreeable on the phone, and now you show up with him to provoke Valentina?"

"You say one thing on the phone and then pull this stunt? This is what you call being 'understanding'?"

"I'm not looking for trouble." I wrenched my hand from his grip; his touch repulsed me.

Dante sneered, clearly not believing me.

"Do you have any idea how guilty Valentina felt when she found out about his legs? She couldn't sleep for a whole month!"

"Do you know how much effort I put in to help her get over it?"

"And now, just because I left you at the altar, you're taking it out on Valentina by deliberately bringing him here to reopen her old wounds? You disgust me!"

His words extinguished any warmth left in my heart.

In my past life, I thought he had gone mad because of what happened to Valentina.

I never realized he had already lost all sense of right and wrong for her.

I couldn't be bothered to waste another word on him and turned to go back to Lorenzo.

"Stop!" Dante roared behind me. "Isabella, if you dare go in there today, our wedding is off for another three years!"

I was about to turn and tell him there was no need to postpone, that we were completely over.

But the door to the adjacent hospital room creaked open.

Valentina called out in a frail voice, "Dante, where did you go?"

When her eyes swept over Lorenzo, her face turned deathly pale.

Dante's reaction was astonishingly fast.

He lunged forward, shielding Valentina in his arms as if she were a precious treasure.

"Don't be afraid, Valentina. It's okay. I'll take you away right now. We don't have to look at this filth."

The door was slammed shut.

The hallway fell into a dead silence once more.

I looked at Lorenzo. "Aren't you angry?"

Come to think of it, Dante didn't seem to know Lorenzo's true identity.

When Valentina's recklessness led to Lorenzo being ambushed by a rival family, Dante, too busy saving her, never sent backup. He missed the critical window, and as a result, Lorenzo's legs were permanently damaged.

Yet Lorenzo never pursued the matter.

Given the Falcone family's power, crushing Dante and the Carusos would have been as simple as making a phone call. My own Rossi family wouldn't have had the standing to plead for them.

Lorenzo, from his wheelchair, calmly shook his head. "Why would I get angry at two idiots?"

"Besides, he was your..."

Just then, the clinic's manager stopped us, a troubled look on his face.

"I'm sorry, but the Carusos have commandeered all our specialists for Miss Valentina's consultation."

He paused, then added, "Even the specialist you flew in from Europe for Mr. Falcone... he's been redirected to her case."

I couldn't believe my ears.

I was about to pull out my phone to call Dante when a message from him arrived.

"Use your family's connections to smooth this over for Valentina, and I'll forgive you for bringing someone to scare her today."

I ignored the text and shoved my phone back into my pocket.

"Mr. Falcone, I'll take you to another hospital."

By the time I had taken Lorenzo for his check-up and driven him back to the Falcone estate, it was already evening.

As soon as I reached my own front door, I saw Dante's car blocking the driveway.

"You froze my card?" he demanded the moment he saw me. "How am I supposed to find the best lawyer for Valentina?"

I found it laughable.

"What does Valentina's trouble have to do with me?"

Dante looked at me in disbelief.

"Isabella, we're about to get married! Valentina is my family, which means she'll be your family too!"

"She's lying in a hospital bed, in too much pain to sleep. How can you say something so cold-blooded?"

I let out a cold laugh.

"I'm cold-blooded?"

"Dante, do you have any idea how many people died because of that shootout Valentina started?"

Dante's face stiffened for a moment before he waved his hand dismissively.

"Their families have already been compensated."

"Valentina is just childish. She was acting on a whim and didn't think it through."

He frowned, speaking to me in a lecturing tone.

"As my wife, you should be tolerant of her, not bickering over every little thing."

Tired of his twisted logic, I tried to push past him.

"I'm not marrying into the Caruso family."

Dante grabbed my wrist, his grip so tight it felt like he might crush the bones. His eyes burned with fury.

"Isabella, don't push me! Marrying you doesn't mean I'm abandoning Valentina!"

"Then let's not get married." I calmly shook his hand off.

Dante froze.

Then, as if he'd heard the biggest joke in the world, he started to laugh coldly.

"Not getting married?"

"Isabella, I saw it all. Your Rossi family just booked the most luxurious hotel and even hired a new wedding planning team."

"If you don't marry me, who are you going to marry?"

Just as I was about to speak, his phone rang.

Valentina's cloying voice came through the speaker.

"Dante, I want to drink the limited-edition champagne from that cellar in the south of the city."

Dante immediately softened his voice to soothe her.

After hanging up, he snatched the identical bottle of champagne—a gift from Lorenzo—from my hand.

"At least you have some heart, remembering Valentina likes this."

"Alright, I'll give you two days to cool off."

"Think carefully about how you're going to apologize to me, and how you're going to make amends to Valentina."

"Otherwise, I won't be showing up on the wedding day."