Chapter 4

The room fell silent except for Sofia's crying.

She clutched my skirts and looked up at me.

"Please don't send me away from the D'Angelos. I have nothing outside this family. My stepfather's creditors are still looking for me in Sicily. If I go back, they'll kill me."

She shook so violently that her teeth clicked, yet she kept watching Alessandro from beneath her lowered lashes.

"You warned me that if I drew attention away from you today, you would throw me out of the D'Angelo house. I chose the plainest gown I could find. I did not ask Mamma for the brooch. I swear I never meant to outshine you."

With every word, Mamma's face grew tighter.

But her anger was not for Sofia.

It was for me.

"You threatened to throw her out over a bridesmaid dress?" she demanded. "Isabella, how could you be so cruel?"

"I never said that."

Luca cut me off before I could say anything else.

"She has spent the entire day trying to make herself invisible for your sake. She should not have to beg for a place in her own family."

"Please don't argue because of me," Sofia whispered. "I'll take off the brooch. I'll leave the reception early. Just don't send me back to Sicily."

Alessandro bent down and helped her to her feet. One arm went around her shoulders. His other hand settled protectively over her lower abdomen before he seemed to catch himself and moved it to her waist.

"Enough," he said. "Sofia is staying."

Then he looked at me, his expression hardening.

"How can you be so narrow-minded, Bella? She chose a plain dress, she has apologized, and you still want to frighten her on our wedding day. She has been in poor health for weeks. She nearly collapsed in the chapel. She cannot take this kind of stress."

Poor health.

The excuse might have convinced anyone else.

But I had seen the messages on Luca's computer. I knew why Mamma kept glancing at Sofia's stomach, why Luca guarded the door, and why Alessandro had shielded her abdomen without thinking.

They still believed they had hidden everything from me.

They thought I did not know that Sofia was pregnant—or that she and Alessandro had already married at City Hall.

I looked at the woman who had once stayed beside my bed all night when I was ill, the brother who had once promised to protect me, and the man I had loved enough to marry.

Not one of them asked whether Sofia had really told the truth.

They only needed me to be the villain so they could keep protecting her without explaining why.

A knock struck the door.

"Isabella," Papa called from the hall. "Open the door."

Mamma immediately motioned for Luca to block it.

"Do not drag your father into this," she hissed. "He has only just stabilized the southern harbor. He cannot be burdened with another family dispute over your jealousy."

Even now, they were using Papa as another way to silence me.

I wiped the cold sweat from my mouth.

"I won't send Sofia away."

Relief passed through all three of them.

Alessandro moved as if to embrace me. "I knew you would understand."

I avoided him and opened the door.

Papa stood outside.

Before he could speak, I took his arm.

"We have kept our guests waiting long enough. The wedding will continue."

Twenty minutes later, Alessandro and I stood at the altar again.

I said the vows. I exchanged rings.

I did not become his legal wife.

But I protected Papa's truce, and I preserved what remained of the D'Angelo family's honor.

At the reception, Mamma took Sofia back to the estate to rest. Luca escorted them himself. Alessandro stayed for half of our first dance before leaving to "check on her."

Everyone assumed the obedient Principessa would still be waiting when he returned.

I went back to the anteroom, took off the wedding gown, and placed the ring and the Moretti crest in their velvet box.

Then I opened my email and answered the invitation I had ignored for six months.

"I accept the position at Aurora Seven. I can leave tonight."

The program director called three minutes later.

"Dr. D'Angelo, there is a flight to Ushuaia tonight. From there, you will board the Antarctic supply vessel. It is a closed assignment lasting seven-year. You will not be able to leave the station or make private calls."

"I understand."

"Are you certain?"

I looked at my pale reflection in the mirror. Only then did the tears finally fall.

"Yes."

Before I left, I went to Papa's study.

He sat alone behind his desk with one of my wedding photographs in front of him. He was not smiling.

"This was not the marriage you wanted," he said.

The last of my composure broke. I buried my face against his shoulder and cried for one minute. He asked no questions. He only rubbed my back the way he had when I was a child.

When I could breathe again, he put a fresh passport and the key to the family's private airfield in my hand.

"Go wherever you need to go. A daughter of mine may defend her family's honor, but she is also entitled to a life of her own."

I hugged him once more, then left without saying goodbye to anyone else.

My plane departed New York before dawn.

When Alessandro finally returned to the estate, all he found in my room was the wedding ring and a printed confirmation letter.

RESEARCHER: DR. ISABELLA D'ANGELO

DESTINATION: AURORA SEVEN POLAR MEDICAL STATION, ANTARCTICA

CLOSED PROGRAM: SEVEN-YEAR

By then, my flight had already crossed the Atlantic.

For the first time in my life, none of them could use the family, the alliance, or Sofia's tears to keep me where they wanted me.