Chapter 1

Before I turned seven, my life was a hard one.

The convent's coarse cloth rubbed my skin raw, and one extra bite of stale bread meant the nuns would beat my palms with a wooden plank.

Then the Salvatore family came for me.

The man who smelled of cologne asked if I'd like to come with him. I asked if I could have hot soup.

He laughed and said of course.

I nodded without a second thought.

Being their adopted daughter was no easy life either.

I slept in the unheated servants' quarters in winter. No one in the house ever met my eyes.

But everyone said I was lucky.

"An orphan turned future Donna — what good fortune."

Bianca liked to hide my clothes. Each time I was punished for being late while searching for them, she stood off to the side, giggling.

"Don't think you can really replace me. You're just marrying a madman in my place."

She'd been betrothed since childhood to Dario Vellari, the Vellari heir with the severe PTSD — but Dario broke things when his episodes hit, and sometimes broke people. The Salvatores couldn't bear to send their own daughter into that, so they took me in.

The summer I turned fifteen, I met someone in the garden.

He was sitting alone on a stone bench, an old pistol disassembled across his knees. His hand had caught on something — there was a cut across his palm, blood welling up bead by bead.

He didn't seem to feel it. He just kept tinkering with the metal pieces, head down.

I pulled an old handkerchief from my pocket — washed soft and pale — knelt down, and pressed it against the cut.

"Doesn't it hurt? Bleeding that much?"

He looked up.

His eyes were like a deep autumn lake — no light, no bottom. Just for a second. Then he lowered his head again and held out the barrel of the pistol. His voice was cold. "Hold this."

I held the barrel quietly. He looked at me for a long time at the end. Then he stood up and walked away without thanking me.

Something stirred in my chest.

He was beautiful.

But why did he look so unhappy?

Later I learned that was Dario.

That was the first time we met. And the only time, in the five years that followed.

After that day, the household began to treat me differently. I thought Dario was probably the one piece of luck in my unlucky life.

The next time we met was at our wedding.

It was a grand wedding. From start to finish, Dario didn't look at me once.

When we exchanged rings, his hand shook badly. His face showed nothing but impatience and disgust.

A small ache settled in my chest. He didn't want to marry me.

Later, his mother came to find me in private.

"He — well, something terrible happened to him as a boy. He doesn't trust anyone."

"Be patient with him. Give him time."

So even the high-born young Don of the Vellari Famiglia was a man to be pitied?

I thought of him at fifteen — that fragile, distant figure.

That night I warmed a glass of milk for him. The moment I pushed open the door, a roar hit me.

"Who said — you could come into this room?" Dario's gaze cut to the cup in my hand. Before I could speak, he slapped it from my grip.

Milk splashed across the floor. A shard of porcelain flew toward my ankle and opened a small cut.

"Get out. Cheap. Damaged goods. Couldn't sell you, at a discount. They told me. Trash. I don't want it."

"Everything I use — is the best. Except you. A — stain."

His words came out broken, but his voice was ice.

I forced down the humiliation, crouched, and started picking up the shards one by one.

"The milk spilled," I said softly. "I'll get you another glass."

He stood in the middle of the room, chest heaving. He didn't speak again.

I went to the kitchen, warmed another glass, set it down gently on the floor outside his bedroom door, knocked, and left.

I knew I couldn't compare to the true daughter of the Salvatore family — not in beauty, not in education.

The marriage had been forced on him by both Famiglie. It made sense that he didn't want me.

If he didn't want me near, then I wouldn't be near.

Those words — they were just because he was sick.

It was alright. I'd been preparing for this for a long, long time. I would take care of him.

The next morning, walking past his room, I saw the empty glass on the floor outside his door.

I couldn't help the small smile that pulled at my mouth.