Chapter 3

Two days later, an unexpected visitor came to headquarters.

Sofia Romano.

She and her brother, Matteo Romano, were among Lucas's earliest lieutenants.

Not long after the explosion six years earlier, they'd both left.

The second Sofia walked into the reception room, she rushed over and hugged me.

"You jerk."

She thumped me twice on the shoulder, then immediately drew back.

She carefully checked me for any lingering injuries.

"Matteo was dealing with trouble in Istanbul. When he heard you were awake, he overturned the negotiating table. Now he's rushing back as fast as he can."

I couldn't help smiling.

For the first time since I'd woken up, it felt like a real reunion.

Lucas, sitting across from us, smiled a little too.

The door opened again. Chloe stood in the doorway with a tray of coffee.

Fury flashed in Sofia's eyes, and she snatched the ashtray off the table.

"What's she doing here?"

Lucas stepped in front of Chloe right away.

"Sofia, calm down. She's just bringing everyone coffee. She doesn't mean any harm. She also wants to apologize for what happened back then."

Sofia gave a cold laugh and started to speak.

Then her gaze locked on Chloe's neck.

A brilliant sapphire pendant hung there.

The old Don, Aldo Morandi, had given it to me before he died.

"That token belongs only to the Morandi family's Donna. What is it doing around her neck?"

Chloe quickly covered the necklace with her hand.

Her voice shook.

"Lucas gave it to me. I didn't know it was..."

Lucas cut in to explain, sounding a little impatient.

"After what happened to Elena, I was worried her jewelry would get lost. So I asked Chloe to keep it safe for now."

Sofia hurled the ashtray to the floor, and shards flew everywhere.

"Keep it safe?"

Sofia jabbed a finger in Lucas's face and tore into him.

"You said she'd wear those chains until she made up for what she did. But she played the helpless victim, and everyone watched you go soft! Every time she cut her wrist, you made her chain longer! Then the chains came off. She moved into headquarters. She attended family banquets in your place! Now she's even wearing the Donna's token! And you call that an apology?!"

Sofia wasn't finished.

"Lucas, how long are you going to keep lying to yourself?"

Lucas's expression grew darker by the second.

Chloe shook her head, crying so hard she swayed.

She turned and ran out the door.

Lucas hesitated, but in the end, he stayed where he was and didn't go after her.

On her way out, Sofia gave my shoulder a resigned pat.

She didn't say anything else.

That left just Lucas and me in the reception room.

The tension was suffocating.

Then a phone rang, sudden and shrill.

Lucas answered it.

His expression tightened as he listened.

Chloe's sobs came through the phone in broken bursts.

"I'll give back the necklace. I don't want the seat either. Everything I had over the past six years was stolen from her. Lucas, I'm going to jump off the Santa Rosa bell tower this minute. That should make up for it, right..."

Lucas shot to his feet.

In his scramble, he knocked over the glass of water on the table.

"Chloe! Don't you dare! Stay where you are. I'm coming right now!"

The line went dead.

He rushed to the door in a panic.

When he saw me, he stopped short.

My chest ached. I pressed a hand to it and didn't try to stop him.

"Go see her."

Relief flashed across Lucas's face.

"Elena, wait for me. I'll be back."

I couldn't think of anything to say.

All I could do was look out the window.

After he left, I went to Aldo's old office.

The room had long since been abandoned.

From the back of a drawer, I took out an old, yellowed photo.

In it, Aldo stood outside an orphanage.

He held one of my hands and one of Lucas's.

He was the one who took us in.

He taught us to shoot. He taught us to tell friend from foe.

Ten years earlier, a rival family had planted a bomb in a church.

Aldo shoved Lucas and me into the basement, but he never escaped the church himself.

That day, Lucas's face was covered in blood.

He held me tight in that dark basement.

"From now on, all we have is each other."

I sat in front of the photograph, the frame cold beneath my fingers.

Quietly, I told Aldo everything I'd seen since I woke up.

I told him that the sapphire now hung around someone else's neck.

Wind from the hills blew in through gaps around the old window.

I touched Aldo's kind face in the photo.

"Godfather, I swore I would protect this family with Lucas. But now I'm afraid I have to break that promise."