Chapter 4

At my words, Lucian frowned too, clearly displeased.

But before he could speak, Bianca had already burst out laughing.

"Ten thousand? Aria, who do you take me for!"

I smiled, satisfied, took the bottle, filled Bianca's glass first, then stepped in front of Lucian.

His glass sat on the table, his fingertips resting against it. He never looked up.

"Don Castellano. Miss Ferraro."

I lowered my eyes, my voice as calm as if I were reciting some meaningless line.

"To the two of you. May your true love win in the end."

"Never to part."

Lucian didn't drink. He poured the wine straight onto the floor. "A traitor's blessing. It makes me sick."

But Bianca laughed, clearly delighted by the words, and threw a card straight in my face.

"Take it. The PIN is my birthday."

She took another big gulp of wine and melted against Lucian's chest, her voice thick with barely hidden boasting.

"Lucian set them himself, you know. Every card, every PIN, they're all my birthday."

I paid her no mind. The money was mine now. If she wanted to keep flaunting their love, let her.

But suddenly she pointed a trembling finger at me, her voice dropping.

"Except... except..."

Lucian's brows snapped together. He took the glass from her hand at once and set it on the table, his voice low.

"Enough. Don't say another word."

With so many people present, she'd nearly let a family secret slip because she was drunk.

I watched him tense up and sneered to myself.

Because I knew the one exception.

And Lucian himself had once handed me the only keycard that opened it.

Bianca blinked, then nestled into his arms, wheedling.

"You're being so mean. I'm just happy. So many people wishing us well today, why can't I say it?"

Her eyes had gone red from the drink, and her voice carried a note of hurt.

"Lucian, do you know how much it took just to get to this day?"

"Do you know how much it cost me to stand at your side?"

Helplessness was written all over Lucian's face.

But just then Bianca lifted her head, glaring at me with sudden venom, her voice rising.

"You all want to know something?"

"When Lucian first brought her home, I honestly didn't think much of it."

"Men, after all, especially a man of his power and standing. Having a few women around, isn't that perfectly normal?"

"I thought she was a plaything at most."

As she spoke, her smile turned colder by degrees. "But who'd have guessed she'd stay three years! Three whole years!"

"Everyone knows Lucian hates anyone touching what's his."

"But she could!"

"They all say the Don will stop at nothing for the family's interests. Yet the intelligence I nearly died to bring back, he threw aside without a second look."

"All because... all because acting on it might have hurt that woman he was keeping!"

The more she said, the more worked up she got, until her whole face was red.

The laughter on the deck had died away completely, but Bianca seemed not to notice at all.

She just stared at me, the hatred in her eyes deepening, every trace of her composure long gone.

"That was when I knew this bitch couldn't stay. She had too much of a hold on the Don."

She reached up and touched the blue diamond necklace at her throat, her voice airy.

"Only someone ruthless enough can be the Don's wife."

"Not some useless woman who's nothing but a pretty face."

"So I just pulled a few little strings and pinned a traitor's name on her."

"You all know how much the Mafia despises that. And sure enough, under pressure from the capos, she had no choice but to go."

"But I'm a careful woman. To leave no loose ends, I simply sold her off."

"Back then she went for a bit more than she did today."

She paused, seeming to fall into the memory, and started counting on her fingers.

"Several dozen dollars."

The whole place had gone utterly quiet.

But Bianca seemed to have sunk completely into that memory, her voice growing more and more excited.

"You don't know how pitifully she cried. She kept saying she couldn't believe Lucian would do that to her. She even knelt in the pouring rain, begging the guards to get the Don to come out and see her."

"Hahahaha..."

"How could I ever let that happen? I just had the guards pass along a single message."

She paused, a vicious glee glittering in her eyes.

"Get lost."

Before Bianca could finish, a sharp crack of breaking glass cut her off.

The wine glass in Lucian's hand shattered, crushed by his bare grip.

Shards drove deep into his palm, blood mixing with wine and dripping between his fingers.

But he seemed to feel no pain.

He only stared at Bianca, his eyes reddening with something close to madness.

"What did you say?"

Bianca still hadn't grasped that something was wrong. Her voice was a drunken slur. "I said I was helping you, helping the Castellanos, clearing out... a threat..."

"Shut up!"

Lucian's hand shot out and closed around her throat, and the sudden lack of air jolted her half sober in an instant.

She stared at him in terror, her voice beginning to shake.

"L-Lucian, what's wrong with you?"

"I just had too much to drink, I was only joking..."

"Joking?"

Lucian rose slowly to his feet and closed in on her, step by step.

"You're telling me that five years ago she never stole from the Castellanos? Never betrayed me?"

His voice sank lower and lower, until at the end it seemed forced up from deep in his chest.

"It was you who branded her a traitor, and then sold her off without my consent!"

On those last words his voice shook badly, and his grip tightened viciously.

Bianca went deathly pale and slumped onto the couch.

"It's not like that, Lucian, I..."

But Lucian didn't look at her again. He whipped his head around toward me, standing not far off.

I was toying with the card Bianca had just tossed me, a bright, cheerful smile on my face.

As if this whole farce had nothing to do with me.

The people who'd been mocking me moments ago now didn't dare make a sound, hardly even breathing.

Lucian came toward me, step by step.

"Aria."

When he said my name, his voice trembled in a way that wasn't like him at all.

"Back then... what really happened?"

My hand stilled on the card. I looked down, let out a scoffing laugh, and didn't answer him.

Lucian stepped forward and gripped my wrist, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.

I laughed softly.

"Don Castellano."

"If you break my hand, remember to cover the medical bills."

Lucian's eyes went redder in an instant.

"Aria! Just talk to me!"

The smile on my face faded completely in that moment.

The wind on the deck was cold.

I lifted my head and looked at the man who'd once left me waiting in the rain all night.

"Talk to you?"

"Lucian, I wanted to talk to you back then too. But did you ever give me a single chance?"