Chapter 4

Dante and I set the wedding for next Saturday.

Dante's men roughed Nico up. By the time they brought him back to the estate, he had to be carried upstairs.

My father had a doctor tend to his wounds, then locked him in a holding cell.

Leah pleaded with my father on Nico's behalf, but he threw her out of his study. Afterward, she posted on social media.

"I guess even surviving life and death together doesn't guarantee a happy ending.

"As long as he's safe, I'll wait as long as it takes."

I hit like.

In the study, Dante and my father were working out how to divide up the territory.

Handing back territory and redistributing it was just a show of good faith. The real reason my father agreed was the Vitale family's offer to collaborate on new trafficking routes.

"The docks stay separate," my father said, tapping the map. "We can partner on the new warehouse business, but I'm sending my own people in."

Dante leaned back in his chair.

"Fine. But I'll be in charge of the records for all incoming and outgoing shipments."

My father narrowed his eyes. After a long moment, he nodded.

As we left the study, my father asked me to stay behind.

"Camila, are you sure about this?"

He frowned, his white hair bright under the lamp.

"Business is business. But when it comes to marriage, I want you to follow your heart."

I patted my father's hand and glanced back at Dante, who was waiting at the end of the hall.

He was speaking to his men with a stern expression, but the moment he sensed me watching, he smiled.

I smiled too.

"Dad, your daughter would never settle for less than she deserves."

My father sighed and held my hand for a long time.

"The Moretti family will always have your back."

Two days before the wedding, I had just finished trying on my veil. I was heading downstairs to find my father when Leah stopped me at the top of the stairs, a lunch basket in her hand.

"Ms. Moretti, I need to talk to you."

I looked down at her and waited.

Leah forced a smile.

"I heard you're getting married in two days..."

She looked down, her fingers tightening nervously around the lunch basket.

"I'm hoping you'll forgive Nico. After everything he's done for the family over the past three years, please don't hold this against him.

"Let him out, Ms. Moretti. Please..."

I was about to answer when she suddenly set down the basket and pulled a knife from her sleeve.

My guards stepped up at once.

But Leah didn't come at me. She pressed the blade to her own wrist.

"I'd rather you just took my life. At least then he wouldn't be torn, and you wouldn't hate him..."

Her voice trembled as a thin line of blood appeared beneath the blade.

I laughed in her face.

"Leah, what exactly are you trying to accomplish with this little stunt in my home?"

I slowly came down two steps and stopped right in front of her.

"Nico's locked up, so there's no point putting on this little act. Unless you're hoping someone will see you and think I drove you to kill yourself?"

Her lips trembled. "That's not it... I just don't want to come between you..."

I took the knife right out of her hand and tossed it on the floor.

"Leah, if you're really that kindhearted, you don't need to kill yourself. Just leave.

"You think a little blood will make Nico feel sorry for you while ruining my reputation? Nice try, but that won't work on me."

Her face went white, then red, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from upstairs.

Somehow, Nico had escaped from the holding cell. He looked disheveled, but the moment he spotted the blood on Leah's wrist, his expression changed. He rushed down the stairs, pulled her behind him, and glared at me.

"Camila! What did you do to her?"

Leah cried as she tried to explain. "It's not Ms. Moretti's fault. I did it to myself... I came to beg her for your sake..."

Nico pulled Leah closer behind him. "Camila, if you've got a problem, take it out on me! I'm the one who wronged you. Leah was only worried about me. Why are you treating her like this?"

I was no longer in the mood to joke around. My expression turned cold.

"I haven't even asked how you got out, and you have the nerve to question me?"

That hit a nerve, and his bluster deflated at once.

I kept going. "You're the one who broke our engagement. You're the one who brought her back to humiliate me. You know full well you wronged me, yet the moment she starts crying, you accuse me without even asking what happened?"

I didn't wait for an answer. I turned to the guards.

"Take him back to the holding cell. Find out who was on duty. And show Ms. Cruz out."

The guards stepped in at once and took them away separately.

I walked straight downstairs and ignored the shouting and crying behind me.

On the day of the wedding, the hall was full of the most important people from both families.

Dante stood at the end of the aisle in a black tux, a white rose matching my bouquet pinned to his lapel. The gold pin securing it bore the Moretti and Vitale family crests side by side.

His smiling eyes never left me, and when my father put my hand in his, he leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"Too late to change your mind now, Ms. Moretti."

I hooked my finger around his.

"I'm expecting great things from you."

He laced his fingers through mine, the smile deepening in his eyes.

But the officiant had barely started speaking when a gunshot rang out outside the hall!

The music stopped dead.

The guards rushed toward the entrance as the guests leaped to their feet, screaming.

The side door of the hall burst open.

Nico stood there with a ring of explosives strapped around his waist.

He stared at our joined hands, then raised a gun and pointed it at Dante.

"Camila, if you don't want this wedding to turn into a funeral..."

His voice was raw.

"Come with me!"