Chapter 6

They kept me in a windowless room for three days.

By the third morning, there was almost no unbroken skin left across my back.

The leader swept everything off the table.

"Aren't you Vincent Moretti's daughter? Why hasn't your family sent a single dollar? Are you even a real Moretti?"

I tasted blood when I smiled.

"The Moretti family only has one real daughter."

It just wasn't me.

He grabbed a syringe and came toward me.

"This will make every nerve in your body hypersensitive. Call your family. If they send the money now, I'll let you go."

He pressed the needle against my neck.

"If they refuse, I'll send them all ten of your fingers."

"No—"

The needle pierced my skin.

Every wound across my body erupted at once. My back arched against the restraints, and a scream tore out of me.

"Call."

He shoved a phone into my hand.

For three days, the kidnappers had tried every member of my family.

My father had hung up.

Lorenzo had refused to pay.

Bianca had never answered.

Only Julian remained.

I called him.

He picked up almost immediately.

"Elena?"

Music thundered through the phone. I heard laughter, applause, and champagne glasses clinking in the background.

"Julian." I clung to his name like it could still save me. "Bring the money now. They injected me with something, and they're going to cut off my fingers."

He didn't answer.

My breathing turned ragged.

"What are you doing?"

"It's Bianca's birthday," he finally said. "She's already been through enough. I can't ruin tonight for her."

I stared at the phone.

"What do you mean?"

"Hold on until the party is over. I'll come for you afterward."

The kidnapper picked up the bolt cutters.

"Julian, they're doing it now."

"Elena, it's only one more night. Don't make this harder than it has to be."

The kidnapper gave a cold laugh. Even he no longer expected anyone to come for me.

My entire body shook.

"You promised you wouldn't let them hurt me."

Julian fell silent.

In the distance, Bianca called his name, and the guests began counting down to her birthday dance.

"Be good," he said quietly. "Hold on a little longer."

The call ended.

"Julian?"

I called again.

His phone had been turned off.

The kidnapper forced my hand flat against the table.

Then the steel door crashed inward.

Gunshots tore through the room. The men guarding the entrance dropped before they could raise their weapons.

A man in a long black coat walked through the smoke and came directly to me.

Dante Russo.

The Don of the Russo family and the Morettis' most dangerous enemy.

He cut through my restraints himself.

"My people spent three days searching for you. We found this place less than an hour ago. I told you we could move immediately, but you insisted on making one final call."

His gaze settled on my injuries, and his expression turned lethal.

"Now do you finally see them clearly?"

I nodded.

My father had hung up.

My brother had refused to pay.

Even Julian, who remembered watching me die and had sworn he would never let me be hurt again, had asked me to endure one more night for Bianca's birthday.

In our first life, he had taken away my survival suit.

In this life, he had chosen to let me die again.

I removed the obsidian necklace bearing the Moretti crest and dropped it into the blood at my feet.

"Burn this place," I said. "Leave the body we prepared."

Dante held my gaze.

"Are you certain?"

I looked at the Moretti crest one last time.

"The Moretti family already abandoned her."

My voice didn't shake.

"Now let her die."

That night, Elena Moretti died in the fire.

The woman who walked out was the one the Morettis' greatest enemy had personally come to take home.