Chapter 3

With thirty-eight hours left before our marriage was officially dissolved, I went back to the safe house to pack the last of my things.

The house wasn't tied to any family. Seven years ago, I had been held captive. The official report said I'd escaped without serious injuries and hadn't given up any family secrets, so everyone said I'd been lucky. For a long time after that, whenever a door locked behind me, I had to check every window to make sure I could still get out.

Nico never locked a bedroom door when I was inside. When we chose this safe house, he tore out the sealed rear window himself and replaced it with a hidden door leading from the kitchen to the garage. Back then, I truly believed there was at least one person in the world who understood what I'd been through and would make sure I never felt trapped again.

This house existed because I'd trusted Nico with the most broken part of me. It was a secret we shared. He knew the whole story, and we even made our own secret knocks: three short, one long.

I had already revoked access to the car and changed the house codes. Only Nico's code still worked. Not because I couldn't let go. After six years together, I wanted to give us one last chance to end things face to face.

That afternoon, the door lock clicked. Nico walked in with a family doctor and a box of painkillers. His eyes fell on the brace around my shoulder, and he stopped dead.

The doctor finished examining me and confirmed there was no nerve damage. When he removed the gauze from my palm to change the dressing, my wound was bleeding again after everything I'd put my hand through the night before.

Nico's fist clenched, his knuckles turning white. "Will this affect her right hand permanently?"

"Not if it heals properly. But she can't put any weight on that shoulder for three weeks. If they'd waited much longer to set it last night, she could've suffered permanent damage," the doctor answered.

After the doctor left, Nico lined up my pills in the order I needed to take them and wrote the times on each cap, just like he always had. The gesture was so familiar that for a second, I almost asked him why he'd really left me there.

But then I remembered the freezing night at the Blackwater Docks. What happened last night wasn't an accident. Nico hadn't forgotten. He knew exactly what he'd promised me. And he chose someone else anyway.

"I'll make the Morano family answer for what happened. And that maintenance passage will be sealed for good," he said.

"The Moranos weren't the ones who broke a promise."

"I know." He reached for my shoulder, but I turned away. His hand stopped in midair before falling back to his side. "I've already paid the medical bill. I'll have a new Black Rose pin made and host a proper banquet. You'll sit at my right hand, and everyone will know what happened last night meant nothing."

I just looked at him.

"Why did you change the pickup plan?"

Nico's brow furrowed. "I told you. The council meeting was moved up."

"You could have sent your deputies to get me. Why didn't you?"

"Things were chaotic at the time."

"Why did you give my pin to Bianca?"

"She has no official status. Without it, she couldn't attend the council."

"You knew everyone would mistake her for your wife. Why didn't you correct them?"

Nico finally lost his patience and started pacing.

"It already happened! I know I handled it badly. I said I'd make it up to you. How does one bad night justify throwing away six years together?"

"So I'm the one who destroyed our marriage?"

"I never said that."

"You don't have to."

Nico stopped pacing. Every time I brought the conversation back to what had happened to me, he fell silent. Everything else was about Bianca. Her embarrassment. Her business. Her fear. My shoulder would heal. My hand would heal. My reputation could be repaired. And apparently, my feelings were mine to deal with. No matter who caused the mess, I was always the one expected to pay for it.

A knock sounded at the door. Three short. One long.

My whole body went rigid. Only Nico and I knew that knock. No alarm went off. Nico had used his remaining access to create a valid temporary passcode. The door swung open. Bianca walked in.

She wore a loose coat and carried some receipts. A flicker of discomfort crossed her face when she saw me, but she quickly covered it with a smile. "I figured you'd be here."

I turned to Nico. "How does she have the passcode to this house?"

"Someone's been monitoring the Velvet Club lately. I told her she could come here if she was in danger."

"Without asking my permission?"

"Alessia, I'm trying to protect her. Since when would you risk someone's life over your feelings?"

Bianca acted as if the tension between us didn't exist. She set those papers on the table and reached for a wooden crate blocking the hallway.

"This box can't stay here. You hate having the back exit blocked. Whenever you're somewhere unfamiliar, you always check for two escape routes first. Otherwise, you can't sleep at night."

The room went silent. That wasn't some harmless habit. It came from my trauma. I'd told Nico about it years ago, on a night when I'd completely fallen apart. Not even my father knew.

"What else did you tell her?" My voice came out low.

Nico swallowed. "She had a panic attack once. I was trying to explain how I used to calm you down—"

"You taught her how to use my trauma against me."

I opened the security log. The name that had created the passcode was right there: Nico Valenti. Below it were two devices I didn't recognize. Both had already connected to the house's security system. One belonged to Bianca's driver. The other belonged to her bodyguard. Under safe-house protocol, once an outsider's device connected to the property, the location was considered compromised.

Seven years of secrecy disappeared the moment Bianca walked through that door.

"Get out," I said to Bianca.

She didn't apologize or shrink back the way she used to. Her fingers brushed the spot where she'd worn my pin the night before.

"Nico says I'm under his protection now."

"Being under his protection doesn't give you the right to walk into my safe house."

"The people after me won't care whose house this is." Bianca softened her voice. "Alessia, I'm not after your house. Nico was worried something would happen to me. He said you'd understand."

"Then you should know he needed to ask me first."

She looked away and said quietly, "I thought Nico could give me permission."

And there it was. The assumption they both shared. Nico thought being my husband gave him the right to give away things that belonged to me. Bianca thought that as long as Nico said yes, my answer didn't matter.

"This house isn't his."

I stopped arguing and opened the security system. I decommissioned the safe house, revoked Nico's permanent passcode, and canceled Bianca's temporary access. Then I moved down the list. Shared car access. Emergency medical rights. Travel access. One by one, I canceled them all.

With every confirmation I clicked, Nico's face grew paler.

"Do you have to take it this far?"

I packed his personal things, his gun, and the old pin his father had left behind into a sealed case and called the registrar over. When my fingers touched the metal pin, Nico instinctively reached for it.

"That's my father's keepsake."

"He left it with me until you could stand on your own."

"Then what exactly are you saying by giving it back now?"

"You've been standing on your own for years. I don't need to hold it for you anymore."

Nico stared at the silver pin, but there was no happiness on his face. Six years ago, he'd thought he would never have any real power at the docks. Now he had a seat at the top, with someone else sitting at his right hand. But somehow, he'd still expected me to stay behind him forever, backing him no matter what happened.

The registrar sealed the case, and the transfer slip read: Original property returned. No conditions attached. I didn't use the pin to force an apology out of him, and I didn't use everything he owed me to make him choose. I simply returned what belonged to him and took back what belonged to me.

I looked at Nico. "We didn't end up here because of me."

Bianca stood by the table, looking pale. When she caught the smell of the half-finished glass of red wine on the table, she covered her mouth and bent over, gagging.

"It's just my stomach," she said quickly.

I didn't think anything of it. The registrar carried the sealed case away, and Nico followed him out. This time, he didn't accuse me of throwing a tantrum. I shut the door. The countdown on the screen read: 37 hours, 52 minutes.