Chapter 2

The garbage bags soon filled the entryway.

I opened a drawer in search of packing tape, and my fingers brushed an old first-aid kit. A thin layer of dust covered the plastic case. My hand stilled.

I had once been a woman with almost no sense of security. Nearly everyone inside the Vitale organization knew I constantly asked where Matteo was. If he came home an hour later than expected, I could not sleep. I would call from midnight until dawn.

A year earlier, Matteo’s convoy had been attacked near the docks. He disappeared for thirteen hours that night. No one would tell me what had happened.

He finally returned to our apartment at sunrise, dried blood on the cuff of his shirt and an untreated gash across his shoulder.

After that, whenever I could not reach him for too long, terror took over before reason had a chance.

Six months ago, Matteo decided to cure me of the habit once and for all.

That night, he went to the harbor to negotiate with another family and never answered his phone. Memories of the ambush overwhelmed me. I called every number he had, then contacted the convoy commander and head of security.

Matteo came home the following morning with fury darkening his face. He was not injured. Still, he offered no explanation.

Instead, while I stood in front of him, he called Nora.

“Pack a bag. You’re flying to Sicily with me tonight. We won’t return until the negotiations are finished.”

For a moment, I could only stare.

The trip to Sicily was supposed to be our engagement vacation.

I caught his sleeve as he walked past.

“Matteo, I was worried. You didn’t answer once last night. I had no way of knowing whether you’d been attacked again.”

He pulled his arm from my grasp and looked at me coldly.

“The future Mrs. Vitale cannot throw the entire family into disorder because she can’t reach her fiancé for a few hours. From now on, every extra call you make buys Nora another day in Sicily. When you learn to give me room, then we can discuss a wedding.”

He blocked me for twenty-four hours.

Three days later, he returned from Sicily with an expensive diamond bracelet for Nora. It was the same bracelet he had promised as my engagement gift.

He placed the jewelry box in Nora’s hands himself, but the entire time, he watched me from the corner of his eye.

I did not argue. I did not ask a single question.

That night, he came home to our apartment for the first time in days and even kissed my forehead before we slept.

After that, every punishment became more severe.

When I discovered Nora sitting in the passenger seat of his private armored car, in the place that had always been mine, I lost my temper and fought with him.

Matteo listened, then curled his mouth in a contemptuous smile.

That evening, he left me feverish and alone while he took Nora to inspect a new family safe house in the mountains.

Nora climbed into the rear seat carrying a leather folder. Matteo personally closed the door for her. He never touched her.

But before getting into the car, he deliberately looked back at me.

He knew exactly what frightened me most.

Late that night, he posted a photograph to his private account. A fire burned in the stone fireplace. Two cups of coffee and a stack of negotiation files sat on the table.

The caption contained one word.

PEACE.

His friends crowded the comments.

MATTEO ALWAYS KNOWS HOW TO HANDLE HER.

YOU HAVE TO TRAIN A WOMAN LIKE THAT OR SHE’LL NEVER LEARN BOUNDARIES.

BEAUTIFUL MOVE. LET’S SEE IF SHE DARES TRACK YOU AGAIN.

A violent storm raged outside that night.

My fever climbed to 102.2. Every bone in my body felt crushed. Matteo had taken the driver and security detail with him. Wrapped in a winter coat, I waited half an hour in the rain before I found a cab.

The emergency room lights were painfully white. The nurse missed the vein several times. Each time the needle entered my skin, my fingers trembled harder.

I opened Matteo’s messages and typed, I feel terrible.

Before I could send it, a new post from Nora appeared on my screen.

THANK YOU TO MY BOSS FOR GIVING ME A CRASH COURSE IN THE FAMILY BUSINESS. THE VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAINS IS BEAUTIFUL.

In one corner of the photograph, I could see Matteo’s familiar watch. He was reviewing files, not looking at Nora.

I wanted him beside me. But I was afraid that asking him to come back would only give him another reason to punish me.

I stared at the message I had written, then erased it letter by letter.

From that night on, I tried not to ask where Matteo was.

I still worried when he came home late. I still noticed who sat in his car and whose messages reached him after midnight. I simply kept the questions to myself.

Once, he returned to the apartment at two in the morning. I did not run to him as I once would have. I had left a light on and pretended to continue organizing my design drawings.

He stood in the doorway watching me for a while. Then he came up behind me in an excellent mood and wrapped his arms around me.

“That’s better.” He kissed my hair. “You’ve finally learned how the future mistress of the Vitale family should behave.”

The next day, he showed off his success to his friends.

“You can’t spoil women. Let her learn that a man has real business outside the home. Ignore her a few times, and she’ll stop causing trouble.”

Everyone laughed and praised his methods.

He believed I had finally become what he wanted.

He did not know that I still lay awake listening for his key. I still loved him. I was simply afraid to let him see how much I needed him.

Then I had flown home and found them celebrating. He had known I was frightened, told everyone to ignore me, and waited to see whether I would make a scene.

That was when I stopped wanting a future with him.

I closed the first-aid kit and dropped it into a garbage bag, then brushed the dust from my fingers.

The closet was empty. The bathroom counter was bare. In the home where I had lived for five years, almost nothing remained to prove I had ever existed there.

I glanced at my phone.

Two days until my flight.

“Thank you for the treatment, Matteo,” I whispered. “I really am cured.”