Chapter 3

I pressed my back against the wall, fumbling for the zipper on my clutch. The drug was blurring my vision, tilting the floor beneath me. The darkness pulled me back three years. I could almost hear myself pounding on the wine cellar door again.

My phone. I pulled it from my bag, found Lucien's contact through the haze, and was about to hit call when the door opened. Matteo stepped inside.

"Give me the phone."

"Get out."

He walked toward me, his expression softer now, as if I were a difficult child he still expected to control.

"This has gone far enough. Grandfather gave you control of the European routes, but those routes were always meant to support the Romano-Bellini alliance. You don't get to disappear for three years and take them with you."

"So this was never about Giulia."

"It is about both." Matteo stopped in front of me. "You will marry me, your shares will enter the Bellini alliance, and Giulia will remain under my protection. All you have to do is stop fighting everyone."

"You don't want a wife. You want my ports and my obedience."

His jaw tightened. "I am offering you a place in one of the most powerful families in New York."

"I already have a family."

Matteo gave a dismissive laugh. "The European men who entertained you knew you were a Romano heiress. Don't confuse their interest in your shares with love."

He still thought I had spent three years waiting for him.

He had no idea that I had built a business, married a man who had never asked me to surrender, and given our daughter the home I had never had.

Lucien's investigators had already uncovered enough holes in Giulia's story to destroy everything my family believed about her father. The full report was in my bag, waiting for Grandfather.

Giulia was not an orphan the Romano family had rescued by chance.

Someone had placed her inside our home.

"Now you're writing fiction?"

"When the truth comes out, I want to see how long you can keep that stupid look on your face."

Matteo's eyes went cold. He crossed to me in two steps, tore the phone from my hand, and tossed it onto a side table. "We are done arguing. You are not going back to Europe tomorrow."

"You don't get to decide that."

"That annulment was never approved by both families." Matteo stepped closer. "As long as I don't agree, the engagement stands."

"Marriage requires my consent, not your permission."

"This isn't Paris." He sneered. "In New York, the word of two Dons outweighs a lawyer's letter."

"I still want to marry you. But you need to learn discipline. Apologize to Giulia tonight. The wedding can happen in a month. Once you're the Bellini matriarch, I won't bring up the past. But Giulia remains under my protection, and you will not interfere with her."

"So you want a wife who brings the Romano shipping shares, and you want to keep Giulia on the side?"

"Don't put it that way. This is the best offer you'll get." Matteo looked down at me, sure of himself. "Without the Bellini family, you're nothing but a woman cast out by her own people. You think those European men were interested in you? They wanted your name and your shares."

"At least they know I have a name and shares." I held his gaze. "You only see me as a dowry that will eventually be delivered to the Bellini house."

His face twisted. He grabbed my shoulders and shoved me against the wall. "Stop provoking me." The drug had drained most of my strength. Matteo pulled a blue velvet box from his jacket and opened it. Three years ago, that box had held an engagement ring. "Put it on. Then walk upstairs and apologize to Giulia."

"Never."

He forced my fingers open, trying to slide the ring onto my hand. He did not know that my left ring finger already held a wedding band. I had taken it off before entering the estate and tucked it into the locket at my throat.

He thought I had spent three years alone in Europe. He had no idea I had a husband, a daughter, and a home.

The door exploded inward. A second shot shattered the lock and the heavy door slammed against the wall.

Men in black suits flooded the room, weapons raised, silver crow pins gleaming on their lapels.