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Chapter 4

Autor: Eternity
The Ravencrest gala was built for people who smiled with knives behind their backs.

Every major family in New York was there: Moretti, DeLuca, Santoro, Hale. Women glittered in diamonds. Men traded threats over champagne. By midnight, three alliances had been hinted at, two insults had been swallowed, and at least one man had probably ordered another man's death in the bathroom.

I stood near the windows in a navy silk dress and watched Lucien move through the room with Isabella on his arm.

She wore silver. He kept a hand at her waist. Every few minutes, she leaned in to whisper something, and he bent his head as if the rest of the world could wait.

"Poor Grace Vance," a woman behind me murmured. "Not even married yet, and already replaced."

"Moretti men like useful wives and fragile mistresses," another said. "She should learn the difference."

I sipped my champagne and said nothing.

A man from one of the smaller families drifted toward me with a smile too sharp to be friendly. "Miss Vance. Brave of you to come alone."

"I'm not alone. I'm bored. There's a difference."

His smile thinned. "Must be hard, watching your fiance play house with another woman."

Before I could answer, Lucien appeared beside me.

"Careful," he said softly. "The last man who spoke about my fiancee like that lost more than his invitation."

The man went pale and backed away.

I looked at Lucien. There it was again, the part of him that wanted me under his name even when he was giving everything else to Isabella. In my last life, that possessiveness had confused me. I had mistaken it for love.

Now it only felt like ownership.

"You don't have to perform," I said. "No one is watching anymore."

"I am always watching you." Then Lucien lowered his voice. "There is one more thing. Isabella is staying in the bridal suite at Verona House. Her nightmares are worse in unfamiliar rooms. I need you to wait before moving in."

I looked across the room at Isabella, who was pretending not to stare.

"Fine."

Lucien blinked. "Fine?"

"She can keep the suite."

Relief crossed his face, but it did not last. My easy surrender unsettled him more than a fight would have.

"Grace, look at me."

Before I could, glass shattered above us.

The first shot hit the chandelier. Crystals rained down as screams tore through the ballroom. The second shot came from the balcony, aimed straight at Isabella.

Lucien moved on instinct.

He shoved her behind him and covered her with his body.

People ran. Tables overturned. Someone slammed into my shoulder, and I stumbled hard against the wall. I heard another shot, felt the punch of it before I understood the sound, then saw red spreading across my dress.

I had been hit.

Pain ripped through me so cleanly that my knees gave out. I pressed a hand to my side and looked through the chaos.

Lucien was on the floor with Isabella in his arms.

"I've got you," he kept saying. "Bella, look at me. You're safe."

He did not see me.

Not until a DeLuca guard shouted, "Miss Vance is down!"

Lucien's head snapped up.

For one second, our eyes met across the ruined ballroom.

Then the floor tilted, and everything went black.
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  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 10

    Lucien survived. By the time he woke, Isabella was finished.The broker talked. The bank records matched. Mira’s copies tied Isabella’s foundation to the convoy leak, the Ravencrest scare, and the hired gun at Raven Wharf. She had not been a helpless woman caught in the storm. She had been feeding it, one trembling lie at a time, because fear kept Lucien close and guilt kept him blind.The Moretti hearing took place three days later. I did not attend, but Dante sent me the recording. Lucien stood before his underbosses with his arm in a sling and his face stripped of every excuse.He did not shout. He did not call Isabella names. He laid out the evidence, account by account, route by route, dead man by dead man. Then he removed Moretti protection from her, froze every account she had touched, and handed her to the family court that dealt with traitors quietly and permanently.When she begged, he did not look away. That was the only mercy he gave her.A week later, he came to the East P

  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 9

    Lucien walked into Raven Wharf like a man used to owning every room. The Wharf didn’t bend for him. Men watched from balconies. Women paused mid-conversation. No one moved aside until Dante gave a lazy nod, and even then, the space they made was narrow.Lucien stopped in front of me. His gaze dropped to the bandage hidden badly beneath my dress, then rose to my face.“You should be in bed.”“I was. It bored me.”His jaw tightened. “Come home, Grace.”I set my auction card on the table. “Your bride is at Verona House. Her name is on the contract.”Pain crossed his face, quick but real. “I know what you did.”“No, Lucien. You know what I signed. You still don’t know what you did.”He looked past me at Dante, then back again. “I removed Isabella from the family table. Ravencrest was tied to her foundation. She lied to me, and I should have believed you long before now.”An apology from Lucien Moretti was rare enough to make the room pretend not to listen. I had wanted those words once. I

  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 8

    Raven Wharf smelled like salt, diesel, and expensive sin.I arrived before midnight with stitches pulling at my side and a fever I refused to acknowledge. The auction house sat behind an old fish market on the water, hidden behind rusted doors and men with better guns than manners. No one asked if I was well enough to stand. In rooms like that, weakness was not checked by doctors. It was priced.Dante DeLuca met me in the hall outside the vaults. He was tall, polished, and dangerous in the way men became when they never had to raise their voices.“You look like hell, Miss Vance.”“You should see the other bride.”He laughed once. “Moretti is tearing up the city for you.”“Good. It will keep him busy.”Dante offered protection, but not for free, which was why I trusted him more than any man who called himself my savior. He wanted the Vance ledger because it could crack open half the family alliances in New York. I wanted my docks back, my father’s evidence, and a path that did not end a

  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 7

    Dante DeLuca was not the kind of man who offered shelter out of kindness. If Grace had gone to him, she had brought him something sharp enough to make the risk worth it.Lucien ordered every file on the Vance family brought to him. Ledgers, old letters, shipping permits, archived warnings, anything Grace had ever sent across his desk. Most of it had never been opened.One envelope stopped him cold. Grace had written it eight months earlier in her neat hand, warning him that a Moretti convoy route had been leaked through a charity account tied to Isabella’s foundation. At the bottom, Lucien had scrawled, Stop chasing shadows.The convoy had been hit two weeks later.He opened another. Grace had warned him about a judge who was taking money from both sides. Another had flagged a warehouse manager with DeLuca ties. One letter, folded so many times the crease had nearly split, asked him not to let Isabella handle Donna approvals because “she mistakes attention for authority, and men with g

  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 6

    Lucien looked at the empty hallway, and for the first time since I had known him, he sounded afraid. "Then turn the city upside down. Find my wife."His lawyer arrived at the study in a wrinkled suit and read the contract twice before his face lost color. “Mr. Moretti, the amendment was filed under your seal. Miss Vance signed as witness, not bride. The bride listed here is Isabella Vale.”“Then void it.”“I can try, but your side was already executed. The amendment was made before final filing, and your chapel lawyer accepted it. On paper, Miss Vance did nothing illegal.”Lucien looked at the clean black letters at the bottom of the page. Isabella Vale. For years, Grace had begged for scraps of his attention with lowered eyes and soft excuses. This was not begging. This was a blade laid flat on his desk.“What else did she take?”The lawyer swallowed. “Nothing that belonged to you. That is the problem. The Vance release you signed yesterday went live at dawn. Their docks, accounts, de

  • I Gave His Name to the Woman He Chose   Chapter 5

    I woke three days later in my own bed, with stitches in my side and a fever burning under my skin.Mira, my maid, nearly dropped the glass in her hand. "Miss Grace. Thank God. I'll get Mr. Moretti.""Don't." My voice came out rough. "Where is he?"Mira's face gave me the answer before she spoke. "With Miss Isabella. She wasn't injured, but she has been... distressed. The doctor said she needs quiet and familiar company."I closed my eyes. Of course.The door opened that evening. Lucien stepped in, still in the same black shirt, his face drawn in a way I might have pitied once."Grace," he said. "I should have protected you."I looked at him from the bed. "How is Isabella?"He flinched. "She is shaken. She keeps waking up screaming. I came as soon as I could.""Then go back.""Don't do that.""Do what?""Act like you don't care."I almost smiled. He could ignore my pain, but not my indifference. That was the part he could not stand."I'm tired, Lucien."He took a step closer. "I will ma

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