Chapter 2

My soul drifted out of the estate and into the Caesar Hotel on the edge of the city.

In a private suite on the top floor, my father, my brother Matteo, Adrian, and Celeste were popping champagne.

Adrian was already the Marchetti family's chosen heir.

In three months, we were supposed to marry in front of both families.

Celeste swirled her drink and smiled innocently. "Dad, Matteo, Adrian, you really went all out for me. When my sister finds out, do you think she'll ever speak to me again?"

My father sighed. "Your father died in that ambush saving us. I promised him I'd never let anyone hurt you as long as you lived. Serena knows the whole story. She won't really blame you."

Matteo chimed in. "If Uncle Sal hadn't pulled me out of that car back then, I'd be dead. You wanted a fun Thanksgiving, so we'll go along with it this once."

During that same ambush 12 years earlier, the Ferraro family kidnapped me, and I spent years cut off from my family. Celeste's father was shot several times while covering my father, Matteo, and Adrian as they escaped.

Before he died, he left his seven-year-old daughter in my family's care.

They'd lost me, and they owed her father three lives.

After they brought me home, every time they did one thing for me, they rushed to do ten for Celeste, terrified of breaking their promise to a dead man.

When I first came home, my father gave me a building. Then he turned around and bought Celeste half a block of storefronts. If Matteo took me to the shooting range once, he had to take her to dinner first.

After Adrian publicly chose me as his fiancée, she slit her wrists.

The cuts weren't deep, but they were enough to keep the three men who owed their lives to her father at her hospital bedside all night.

It wasn't that they didn't love me.

Whenever Celeste felt insecure, they acted as though her dead father had come back to collect what they owed him.

Celeste turned to Adrian. "They owe my dad. You don't. So why are you helping me too?"

Adrian glanced at her. "I was in that car too."

Then he looked down at his phone. On the screen was the last message I'd sent him that afternoon.

"I picked out the carrots you won't eat. Come home early. Don't make me handle Thanksgiving dinner with the family alone."

His thumb rested on those words for a long time.

"After this, there won't be a next time." Adrian looked up. "Serena spent years away from her family before she came home. What she hates most is someone scaring her with the thought of losing her family. Tomorrow, you're going to apologize to her in person.

"And stop saying she's tough and can handle anything. Surviving the Ferraro family doesn't mean she deserves to suffer more than anyone else."

Celeste's fingers tightened, and the rim of her glass gave a small clink.

She pouted. "Fine. You only have eyes for my sister anyway."

Suddenly she took a ruby rose brooch out of her clutch and pinned it to the collar of her dress.

I looked down at my own blood-soaked chest.

They were identical.

Adrian had won that brooch at auction in England and pinned it on me himself when he proposed. He'd said he would only ever give it to his wife.

Celeste smiled. "My sister still thinks she has the real one. How long before she figures out you lent it to me?"

Adrian reached over, took the brooch off her collar, and put it back in its box. His expression darkened.

"I only said you could wear it for one night. Don't use it to get to Serena.

"Hers is a copy I had made. I'll switch them back before the wedding. If she knew I'd let someone else wear the real brooch, it would hurt her."

I watched him lock the box, and it did nothing to warm me.

He knew it would hurt me.

He was just sure he'd have time to make it up to me later.

At our engagement party three months earlier, someone had used my kidnapping to humiliate me.

Adrian crippled the man's hand right then and there and announced to everyone, "Anyone who won't accept Serena Valenti doesn't set foot in the Marchetti house."

That night he'd promised I would never face danger alone again.

And now he'd left me all alone.

Celeste's eyes lit up with an idea. "Then at Christmas, you could pretend to call off the engagement with my sister. Once she cries, you propose all over again."

Adrian's face hardened at once. "No. You don't joke about an engagement."

Celeste tugged at his sleeve. "Just for one day. It's not like I'd actually let my sister leave."

My father and Matteo joined in, saying that once I knew the truth, I'd sulk for a few days at most.

Adrian stared at my message on his phone and said nothing for a long time. In the end, he gave in.

"One day only. Keep a close eye on her. Don't let her really break off the engagement, and don't let her leave L.A."

They all burst out laughing.

I stood next to Adrian and reached for his face.

My fingers passed right through.

"Adrian, there won't be a next time."