Chapter 1

Unlike my previous life, I didn’t dive in immediately.

A speedboat idled farther out. Under the dock lights, I could make out a man at the wheel, watching Dante struggle without moving to help.

I fixed my eyes on the emblem painted across the stern—a silver anchor marked with a red C.

Then the engine roared. As the boat turned downstream, Dante disappeared beneath the surface.

I plunged into the river.

By the time I caught his collar, his body had gone limp. The current spun us sideways and drove water into my nose and mouth. I kicked toward shore, but Dante’s weight kept dragging me under.

I fought until my knees struck the riverbed, then dragged him onto the bank.

The Romano family’s gratitude could free me from the marriage Father had arranged.

He rolled onto his side and coughed up several mouthfuls of river water before his unfocused gaze finally settled on me.

“Thank you…”

I collapsed beside him, coughing hard, my chest burning from the cold. Dante tried to push himself up and reach for my sleeve, but fell back before his fingers touched me.

“You can barely swim yourself,” he managed between ragged breaths. “Why would you risk your life for me?”

My teeth chattered as I answered. “I couldn’t walk away and watch someone drown.”

Dante stared at me, visibly shaken. He braced himself on one arm, trying to make out my face.

“What’s your name?”

I drew a breath. “I’m a Bellini…”

His head tipped to one side before I could finish, and he lost consciousness.

I watched him for a moment. Moonlight washed over his pale face, and even soaked and unconscious, he carried the presence of a man accustomed to power.

I needed proof that would lead him back to me.

A black silk cord lay against his throat, holding an obsidian crest set in silver. The Romano family emblem was engraved at its center. I untied the cord and slipped the crest inside my coat.

Rows of headlights soon appeared. Several black SUVs raced along the bank, and before they stopped, more than a dozen Romano guards poured out, their flashlights sweeping across the river.

“Don Romano!”

“He’s here! Call the doctor!”

With Dante unconscious and his crest hidden inside my coat, the armed men were more likely to see a drenched stranger beside their Don as a suspect than a rescuer. I couldn’t risk being searched before Dante could speak for me. Clutching the crest, I slipped into the reeds.

Guards ran past so close that their boots nearly crushed my fingers while harsh beams swept over my head.

“The Don is breathing. Get him back to the estate!”

When the convoy disappeared, I crawled out covered in mud and river water, shivering so violently I could hardly stand. The obsidian crest remained locked in my fist, its edge biting into my palm.

Last time, I had returned with nothing. This time, I had Dante’s crest.

It was almost midnight when I reached the Bellini estate and scaled the wall beside the rear gate. I was about to slip toward my room when the porch light snapped on.

My father, Carlo, stood beneath it in his robe, his expression grim.

“Elena, stop.”

I halted and hid the hand holding the crest inside my sleeve.

“Where have you been this late, and why are you soaked?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the creek behind the estate.” I lowered my gaze. “I slipped on a rock and fell in.”

“You went to the creek in the middle of winter?”

“I’ve gone there since I was a child. You know that.”

Carlo studied my drenched clothes before speaking. “Go to your room. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”

I hurried across the courtyard and nearly stumbled on the steps. I had just opened my bedroom door when Bianca spoke behind me.

“You’re lying, Elena.”

She leaned against the doorframe, phone in hand, its glow illuminating her face. “You leave home in the middle of the night, return soaking wet, and expect Father to believe you were at the creek?”

Bianca stepped closer and looked down at my shoes.

“The mud on your shoes is blue-gray silt from the Hudson’s west bank. The ground beside our creek is yellow-brown.”

My fingers tightened around the crest inside my sleeve.

“You went to the river tonight, didn’t you?” she asked quietly. “I heard the commotion. The Romano convoy and their guards sealed off nearly the entire bank.”

Holding my gaze, Bianca lowered her voice. “Did you pull someone important out of that river?”

She sounded relieved, not surprised.