Chapter 4

Bianca’s smile stiffened for an instant, as though she wanted to ask what else I had planned, but I had already turned away.

By early afternoon the next day, Bianca was waiting in the drawing room in a pale suit and diamond earrings. Carlo paced beside her, rehearsing the story she would tell Dante.

My bedroom door had been locked from the outside, with two guards stationed in the hall. It was exactly the same as in my first life.

With less than ten minutes before Dante was due to arrive, I climbed from my balcony onto the adjoining terrace, crossed the rear courtyard, and entered the drawing room while Bianca was fixing her hair in the mirror.

“How did you get out?”

“It doesn’t matter. Dante is coming here to see me. You’re already too late.”

“You didn’t save him. What will you do when he asks what happened that night?”

“I have his crest and Father’s word. What do you have?”

She called the guards and ordered them to take me back to my room. Two men seized my arms. I managed to wrench one hand free, but Bianca stepped forward and slapped me across the face.

“You still think being the eldest Bellini daughter makes you important?” She watched blood gather at the corner of my mouth. “Father only needs you for that marriage deal. Your mother cannot even decide when she leaves her own room. What can either of you use to fight me?”

“Stop!”

My mother, Sofia, hurried down the hall, pushed Bianca aside, and placed herself between us.

“Carlo told you to guard Elena. Who gave you permission to hurt her?”

Teresa entered behind her and caught Sofia’s arm.

“Sofia, the girls were only arguing. Why involve yourself?”

“She hit my daughter, and you call that an argument?”

At a gesture from Bianca, several guards closed around my mother and pinned her arms behind her back. I tried to reach her, but another man held me in place.

Bianca walked up to my mother and slapped her before saying, “Once the Romano family recognizes me as Dante’s rescuer, whether either of you still has a place in this house will depend on me.”

“Bianca!” I fought against the guard holding me. “If I get in front of Dante, I’ll expose you.”

“With what?” Bianca asked. “There won’t be any evidence left of the medicine or the spare key.”

“Dante will ask how you pulled him from the river.”

“I’ll tell him the current carried him into the shallows. I only had to wade in a few steps, grab his coat, and drag him onto the bank.” Bianca calmly straightened her sleeve. “He was disoriented and never saw the face of the woman who saved him.”

Outside, tires rolled over gravel. Bianca didn’t seem to hear them.

“So rescuing him was easy?” I asked.

“Of course.” Bianca lifted her chin. “Once he thanks me publicly, the truth won’t matter anymore.”

She motioned for the guards to take my mother and me away.

“Even if Dante Romano himself came through that door today, no one could protect you.”

A low male voice answered from behind her.

“What about me?”

Dante stood in the doorway.