Chapter 3

The surgery was scheduled for that same night.

They took me to a private hospital owned by one of the DeLuca family’s front companies, the kind of place built for senators, judges, made men, and the women married to them. The hallways smelled like bleach and old money. Security stood by the elevators with earpieces and blank faces. Nobody asked who I was. I was on the list, and that was enough.

I lay on the gurney feeling less like a patient than inventory that had finally found a buyer.

In the two hours before surgery, my parents and Lucian never left Livia’s side.

She was propped up on the next bed over with gauze still at her temple, pale and delicate and handled like something breakable. My mother held her hand and spoke in the soft voice I used to spend years chasing.

“Don’t be scared, sweetheart. It’s just a transplant. I’ll be waiting outside the whole time. Once you’re recovered, we’ll finish the Mediterranean route we missed last spring.”

My father stroked her shoulder with open pride. “When you’re back on your feet, I’ll buy that villa on the coast you wanted.”

Lucian stood beside her bed with a tablet in hand, swiping through venue options as if he were planning a future instead of cutting mine open for parts.

“The church you liked in Ravello is still available,” he told her. “Once you’re stable, I’ll have the family office lock it down. We can do the engagement properly.”

His tone was gentle. Almost tender.

I watched the three of them and felt the empty place inside me widen.

I was going into surgery too.

Nobody asked if I was scared. Nobody asked if I was in pain. Nobody asked whether I might not come back out.

I had spent so long being overlooked that I thought I was used to it. I wasn’t.

“If I die on that table,” I asked quietly, “will any of you care?”

Silence dropped over the room.

My parents turned, almost surprised to find I was still there.

My mother frowned first, then looked annoyed. “Don’t say things like that. This is a kidney donation, not a firing squad.”

My father’s jaw tightened. “What kind of woman talks herself into a coffin before the anesthesia even hits? If this goes smoothly, we can talk about bringing you properly back into the family. But you need to stop the dramatics.”

Back into the family.

As if they had every right to throw me out and every right to let me back in whenever it suited them.

I looked at Lucian last.

For a few seconds, he said nothing. Then he crossed the room, took my hand, and squeezed it.

Those hands had once slid a ring onto my finger. They had wiped my face while I labored with Leo. They had held me in the dark and promised I was his wife, his home, his future.

Now they felt like ice.

“Don’t spiral,” he said. “Once Livia is stable and this mess is behind us, I’ll make it right. Your place at my table is still there. You’ll still be Mrs. DeLuca.”

I stared at him.

Even now, he thought I had stayed for the title.

I said nothing. When the nurse came to wheel me away, I let his hand slip from mine without a word.

As they pushed me toward the operating room, I looked back one last time.

My husband. My mother. My father.

The three people who should have protected me.

Instead, every worst moment of my life had started with one of them.

The medication went into my IV. The lights blurred overhead.

In that hazy moment, I thought I saw him standing beside the operating table, small and quiet, reaching for my hand.

His little hand felt warm and soft in mine. I held on tight.

“I’m taking you with me, baby. We’re leaving.”