Chapter 2

I was jolted awake by a nightmare in the middle of the night, slipped out of Vito's arms, and stepped onto the balcony to let the cool breeze clear my head.

I must have drifted off there, because the next thing I knew, Vito was lifting me in his arms and I startled awake. He gave a bitter smile.

"What are you doing out here on the balcony instead of in bed?"

The words had barely left his mouth when his expression shifted.

"Why are you burning up?"

I felt empty and didn't want to answer. Instead, I let his palm settle on my forehead, its coolness a sharp contrast to my feverish skin.

He frowned, wrapped me in a cashmere blanket, and began changing my clothes without a word.

I raised my weak hand to push him away.

"I can do it myself."

The fever made my tongue feel clumsy in my mouth.

Vito brushed my hand aside without effort.

"How many times have I helped you get changed? And now you're shy?"

He dressed me firmly, then carried me down to the car.

We drove straight to one of New York's top private hospitals.

But the moment the nurse slid the needle into my vein, urgent footsteps came rushing down the corridor outside.

"Sia's stomach is acting up again. She's just been brought into the ER next door."

Vito's composure cracked instantly. Without a glance at the IV still running in my arm, he strode toward the door.

"Where are the doctors? Get all of them in here."

"Vito."

The word left my mouth before I could stop it.

He paused. Something flickered in his eyes, and then he let out a slow breath.

"Bianca, stay here and finish your drip. They'll take good care of you."

"Nothing is going to happen between us. I promise."

Once, I would have wept and raged and demanded he send her away.

But now my face was still, my lips curved in a faint, hollow smile.

"All right."

Vito seemed not to have expected that. He pressed his lips together.

Then he stepped closer, his gaze soft and earnest.

"I'll be back soon."

He turned and walked out of the room.

I pushed the IV stand slowly to the doorway.

Through the glass, I watched Vito interrogate a group of doctors in a cold, cutting voice.

On the bed, Sia lay still, her eyes closed and her breathing deliberately slow. But the instant Vito turned his back, her eyes opened.

She tilted her head slightly and looked straight at me, standing outside the door.

The pale, fragile face of a moment ago now wore a quiet smile of someone who had already won.

She lay there on the pillow, watching me, her lips moving without a sound.

But I understood the shape of the words.

He is mine.

So the stomach pain was never real. Sia was testing him, playing a card to see just how much Vito cared.

I turned away without a word and pushed the IV stand back to my bed.

Fine. It didn't matter. I was leaving soon anyway.

The place beside Vito was hers to take.

At some point the medication pulled me under.

When I came to, it was the nurse's startled cry that woke me.

"Miss Rossi! You've moved — the blood is flowing back!"

I opened my eyes and stared at the dark thread of blood reversing up the IV line. My head throbbed.

The nurse re-inserted the needle and then gently said, with an apologetic look:

"Miss Rossi, Mr. Carlisi left with Miss Sia about an hour ago."

"He said Miss Sia hated staying in hospital. She needed to recover at the estate."

I pushed myself upright through the weakness and called Vito.

The phone rang for a long time before he picked up.

When he heard I was still at the hospital, he paused, then his voice turned warm.

"Sorry, babe, I'll come get you right now —"

Before he could finish, Sia's voice came through the line, thin and trembling.

"Vito... my stomach... it hurts so bad."

He went quiet. I heard him muffle the receiver, his voice dropping as he soothed her. Then, lower still, he spoke to me.

"Bianca, let the driver take you home."

"I'll be back later."

My voice, when it came, was calm in a way that surprised even me. Not a ripple.

"It's fine. I can get home on my own."

On the other end of the line, Vito seemed to catch something in that stillness.

"Bianca, are you angry?"

"No."

In this world, no one is so essential to another that life cannot go on without them.

Vito, you are no exception.