Chapter 1

I should have known the moment Luca’s men stopped answering my calls.

The house was too quiet that night. No footsteps in the hallway. No low voices outside the study. Just the heavy silence that always came before something bad. I stood in the guest room they had moved me into after the third year, the one farthest from the master suite, and stared at the small bag I had packed under the bed.

I was leaving.

Not because I was brave. Because I was tired of being invisible. Tired of smiling when his mistress walked past me in the hallway. Tired of hearing the staff whisper that the Don’s wife was only useful for the paperwork.

My hands shook as I pulled the bag out. Three years of keeping my head down had taught me how to move without making noise. I told myself if I just reached the service entrance, if I just made it to the street, I could disappear.

I never made it past the second floor.

Luca was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

He looked the same as always. Perfect suit. Calm face. Eyes that never held anything for me. Two of his men stood behind him like shadows.

“Where are you going, Elena?”

My name in his mouth still made my stomach drop. I gripped the bag tighter.

“I’m done,” I said. My voice came out smaller than I wanted. “You don’t want me. You never did. Just let me go.”

He tilted his head like he was studying something mildly interesting.

“You signed a contract. You don’t get to leave.”

Something in me cracked. All the quiet years. All the nights I waited for a single kind word that never came. I took one step forward.

“Then shoot me,” I said. “Because I will not stay here another day as your decoration.”

For a second I thought he might actually look surprised. Instead he only nodded once.

The man on his right raised a gun.

I did not even have time to run.

The last thing I felt was the cold metal against my temple and the sharp, final click.

Then nothing.

Until the silk.

I suck in a breath so hard it hurts. My eyes fly open. Soft light. White lace scratching my skin. The same heavy scent of his cologne that used to make me feel sick.

I am lying on the massive bed in the master suite.

Our wedding night.

My heart is beating so fast I can barely think. My hands look young. Smooth. No scars. No blood. I press my fingers to my throat like I need to feel the pulse to believe I am still alive.

A cold voice cuts into my head without warning.

[Pleasure System activated.]

[Host has returned to the night of the contract marriage.]

[Primary directive: Make the husband lose control.]

[First mission: Seduce Luca Vescari before sunrise.]

[Failure will result in severe physical feedback.]

I stare at the empty air. My body is still shaking from the memory of the gun.

Footsteps stop outside the door.

Every old instinct screams at me to lower my eyes and become small again.

The door opens.

Luca walks in.

Same cold face. Same perfect control. He looks at me sitting on the bed in the wedding dress and something in his expression shifts, just a fraction, like he expected to find me already pretending to sleep.

He closes the door.

“You’re awake.”

I cannot speak. My throat is tight with the same fear that used to own me.

The system flashes brighter.

[Mission timer started.]

[Host’s elevated heart rate and emotional resistance detected.]

[Warning: Prolonged resistance will trigger punishment.]

Luca takes one step closer.

I flinch before I can stop myself.

This time, he notices.