Chapter 2

In that moment, the ice water felt like bullets driving through my bones.

I stared at him, my eyes burning red. "You know I'm afraid of this!"

When I was eight years old, on a night of pouring rain, I was trapped inside a collapsed warehouse. Gunshots rang out beyond the walls, and icy water mixed with blood rose past my knees. My mother drew the killers away from me and died outside that warehouse.

After that night, I was afraid of enclosed spaces, afraid of the unrelenting sound of water, afraid of any night with no way out.

All these years, I had never told anyone.

Only Matt knew.

Because back then, when a rival family had put a bounty on his head, he had been locked in a basement for two full days to stay hidden. In the darkness, he held my hand and said: "Evelyn, from now on, whatever you fear, I'll stand in front of it. Anyone who makes you cry will bleed for it."

Now he stood below and let my fear become entertainment for a crowd.

Salina laughed and picked up where he left off.

"Matt already said it. I just like to play."

"Evelyn, don't be so petty."

She turned to face the guests below, her voice suddenly rising.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the bet starts now."

"If she cries and calls for Matt to save her within ten minutes, I lose."

"If she holds out without begging, I'll wire a hundred thousand dollars to every person here tonight!"

The crowd erupted.

"The Colombo family's principessa is something else!"

"Then we're all betting she won't hold out."

"She's a nobody. Did she really think putting on a gown made her a donna?"

"Is the Don actually going to marry her? I always figured he was just passing the time."

The feeling drained from my fingertips.

Water ran down my hair and into my eyes, forcing my eyes shut.

I pounded on the door.

"Matt De Luca, I'm saying this one last time. Have someone open this door!"

Matt finally lifted his eyes to look at me.

There was no guilt in his expression, only the irritation of a man who had been called out in public.

"Evelyn, do you have to make this so ugly?"

"Salina is a Colombo principessa. She was spoiled from birth. Why are you taking her so seriously?"

"Besides, aren't you the one who's always so good at handling a crisis? You can't manage something this small?"

I stood there motionless, and then, slowly, I smiled.

So in his eyes, my terror at being locked in an enclosed space was a trivial thing.

For three years, he had been my entire world. And now it was precisely that love that made him certain he could hurt me, again and again.

Salina saw me smile, and something shifted in her face for just a moment.

She hated this look on me. Hated that even at my most wretched, I still would not bow my head.

She raised her hand and pressed the remote.

The next second, the sprinklers at the top of the conservatory surged to full force.

A more violent torrent of ice water crashed down over me. My knees buckled and I nearly went down.

A wave of sound rose from the terrace below.

Not sympathy. Excitement.

"She's about to break!"

"The hundred thousand is as good as mine!"

"Matt's fiancée has some backbone, I'll give her that..."

Salina pressed herself against the glass, dropping her voice so only I could hear.

"Evelyn, stop pretending."

"I know exactly what you're most afraid of."

"I heard it from Matt himself."