Chapter 1

I went back to the hotel to pack, and the butler knocked and came in.

"Miss Cassie, this suite is reserved as the Don's bridal suite. Your authorization expired at two o'clock this afternoon. Also, the custom gown you are wearing was purchased on Family business. The balance is thirty thousand dollars, and it has to be settled by you personally."

Elena came back and even the dress on my body stopped being mine. My phone buzzed. Lucian. His voice was as gentle as it had always been. "You heard all of it, didn't you."

"Yes."

"You should understand that none of this is me betraying you. It's me collecting ten years of justice for Elena, after everything she suffered."

Seven years of tenderness played back in front of me. When I was young and my father's enemies ran us down and I went down and hurt my leg, he carried me on his back while we ran. When the gang wars broke me, he sat up with me all night. When the Family's rules closed in on me, he smoothed things over for me, and he was gentle then too.

All that old gentleness turned into a blade pointed at me. "You've worn the gown, so it's secondhand now. It won't do for Elena. Keep it."

To him the wedding was a way to soothe my sister, and two soft sentences were the greatest mercy he could show me. I asked him, "And the thirty thousand?"

"Elena had nothing for all those years she was drifting. Everything has to be replaced now that she's home, and that costs a lot. Pay it yourself."

Elena's voice came through the phone, thick with tears. "Don't blame Cassie. She just can't take it in all at once." It sounded like she was defending me. What it actually said was that I harbored hostility toward her.

Lucian's tone softened. "This is what she owes you. Don't blame yourself."

When he was done comforting her, he spoke again. "You have to come to the private Family dinner tonight. You'll apologize to Elena in front of everyone. That's the only way this gets closed."

"And then?"

"And then we go on the way we always have." He said it like it was obvious. "The wedding is only a ceremony. The one whose name is on the license with me is you. I never once thought of giving you up."

In his plan, he got to marry Elena in front of the whole world, but I wasn't allowed to cry, let alone make a scene. The call ended. The butler stood off to one side, uncomfortable.

The treatments had already burned through every cent of my savings, and there was only one valuable thing left on me. I didn't want to make trouble for the butler, so I had no choice but to take out the specialized painkiller the hospital had just filled for me. A single ampoule was worth a fortune. Maybe he pitied me, because he left one behind.

The cold rain of late autumn hit my face, and I had nothing on but a thin dress. At the bottom of the steps, my brother's black armored sedan sat waiting. The window slid down. His voice was cold. "Get in."

"I need to go to the hospital for my medication." I held onto the freezing door. Even standing was hard.

"This is the Family's first gathering since Elena came home. Don't throw a tantrum, Cassie." When I still didn't move, Marcus eased up. "Cassie, I know you feel wronged. But you were in the wrong first, so don't hold it against Lucian for putting it harshly."

Looking at that face, I remembered when the whole family was on the run. He carried me on his back through all of it, and even when he fell and got hurt he wouldn't let me get so much as a scrape. Marcus used to say that if I got hurt, if I lost a single layer of skin, it meant he had failed as my brother.

The brother who had once spent everything he had to keep me safe now thought giving me a hand was too much trouble. "Marcus, I really don't feel well. I can't hold on." My voice shook, pleading.

"You've been like this since you were little. The second something doesn't go your way you play sick." He sighed lightly. "Be good. Once you've apologized, I'll drive you to the hospital myself. All right?"

In the end I got into the car. It didn't head for the old family estate. It headed for Lucian's private wedding house downtown. The detached villa was filled with flowers, and at the end of the red carpet hung an enormous photograph of Lucian and Elena.

The house blazed with light. My mother was gently kneading Elena's shoulders, and the ache in her eyes was impossible to hide. "Elena, all this jewelry must be exhausting you." My father stood nearby with his face in his hands, weeping as he told the arriving guests how much he had missed her.

Lucian saw me come in and gave me a flat look. "Finally. There's no child the right age in the Family, so go put on the flower girl's dress. You'll bring the bouquet later."

"Why am I the one bringing flowers?" I said.

Elena took his arm, her smile soft and pure. "It only counts as a real blessing if you're the one who hands me the flowers, Cassie. And it counts as you making up for it sincerely."

Violent dizziness swept over me. Only my grip on the shoe cabinet in the entryway kept me off the floor.