Chapter 4

Before Marta could finish, Sofia started crying, clutching her hand.

"Luca, if you can't bring yourself to punish her, I'll just go.

"I'll go back to Paris and fend for myself, and I'll never get in your way again!"

Luca's arms tightened around her, and he snapped, "Quiet. You're not going anywhere!"

Then, without bothering to hear me out, he looked straight at me.

"Next time, you're going back to Boston.

"Even if your father begs me in person, there won't be a place for you anywhere in Sicily."

The burns were still weeping. I pressed my collar down with my good hand so the soaked fabric wouldn't keep rubbing my skin.

"There won't be a next time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sofia let out a perfectly timed little whimper, and his attention went straight back to her.

Luca scooped her up and strode toward the door.

As he passed me, he glanced at my red, peeling arm, and annoyance crossed his face.

"You come too. Get that treated at the hospital."

In his private armored car, I sat alone in the back, pressing tissues to the wound as it oozed.

Luca sat up front, bent over Sofia, buckling her seat belt.

My phone lit up with a message from him.

"What I did back there was about keeping order in front of other people. I lost Sofia once. I'm never losing her again."

Another one came right after.

"If you feel wronged, I'll sign the estate on the south side of the city over to you next week."

Looking at those two messages, I just felt sick.

In Luca's mind, a house and some money could make up for all the hurt I'd suffered.

I looked up. He was holding Sofia's hand, asking her softly, "Does it still hurt?"

Sofia shook her head, then made a show of being generous. "Don't punish Aria. She's kind of pitiful, too."

Luca kissed the back of her hand.

"You're always too soft."

The whole performance turned my stomach.

Right in front of Luca, I opened my contacts and blocked every way he had of reaching me.

Just then, a new contact request popped up.

It was from Matteo, the young head of the Romano family.

The note read, "Aria, I'm coming to take you home."

Matteo had been there all through my childhood.

When my father punished me, Matteo would stand outside his study and plead for me.

When I got into trouble and got hurt, he'd always take the blame himself.

I took a deep breath and hit accept.

The car pulled up at the emergency entrance of Sacred Heart Hospital in Palermo.

Luca had just helped Sofia out of the car when a heavy SUV that had lost control came tearing backward down the ambulance lane.

The shriek of tires was right on top of us, and nobody had time to react.

Luca's body had already made its choice.

He crushed Sofia against his chest and pulled her out of the way.

As he spun around, his shoulder slammed into my burned arm.

The pain took my legs out from under me, and I stumbled and fell into the gravel flower bed outside the ER doors.

Broken branches and glass dug into my thigh, and blood soaked through my skirt.

The SUV crashed into the barrier and finally stopped.

When the dust cleared, Luca was carrying Sofia, who'd scraped her hand, and charging into the ER like a madman.

"Doctor!

"She's hurt. Help her, now!"

He never once looked back at me.

A passing nurse spotted the blood in the flower bed and hurried over to hold me by the shoulders.

"Your leg is badly hurt. Don't move."

She handed me some gauze and turned to call for a stretcher.

I pressed down on my bleeding thigh and pushed myself up from the edge of the flower bed.

There was a yellow taxi at the curb. I opened the door and got in.

"The private airstrip."

Inside, Sofia's scraped hand had already been treated.

Luca came out of the ER holding a tube of burn ointment, but I was nowhere to be found.

Every call he made was blocked, and his expression grew darker.

That was when my father called him.

The second the call connected, a furious roar filled the hallway.

"Luca, is this how you fucking look after my daughter?

"When I ran into her at the airport, she was covered in blood!"

Luca gripped the burn ointment, his breathing heavy.

"Brother, let me explain."

"Save your explanations for the wedding!"

My father roared again.

"Aria and Matteo are getting married in Rome tomorrow. You're her uncle. You'd better be there."