Chapter 1

After the wedding, a maid found my veil beneath one of the long tables.

The lace was stained with shoe prints, one edge torn. She carried it over to me and opened her mouth, but all she said was, “Mrs. Moretti, the car is ready.”

I took off my wedding ring and set it beside the untouched wedding cake.

“Please don’t call me that anymore.”

Half an hour earlier, Julian had left the estate with Sienna.

She hadn’t brought her own car, but she got into the Bentley reserved for the bride. Julian lifted the hem of her white dress for her, handling it as gently as though he were afraid of bruising a petal.

I stood on the steps and watched them leave.

The guests filed past me. No one dared stop to offer comfort.

An older man who had worked with my father for twenty years squeezed my hand, only for his son to pull him away.

His business still depended on the freight company the Morettis controlled.

Not until the last car had passed through the iron gates did William send someone to ask me to come to his study.

Julian’s father had stepped back from running the family two years ago.

Illness had left the man who once terrified New York’s underworld painfully thin. A cane rested beside his desk. His pill organizer was still out.

“I’ve had people take down the wedding footage.”

I lowered my eyes to the stains on my skirt.

“They won’t get all of it.”

William was quiet for a moment. Then he pushed a document across the desk.

Not a check. Not a promise meant to make me forgive his son.

It was the agreement my father had signed, placing the docks under Moretti management.

“After your father died, we promised to look after you and protect those assets.” His voice was rough. “What happened today was a disgrace to this family. We failed you.”

I turned to the last page.

My father’s signature was there.

Three years ago, he had died in an ambush on the highway. Whoever was responsible had never been identified. A power struggle followed within the Carter family. Several senior men took their crews and business with them.

William was the only one who offered to help.

That was how I came to live on the Moretti estate.

Over time, looking after me became an arranged marriage. Managing the docks became Julian calling them “our family’s docks.”

And I had actually believed that if I loved him enough, he would treat everything my father left behind with care.

“I want to end this marriage. And I want control of the docks back.”

William looked up.

“You only had the civil ceremony last week.”

“Then you understand I’m not just calling off a wedding.”

He watched me for a long time. Finally, he pressed a button on his phone and asked his personal attorney to come in.

He didn’t tell me to give it more time.

That small kindness nearly made me cry.

After signing the paperwork authorizing the attorney to act for me, I left through a side door.

Dozens of messages waited on my phone. Some people asked if I was all right. Others wanted to know whether the alliance between our families still stood. Someone had forwarded the wedding footage with a string of laughing emojis they hadn’t managed to delete in time.

I answered none of them.

Then Declan’s name appeared on the screen.

The car’s at the east gate. If you need it, it’ll stay.

We had known each other for years.

When my father was alive, he had warned me not to put myself in debt to the Valente family lightly.

But he had never told me how close to tears a waiting car could bring you when everyone else refused to meet your eyes.

I called.

Declan answered almost immediately. He didn’t ask about the wedding. He didn’t mention Julian.

“Claire.”

I tightened my grip on the phone.

“Does your offer still stand?”

His breathing paused.

“Which one?”

“You said if I ever decided I didn’t want to stay here, I could come to you.”

The line went quiet.

Then he asked, “Are you sure?”

I looked into the distance. Julian’s car was long gone.

“I’m sure.”

“All right,” he said. “This time, you decide when you leave.”