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Chapter 2

Anna Smith
After ending the call, I returned to the estate and found Dante coming downstairs with my shawl in his hands.

The moment he saw me, relief crossed his face.

“Why were you outside for so long?”

He wrapped the shawl around my shoulders and touched my cold cheek.

“It gets chilly at night. You need to be careful.”

Then he studied my face.

“Elena, have you been crying?”

He cupped my cheeks, his gaze lingering on my reddened eyes.

“Who upset you?”

The concern in his eyes didn’t look fake.

Somehow, that only made it hurt more.

“Dante, do you love me?”

He paused, then lowered himself onto one knee and pressed my hand against his chest.

“No one in this world knows the answer to that better than you.”

“What if you betrayed me one day?”

“That will never happen.”

“But what if it did?”

Dante held my gaze and answered slowly, each word deliberate.

“Then let me die by my own family’s gun.”

His heartbeat was steady beneath my palm. His eyes never wavered.

He had already betrayed me, yet he still dared to swear on the Romano name.

“Elena, what’s really going on?”

“Nothing. I watched a romance movie, and I guess it got to me.”

Dante let out a relieved breath and kissed my forehead.

“Those movies are made to manipulate your emotions.”

He smiled.

“Tomorrow, I’ll take you to choose an anniversary gift.”

The next morning, he brought me to an exclusive jewelry salon in Manhattan.

The Romano family owned the store, and every important piece of jewelry I had received over the past six years had come from there.

The manager personally escorted us into a private viewing room.

“Mr. and Mrs. Romano, the designer is ready for you.”

Dante placed a catalog in front of me.

“Choose a pair you like. We’ll wear them on our anniversary.”

I turned through the pages until I found a simple set of platinum bands.

His name could be engraved inside mine, and my name inside his.

“What about these?”

“Whatever you want.”

Dante sat beside me with one arm resting along the back of my chair, as affectionate as he had been every day of our marriage.

The manager smiled.

“Mr. Romano personally selects his wife’s anniversary gift every year. I doubt there’s a woman in New York who doesn’t envy you.”

I looked at Dante.

To everyone else, he was still the husband who treasured his wife more than his own life.

Would they still envy me if they knew he had fathered twins with another woman?

Someone suddenly knocked on the door.

A staff member moved to stop whoever was outside, but the door had already been pushed open.

A woman in a white dress stood in the doorway, a composed smile on her lips.

Bianca.

In the hallway behind her, a nanny stood with a pair of five-year-old twins.

The little girl couldn’t see Dante inside the room. She rose onto her toes and asked,

“Mommy, didn’t you say Daddy was here? Where is he?”

The color drained from Dante’s face.
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