Chapter 3

Just when I thought I was going to die, a maid opened the door.

My throat burned. Each breath scraped through swollen flesh.

I shoved her aside and stumbled into the hall, desperate to find my allergy medication.

Claire's voice drifted from the sitting room.

"You need to leave more marks on me," she said. "It’ll make her hand over the files faster. Then send her straight to Sicily."

I stopped beside the open doorway.

Claire traced a finger over Rocco's chest. He pulled her against him and slid his hand beneath her skirt.

"What is it, baby?" Rocco asked. "Worried she'll discover her sweet little sister is an act? That makes this better."

Claire caught his wrist. "I'm worried you'll lose your leverage over her."

My hand closed around the door frame.

I had protected her for ten years. I had fed her, paid her tuition, given her every chance I could buy. She had used every piece of my life as a step toward mine.

When our parents were alive, Claire wore my new shoes into the mud. She ruined my lipstick by drawing across the walls, then looked up with wet eyes.

"I'm your sister," she always said. "You won't blame me, right?"

After our parents died, I raised her. She learned to ask for money with soft words and lowered lashes. I thought she had grown up.

She had only learned how to hide her teeth.

A cough tore out of me.

They spotted me at once. Rocco swung at Claire, but I saw that he deliberately missed.

Claire stumbled back, then pressed a hand to her cheek and hurried toward me.

"Sofia, Rocco is threatening me."

My throat gave me nothing. I tried to speak and coughed again.

"Sofia, are you having an allergy attack?"

She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. Her hands never reached for the pills on the table beside us.

Instead, she pulled down the collar of her dress and showed me red marks across her skin.

"Look at this," Claire said. "Rocco ordered his men to hurt me. Sofia, please. Just hand over the files. You can endure a little longer, can’t you?"

Those marks came from Rocco's mouth.

Claire had enjoyed herself in his bed while dust closed my throat and left me fighting for air.

The files had already gone out through an encrypted channel. Neither Rocco nor Claire could retrieve or erase the copies now in Vincenzo’s hands.

I looked at them both. My chest rose in short, painful pulls.

"I know everything," I managed. "You make me sick."

Claire's face drained,as if I'd slapped her. A moment later, her eyes glistened.

"Sofia, how can you say that? We're sisters. I only wanted to help you."

She glanced at Rocco, then back at me, pressing her lips together as if holding back tears.

"My sister,you've done more than enough for this family. Why keep making things so hard for yourself? "I graduated from a prestigious university, and I have a much cleaner reputation than you do. Let Rocco and me take over the family business. At least then, no one will have to bring up your past anymore."

My jaw tightened.

"When you hired an actress to make me lose my baby, did you remember who paid for your education?"

Claire's eyes filled. She looked toward Rocco as though I had struck her.

"I only told her to teach you a lesson," she whispered. "I didn't know you would lose the baby. I hit her with my car. I got revenge for you."

Her fingers rubbed together near her waist.

She always did that when she lied.

"Get out of my way."

I pushed past her toward the medication.

Claire dropped to the floor beside the table. She covered her stomach and folded over.

"Sofia," she sobbed, clutching her stomach. "I know you’re hurting because you lost your baby, but how could you take it out on mine?"

Rocco rushed to her. He checked her over, then raised his head.

His eyes fixed on me.

He crossed the room and hit me hard enough to throw me onto the floor. The pill bottle flew from my hand. Tablets scattered across the marble.

Pain burst across my cheek. Blood filled my mouth.

"If anything happens to my heir," Rocco said, "I'll tear you apart."

"I never pushed her." I pressed my palm against the floor and reached for a pill. "She killed our child."

Rocco seized my shirt and dragged me up.

"She is nothing like you. She has never killed anyone. That was an accident." His grip tightened beneath my throat. "Apologize to Claire. Give us the files."

I spat blood across his face.

"Never."

His expression twisted.

"You think I can't kill you, Sofia?"

Behind him, Claire smiled.

"Rocco," she said gently, "give me time and I can crack her computer. Please don't kill my sister."

She wanted him to hear it clearly.

She wanted Rocco to understand that I was no longer useful to him.

Rocco released my shirt with one hand and pulled out his gun. The safety clicked off.

The barrel pointed between my eyes.

"I'll give you three seconds."

My lungs tightened. I closed my eyes.

"One."

The dust still sat in my throat.

"Two."

I didn’t know whether the allergic reaction or the bullet would kill me first.

"Three."

A deafening blast tore through the room.

The explosion blew apart the stone wall beside us, showering the hall with dust and rubble. Rocco was thrown to the floor. Through the smoke, a squad of armed men advanced into the estate.

The man leading them was tall and handsome. His cold eyes swept the place, then locked on me.

"Sofia, I’m getting you out."