Chapter 4

The celebration in the hall fell silent for a moment.

Then Victor spoke, his voice deep and certain. "You won't be alone."

A few minutes later, someone knocked on my door.

Victor came in. He made it sound like a request, but his tone left no room for argument.

"Eve, Diana becoming the Alliance vice chair means a lot to the family.

"How about we move the wedding ceremony to midnight?"

I stared at him. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

By Mafia rules, only a mistress who had to stay hidden or a traitor held a ceremony at midnight.

The guard outside the door muttered under his breath.

"A midnight ceremony? Isn't that treating Ms. Eve like some back-alley whore..."

My father's roar cut the guard off.

"Shut up! Who are you to question the Don? For the family's glory, so what if she has to put up with a little humiliation?"

Victor's eyes softened, but he said it like he was doing me a favor.

"Eve, you've always been understanding. You understand why we have to do this, don't you?"

I looked at him quietly.

Suddenly, I thought back to three years ago.

I'd won the underground fighting tournament. Covered in injuries, I'd asked him to come see me.

But he'd said Diana's shooting assessment mattered more.

He had to be there to coach her.

When he saw me trembling with pain, he made an offhand promise.

"Don't worry. I'll come see you in the infirmary later."

But in the end, he stayed at the shooting range all night.

I ended up sitting alone in the ring until dawn, my whole body aching.

Even now, I was still the one he could cast aside whenever he wanted.

"Sure. I don't mind. Let's move it to midnight."

A wedding without a bride would be the same at any hour.

Now that he had the answer he wanted, the celebration in the hall roared back to life.

By midnight, Victor was so drunk his men had to help him onto the sofa.

After everyone left, I brought him a cup of tea to sober him up.

I looked into his hazy eyes, and the question slipped out before I could stop it.

"Victor, were you ever looking forward to marrying me?"

He leaned back on the sofa and didn't answer.

A cold wind slipped in through my collar and chilled me to the bone.

"Then why did you make me your fiancée in the first place?"

I knew it was a stupid question.

But I wanted to hear him destroy my last illusion himself.

He rubbed his brow and gave a slurred laugh.

"Aim for the best, settle for second best... If I can't have the sun, a shadow who can take bullets and looks a little like her is the best deal I can get.

"Besides, you're her sister.

"Keeping you beside me means I can look at her without anyone thinking twice."

The cold wind drained the last warmth from me.

I'd cried myself dry long ago, after countless gunshot wounds.

The truth was even more sickening than I'd imagined.

The seventh day came. My wedding day.

Before dawn, the whole manor was buzzing, but none of it had anything to do with me.

Every elite soldier was cleaning guns and checking the convoy, ready to escort Diana to the airport for her flight to North America.

I changed into a black tactical outfit and headed out through the side door.

"I won't be going to the inauguration. I need to sweep the church for bombs first."

Victor was loading his pistol. He didn't spare me so much as a glance.

"Fine. Go keep an eye on things first. Don't let our rivals find an opening."

With a small tactical backpack over my shoulder, I got into the black car bound for the port without looking back.

In the rearview mirror, I watched the heavily armed black convoy whisk their queen away in the opposite direction.

Four hours later.

Diana's inauguration opened in a blaze of spotlights in North America.

At the same time, the smuggling boat I was on docked quietly at the South Shore.

My terminal buzzed. It was an encrypted message from Victor.

"Eve, something's come up on Diana's end. We'll be back late. Read the blood oath yourself. I'll have someone stand in for me to finish the ceremony. Be good."

I stared at the words "Be good" on the screen and gave a bitter smile.

I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it, and hurled it into the sea along with the satellite phone.

Sofia handed me an umbrella as we stepped into the thick fog.

"Let's go. Your new identity's all set."

After the celebration in North America ended, Victor took his private jet back overnight and headed straight for the manor chapel.

He found it in chaos.

His second-in-command ran up, drenched in sweat.

"Don, it's past midnight, and the bride never showed up!"

Victor's eyebrow twitched.

The captain beside him looked panicked too.

"Don, we lost Ms. Eve's satellite phone signal four hours ago!"