Chapter 2

Seven years ago, the first time I saw Dante was in an underground auction hall beneath the port of Palermo.

Back then, the only thing I knew was my name: Elena. My earlier memories were nothing but the sea, gunshots, and a hand shoving me into a car.

After that, I was passed from one person to the next. No one asked where I'd come from. They only asked what I was worth.

So when Dante paid three million dollars for me, I thought I was just getting a new owner.

The handler shoved me toward him. "Mr. Moretti, your merchandise."

Dante's expression turned cold. "She has a name."

He unclasped the restraints from my wrists and draped his jacket over my shoulders. "What's your name?"

"Elena."

"If anyone ever calls you anything else, tell me."

Back at the estate, someone laughed and called me the slave Dante had bought. By the next day, that person had vanished from the Moretti household.

I had a fever for three days. Dante kept the doctor at the estate and stayed by my bedside himself.

I asked him, "Why are you so good to me?"

He said, "I paid that money to get you out of that place, not to keep you as a slave."

That one sentence made me fall in love with him, little by little.

He taught me to ride and shoot. I was afraid of thunder, so he left the light on all night. Every time he came home from a Mafia shootout, he came to find me first.

I truly believed that the three million dollars had bought my freedom, not me.

Until the second birthday game.

Sofia clasped the price tag around my neck and demanded I wear it for life.

I was humiliated, but Dante just smiled and said, "It's proof that I own you."

A few months later, at a banquet, someone stared at my tag and asked, "Moretti really paid three million?"

The person next to him laughed. "Of course. She was the priciest lot at the auction that day."

In that moment, I felt like I was back on the auction block.

Back at the estate, I took the silver chain off.

The next day, Sofia noticed.

"The rule says you wear it for life." She smiled. "Can someone in the Moretti household just ignore the rules?"

Everyone turned to Dante.

One word from him and the whole thing would've blown over.

But he was quiet for a moment.

"Rules are rules."

Sofia smiled immediately. "Don't worry. It's only ten lashes."

The soft whip never broke the skin or drew blood, but it drove the pain deeper and deeper into my flesh.

After the first stroke, I could still stand.

After the fifth, my hands were shaking badly.

I looked up at Dante. His expression was dark, but he never told them to stop.

After the tenth, my knees gave out, and he was the first to scoop me into his arms.

That night, the pain was so bad I couldn't turn over in bed.

Dante applied the ointment himself.

I cried and asked him, "You said I wasn't a slave. But when she made me wear the tag, you didn't stop her. When I took it off, you punished me. Dante, what am I to you?"

He was quiet for a long time, then leaned down and kissed my tears away.

"Not a slave. Not some woman on the side.

"Once I've taken care of the family's business, I'll marry you."

He pressed his forehead against mine.

"Elena, I will only ever have one wife."

In the end, he clasped the price tag back around my neck.

"When I marry you, I'll take it off myself."

That one sentence made me stay.

But now, the one wearing the Moretti wedding ring was the same Sofia who had laughed with Dante while deciding how to punish me.

I stood in front of the mirror, looking at the three-million-dollar tag on my chest, and realized that those ten lashes hadn't hurt as much as this moment did.

Every humiliation I had endured, I had endured only because I believed he would give me a future.

But there had never been a place for me in his future.