Chapter 2

"Stay away from Chloe, Seraphina." Matteo's eyes were sharp. "She's had a fever ever since. If you touch a single hair on her head again, I don't care what the old Don's last wish was. I'm done showing you mercy."

Lucian buttoned his suit jacket.

"The wedding is postponed. Ten days." He looked at my bandaged face without a flicker of emotion. "I'll have a heavier lace veil custom-made for you from Paris. The Commission elders will be at the ceremony. Cover your face. Don't disgrace the Bellini name."

No yelling. No anger.

They were perfect gentlemen. And they had just sentenced me to death.

They turned and left.

The sound of their shoes echoed down the hall.

"Move all the security from the third floor to Chloe's master suite," Matteo's low voice came through the door. "As for in here... two nurses are enough."

The room was silent again.

I closed my eyes. A dull ache spread through my chest.

If they had always been these cold-blooded monsters, maybe I would have given up long ago.

But that's the damn thing. I remember when they loved me.

When I was sixteen, a rival crew cornered me behind the school.

It was Lucian, always so calm, who drove his car like a madman, smashing through the iron gate to shield me under his coat.

It was Matteo, always so clean, who snapped a killer's neck with his bare hands.

But when he turned to me, he carefully took off his bloody gloves and used his clean shirt sleeve to wipe the blood from my face.

Back then, Lucian would hold my cold hand under the table during a New Year's Eve negotiation.

Matteo would sit outside my door all night on a rainy night when I couldn't sleep, not saying a word.

On my eighteenth birthday, they knelt on one knee on a terrace covered in roses and kissed the back of my hand.

They swore their eternal loyalty to me.

Until two years ago. The family took in Chloe, the orphan of a man who died saving my father.

The first time we met, Lucian just gave the girl in the old dress a cold glance. He whispered so only I could hear, "Her eyes... too wild. She's trouble. Sera, stay away from her."

Matteo didn't even look at her. He just told the butler, "Teach her the rules of the house. Don't let her get in Miss Bellini's way."

But then, everything changed.

Chloe knew exactly how to break down men like them.

She never asked for anything. She just sat in the hallway corner during thunderstorms, crying silently.

She threw herself in front of Lucian to block a piece of flying glass during an attack.

She was pale with pain, but she smiled at them.

"If you're safe, Seraphina won't cry."

The scales tipped. I didn't even see it happen.

"Chloe's a good girl. You're tired of that pink diamond necklace, why not let her have it?"

"It's your birthday, but Chloe just had surgery and she's scared to be alone. Sera, you've always been so independent. We'll stay with her tonight."

Then, a month ago, I found the records. Chloe was stealing from the family's charity fund.

I cut off her credit card and had her investigated.

That night, when Lucian and Matteo arrived, all they saw was Chloe on the floor, crying, her arm cut with a piece of broken porcelain. And me, standing by the sofa, watching her coldly.

No one listened to me.

"Fifty thousand dollars? That's what it takes for you to push a poor, helpless girl to this?"

Lucian took off his jacket, wrapped it around Chloe, and looked at me. For the first time, his eyes were filled with a bone-chilling cold. "Seraphina, your jealousy is disgusting."

"If it wasn't for the old Don's last wish," Matteo said as he lifted Chloe into his arms, "I would be tired of looking at you."

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, pulling me back to the present.

A text from the couture house in Milan.

"Miss Bellini, Mr. Lucian's assistant picked up your wedding gown this morning."

That dress. Covered in antique Sicilian diamonds. It took three years to make.

I designed it myself.

Before I could lock the screen, the door creaked open.

Chloe.

She stood there in a simple white dress, no makeup. Looking so fragile.

"Seraphina." She walked to the bed, her voice timid. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would turn out like this. I was so scared, I just kept holding onto Lucian's sleeve. I didn't mean for them to leave you."

I lay there, watching her, my eyes like ice.

"I also never thought..."

She bit her lip, a single tear rolling perfectly down her cheek. But her eyes held a flash of victory.

"I never dreamed... when it came down to it... they'd choose me. Without a second thought."

"Get out," my voice was a rasp.

Footsteps echoed faintly in the hall.

Chloe didn't move. She stepped closer, reaching for the water glass on the nightstand.

"Your throat sounds dry, let me get you some water..."

The moment her fingers touched the glass, her wrist twisted. The entire cup of hot water spilled onto the back of her own hand.

The glass shattered on the floor.

"Ah!" Chloe cried out, falling to the ground. Her hand was instantly red.

"I'm sorry, Seraphina! I know you hate me! You can hit me, you can yell at me, just please don't make me leave!"

She looked up, her face a mask of tears, aimed right at me.

A second later, the door flew open.