Chapter 51

AUSTIN’S POVI noticed everything.Every touch. Every glance. Every carefully staged moment of intimacy between Santos De Luca and the woman who used to look at me like I was the only person in the world.At dinner, I watched Santos feed her. I watched his hand rest on the small of her back like he owned her. I watched the way she leaned into him—naturally, effortlessly, as if his body were the most familiar place in the room.It made my skin crawl.It made my wolf snarl.And I hated it. I hated every single second of it.She was supposed to be mine. She had always been mine. Leah and I had been best friends for fifteen years. Fifteen years. I knew her better than anyone alive. I knew the way she laughed when she was nervous. I knew the way she bit her lower lip when she was trying not to cry. I knew the way she used to look at me across a crowded room, her eyes full of a longing she thought she was hiding but never actually was.She had done everything to catch my attention. Everythi

Chapter 52

SANTOS POV By the time the chaos at the hospital finally settled, Leah was already asleep.She had lasted longer than I expected—sitting beside my grandfather’s bed, listening to his rambling stories about chess and rivalries and the time my grandmother had thrown a wine glass at his head during an argument in 1978. She had laughed at all the right moments, asked all the right questions, and charmed the old man so thoroughly that he had declared her his favorite person in the entire family.But exhaustion had caught up with her eventually. Her eyes had started to droop. Her responses had grown slower. Her head had begun to tilt toward my shoulder in small, involuntary movements that she kept fighting against with stubborn determination.I hadn’t fought it for her. I had simply let her lean.And when her eyes finally closed and her breathing deepened into the slow, steady rhythm of genuine sleep, I had gathered her into my arms without hesitation.She was lighter than I expected. Warm

Chapter 53

SANTOS’S POVBianca’s eyes widened when she saw me, her body tensing on the floor. Then, slowly, deliberately, she sat up.The nightgown she was wearing was white and sheer, barely covering anything. When she moved, she made a show of covering her chest with her hands, but the gesture only pushed her breasts together, making them more prominent. More revealing.I felt nothing but disgust.“My lord,” she breathed, her voice trembling with feigned surprise. “What are you doing here?”I leaned against the doorframe, my arms crossed, my expression cold.“I heard a rat,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “I decided to check it out.”Bianca’s face flushed. Her eyes narrowed, but she quickly masked her anger with another trembling smile.“A rat? I didn’t hear anything.”“Didn’t you?” I tilted my head. “Strange. The noise seemed to be coming from this room.”She shifted on the floor, her nightgown riding up her thighs. She made no move to cover herself.“I couldn’t sleep,” she said soft

Chapter 54

LEAH POV The room went silent.Every eye turned to Bianca, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a smile that was meant to look innocent but only looked venomous. She limped slightly, her bandaged ankle visible beneath the hem of her gown, and she held something small and shiny in her hand.A ring.“What's that?” Santos said flatly.Bianca’s smile widened. “You're ring. You left it in my room last night. After we...”She let the sentence trail off, her eyes flicking meaningfully toward me.I felt my blood turn to ice.My mother gasped from the kitchen doorway. My father’s hand froze over the chessboard. Matteo’s smirk vanished. Even my grandmother, who rarely showed emotion, looked stunned.And Santos...And Santos? Santos didn’t move.He sat there, perfectly still, his expression unreadable. His eyes were fixed on Bianca with a coldness that made the temperature in the room drop.“After we what?” he asked, his voice dangerously soft.Bianca’s smile faltered for just a mo

Chapter 55

LEAH In front of my parents, my brother and my grandmother, Santos pulled out his sleek black phone.Bianca’s face went pale.“What—what are you doing?”Santos didn’t answer. He tapped the screen a few times, then set the phone on the table.And then it played.…“Don’t go,” Bianca’s voice purred through the speaker. “Leah isn’t anything. She doesn’t know how to please a man. Not like I do.”Gasps echoed through the room.My mother’s hand flew to her mouth. My father’s face went red with rage. Matteo’s hands curled into fists.Bianca’s face drained of all color.“Get your hands off me,” Santos’s voice said, cold and sharp.“It can be our secret,” Bianca continued, her voice breathy and desperate. “Leah never has to know.”There was a scuffle. A gasp. A cry.Then Santos’s voice again, colder than I had ever heard it.“You’re not worth Leah’s hair. If you ever come near me again, if you ever try to touch me again, I will destroy you. Not just you—everything you care about. Your reputat

Chapter 56

LEAH POV The morning had been chaos, but somehow, Santos had managed to steal me away.He had told me to pack a small bag, something comfortable, and to be ready by noon. He hadn’t said anything else. He had just kissed my forehead and told me to trust him.So I did.The drive had taken hours.We left the city behind, the buildings and traffic giving way to winding roads and open fields. The further we went, the quieter it became. No cars. No people. Just trees and sky and the soft hum of the engine.Santos drove in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on my thigh. Every now and then, he would glance at me and smile—a small, private smile that made my heart flutter.“Where are we going?” I finally asked breaking the silence. “You’ll see.”“That’s not an answer.”“It’s the only answer you’re getting.”I sighed, but I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips. There was something about Santos when he was like this-playful, mysterious, almost boyish-that made my heart