All Chapters of The Girl He Saved, the Woman He Lost: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I was Elena DeLuca, the orphan Lucian Vestri pulled out of a massacre.The night two mafia families turned the docks into a graveyard, my parents died taking bullets meant for him. He carried me out in his arms, brought me back to the Vestri estate, and kept me by his side ever since.For five years, he gave me everything. Protection. Privilege. A place no one else could touch. He made me the most untouchable woman in the city.So I was foolish enough to believe I meant something different to him.Then I told him I loved him.He gave me silence.And for the next three years, he gave me nothing else.Until the day he went to another family to formalize his engagement.His bride was Sofia Bellini.The woman who once watched me humiliate myself for him.That same day, another family placed a marriage alliance in front of me.This time, I did not cry.I did not beg.I lowered my eyes and said, calmly,"If my marriage can repay the Vestris and serve the family's interests, then I'm willing."

Her words pulled me straight back to three years ago. Back to the night I shattered that bracelet in front of half the city. Lucian's gaze flicked to me, then back to Sofia."I won that for you," he said.Sofia smiled as though she'd heard him."She's not a stranger," she said lightly. "And if I'm going to marry into this family, I should learn to share."Then she stepped toward me and pressed the bracelet into my hand."Keep it," she said. "Lucian already had one made for me. I don't need a raffle prize too."She slipped back to his side before I could answer.I stood there with the bracelet in my palm, the diamonds cold against my skin.Then the crowd shifted.Someone hit my shoulder hard from behind. I stumbled off the curb just as a black sedan pulled forward from the line of waiting cars. The side of the car grazed my leg hard enough to send me to the ground.People shouted.For a second, all I could hear was the rush of blood in my ears.Lucian turned at the sound of the commot

My wedding passed quietly.That was what I wanted.No guests worth naming. No music. No celebration.Just a signature, a ring, and an agreement neither of us pretended was anything more.We lived in the same house, but not as husband and wife. That had been the agreement from the beginning. Separate rooms. Separate lives.His name was Adrian.Once his family's situation was handled, we would leave the city.By then, no one would know where I had gone.The city, meanwhile, had found better gossip.Lucian Vestri and Sofia Bellini were getting married in ten days.People said he had rushed back to the city early for the wedding.That afternoon, I was out running errands when I heard the whispers again."With a wedding this grand, you'd think she would've caused trouble.""Who knows. Maybe she finally gave up.""Shame. He used to come here with her all the time."I kept walking.Then I nearly ran into a little boy tearing around the corner.He stopped short, stared at me, then lit up."El—

That night, after Mia went to bed, I sat by the window and counted what I had left.Not much.A good part of it had already gone toward securing Leo's place. What remained had to cover travel, rent, and whatever came after.My eyes drifted to the stack of sketchbooks by the wall.I had filled them over the years without meaning to show them to anyone. Rings. Bracelets. Earrings. Pendants. Some rough, some finished. At St. Helena, drawing had been one of the few things I was truly good at. One of my instructors used to say she would know my linework anywhere.The sketches were the only things I had left that might still be worth something.The next morning, I took them into the city.The first atelier I tried was small and discreet, the kind that made custom pieces for old families and women who never asked the price.The jeweler flipped through one of the books, then looked up at me strangely."Where did you get these?""I drew them."His expression changed. He tapped one sketch."Thi

Adrian opened the door first.Rain and cold rushed into the house with him.Lucian stood on the step, soaked through, one hand pressed to his side. In the other, he held my sketchbooks tight against his chest, wrapped in wet plastic."Elena," he said. "I got them back."For a second, no one moved.Then Adrian stepped in front of me. "What the hell are you doing here?"Lucian barely looked at him."I need to speak to her.""No," Adrian said.I said it too.Lightning flashed across the yard. For one white second, he looked less like Lucian Vestri and more like a man who had finally run out of excuses."Elena," he said again, quieter now. "Please."I should have shut the door.Instead, I stepped forward and took the sketchbooks from his hands.They were damp at the edges, but he had kept them safe."Now leave," I said.He didn't move."I called off the wedding."Behind me, I felt Adrian go still.Lucian kept his eyes on me."I don't want you married to him."A bitter laugh rose in my thro