All Chapters of The Game He Played With My Heart: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

Nico, one of the loudest guys in Luca’s circle, lifted his phone and shoved the camera almost into my face. "Get this. Our almost Mrs. Moretti is crying from happiness.""Mrs. Moretti? Please," someone snorted. "Luca only put her up for one month of North Dock Warehouse Three."Their laughter rolled through the terminal. I looked at Luca, waiting for him to shut it down, but he only stood and brushed his coat as if the man who had just proposed to me had been someone else. When he caught my expression, he frowned."Eliana, don't be like this. It was a bet."Just a bet. He said it so easily that ten years of waiting suddenly felt like something cheap left on a casino table.He explained without a hint of shame. A shipment was coming through North Dock, Warehouse Three had the best access, and Vivian had refused to give it up unless he won it from her. If I accepted his proposal, he got the warehouse for a month.Vivian spread her hands. "I didn't think you'd make it that easy."The ring

Chapter 2

The next morning, Marlowe Research Institute's New York headquarters called."Eliana, the final list for the research fellowship closes today," Caroline said.Caroline directed Marlowe's Center for Port Security and Financial Crime Research on the East Coast. Three years earlier, she had offered me a lead research fellowship in New York, with my own team and a federal port-security project under my name. It was the kind of chance people waited half a career for, and I had turned it down every time with neat excuses: unfinished papers, ongoing field studies, Luca needing someone who understood North Dock. The truth was simpler and more humiliating. I couldn't bear to leave him.Now there was nothing left to bear."I'll go," I said.Caroline let out a relieved breath. "Good. Three-year appointment. The first year will be rough, but this is the best move you could make for yourself."After I finished the transfer papers and research handover, a few people carefully asked if I had fought

Chapter 3

A light rain had started outside Spade Casino. Ava opened her umbrella and held her temper for three seconds before snapping, "What is wrong with those people? Who told them you'd always turn back?"I watched the neon ripple in the puddles. "I did. Every time I went back."Ava fell silent and tilted the umbrella farther over my shoulder.Back at the hotel, after a shower, I picked up my phone out of habit and saw Vivian's latest post sitting at the top of my feed.Nine photos.In the first, she sat on Spade Casino's rooftop terrace while Luca stood behind her, blocking the wind. In the second, she held a cue, and Luca leaned over to adjust her angle. In the third, the casino manager delivered a custom chip marked with a V while someone joked that she looked like the real lady of Spade. The rest showed Luca watching an old movie with her, playing arcade basketball, and drinking mocktails at the bar.I had wanted to do those ordinary things with him. Luca always said arcade games were no

Chapter 4

I had only gone down one flight when the door on the upper landing opened. The stairwell was dim, washed in the cold green glow of the exit sign, and I stopped in the shadows with my father's cue case pressed against my chest. Vivian's voice floated down first."Are you really not going after her?"Luca answered after a beat. "Let her calm down.""You're that sure she'll come back?""She will," he said. "She has no family in Chicago and no one else to rely on. She's just sick of your games right now."My fingers tightened around the cue case handle.Vivian was quiet for a second, then laughed. "Then what if she finds out about ten years ago?"Luca's voice sharpened. "Vivian.""What? It's been forever." She sounded amused. "What if she finds out you only chased her because you lost a card game on opening night at Spade? You had to go after the hardest woman in the room, that orphan research fellow with no family and no backing."The cold in my chest spread until I could barely feel my h

Chapter 5

And at that moment, Luca still didn't know.On the rooftop of Spade Casino, he pushed open the lounge door and looked first toward the sofa by the wall. It was empty. He assumed I had only walked out again and would answer once I cooled down.Then the receptionist brought up the envelope.Luca opened it, saw the note, and the color drained from his face. He called me once, then again. On the third try, the screen gave him a cold notification.[Not delivered.]Behind him, Vivian was still saying lightly, "Don't worry. She's throwing a tantrum. How could she bear to really leave?"For the first time, Luca didn't answer. For the first time, he seemed to realize I was no longer standing where he had left me.Luca stood in the lounge long after the others stopped laughing.Nico came over, still trying to smile. "Come on. Eliana will cool off by tomorrow. She's blocked you before, right? Two days later, she always adds you back herself."Luca didn't answer. He tried Dante's phone, the casino

Chapter 6

Morning had broken by the time I arrived in New York. Caroline booked a hotel near the institute and told me to rest for a day before reporting to headquarters, but I couldn't sleep. I showered, changed, organized my research files, and went to pick up my temporary access card that afternoon.Marlowe's New York headquarters was nothing like Chicago. There were no Moretti guards, no neon from Spade Casino, no license plates I recognized with my eyes closed. Everyone was busy. No one cared whose girlfriend I had been, and no one watched me with pity or amusement. For the first time in a long while, the air felt light.At dusk, I left the office and saw Luca in front of my hotel.He looked as if he had come straight from the airport. His coat was creased from the flight, and his eyes were bloodshot. The man who had always been composed, always too proud to lower his head first, stood under a streetlight in a strange city looking almost lost."Eliana." I stopped because there was no point

Chapter 7

The fellowship was busier than I expected. Headquarters threw me into port-security modeling, financial-crime datasets, field interviews, closed-door briefings, and late research meetings almost immediately.But the exhaustion felt clean. It didn't come with the fear that after helping Luca solve another crisis, I would be dragged to another party and turned into another joke.The residence had guards. Late research shifts had security. Colleagues waited for one another. No one left me alone in an unfamiliar parking lot and then told me I was too sensitive for being upset. I didn't like cooking, but there was a clean restaurant downstairs. I hated moving heavy things, and colleagues helped without turning it into a debt.I used to think love was the only cure for loneliness. Then I moved somewhere new and found that ordinary respect could fill the holes too.Luca didn't leave New York right away. At first, he came to the institute building every day. He didn't make a scene or block my

Chapter 8

In the third year of my overseas research appointment, I returned to Marlowe's New York headquarters with wedding invitations in my bag.The moment my closest colleagues saw me outside the institute entrance, they surrounded me."Eliana! You're finally back!""You're really getting married? When did this happen, and how did you hide it this long?""I don't care. I want a seat at the main table."I handed out the invitations one by one. "No one is allowed to miss it. Flights and hotels are on me."The invitations were ivory white, without flashy gold edges. A small moon was pressed into the seal.My fiance, Ethan Blake, wasn't mafia and didn't belong to any family. He was a partner at a security consulting firm in London: gentle, steady, and clear about boundaries. We met after an international port-security research review, when he came in as an outside risk consultant. He knew my past, but he never forced me to explain the parts I didn't want to touch.The first time Ethan proposed, t

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