The Bride Who Chose Her Own Kingdom
I spent my whole life being Lucas DeLuca’s promised bride, his childhood shadow, the girl everyone believed would follow him anywhere. For twelve years, we planned the same future: the same family trial, the same city, the same fight to prove ourselves beyond our bloodlines.
Then one night, Lucas changed his assignment to London for Vivian Castor and laughed that I would crawl after him before the seals closed.
He was wrong.
I stayed with the Rossi research program, burned the gift I had made for him, and chose the work I had bled for instead of the man who took my devotion for granted.
Lucas thought my silence meant weakness. He thought my love made me easy to control. By the time he realized he was the one who couldn’t live without me, I was already gone.
And I wasn’t about to run back into his arms.
I was building my own kingdom.