Chapter 2

No one spoke.

Valentina recovered first.

“You’re just overwhelmed.” She bent down to gather the torn pages, even managing a small smile.

“A lot of brides lose control before their weddings. Go back to your room. We can talk about this tomorrow.”

She reached for my arm.

I moved out of her reach.

“What gives you the right to send me to my room, Valentina?”

Her hand froze in midair.

Lucian stood. “Enough.”

He told the attorney and the witnesses to leave. When the door closed, he walked over to me.

“Tell me what you’re so upset about.”

I nearly laughed.

Every page of that agreement stripped away one of my rights. Yet he was asking why I was upset.

“Where were you this afternoon?”

Something shifted in Lucian’s eyes.

“At a family meeting.”

“Which one?”

“Alessia.” His voice turned cold.

It was a warning.

In the past, that tone would have silenced me immediately.

But today, I took out my phone and opened a photograph.

In it, Valentina held a cigarette between her lips while Lucian shielded the flame with one hand and lit it with the other.

They stood so close they looked as if they were kissing.

And in Valentina’s hand were the plans to my family’s warehouse.

Two Bellandi capos stood behind them, as if Lucian and Valentina were the true master and mistress of North Harbor.

The photo had been taken three hours earlier.

At the time, Lucian had told me he would come home for dinner as soon as his meeting ended.

“What were you doing at my docks?”

Lucian stared at the photograph for a moment.

“Warehouse Seven needs to be renovated after the wedding.”

“Who approved that?”

“It’s necessary.”

“Who approved it?”

I asked again.

Valentina frowned.

“Security at North Harbor is inadequate. Lucian plans to move some of the family’s cargo there. We were only inspecting the site in advance.”

“What kind of cargo?”

She fell silent.

North Harbor operated under legitimate shipping licenses. My father had set one absolute rule while he was alive: the Bellandi family could use two of our routes, but drugs and human trafficking would never pass through Vescari docks.

Lucian had promised me he would honor that rule.

Now he was preparing to renovate Warehouse Seven without even speaking to me.

“So the two of you decided everything a long time ago.” I pushed the phone toward Lucian.

I watched Lucian, refusing to miss the slightest change in his expression.

“After the wedding, I hand over North Harbor and Valentina manages it for you. The two of you ship in whatever you want, while I stay locked away at the estate and sign whatever papers you put in front of me.” I finished the plan they had not said aloud.

“I won’t let danger come near you.” Lucian caught my wrist. “You don’t need to know what’s in every shipment, and you don’t need to deal with those people. You only need to be my wife.”

Six years ago, my father died in a fire at the docks.

Lucian was the one who carried me out of the burning warehouse.

My face had been covered in soot, and I had clutched the necklace my father gave me so tightly it cut into my palm.

Lucian wrapped me in his coat. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “You have me now.”

I was twenty-one.

I had lost my father and every source of security I had ever known.

For six years, I held on to those words like a lifeline.

Only later did I realize it had never been a lifeline.

It was a collar locked around my neck.

I pulled my hand free.

“North Harbor is the inheritance my father left me. It isn’t a dowry I have to hand over when I marry you.”

Lucian’s jaw tightened. “Your father is dead. He can’t protect you, and he can’t protect North Harbor.”

The moment the words left his mouth, even he went still.

My fingers slowly turned cold.

Valentina spoke at once. “He didn’t mean it that way.”

She always explained him for me. She arranged his meetings, tended his wounds, and remembered every capo’s preferences.

She even had to tell me, on his behalf, that he loved me.

I stared at him, the words cutting straight through my chest. “You’re right.”

“My father is dead, so the two of you decided you were entitled to everything the Vescari family had left.”

“But I’m his daughter. Even if I can’t hold North Harbor, neither of you has the right to use this marriage to rip it out of my hands.”