Chapter 5

Lorenzo could never stand a woman crying. He pulled Gia into his arms at once, coaxing her with slow, careful kisses until she was breathless and pliant against him.

I watched them move from the couch to the master bedroom, then to the bathroom, numb the whole time, and understood all over again that Lorenzo had never loved me.

After his so-called abduction, the staged forgetting he'd hidden behind, I cried in secret every day. He never saw my swollen, red-rimmed eyes.

He only called me dramatic, told me not to hold him hostage with my tears, as if grief were a debt I was collecting from the wrong man.

He would drape his arm around one woman after another in plain sight, in front of his running crew, and say that even if he had once loved me, a little indulgence on the side wasn't wronging me.

I was more grateful than I could say that the bloodline heir had never come to be.

Because with the way he was obsessed with Gia's body, he would have gone on keeping her even after the union of our bloodlines was sealed.

After all, I could never learn the tricks Gia knew.

When the sound of her gasping started up again, I closed out of the feed and deleted the account.

The next morning I was woken by Lorenzo calling.

It was the first time he'd reached out to me on his own since the abduction.

But I saw no reason for the two families to keep us tethered, so I didn't pick up.

When he couldn't get through, he sent a message instead.

【Adriana, what's the meaning of this? I already agreed to honor the alliance vow. Why did you strip the house of everything meant for the wedding feast?】

I didn't want to lose face again, so I decided to keep him in the dark for now.

【That place was bad luck for us. I took a villa on the water, out past the territory line, and moved there.】

Seconds after I sent it, a contact request came in.

The picture was Gia. I tapped decline right away.

But she wouldn't give up, and left a message saying she had an intimate video of me and Lorenzo.

I accepted the request, and what she sent was an intimate video of the two of them.

She waited until the two-minute recall window was nearly gone, then deliberately sent a crying sticker.

【Oops, sis, I picked the wrong one by mistake. Can't recall it now, what do I do?】

【All my fault for not looking carefully. I actually thought that steamy little bedroom scene was you and my Lorenzo. I kept wondering, if you're really that good, why would Lorenzo be so obsessed with my body? Turns out the leading lady is me!】

【Sis, if I were you, I'd spend a little money learning how to please a man. Otherwise the husband you had promised in blood wouldn't have slipped the vow!】

Then she wired me ten thousand dollars. I could picture her doing it, one hand drifting to her bare throat, adjusting a necklace that wasn't there yet.

【This is your payment for the blood debt, sis, for what you gave me on the table. Anything money can settle, I'd rather not trade a husband for. When we hold the wedding feast before the families, you're welcome to come and toast us!】

Faced with such naked provocation, I sent the money back.

【Consider it my tribute toward the union, early. Wishing you a long and happy life together!】

After I cut Gia off, the days passed quietly like that for half a month, inside the walls of the Family's tame clinic, and my body recovered well.

It was time to go to ground, somewhere beyond the reach of the Barone line.

I bought my plane ticket, and only then realized it was the day of their wedding feast.

Since I was going to shelter with my cousin, I stopped by a jeweler to pick out a gift for her.

Standing in the shop, the quiet broken only by the soft click of a display case being locked, I remembered the tokens of the pact Lorenzo and I had had made. They still hadn't been collected.

I had designed them myself. It was time to claim them and be rid of them.

But after checking the record, the clerk told me Lorenzo had already taken the rings.

Seeing the pity soften her face, I understood, and left.

Only to walk straight into Lorenzo at the door, out on the street with his crew nowhere in sight.

His fingers were laced with Gia's, and on his hand was the very token I had designed.

When he saw my eyes land on their hands, he rushed to explain. His thumb had gone to the heavy signet ring on his other hand, turning it, turning it faster.

"Adriana, about this ring……"

"They suit the two of you."

I said it and turned to go. My own hand found the bare place where his ring used to sit, and I turned that absent circle once, slowly. Then I let it go.

He wanted to come after me, but Gia held him back.

"Lorenzo, didn't we agree you'd take me to try on the gown today?"

My steps grew steadier as I walked away.

Before I knew it, the day of the wedding feast arrived. I walked out of the Family's tame clinic and took a cab straight to the airport.

At that same moment, Lorenzo's running associates, a makeup artist in tow, were carrying a custom gown to the place he'd rented, looking for me.

The bell went unanswered for a long time. They made such a racket that the neighbor across the hall came out.

"Nobody's ever lived here. You sure you've got the right door?"