Chapter 1

Valentina’s POV

“I’ve agreed to marry Dante De Luca.”

The words tasted like ice on my tongue.

My father, Vittorio Aethon, froze at the edge of the war table, one hand resting beside a spread of territory maps and coded ledgers. The smell of cigar smoke and burning cedar lingered in the private council room of the Aethon estate. He slowly lifted his head, disbelief hardening his features.

“You can’t be serious,” he finally said.

But I was. I had never been more serious in my life.

Dante De Luca was the heir to the De Luca crime family, one of the most powerful Mafia syndicates in the country. His name alone was enough to make lesser families lower their guns. He was feared for his ruthlessness, respected for his intelligence, and once considered untouchable.

Until he was poisoned.

Three months ago, during a meeting with a rival family, someone slipped shadowroot into his whiskey. The poison attacked his nervous system within minutes. Dante collapsed before his men could identify the traitor, and he had remained unconscious ever since.

Doctors had tried everything. Specialists had flown in from overseas, but none could wake him. Machines kept his body alive while his empire waited for its heir to open his eyes.

No woman wanted to marry a man who might spend the rest of his life lying unconscious.

But I volunteered.

And I had my reasons.

“The De Alexander have been demanding the marriage ceremony,” I reminded my father. “You’re the head of this family. You know they won’t wait forever.”

“They wanted Vina,” he said stiffly.

“I’m aware.” I kept my voice cold. “But Vina can’t bear the idea of becoming the wife of a poisoned man. So I’m offering myself as a substitute.”

He exhaled slowly. Then, like the calculating Mafia boss he was, his shoulders began to relax.

“This could work. It settles the alliance, secures our northern territory, and prevents the De Alexander from turning against us. I’ll start making arrangements immediately. We’ll need—”

“I want payment.”

He stopped.

“What?”

“You’re offering me as a replacement. That isn’t love. It’s business.” I stepped closer, meeting his eyes without flinching. “So if I’m going to marry a man who may never wake up just to protect your favorite illegitimate daughter, I want compensation.”

His brow furrowed. “Valentina, don’t be dramatic.”

“I want half the family fortune.”

His expression changed instantly.

“Half?”

“Half of the Aethon treasury, including your personal vault.”

“That would drain me dry.”

“Good.”

For several seconds, he stared at me as though he had never truly seen me before. Perhaps he was finally noticing the daughter he had spent years keeping in the shadow of his shame.

“And one more thing.” I turned toward the door. “I want you to reassign Alexander.”

He blinked. “What?”

“My personal bodyguard. Give him to Vina. He can protect her from now on.”

“You’re giving up Alexander?” he asked, genuinely stunned. “You once told me you loved that man.”

“I did.”

I placed my hand on the door.

“Not anymore.”

He said nothing as I walked away.

I knew he would agree. He always gave Vina everything. Surely, he could give me this one thing.

**

My mother died of heartbreak after discovering that my father had secretly maintained another family behind her back. The betrayal destroyed her long before it killed her, and I had been there when she finally lost the will to live.

Since then, I had hated him.

I hated the other woman.

Most of all, I hated Vina, the illegitimate daughter who had taken everything that should have belonged to me.

Perhaps that was why I had grown to love Alexander.

He was the only person who had ever made me feel safe.

Three years ago, I had chosen him from a lineup of the family's most elite bodyguards. He was quiet, disciplined, and impossibly handsome, with the kind of presence that made armed men instinctively step aside.

I had spent years trying to win him over.

I flirted with him shamelessly, dressed to catch his attention, and invented ridiculous excuses just to keep him near me. I once pretended to stumble near a cliff, only to have him catch me without even changing his expression.

He never touched me.

He never gave in.

I had mistaken his restraint for honor.

It turned out to be disinterest.

I learned the truth the night I returned home after making the deal with my father.

As I passed the guest wing, I noticed light beneath Alexander's door. Voices drifted through the narrow opening, followed by a woman's soft laugh.

I stopped.

It was Vina.

My chest tightened as I heard Alexander speaking to her in a voice I had never heard him use with me—warm, intimate, completely unguarded.

I didn't need to see anything more.

The woman I hated was in his room, and the man I had loved was looking at her the way I had spent three years praying he would look at me.

Then his phone rang.

Alexander answered immediately.

“Everything is going according to plan,” he said.

I remained frozen outside the door.

“I've been pretending to be Valentina's bodyguard for three years. You think I'm going to abandon the plan now?”

My blood turned cold.

He continued, his voice calm.

“She trusts me completely. That's what makes her useful. As long as she remains convinced I'm protecting her, nobody will suspect that my real purpose here is Vina.”

My fingers curled around the edge of the door.

“Valentina doesn't know anything about my identity. She thinks I'm just another Aethon bodyguard.”

A pause followed.

Then he laughed softly.

“She was never the one I wanted.”

The words struck harder than any bullet.

I finally understood.

Alexander wasn't an ordinary bodyguard.

He was the hidden heir of the Laurent family, a syndicate so powerful that even the Aethons avoided provoking them. He had infiltrated my father's organization under a false identity, all to get close to Vina.

And I had spent three years believing he was mine.

I should have walked away.

Instead, I pushed the door open.

Alexander turned toward me, and for the first time since I had met him, I watched the color drain from his face.

Our eyes met.

Whatever shock appeared in his expression came too late.

“I heard everything,” I said quietly.

For the first time, the man who had never looked frightened in front of a gun looked at me as though he had finally realized what he had lost.

But I was already done being the woman who begged to be chosen.

I had agreed to marry a poisoned Mafia heir.

And by tomorrow, I would disappear from Alexander's world forever.