Chapter 2

Adriana's POV

"Take the tribute now, and tomorrow, buy something fine to make peace with Bianca at the office. This conversation is finished," Lorenzo said, flat as a closed ledger.

Then he dropped the folded bills on the table and walked away without once looking back.

As I watched him go, something settled in me all at once. The man whose word once ended disputes across five boroughs, the man I had honored for the straightness of his spine, had rotted through from the inside out.

And this marriage had reached its end too.

The next day, I drew up the papers of repudiation and went to the social club that fronted his office.

The moment I stepped through his door, I froze.

There he was, the same man who couldn't abide a speck of dust on his cuffs, down on one knee, gently working the arch of Bianca's foot. His eyes held a tenderness I had never once seen turned toward me.

When Bianca caught sight of me, she slipped into her wounded-innocent act at once.

"Adriana, don't read it wrong," she stammered, drawing her foot back and pressing her shoulder in close against his. "I... I turned my ankle, and Lorenzo was only helping me. That's all it was."

Then she tugged at his sleeve, feigning panic. "Lorenzo, say something! I don't want to lose my place over this!"

But Lorenzo patted her back, his voice low and easy. "Don't be afraid. She's only here to apologize."

Then the warmth went out of him like a light cut off, and he looked at me with plain disgust. "I told you to bring something to make peace. Why come with empty hands? You're not a girl anymore. Don't you even know how to offer an apology properly?"

Even so, I didn't waste breath arguing. I pulled the papers of repudiation from my bag, laid them on his desk, and said, cold and level, "Sign them. We're finished."

He blinked, caught off his footing, and then his face went dark.

"What game are you running now?" he snapped. "You know my mother approved of no one but you under this name. She'd never bless a repudiation. Are you doing this just to have her scold me all over again?"

So he still carried his mother in his mouth.

I let out a bitter laugh and said quietly, "Your mother can't scold you anymore."

Something crossed his face. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Go home," I said, even as still water. "You'll see it for yourself."

He glared at me, impatient. "Stop tangling me up in your nonsense. It was your mother who died, not mine. How long are you going to keep this up? Just go. You're shaming me in my own house. I'm not repudiating you."

Just then Bianca, who had been drinking in the whole scene, wiped at tears that weren't there and sniffled, small and pitiful.

"Adriana, I know I bought my license and I've no hand for driving," she said, her voice trembling, her fingers curling into his sleeve. "But that death on the block truly wasn't my fault! You're only filing these papers now to force Lorenzo's hand, to make him give me up to the precinct, aren't you?"

She looked so fragile, so wronged, that a man who didn't know better might have believed every word.

And that man was Lorenzo. He gathered her into his arms like something precious and murmured, "Bianca, don't cry. As long as I stand here, no cell will ever hold you."

Then he turned the full weight of himself on me, fury burning in his eyes. "Adriana, Bianca's little more than a kid. Do you truly have to grind her down like this? You think waving papers of repudiation in my face will make me stand aside for her? Dream on. Your mother's death was her own doing. You won't see one cent of tribute for it, and if you lay a finger on so much as a hair of Bianca's head, expect the worst this Family can bring."

As I looked at him, the man who once swore his life to the truth, now spreading his coat over the very woman who killed his own mother, I felt a deep, hollow sorrow open in me.

But let it be. If that was the kind of son he chose to be, what right had I left to stand in his way?

I drew a slow breath. My thumb turned the wedding band once around my finger, unhurried, final. Then I said, each word clear and set in stone, "This marriage is over."

Lorenzo's face twisted with rage. He seized the papers of repudiation, tore them to ribbons, and flung the pieces into the air.