Chapter 3

"Unlike you, everything I have, I earned for myself."

Luna lifted her chin, her eyes openly mocking now.

"I don't need a powerful father or a Family name to make people respect me. What matters is whether a man like Don Moretti sees my value, not whether I can stand beside him looking pretty as his wife."

The gentle determination she'd shown Hugh earlier was gone.

I tightened my grip on my bag and laughed coldly.

"You're certainly confident. But Hugh has never lacked people willing to work for him. Whatever 'value' you think you have isn't nearly as special as you imagine."

Luna didn't get angry.

Instead, she calmly took out her phone and opened her photo album.

My expression changed.

It was filled with screenshots of conversations between Hugh and me.

"You probably don't know this, but Don Moretti gave me the password to his phone last month."

She smiled.

"So for the past month, I've been the one reading most of your messages."

My fingers slowly curled into my palm.

Luna continued as if she were discussing something perfectly ordinary.

"That sapphire necklace you liked for your anniversary? I was the one who reminded him to buy it."

She swiped to another screenshot.

"And that night you asked him to come home early and sent him pictures of your new lingerie?"

Her smile widened.

"I was the one who told him he should go home."

My face went cold.

"I stayed up working for him until dawn that night. The next day, he gave me a sapphire bracelet from the same collection as your necklace."

She lightly touched her bare wrist.

"I don't wear it around the Family, of course. People might misunderstand."

The slap rang sharply through the corridor.

My palm went numb.

So did something inside my chest.

For the first time since I'd arrived, my composure cracked.

"Who the hell do you think you are, interfering in my marriage?"

Luna covered her cheek.

She stared at me in shock for a moment.

Then she laughed.

"Are you scared?"

I said nothing.

That only made her bolder.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Moretti. I'm not the kind of woman who seduces a married man or destroys someone else's marriage."

She paused, and the innocence disappeared from her face.

"But if he takes the first step..."

Her lips curved.

"I'd be more than happy to take the other ninety-nine."

There was something almost fanatical in her eyes.

And suddenly, I thought of Hugh.

Years ago, if he hadn't taken that first step toward me, he might have died before there was ever anything between us.

After that, I had taken every remaining step willingly.

I had cried for him, fought my father for him, and eventually walked away from the protection of my own Family to marry him.

Yet Luna stood before me as if she had already won.

I had an entire Family behind me.

What exactly did she have?

"Too angry to speak?"

Her voice pulled me back to the present.

I looked at her for a moment before letting out a quiet laugh.

"What else is there to say?"

I picked up my bag.

"Good luck."

Of course, Luna assumed I was simply furious.

As I walked away, I glanced back once.

She was already hurrying down the corridor in her heels, one hand pressed dramatically against her swollen cheek as she headed straight for the private room where Hugh was meeting the Romanos.

She knew exactly how to turn a man's sympathy into an advantage.

She was much better at it than I'd been.

When I first met Hugh, I was eighteen.

He had been standing behind my father with several newly initiated men, dressed in black and keeping his eyes respectfully lowered.

When I approached, he greeted me like everyone else did.

"Good evening, Miss Hansen."

At first, I'd chosen him as my personal guard simply because I liked his face.

But Hugh never became arrogant because I favored him.

No matter how unreasonable my demands were, he never complained. He did his job carefully, followed every order, and always maintained a polite distance between us.

Then I was kidnapped.

Hugh took a bullet meant for me.

It nearly killed him.

And that was when I fell completely in love with him.

While he lay unconscious, all I could remember was the clean scent of soap on his clothes when he'd pulled me into his arms and covered me with his body.

When he finally woke up, my eyes were swollen from crying.

But instead of admitting I'd been terrified of losing him, I scolded him.

"You failed at your job."

Hugh stared at me, confused.

My face burning, I pointed at the small scrape on my shoulder.

"Look what happened to me."

Then I forced myself to meet his eyes.

"You'd better take responsibility."