Chapter 3

Just as I expected, once Alessia was locked away behind Donna Ashford's doors, Nico came crawling right back to me. Only this time, he wasn't looking for love. He was looking for release.

He spiraled fast. Late-night rooms above the wrong social clubs, sketchy hookups with women no soldier would claim, reckless spending he couldn't cover on an associate's cut. His order history became a parade of increasingly bizarre toys. I saved every image, every receipt, filing it away the way a made doctor files a case no hospital can ever see. Ammunition, quietly stockpiled.

Then I broke up with him.

No drama, no long messages. I just told him it was over. At first, Nico kept showing up at the clinic, lingering near the service entrance where the Family's men came to be patched without questions, trying to talk to me, trying to win me back. But when his attempt result for nothing, he gave up.

Alessia, of course, was thrilled when word reached her. Thought she'd "won." Thought her irresistible charm had finally done the trick.

And Nico? He wasn't just licking his wounds. He was hell-bent on payback. The two of them dove headfirst into something even more reckless than before. The toys got darker. The stunts got more unhinged.

It wasn't long before the consequences caught up.

She started smelling… off. Like something rotting underneath all that imported perfume. And instead of fixing the problem, she just doused herself in more of it, trying to mask it, trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

Then came the big day.

Donna Ashford had found her next target. A rich heir named Lorenzo Armetta, the Underboss-in-waiting of the Armetta Family. She'd pulled out all the stops. A gown that cost more than most soldiers earned in a year, fine jewels, the salon booked before dawn. The whole nine yards.

"Alessia, this is your chance," she gushed while the tailor knelt at the hem, pins between his lips. "The Armettas are old blood. Lorenzo was raised on honor and money both. And he likes innocent, wholesome girls. Girls like you."

I caught the way Alessia flinched. Just barely, but it was there. The panic. The guilt. Her nails found the soft skin of her own forearm and pressed in.

"I already have a man," she muttered, brows drawn tight.

"Then be rid of him," Donna Ashford snapped. "You think some low associate can hold a candle to an Armetta?"

She waved it off like it was nothing. "Besides, you're not even sleeping with that one. Break it off, have Francesca do the restoration, and you'll be good as new. Clean. Pure enough to pledge between two bloodlines."

That was the plan. One quiet surgery away from being a virgin again. One lie away from marrying into a ruling Family.

But for once, Alessia hesitated. She faked a stomach ache and refused to go, no matter what Donna Ashford said, her fingers leaving small crescent marks in her arm the whole time.

Donna Ashford wasn't about to let a golden alliance slip through her hands. So instead, she turned to me. Her rings flashed as she straightened the strand of pearls at her throat, adjusting them the way she always did when a plan started slipping.

"You'll go in her place," she said, like it was a simple favor. Like I owed her the blood in my veins.

I refused, of course.

That's when she pulled out her favorite line. The one she'd used for years, the one that always made my blood run cold.

"Don't forget who gave you everything you have, Francesca. I took you in when no one else would. I fed you, raised you, kept a roof over your head. And this is how you repay me? With defiance?"

I ended up in Alessia's gown, seated beside her at a sit-down dressed up as an introduction, in the ballroom of one of the Family's own hotels. Pretending to be her.

In my past life, I hadn't paid much attention to Lorenzo Armetta. All I remembered was that he was a man ruled by principle in a world that had none. But meeting him again this time, there was a strange sense of fate in the air.

He was handsome, well-mannered, and refreshingly grounded. Not at all like the spoiled heirs who thought their fathers' names made them untouchable. Like me, he'd only ever given himself once before, and he carried that quiet integrity like a man who understood exactly what it cost.

When I told him I believed in a lifelong, exclusive kind of love, he lit up. Said women had thrown themselves at the Armetta name for years, but all he really wanted was someone who shared his ideals. His "one and only."

That night, we talked for hours. Everything just clicked.

We met a few more times after that, on neutral ground, quiet places where no one watched too closely. He seemed to like me more each time. Soon enough, Donna Ashford's doorstep was buried in fine things sent in the Armetta name.

Then Alessia saw him. Sharp suit, leaning against the Cullinan, the kind of stillness that made other men lower their voices when he entered a room. Her entire attitude flipped. That very night, she cut Nico loose and called me up, claiming Lorenzo had always been meant for her.

But I wasn't about to roll over this time. I met her words with a smile full of barbs.

"Poor Alessia. Are you addicted to stealing my men?"

She scoffed.

"I let you have Nico because he was trash. But Lorenzo? Lorenzo has standards. And you don't meet a single one of them."

Her mask slipped just for a second, then she smoothed it back into place, her voice thick with smug confidence.

"Think you're so great?" she hissed. "Believe it or not, Lorenzo Armetta is going to be mine. And when that day comes, I'll savor the moment you finally understand what you are. Nothing but a failure. A woman who could never keep a man."

Rage boiled up inside me and I slammed my glass down so hard the rim cracked.

I slammed my glass down so hard it cracked.

Donna Ashford came storming in, and when she heard Alessia had finally "come to her senses," she was thrilled.

"Well," she said, straightening the good silver on the sideboard with quick, fussing fingers. "Looks like Alessia's finally come to her senses."

Then she turned to me and dropped the hammer, her voice going frosty and flat with command.

"Francesca, let's not forget you were only standing in for Alessia at that sit-down to begin with. It's only right you hand Lorenzo back to her."

My hands shook. My jaw was clenched so tightly I could feel my molars grinding. I couldn't believe I was hearing this.

And just when I thought she couldn't cut deeper, she delivered the line she knew would paralyze me.

My hands trembled. My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth might break. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

And then she hit me with the line she knew would shut me up.

"Don't forget who gave you the life you have, Francesca. Don't you dare repay kindness with betrayal."

The words lodged in my throat like a shard of glass. My vision blurred as tears poured down, silent and relentless. The room had gone very still, the way a room does when everyone knows something is being taken and no one will stop it.

If Mom and Dad were still here, they would've never let this happen. They wouldn't have just stood there and watched me get humiliated like this.

No. I wasn't going to crumble. I still had Lorenzo. He said he liked me. He promised he wanted to spend forever with me.