Chapter 2

Adriano's eyes stayed fixed on me, trying to tell whether I was lying.

His hand clenched at his side.

Vanessa, tears still fresh, suddenly burst into a scornful laugh.

"A grown man, keeping his fiancée waiting this long?"

"You'll go to such lengths for Adriano's attention—you'll humiliate yourself this thoroughly?"

She lifted a flute of champagne and pushed it toward me.

"Your lie is too transparent. This little wounded-doe act is beneath you. Then prove it. Drink three glasses, and we'll call it even."

She kept pushing the glass closer.

I frowned and knocked the glass aside impatiently. "Adriano isn't worth the lie."

His face went ashen. His knuckles bone-white.

The push wasn't hard. But Vanessa reeled as though I'd shoved her with all my strength.

The glass tipped. Champagne spilled down her dress.

She scrubbed at it in a frenzy—

But the skin along her collarbone was already breaking out in angry red hives.

"Adriano, it hurts—"

His expression tightened at the tremor in her voice.

He shoved me aside.

I fell hard, and a piece of broken crystal drove into my palm.

Blood pooled on the marble.

But Adriano didn't so much as glance at me. He roared:

"Vanessa's allergic to alcohol! Do you want to kill her?"

I bit my lip and pushed myself up on one arm.

"If you're that afraid she'll die, hang a sign on her—Allergic to alcohol. Don't touch."

"You—"

Once, I would have done anything he asked.

Once, I would have been terrified of his anger.

The mockery in my voice now turned his face red.

Vanessa, seeing him lose his temper, shook her head through her tears.

"Adriano, I'm all right."

"Don't blame her. Seeing us together must be hard for her. I understand."

Her tone was wounded, magnanimous.

And Adriano's eyes on me filled with disappointment.

…

"Cecilia, when the hell are you going to grow up and learn to behave?"

For years I'd told myself those same words were love.

Now they hit me like an open hand.

I gave a cold laugh. "Mr. Rinaldi. You threw me out of the Family a long time ago. Whether I grow up, whether I learn to behave—it's no longer your concern."

When I turned to leave, he seized my wrist, and the whites of his eyes were shot red.

Anger. And something else I couldn't name.

Regret?

"Where do you think you're going?"

Before I could answer, Marco pulled me down into a booth before the whole situation blew up.

"It's my birthday. Do me a favor."

Seeing I still looked murderous, he pressed his hands together, pleading.

"Your fiancé's coming, right? Just sit and wait for him."

I could feel Adriano's stare boring into me.

I only checked my phone.

Fifteen minutes.

I nodded at Marco, indifferent. "Fine."

The moment I did, Vanessa—her hives already receding—snatched my phone from my hand.

"Let me see who this fiancé of yours actually is!"

Before I could stop her, the screen lit up.

Vanessa's smile froze on her face.

"Your fiancé—is him?"