Chapter 2

I pulled Matteo behind me, retrieved the silver badge, and pressed it back into his hand. Then I checked Sofia’s damaged crest. Only after I was sure she was frightened but unharmed did my expression turn cold.

“Isabella, do you understand what it means to terrorize Don Valenti’s only daughter?”

Alessia answered lazily.

“Don Valenti’s daughter? Vivienne, even for you, this performance is pathetic.”

Isabella clung more tightly to Lucian’s arm, her concern perfectly measured.

“She’s using children to impersonate heirs from three powerful families. If word gets out, she won’t go down alone. She’ll drag the entire Moretti family with her.”

“She still hates me.”

Lucian and Alessia both went cold.

“You’re safe. I won’t let her touch you,” Lucian said, pulling Isabella into his arms.

Alessia looked furious.

“Ten years, and you still haven’t learned. What exactly do you want?”

“Isabella is my real sister. You were only the orphan Father brought home. You occupied her place for more than a decade. What right do you have to resent her?”

The words cut into a part of me that should have gone numb years ago.

A small hand caught my bloodstained sleeve.

I looked down into Sofia’s red-rimmed eyes.

“You had a terrible life before us, Vivienne.”

I managed a faint smile and stroked her hair.

When I looked up again, every trace of emotion was gone.

“Wait fifteen minutes. Then you’ll know whether I’m lying.”

The children’s escorts were supposed to arrive in fifteen minutes.

That was when I usually returned them, one by one, to their safe houses.

“How long are you planning to stall?” Alessia snapped.

Isabella suddenly stepped in as though she were defending me.

“Fine. If Vivienne truly can’t bear to part with them, we don’t have to kill them.”

Lucian frowned, but when he looked at her, he still nodded.

“Whatever you want.”

Alessia said nothing more.

I held Sofia against me, my fingers tightening.

Isabella walked slowly toward me, naked challenge in her eyes.

“They can live.”

“But if you want to return to the Moretti family, you can never have anything to do with them again.”

She paused, then smiled.

“And so you remember, for every child you keep, I’ll leave one wound on your body.”

“I’ve been practicing with a knife lately. I could use a live target.”

All three children crowded around me.

“You people are sick!” Matteo shouted.

“Vivienne is stronger than any of you. Even my mother respects her!”

“Wait fifteen minutes if you have the nerve,” Ethan said. “When my father gets here, let’s see who still dares touch Vivienne.”

The guards surged forward and dragged them aside.

A hand clamped over Sofia’s mouth. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Matteo fought the hardest, his face red with rage.

Ethan was the quietest. He only stared at Lucian and Isabella, memorizing their faces.

Then the fifteen minutes were up.

“Miss Vivienne!”

A sharp shout came from the mouth of the alley.

Adrian, head of Valenti security, charged into the alley in black tactical gear, his face tight with fury.

“Stop! Who the hell are you?”

I looked behind him.

No one else.

My heart sank.

“You came alone?”

Adrian’s expression tightened. He lowered his voice.

“Every route into this area was blocked at once. The De Luca convoy and the Kane teams were cut off. Valenti headquarters hasn’t reached us yet either.”

“I came ahead to retrieve Miss Sofia.”

The smile on Isabella’s face faded slightly.

Lucian’s gaze darkened too.

“Another actor?” he said.

He stared at me, something unreadable beneath his anger.

“You really will do anything to protect these children, won’t you, Vivienne?”