Chapter 3

Valentina followed me out of the study.

“Do you have to humiliate everyone the night before your wedding?”

Downstairs, the staff were still arranging flowers in the ballroom.

The entire Bellandi estate already knew something had gone wrong with the wedding.

Her gaze passed over me and went first to the closed study door.

She was supposed to be my best friend, but she was not worried about what I had just endured. She was worried that I had embarrassed Lucian on the other side of that door.

She cared about Lucian’s pride and whether the Bellandi family could take control of North Harbor as planned tomorrow.

She did not care that I had nearly lost everything my father left me with a single signature.

“Step aside.”

I headed for the stairs.

Valentina grabbed my arm.

“Lucian rejected the marriage the Commission arranged for him because he wanted to marry you. Do you have any idea how much pressure he took on for your sake?”

“So I’m supposed to give him everything my father left me to repay him for being willing to marry me?”

“Those docks will get you killed if they stay in your hands!”

Her voice finally rose.

“You can’t even fire a gun. You shake at the sight of blood. You don’t know how to command men or negotiate with the Commission. The Vescari family scattered years ago. Without Lucian, who would still address you as Miss Vescari?”

I looked at her.

“So that’s what you’ve always thought of me.”

Valentina pressed her lips together.

Within moments, she had recovered her composure.

“I’m trying to help you.”

“You can keep telling yourself that.”

I returned to my bedroom.

My wedding dress hung by the window. Fifteen seamstresses had spent three months embroidering its train.

The sapphire necklace Lucian had sent me lay on the bed.

Everything was beautiful. And expensive.

But there was not a single thing in that room I had chosen for myself.

I took off my formal dress and changed into a black one.

I packed one suitcase.

Over six years, Lucian had given me jewelry, cars, and property.

I took none of it.

All I packed were a few clothes, my father’s old pocket watch, and a leather-bound ledger.

When I opened the door, Lucian was standing outside. His expression changed when he saw the suitcase.

“Where are you going?”

“Back to the old Vescari house.”

“It’s been empty for five years.”

“It’s still my home.”

He blocked the doorway.

“At least three families have people watching you tonight. You won’t make it out of Bellandi territory.”

“Are you protecting me or holding me prisoner?”

“Don’t force me to use stronger measures on you tonight.”

I stared at him.

He seemed to realize how harsh that sounded and reached for my face.

“Alessia, I don’t want to fight with you. Go through with the wedding tomorrow. We can discuss the agreement afterward.”

I turned my face away.

“There won’t be a wedding.”

“That isn’t your decision.”

He did not raise his voice. But those words finally made everything clear.

He had always been like this.

He opened car doors for me gently. He draped coats around my shoulders gently. And then, just as gently, he decided where I was allowed to go.

Lucian took the suitcase from me and handed it to a guard.

“Take the luggage back.”

He looked at me and added, “She is not to leave the estate until the wedding is over.”

Two guards approached me.

They had once served my father and protected me for years. But now they answered to Lucian.

I did not resist. I simply walked back into the bedroom and closed the door.

Ten minutes later, Valentina brought me a glass of warm milk.

She set it on the table.

“Get some sleep. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be grateful Lucian didn’t indulge this little tantrum.”

I glanced at the milk without touching it.

“Are you looking forward to tomorrow’s wedding?”

She paused.

Valentina picked up the milk and held it out to me. “Of course. Without me overseeing security, the accounts, and the staff for you, you wouldn’t even know which door to use for your own wedding tomorrow.”

I did not take it. Instead, I opened the digital access log the housekeeper had sent me that afternoon. “Then why have you stayed overnight at this estate forty-seven times in the past six months? I wasn’t even here for twelve of them.”

She glanced at the log. “I often stay late handling family business for Lucian. There’s nothing unusual about spending the night when work runs late.”

“Then why do you have fingerprint access to the safe room in the master suite? And why have you entered it six times?”

“Lucian keeps his documents there. He gave me permission.”

I turned to the final page and pointed to the order of authority. “Why did you draft my prenup? Why do the estate staff, the safe room, and the harbor accounts all answer to you before they answer to me?”

Valentina’s expression finally hardened. “Because before you moved in, I was the one managing this estate, Lucian’s business, and even his escape routes whenever someone tried to kill him.”

She stared at me.

“For the past six years, I was the one who went with Lucian to meet the Commission. I dug bullets out of him when he was shot. I kept the capos who opposed your marriage under control.”

“Alessia, once you marry him, all you have to do is put on your wedding dress and sit beside Lucian. I’ll still be the one deciding how this household is run.”

She looked at me as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

“I’ve taken on every responsibility that should have belonged to the future Donna. What could you possibly be unhappy about?”

I tightened my grip on my phone until its cold edge dug painfully into my palm.

Only then did I understand. It was not that she had no sense of boundaries.

She had long considered herself the future Donna of the Bellandi family. To her, my marriage was merely a ceremony that would deliver North Harbor to Lucian.

My role was to wear the wedding dress. Afterward, she would remain at Lucian’s side and live the life that should have been mine.

“Since you’ve worked so hard, why don’t you take my place as the bride tomorrow?”

The color drained from Valentina’s face.