Chapter 1

As the Vitano princess, I was promised early on in an arranged marriage to the Rosso Family.

But when the time came to exchange our families' tokens, I was bedridden with a high fever and had to ask my younger sister, Rosa, to deliver mine in my place.

The Rosso heir, Adrian Rosso, took a liking to her and insisted she be the bride instead.

Just six months after the wedding, her husband beat her to death in a drunken rage.

My father and my brother decided it was my fault Rosa died. They stopped speaking to me and treated me like I didn't exist.

Then, during an arms deal at the port, we were ambushed.

My father stayed behind to cover our retreat and took two bullets meant for me. My brother used every last ounce of his strength to shove me into the helicopter.

I reached for him, but there was no room left on board.

"Valentina, if we could do this all over again, I'm begging you, don't let Rosa go in your place."

He let go and vanished into the fire.

When I opened my eyes again, it was the day my family had sat down to discuss the arranged marriage.

My brother, who had always spoiled Rosa beyond reason, did something completely out of character. He shut her down the moment she volunteered for the marriage.

He had been reborn too.

This time around, we were both going to make up for the regrets of our past lives.

Chapter 1

My father, Lorenzo Vitano, sat at the head of the conference table. Across from him was the envoy the Rosso Family had sent.

The man delivered a long string of flattery before sliding a marriage contract to the center of the table. "Don Vitano, your little princess has just come of age, and our Family's heir fell for her the moment he saw her. If our families join through marriage, every dock operation on the South Shore will be yours."

Lorenzo didn't answer right away. He swirled the wine in his glass, his gaze drifting over until it settled on my face.

I knew that look all too well. He was weighing the costs and benefits.

The Vitano Family controlled nearly every illegal enterprise, from drugs to gambling, but port-based arms dealing remained our one weak link.

Any time we needed to move goods through the docks, we had to pay the Rosso Family exorbitant fees.

That was exactly why Lorenzo was willing to use a marriage to bind the two families together.

To him, I was the obvious choice, having been groomed through years of training within the Family.

But Adrian Rosso hadn't picked me. He had picked Rosa, my younger sister, who had been sheltered her entire life and never once set foot in Family business.

I turned to look at her. She was sitting right beside me, idly twirling a silver fork between her fingers.

She listened quietly, glancing now and then at the photograph the round-faced envoy had brought along.

Adrian Rosso was admittedly handsome in the photo: deep-set eyes, a straight nose, and one slightly pointed canine that showed when he smiled.

In my last life, that face had destroyed the Vitano Family.

This time, I would never let the tragedy repeat itself.

Lorenzo seemed about to speak, but I stood up first and slid the documents back toward the Rosso envoy.

"Last month, the Rosso Family hijacked three of our shipments. They didn't leave a single man alive on those cargo ships. And now you have the nerve to come here talking about a marriage alliance, demanding that my sister, who has never touched Family business, marry into your clan? You want to use her as a hostage so the Vitano Family becomes your personal bank?"

I had only discovered this two months after Rosa married into the Rosso Family in my previous life.

The Rosso Family's work had been clean and ruthless. They'd even bought off several of our handlers. The cover-up was flawless.

If I hadn't stumbled across a suspicious document, it would never have come to light.

I had wanted to take it straight to Lorenzo and to my brother, Dante Vitano, so they could rescue Rosa, but at that exact moment the casino had nearly been bombed by a deranged gambler, and I'd had to set everything aside to deal with the crisis. I left the document in a corner of the study.

It stayed there until Rosa was beaten to death. Dante shut himself in the study for days, consumed by grief, and that was when he finally found the document.

Because of that document, Lorenzo and Dante became certain I had caused Rosa's death. Nothing I said could change their minds.

This time, I would not give that document the chance to ruin my life.

The round-faced envoy's smile stiffened for a split second when I laid bare a secret the Rosso Family thought they had buried.

But he recovered almost instantly, his grin sliding right back into place. "Accusations without evidence can get you into trouble."

I said nothing. I simply pushed the document in front of Lorenzo.

He opened it. Several seconds of silence passed as his expression darkened with every line.

He lifted his head and fixed the envoy with a stare, then slammed the papers onto the table. "We've seen the Rosso Family's sincerity. You have three days to return our cargo, untouched and in full. Otherwise, your casinos and your drug trade will cost you several times what that shipment was worth."

Beads of sweat broke out across the envoy's forehead. Lorenzo's men escorted him out with practiced courtesy.

Once the doors closed again, Rosa slowly raised her head. Her eyes were rimmed with red. "Father, I want to marry him. Please don't make things so tense with the Rosso Family, okay?"

Lorenzo frowned, but his voice softened. "Rosa, your sister is right. The Rosso Family sees you as nothing more than a key. A key that can unlock everything the Vitano Family has."

"I don't care!" Rosa's voice climbed higher. "I like the man in that photo! I want to marry him!"

In our last life, Rosa had thrown the same tantrum, demanding to marry into the Rosso Family.

Lorenzo and Dante couldn't refuse her, and in the end they gave in. Less than a year after the wedding, she was beaten to death.

I was about to step in when Dante, who had been sitting silently as if lost in thought, suddenly spoke up and shut down the sister he had always doted on.

"You can do whatever you want, but marrying into the Rosso Family is not up for discussion!"

I looked at Dante, at the way he had acted so completely against his own nature, and I knew. He had been reborn too.

Good. Some regrets were his to fix on his own.

Denied her brother's support, Rosa let out a shriek. She shot to her feet, clutched her chest, and crumpled to the floor.

The butler rushed to catch her. "Don! The little princess has fainted!"

Lorenzo strode over and scooped her into his arms, shouting for a doctor. Dante hurried to her side too, patting her back and murmuring comfort.

The two of them hovered over her, drenched in sweat, one wiping her tears, the other rubbing her chest to steady her breathing.

In that whole room, I was the only one who didn't belong.

The thought settled in. I shifted on my feet, turned quietly, and walked out of the living room.

In the hallway, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

The other end picked up, amusement plain in his voice. "The Vitano princess, calling me? Now that's a surprise."

"I need to leave the Family. Arrange an accident for me, and a new identity the Vitano Family will never trace."

Silence on the line. Then, "Ten days. I'll come to you with the new identity."

Chapter 2

After I hung up, the hallway was so quiet I could hear nothing but my own breathing.

Behind me, Dante's voice drifted faintly from the living room. "Father, the arranged marriage with the Rosso Family was settled long ago. I'm afraid we can't just cancel it because of this."

Lorenzo sighed. "You have a point, but I can't bring myself to watch Rosa marry into that family."

"Why does it have to be Rosa?" Dante's voice was strained, his breathing loud enough to hear. "The marriage contract was drawn up for Valentina. Brides wear veils. Once it's on, who's going to know it isn't Rosa?"

My gaze darkened.

Even with the evidence of the Rosso Family's schemes laid bare, even knowing what those people were capable of, they were still willing to sacrifice me.

Even after being reborn, hearing Dante say those words still made my heart clench with a dull, uncontrollable ache.

I wanted so badly to storm back in and ask him.

Dante, after coming back from the dead, did you spare even one second wondering whether I would survive if you sent me there?

But I didn't ask. Some answers were better left unknown.

The hallway's cold light fell across my face. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, and memories from my last life flooded in.

When we were children, Dante, Rosa, and I had been so close that everyone around us was envious.

When Dante practiced shooting, Rosa handed him the magazines while I counted his scores at the range. When he trained in hand-to-hand combat, Rosa brought him water while I wiped his sweat.

But when had things started to change?

Probably the time I gave in to Rosa's begging and secretly took her to the horse ranch behind Lorenzo and Dante's backs.

She sat wrong in the saddle. The horse spooked and threw her, leaving her face black-and-blue.

When Lorenzo found out, he slapped me hard across the face. He said I was jealous of the attention they gave Rosa.

Even Dante, who had always been gentle and kind to me, stared at me with a cold, flat expression. "Valentina, I'm so disappointed in you."

From that day on, to Lorenzo, to Dante, to the entire Vitano Family, I was nothing more than a bullet to be spent for Rosa's sake.

They ignored my pleading and threw me into the training grounds. Day and night, all I did was fight and shoot.

All so that when the time came, I could protect Rosa.

Wounds healed and split open again. Bones broke and were set again. As a Vitano princess, I lived worse than a common soldier.

So I trained like my life depended on it, because it was the only way I would ever escape the Vitano Family.

And the arranged marriage with the Rosso Family had been my ticket out.

But fate had a cruel sense of humor.

On the day we were supposed to exchange tokens, I had spent the entire previous night in the swimming pool fishing out a necklace Rosa had dropped, and the fever that followed left me bedridden. I had to ask Rosa to deliver my token for me.

No one could have predicted that twist of fate would lead to her death.

My thoughts snapped back to the present. I pushed myself off the wall and turned to leave, only to walk straight into Dante coming out of the living room.

He studied me for a few seconds, his expression unreadable. "Valentina, you came back too, didn't you?"

Chapter 3

"This second chance is a gift from fate.

"The arranged marriage with the Rosso Family can't just be thrown away. You've been trained by the Family since you were a child. You're the one best suited to marry in."

I didn't argue. I just nodded.

Dante smiled at that. "Don't worry. I'll have people watching over you from the shadows. The Rosso Family won't get the chance to hurt you.

"The day after tomorrow is Rosa's birthday. Come. Consider it a send-off for you."

He turned and went back into the living room.

The door closed behind him, and just like that, a wall settled between us.

Two days later, the old estate blazed with lights.

Rosa sat at the head of the table in a couture lace gown, with everyone gathered around her.

I sat in the farthest corner, watching the celebration from a distance.

Rosa was smiling as she unwrapped the necklace I had given her. It was a rose quartz pendant I had taken from a gambler who owed the casino tens of millions of dollars, a gift meant to make amends for what had happened in our last life.

But three seconds after she put it on, angry red welts bloomed across her skin.

She gasped for air, clawing at her own neck.

Lorenzo rushed to her side.

At the same time, Dante tore the necklace off and held it to his nose. "It smells like peanuts! Rosa is allergic to them!"

He hurled the necklace onto the carpet.

Rosa raised a hand and pointed straight at me. "It was my sister who gave it to me... it was her!"

Lorenzo's eyes swept over me, sharp as a hawk's, so cold they sent a chill down my spine.

Before he could speak, Dante was already in front of me. His palm cracked across my face.

I stumbled and crashed into the champagne tower beside the cake. The skirt of my white dress was covered in humiliating champagne stains.

Dante didn't spare a glance at my humiliation. He hauled me up off the ground, teeth clenched. "You knew Rosa is allergic to peanuts! Why would you do this? Do you want her dead that badly?"

I looked him in the eye, and I laughed.

My voice was quiet, but loud enough for the entire room to hear. "I didn't do it."

"The only people who know about Rosa's peanut allergy are me, Father, and you. It couldn't have been anyone but you!" Dante glared at me. "You'd better pray Rosa is fine, or I will make your life worse than death!"

With that, he took Rosa, who was already going into shock, from Lorenzo's arms and ran out of the room.

I didn't watch them leave. I walked back to my room in silence and crossed today's date off the calendar.

Seven more days, and I would be free.

Chapter 4

Rosa spent three days in the hospital. The day she was discharged, Dante came to see me.

He stood in front of me, his throat bobbing with an awkward swallow.

"Rosa is the one who put the peanut butter on the necklace. One of the maids saw her rubbing it onto the chain with a cotton swab." He looked at me, his voice dropping. "I'm sorry. I lost my head, and I..."

"Are you done?"

"What?" He blinked, caught off guard.

"If you're done, leave."

He pressed his lips together, as if there was something more he wanted to say, but in the end all that came out was, "You already lived one life for her sake. This time around, just cut her some slack."

I didn't answer. I got up and opened the door. "You've said your piece. Get out. You're not welcome here."

He knew he was in the wrong. Without another word, he left.

The moment the door clicked shut, my phone buzzed on the bed. A message from Rosa: "Did you see that, Valentina? In this family, you'll always be the one who doesn't matter. That was just a little lesson. Next time, you won't be so lucky."

After being reborn, arguing over something so petty felt childish.

I didn't reply. I just set the phone facedown on the desk.

A few quiet days passed. One afternoon, I was trimming flowers in the garden.

Someone attacked me from behind, and everything went black.

When I came to, everything was swaying. The air reeked of rust and brine.

The blindfold was yanked off my face, and I found myself lying aboard a decrepit cargo ship. A man covered in scars stood a short distance away. He tossed a dagger at my feet.

"The Don's orders. This ship is heading for international waters to take out a cruise liner hosting a party out there."

"The Don? Don Vitano?"

The man nodded. "The Rosso Family refused to hand over the cargo they stole. You're a Vitano princess, trained since childhood, which makes you the obvious choice to lead the recovery team."

"Why should I believe you? If you're Vitano men, why did you have to kidnap me?"

The man smiled and pulled out a pocket watch from inside his coat.

Lorenzo kept that watch with him at all times. I had dropped it once as a child, leaving a clear scratch across the case. Terrified that he would be furious, I had taken a small knife and worked the scratch into the shape of a heart.

The little heart was still there on the watch case. I sat looking at it, and it felt like a silent taunt.

I gripped the dagger. My knuckles went white.

International waters were where the Rosso Family's power was most concentrated. Sending me there was as good as a death sentence.

The last trace of warmth left in my chest went cold.

I had always thought Lorenzo simply played favorites. I never imagined that the man who had taken two bullets for me in another life could actually wish me dead.

The ship closed in on the target.

For three straight days, the people around me dropped one by one. Some were Rosso men, some were Vitano.

I lost count of how many I killed.

When a blade went dull, I took one from a dead man's hand. When the bullets ran out, I used my fists and my teeth. The smell of blood caked inside my nostrils and wouldn't leave.

This mission was worse than every job I had ever done combined.

On the fourth day, just as dawn broke pale over the horizon, the deck finally went quiet. I stepped over the bodies and walked to the bow. The sea glinted with cold light.

I was the only one left on the entire ship, and there wasn't an inch of skin on me that wasn't torn open.

I peeled off my jacket and wrapped it around the worst of the wounds still seeping blood. With the last shred of strength I had, I jumped into the freezing water and swam.

Today was day ten. I was finally going to be free.

I swam with everything I had to the dock we had agreed on. A man stood at the end of the pier with a cigarette between his lips.

He watched me drag myself out of the water. The tip of his cigarette flared once.

Cullen Price stubbed out his cigarette and looked me up and down.

"With the state you're in, we don't even need to fake your death. You already look like a real corpse."

I dropped to my knees on the wooden planks. My legs couldn't hold me anymore.

"Shut up." My voice was raw, scraped down to sandpaper.

"I want the whole world to know that the Vitano princess is dead."

Cullen tilted his head and let the humor drain from his eyes. "As you wish."

He pressed a button on the remote in his hand. In the distance, two boats erupted in a ball of fire.

When it was done, he slung my arm over his shoulder and walked me deeper into the port.

The sea wind poured in from behind. Waves slapped against the stone walls.

I didn't look back.

At that same moment, back at the old estate, Dante was in the second-floor study, leaning back in his chair and flipping through documents.

His phone buzzed on the desk.

He picked up, listened for a few seconds, and the papers slipped from his fingers and scattered across the floor.

"What did you say... who's dead?"