Chapter 2

"On top of that, you and Vittorio were once intimate. That alone is reason for you to keep your distance. I won't dredge up the past, but I, Adriana, am not the kind of woman who just swallows whatever she's handed."

"If the rest of you insist on staying, fine. Then I'll leave!"

With that, I didn't bother waiting for their reactions. I turned to go.

But Vittorio caught my wrist, his brow creasing with displeasure, his voice low and chiding. : "Adriana, we're all famiglia here tonight. Don't throw a little tantrum."

"Besides, this is the flagship you drew up yourself, every line of her. It cost me no small favor to charter her off the docks. Whatever else, don't let all my effort go to waste."

I looked into Vittorio's earnest eyes, and something in me softened. I hesitated, again and again, and in the end I gave in.

There was nothing else I could do. This son of an allied bloodline, the man I'd chased for three years before I finally won him, left me with no power to resist.

Even knowing full well that he and Carmela stayed tangled up in each other, I still clung to a thread of hope, now that the blood-alliance was already sworn between our Families. I hoped he'd come to his senses and pull away from that ambiguous closeness they dressed up as friendship.

But when the storm hit, when the vessel took on water and began to sink beneath us, he saw the wound on my leg plainly and still wrenched my hand away, hauling Carmela into the only lifeboat that could have saved us.

Only then did it dawn on me. That deep trust, that devotion I'd given him, was nothing but a joke.

A colossal joke, one that cost me my very life.

Yet if Vittorio had truly felt nothing for me, perhaps it wouldn't have hurt this much.

Just like now, when his mouth flirted with Carmela, and yet he'd sat in the wedding suite waiting for me the whole night through.

Of course, he was never going to get me.

As the first glow broke at the horizon, his ease drained away and his face went dark. Even the so-called friends who'd come to carouse couldn't take it, and one by one they made their excuses and slipped out into the night. Still he ignored Carmela's coaxing and stubbornly kept watch in the bridal suite, waiting for me to come back.

After a long while, his eyes went suddenly hazy, and he murmured to himself. : "Could leaving her behind on the ship really have made her that angry?"

"But I checked. There was clearly still another lifeboat on board, more than enough for her."

"There were so many of us packed on the same one. If I'd let her come with us, it would only have been more dangerous."

"This Adriana…… why can she never understand how much I favor her?"

His thumb moved as he spoke, worrying at the empty base of his ring finger, tracing a mark that wasn't there anymore. I gave a silent, cold laugh. Carmela, though, pouted and complained. : "What else could it be? Some people just never know when they've had enough."

"Vittorio, stop waiting. If she wants to make a show of snubbing you, she's not going to come see you so easily."

"I've got a fitting scheduled today. You promised you'd come with me. You're not going to blow off a friend over some woman, are you?"

At her words, Vittorio's expression tightened. He simply wrapped an arm around her shoulder, his voice turning gentle. : "How could I?"

"I've just spoiled her too much all this time. Let her get too big for her boots."

"Come on, I'll go with you today. Even if she drops dead out there, it's got nothing to do with me!"

As he spoke, he ripped down a paper double-happiness cutout beside him that hadn't stuck properly, crumpled it into a ball like so much trash, and tossed it into the wastebasket.

And though I was already soaked through, the harbor still cold in my bones, I could still feel, clear as anything, the wet trails of tears on my face.

In a daze, I trailed after Vittorio, and somehow we came to the very boutique where we'd had our alliance gown custom-made.

Carmela tried on several gowns and wasn't happy with any of them. Seeing Vittorio keep his brow knit as he stared at his phone, she pouted and grumbled. : "Hey, you're supposed to be here for me. Can you stop zoning out?"

"None of these look good. Why don't you have them bring out the one your girlfriend had made and let me try it on? Who knows, maybe it'll fit."