Chapter 3

My heart plummeted. I turned and bolted for the exit.

Luca stumbled when I shoved past him. I'd barely made it into the elevator before Vincent hauled me back out.

"Apologize to Luca."

His grip was crushing, and he was pointing at Luca's completely uninjured arm.

A strangled gasp escaped me. Cold sweat beaded across my forehead in an instant. Vincent paused, followed my line of sight, and finally noticed my hand.

It hung limp and loose. The wrist I'd twisted in the chaos had fully dislocated under his pull.

His breath caught. "I didn't mean to..."

I looked at him, and my voice came out terrifyingly calm. "Vincent, do you know what's most important on a surgeon's body?"

He said nothing. His lips had gone white.

A long time ago, he was the one who shielded me from a patient's unhinged family member. The man had rushed at me with a knife. Vincent took the blade for me.

Back then, he told me, "As long as you're okay. A surgeon's hands are important."

After we got together, he took over every household task. Anything he could do for me, he never let me lift a finger. Because, he said, a surgeon's hands are precious and must be protected.

"Clara, I'll treat you this well for the rest of my life. I'll make you unable to leave me."

Back then, I believed his promise.

Until three months ago, when Vincent brought Luca back to his side.

Luca had joined the Moretti family long before I ever met Vincent. He came from the Voss family, bold and reckless, and quickly became Vincent's most trusted, most intimate subordinate.

The moment he came back, my life was turned upside down.

"Forget it, forget it, I'm fine. I won't hold it against her." Luca waved a hand, the picture of magnanimity.

I turned and stepped into the elevator. Vincent and Luca followed me in.

Luca leaned on Vincent's shoulder and said casually, "The patchwork gown's almost done. Just finish the ceremony first, then go pick them up. The Don and his wife aren't there anyway."

My parents had died in a car accident the same year I met Vincent.

I stared at Vincent. "You only get away with this because I have no parents."

He dropped his gaze and said nothing. Then he canceled the parking garage floor and pressed the button for the banquet hall.

I pressed the parking garage button again, my tone biting. "After you and Luca let those hired actors assault me, you still think I'll marry you?"

Vincent's head snapped up. "You know those people were hired actors? Who told you?"

He met my eyes, then closed his own with a quiet sigh. "The Moretti family refused to attend the wedding. I just didn't want to disappoint you."

Luca slapped him heartily on the shoulder. "Boss Vincent nearly broke with his own family for you. Do you have any idea what that means?"

I stood there for a long time.

This relationship that no one had believed in from the start, stumbling and bruised all the way to today. Vincent hadn't given up. Even when I'd been the pessimistic one, he kept trying.

I hesitated through two proposals before finally accepting the ring on his third. That was the first time I ever saw Vincent choke up.

He said, "Clara, there's no running from me now."

That day, he held my hand and didn't let go for a single moment.

I closed my eyes. "Vincent, send someone to bring my family and friends back safe."

As long as they were unharmed, I could consider whether to give him one last chance to explain.

Luca's brow furrowed immediately. "No way. Vincent and I made a bet. If they row back on their own, I win. If he calls in a rescue, he wins. If you make him send help, that's cheating. There's no fun in that."

He leaned against Vincent's shoulder, looking up at me. "Have some sportsmanship. Just like the patchwork gown. Vincent paid for everything. You didn't lose a thing."

He muttered under his breath, "Calling it assault, honestly. I thought you were different from the last one. Someone who could handle this kind of game."

"If you knew about it, the other day Vincent and I played the abstinence game, slept naked in each other's arms the whole night and couldn't even..."

"That's enough." Vincent cut him off.

Luca huffed but didn't go on.

Vincent avoided my eyes and said quietly, "Luca knows where the line is. You should have a little faith in them too."

In that moment, my heart went completely cold.