Chapter 2

When I woke the next morning, my entire body felt sore and weak.

The sheets were a mess. A black shirt I had torn the night before lay on the floor.

Pieces of the night slowly returned to me.

I remembered Dante pinning me to the bed. I remembered crying as I clung to his waist and begged him again and again not to stop.

But he never actually entered me.

Every time I tried to go further, he caught my wrists and stopped me. In the end, he used another method, one I could barely think about, to help me through the effects of the drug.

The thought of his fingers and how out of control I had been made my face burn.

The bathroom door opened.

Dante walked out without a shirt.

His shoulders, back, and neck were covered with the marks I had left on him.

I quickly looked away.

Then I noticed the black lion cuff link on the table.

Dante Leone.

He was the youngest head of the Leone family and the most feared Don on the East Coast.

He was also the man I had been engaged to three years ago.

I had run away before I ever met him.

I grabbed my clothes and headed for the door.

His low voice came from behind me.

“Planning to run from me again?”

My hand stopped on the doorknob.

After a few seconds, I turned around.

“I’m sorry.”

Dante looked at me.

“For three years ago, or for last night?”

“For both.”

I forced myself to meet his eyes.

“Three years ago, I shouldn’t have run from our engagement without even meeting you. Last night, I was drugged, and I caused you trouble.”

He did not press me about what had happened between us.

“Why did you run?”

My fingers tightened around my clothes.

“I didn’t want to become a bargaining chip in an alliance between our families. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life surrounded by gunfire and blood.”

“I thought leaving my family would let me live as an ordinary woman.”

Dante watched me for a moment.

“So this is the ordinary life you chose?”

I had no answer.

I had run from the engagement because I wanted to prove that I was not something my family could trade.

I hid my identity and gave up the Marino name.

Three years later, the man I loved saw me as property and handed me over to another man.

Dante said nothing more to me.

He turned toward the door.

“Bring in whoever dared send someone to my room last night.”

Less than ten minutes later, two guards dragged Vincent into the suite.

He dropped to his knees in front of Dante. His face had lost all color.

Dante lit a cigar and looked down at him.

“Who came to you about last night?”

Vincent kept his head lowered. His voice shook.

“A woman named Sophia reached me through her father. She and Ryan offered to send a beautiful woman to your room.”

“In return, they wanted three more months on Ryan’s gambling debt. They also wanted me to put in a word for his company on the port logistics contract.”

Dante glanced at me.

“So you sent her to my room?”

“Yes.”

Sweat appeared across Vincent’s forehead.

“They said she had no background and no one would stand up for her. I thought you would like her, so I made the arrangement without permission.”

Dante held out one hand.

A bodyguard placed a gun in his palm.

Vincent finally panicked.

“Boss, I only wanted to prepare a gift for you.”

The gunshot cut him off.

The bullet tore through Vincent’s right hand. Blood quickly spread across the carpet.

Dante looked down at him without emotion.

“You overstepped your bounds. Let that hand remind you of the rules.”

He ordered his men to strip Vincent of every position he held, freeze his accounts, and expel him from the Leone family.

After the guards dragged Vincent away, Ryan and Sophia were brought into the suite.

They clearly had no idea what had happened.

They were both struggling to hide their excitement.

Ryan started speaking the moment he entered.

“Don Leone, were you satisfied with the woman we sent last night?”

“And the extension Vincent promised on my gambling debt, and the port logistics contract...”

Then he saw me sitting beside Dante.

His voice stopped.

They must have believed that I had been unconscious the entire night. They never expected me to know who had drugged me or who had arranged the deal.

Their panic lasted only a moment.

Then they turned the blame on me.

“Vera, why are you here?”

Ryan stared at me with anger.

“Sophia and I went to the restroom last night. When we came back, you were gone.”

“We searched for you all night. I never thought you would climb into Don Leone’s bed behind my back.”

Sophia gave me a disappointed look.

“Ryan loves you so much. How could you betray him?”

I looked at them and realized how foolish I had been for the past three years.

“Didn’t the two of you drug me and send me to Don Leone’s bed last night?”

Ryan’s expression changed.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

I held his gaze.

“Weren’t you taking credit for it the moment you walked in?”

Ryan had no answer.

Sophia opened her mouth to argue, but Dante stopped her.

“Vincent has already told me everything. I don’t like liars.”

He paused.

“You can continue. Or you can find out what it costs to lie in front of me.”

The color slowly drained from Ryan’s face.

Sophia lowered her head and stopped trying to defend herself.

Ryan knew he could no longer deny it.

His anger turned into embarrassment.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and tried to explain himself to me.

“My company is about to collapse. I had no choice. If it goes under, our future is gone too.”

I looked at the man who had once promised to protect me for the rest of his life.

“So you chose to destroy me?”

“I did it for our future!”

Ryan spoke quickly, desperate to convince me.

“Didn’t you say you would stay with me no matter what happened? All you have to do is ask Don Leone for one favor, and the company can still be saved.”

Sophia quickly supported him.

“Ryan had been pushed to the edge. That’s why we did it.”

“You kept saying you loved him. What’s wrong with helping him once?”

When I did not respond, Ryan straightened his back and acted as though he were the one showing mercy.

“What’s done is done. There’s no point in pursuing it now.”

“As long as you make sure the original deal stands, I won’t hold your betrayal last night against you.”

I stared at him.

For the first time, I understood exactly how shameless he was.

The last of my feelings for him disappeared.

I removed my engagement ring and placed it in front of Ryan.

“You have no right to forgive me.”

“We’re over.”

Ryan’s expression changed immediately.

He tried to step toward me.

Dante lifted his eyes.

The guards beside the door moved in front of Ryan before he could reach me.

I looked at Ryan and Sophia.

“Get out.”

The guards dragged them from the suite.

The room finally became quiet.

Dante looked at the ring on the table.

“This is the man you chose over our engagement three years ago?”

I lowered my eyes.

“I was wrong about him.”

I asked Dante for my phone and called a number I had not contacted in three years.

The call connected after one ring.

My father’s low voice came through the phone.

“Have you finally remembered what your last name is?”

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“Dad, I want to come home.”