Chapter 2

Light was pouring through the window when I woke up.

The bed beside me was empty. Cole was gone.

My throat felt raw. I pushed myself up, legs weak, and made it to the door before I heard voices outside.

“Don, I acted without your permission last night. I'll take whatever punishment you decide.”

It was him. The one who dragged me here. Standing with his head bowed in front of Cole.

“Rio, you've never given me a reason to doubt you before. But last night you went too far. You don't get to make that call on your own.”

My stomach dropped.

Rio.

His name sounded almost like my fiancé's. Leo. But this man was nothing like him.

I hated him more with every second.

Their conversation kept going.

“Don, I want to ask you something.” Rio's voice was steady. “I haven't seen my fiancée in years. Once this is settled, I want time off. I want to bring her home properly.”

Cole huffed. “You risk your neck for this family and that's the one thing you ask for?”

Rio bowed his head again. “Yes. She's the only one I've ever wanted.”

That kind of loyalty.

I thought of Leo.

We grew up in the same orphanage. When he was fifteen, he dropped out of school and joined a crew in New York so I could keep going.

He never once complained. Money hit my account every month like clockwork. Every few weeks I'd get a text.

Doing fine. Don't worry about me.

Money come through okay?

For four years, we'd barely seen each other. Never even a video call. He said it kept me safe, kept me out of his world.

But he never forgot me. Every time we did talk, he'd say the same thing.

“Don't be with anyone else. Once I save enough, I'm proposing. Wait for me.”

So I waited.

This summer, I took the job on the Aurelia without telling him. I wanted to save my own money. I wanted to surprise him, show him I could carry some of the weight too.

I used to picture a hundred ways we'd finally see each other again.

Now, after last night, all of that might be gone.

How was I supposed to look him in the eye?

Tears ran down my face.

I hated Rio.