Chapter: The HospitalThe drive to the hospital took eleven minutes and felt like an hour. Damiano sat rigid beside me in the back of the car, jaw locked, hands clenched on his knees. I was still in my wedding dress, the silk creased now from being folded into a car seat too fast, and I didn't know whether to reach for him or give him the space his whole body was screaming for. I reached for him anyway.His hand was cold when I took it, and for one terrible second I thought he'd pull away. He didn't. His fingers closed around mine, tight enough to bruise, and he didn't say a single word the rest of the ride.The hospital lobby exploded into motion the second we walked in — staff recognizing the Rosetti name, a doctor materializing within seconds, hushed words exchanged too fast for me to follow. I caught fragments. Stable. Concussion. Lucky. I watched some of the iron leave his shoulders at the word stable, even as his face stayed carved from stone."I need to see her," he said."Of course, Mr. Rosetti.
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
Chapter: The WeddingI woke up on my wedding morning in a guest suite the size of my entire childhood home, in a bed with sheets that probably cost more than my last paycheck, and stared at the ceiling for a long time before I let myself get up.My mother had stayed the night — a small mercy Damiano had arranged without being asked, a car sent for her the evening before so she wouldn't have to make the drive alone. I hadn't expected the gesture. I wasn't sure what to do with the fact that it had moved me."You look pale," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed, still in her robe, watching me with the particular sharpness only a mother could manage. "Are you sure about this? Even now. It's not too late.""It is, actually." I tried to smile. "The debt's already gone, Mom. He cleared it the day I signed. There's no version of today where I back out and we're not in exactly the trouble we were in three weeks ago, except worse, because now he knows we tried to use him.""That's not what I asked."I looked do
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
Chapter: Ask Him About SofiaI didn't keep the photograph in the house overnight. I put it in an old shoebox at the back of my closet, underneath the one good pair of heels I owned, like distance would make it less true.It didn't work. By morning I'd taken it out four times, and read the new text — she isn't who you think she is either, neither of them are — until the words stopped looking like words at all.I told myself it didn't matter. Whoever Sofia was, whatever had happened, it happened before I existed in Damiano Rosetti's world, before any of this — the debt, the contract, the cold study with its colder offer. I had no claim to ask him anything. I was buying my mother's safety, not his honesty. But I put the photograph in my bag anyway, on the morning of the final dress fitting, like evidence I wasn't ready to stop carrying.The boutique smelled like steam and lily of the valley, the kind of place I'd never have been able to afford to walk into, let alone leave with anything. A woman with a tape measur
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
Chapter: The PaperworkI didn't sleep after that text. I lay there with the phone face-down on my chest, the glow of it gone but the words still burned into the back of my eyes — ask about Sofia — until the sky outside went from black to the dull gray that passed for dawn in my neighborhood.The papers arrived by courier at nine, delivered by a man who didn't introduce himself and didn't wait for a signature on the spot — just handed over a leather folder and said someone would collect it, signed, by five that evening.I sat at the kitchen table with my coffee going cold and read through forty pages of legal language built, as far as I could tell, to make absolutely sure I understood I was getting nothing I wasn't explicitly given. A prenuptial agreement that protected every Rosetti asset down to the silverware. A confidentiality clause with penalties steep enough to make my hands sweat reading them. A minimum term — three years — and the narrow list of conditions under which either of us could ask out ear
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
Chapter: The Other Woman"I'm sorry," I said, finding my footing again. "Who are you?"She came down the last few stairs like the marble belonged to her — and for all I knew, it did. Dark hair pinned so precisely it looked painted on. A dress that probably cost more than my rent for the year. A smile that stopped just short of her eyes and didn't bother going any further."Vittoria Conti." She said it like the name alone should mean something to me. "I've known Damiano since we were children. Our families have been close for decades." Her gaze dropped to my coat — the one with the loose button I'd been meaning to fix since October — and climbed back up to my face. "I assume he's made you some kind of offer."I didn't answer. Whatever this woman was to him, I didn't owe her an explanation of anything. Her smile sharpened at the edges. "He doesn't tell strays no. That's his one flaw. Picks up every wounded thing he finds." She stepped closer, close enough that I caught the cold, expensive scent of her perfume,
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
Chapter: The KnockChapter 1 — The Knock"I can't do this!"The words were already climbing up my throat before he'd even finished talking — before the offer was fully out of his mouth, before I understood I was standing in a stranger's study being asked to trade the rest of my life for a number I couldn't even picture. I didn't say it out loud. Not yet. I just stood there with my heart slamming against my ribs, thinking it on a loop, I can't do this, I can't do this! I can't do this! While a man I'd known for exactly four minutes waited for my answer like he already knew what it would be.But that was still hours away from where this actually started.The eviction notice sat on the kitchen table, face up, where I'd dropped it three hours ago and not touched it since.I was at the sink when I heard the car — a low growl that didn't belong on a street where half the porch lights had been out since spring and nobody had filed a complaint, because what was the point? My hands were pruned from the dishwa
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-30
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