All Chapters of Worth Every Bullet: Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

I opened my eyes to find Stefan Grimaldi standing in front of me. He wore a sharply cut black suit, his face carelessly handsome. "Annie Romano, you really are something. You got my parents to starve themselves just to force me into marrying you. What, you think a wedding ring will make me fall in love with you? Keep dreaming."His manner and the way he spoke were nothing like the Stefan I would come to know five years later. This was Stefan at 20.I crushed the ache rising in my chest and let myself look at him, just for a moment. I could not help it.After a pause, I forced a smile, though it cost me. "You don't want to marry me because the person you actually want is Sienna Morelli. Am I right?"Stefan let out a cold, humorless sound. "Sienna is the only person I have ever loved. What, are you giving up?""Yes," I said.I meant it.My parents had died in a gang war. Stefan's grandfather, Salvatore Grimaldi, the head of the Grimaldi family, had taken me in and kept me safe. In

My cheek burned where he had struck me.In my previous life, Sienna slit her wrists on the night of our wedding. Stefan could not find a matching blood type in time. He helplessly stood there and watched her die.He hated me for it. Even in the moment he took that bullet for me, part of him still wished he had never met me.But we were not married yet. So why had Sienna's attempt come early?It did not matter. I had come back to settle Stefan's regrets, and this one had arrived on its own.I met his gaze. "My blood type matches Sienna's. You want me to donate. That's what this is, right?"He blinked, just once. Then his voice dropped back into that hard, flat register. "You caused this. Giving your blood is the least you can do. Don't stand there looking like I owe you something."I smiled and said nothing.…Stefan took me to Sienna's house. She lay in bed, her small face drained of color, frighteningly still.Without a word, he pushed me toward the doctor.The doctor did n

Hearing Marco's ultimatum, Stefan felt the opposite impulse take hold. "Annie went to you first and complained. You pressured Sienna on her behalf, and that is what drove Sienna to cut her wrists."If Annie had kept her mouth shut, none of this would have happened, and she would never have needed to donate blood. When you trace it back, Annie brought this on herself."He continued, "I'm an adult. You have kept me on a leash my entire life. You wouldn't even let the person I loved through the front door. Now you're trying to control who I marry. I'm done living like this."His parents fell silent.Elena spoke first, her voice careful and low. "Stefan, after all this time, has Annie truly not moved you even a little? You have thrown yourself in front of death for her more than once. If that is not love, then what is it?"Stefan said nothing. His jaw tightened, and he looked away. He knew the answer. His body had recognized it long before his mind was willing to accept it.Even so,

After that day, Stefan stopped coming to see me. Yet items began appearing at the front of my shop.They were foods I had loved since childhood: my favorite pastries, the fruit I used to ask for without thinking. He left them without a word or showing his face, as though the offerings spoke for him when he did not know how to begin.I had not realized he remembered any of it.One afternoon, a gang war broke out near the shop.I gathered the children who had been playing nearby and rushed them into a hiding spot. The space was small, and once they were inside, there was no room left for me.I moved from cover to cover alone as gunfire swept across the street.Then a stray bullet tore toward me.I shut my eyes, muttering, "This is where it ends."Something slammed into me and threw me sideways. When I opened my eyes, Stefan stood between me and the source of the shot.The bullet had struck his abdomen. Blood soaked through his shirt and ran over his hands. I caught him before he