After leaving the hospital, Adriana drove straight to the workshop.
Lorenzo had set it up for her after the wedding. He'd carried the guilt of it like a stone — she'd surrendered her craft to nurse him back from the wound he took in that old hit, so he'd given her this place to make amends.
She would not take a single dollar of Lorenzo Moretti's laundered fortune when she severed the bond. But this workshop she would claim. Every piece inside it had been born from her own hands, her own sleepless nights, her own talent. She needed it to build a future for herself and the child.
She hadn't been there long when her courier handed her an outgoing inventory log.
Her necklaces. Her bracelets. The pieces from her archival collection — commissions the Family had once paraded as proof of its refinement. Every last one had been signed out and delivered to Vanessa Carbone, on the Don's order.
Rage surged through her chest. She reached for her phone to call him.
Then she saw her own name spreading across the screens, passed hand to hand through every channel the Family didn't control.
The recording was already everywhere. In it, she sat alone in the hospital waiting room. And there was Lorenzo, cradling Vanessa in his arms, murmuring to her like she was something precious.
The talk had erupted beneath it.
"So even Adriana Falcone knows when to keep her mouth shut. Guess she's terrified of losing her place in the Moretti name."
"Vanessa's clearly the one Lorenzo actually wants. Did you see how panicked he looked holding her?"
"Adriana only married into the famiglia because she tended his wound after the hit. She leveraged a debt into a wedding band, and now the truth's catching up."
The words were sharp as needles, but they couldn't pierce a heart that had already gone cold.
Lorenzo saw the recording too. His answer was a seven-figure wire and a single message.
[Vanessa had nightmares and needed me there. Be good.]
Adriana stared at the number on her screen. Nothing stirred behind her eyes.
She dialed his number. When he picked up, her voice was ice stripped of every last trace of feeling.
"Lorenzo, you gave my designs to your kept woman. Did you think to ask me first?"
On the other end, Lorenzo sounded utterly unbothered, even irritated, as though she were the one being unreasonable.
"Isn't the cash I sent you enough to cover it? You were so well-behaved yesterday. What happened?"
Adriana laughed. She hung up without another word and went back to packing.
She didn't leave the workshop until the following day.
Once she finished gathering her things, she would never set foot in that place again.
But when she pushed open the front door of the estate, she found Vanessa curled on the sofa, nestled against Lorenzo, cooing up at him. They looked every bit the picture of a devoted young couple.
Vanessa heard the door and turned. The moment she spotted Adriana, her expression shifted into something small and frightened, and she shrank deeper into Lorenzo's arms.
"Hey, sis."
Adriana's body trembled before she could stop it. She turned the slim band on her finger a slow quarter-rotation, looked at the scene, and let the words fall, razor-edged.
"How thoughtful of you, Don Moretti. Bringing your kept woman under your own roof to convalesce. Was the house feeling too big and empty? Needed a little extra warmth?"
Lorenzo's expression darkened in an instant. He straightened, his gaze locking onto Adriana, disappointment heavy in every syllable.
"Adriana, I actually thought you'd learned your lesson. And here you go again with the passive-aggressive nonsense. Vanessa's ankle hasn't healed. I don't feel right leaving her out there on her own. I brought her back to rest for a few days. What's the problem?"
His words snuffed out the last faint ember of anything she'd still been holding onto.
She looked at the man in front of her, the man who had once loved her down to the marrow of his bones, and felt nothing. Not anger. Not grief. Just a vast, hollow indifference.
She didn't argue. She swept one cool glance over the two of them, turned, and walked toward the bedroom.
The door closed behind her, sealing out Vanessa's soft, theatrical sobs. Sealing out the last fragile thread that still tied her to Lorenzo Moretti.
Adriana slid down against the door until she was sitting on the floor. Her hand drifted to her stomach, and she whispered into the quiet.
"You won't blame Mommy for not giving you a whole family, will you, little one?"
