The dozens of texts he'd sent went unread, every single one.
The one thing I could be grateful for was that the man I'd sworn myself to now cherished me, loved me, respected me.
The doorbell rang soon after. I assumed it was Enzo and didn't bother to think twice.
"Signora, this is the invitation Don Valente prepared especially for you."
It was the voice of the Valente family's steward. I got up and opened the door.
During this stretch of time, with my husband away settling business across the water, I'd gone back to stay at my family home so I could sit with my parents easily.
I took the gown box the steward handed me, along with a custom-made invitation, gold-embossed and heavy as a blood oath in my hand.
At the bottom was my husband Lorenzo Valente's signature, and beside it he'd tucked a handwritten card.
【Sweetheart, I'll be a little late to the sit-down. Go ahead without me, and I'll get there as fast as I can to be with you.】
It seemed that after Lorenzo closed that pact, those old wolves weren't willing to let him head home so soon.
Once the steward had gone, I moved to shut the door, only for it to refuse to budge.
I looked up and found that it was Enzo.
"Adriana, tomorrow night's the grand sit-down the biggest Family in the territory is throwing. Just swallow your pride, and you're still my date. A few crumbs slipping loose from between those made men would be enough to keep us set for lifetimes."
I refused him coldly, and he looked at me as if I were the one who didn't understand how the world worked.
"You're still throwing a fit at a time like this? I only got two ways through that door. Since you won't come, I'll take Gia. You'll never get another chance to walk into the ranks of the made in this lifetime!"
With that, he slammed the door and stormed off.
But contrary to what he wished, I was destined to stand at the very top of that world for the rest of my life.
The crystal chandeliers in the banquet hall blazed dazzlingly bright, and I arrived in full evening dress, the couture gown my husband had chosen for me with his own hands.
Enzo came toward me with Gia on his arm, his eyes brimming with smug ridicule.
He leaned in close and lowered his voice, certain of himself.
"Adriana, I knew you couldn't really let me go. What, you put on a nice dress and think you can pretend you don't know me, when you're the one who rushed over to find me?"
I stepped back from him at once, brows knit tight.
"Enzo, I'm here for the sit-down. Don't go flattering yourself."
Gia clearly didn't buy it. She stepped forward and demanded, "Adriana, how exactly did you slip your way in here? This is the Family's grand sit-down. Everyone through that door is one of the made."
Seeing that I stayed silent, she took it as confirmation of her guess and grew even more pleased with herself.
"Enzo only just earned two seats because he closed a five-million tribute stream across the water. What are you, that you think you belong standing on this floor?"
The guests nearby, who'd been trading low words over their glasses, went quiet one by one, curious eyes swinging toward us all at once.
"That girl's dressed so lavishly, and she carries herself so well. How could she have slipped in?"
"For the Barone boy to be settling personal grudges on a night like this is downright improper."
Enzo frowned, stepped forward, and seized my arm, his voice dropping to a warning. "Adriana, cut it out. This isn't some little-girl make-believe. Get out before the soldiers come for you, before you go and sour the mood of the men inside."
I pulled my arm free, didn't spare him a glance, and walked straight to the long table where I picked up a pastry and took a bite.
At the sight, Enzo flushed with fury and humiliation. He strode over, clamped a hand around my wrist, and tried to drag me from the floor.
"You just have to make a spectacle of yourself, don't you? Get out of here!"
Gia saw it and immediately leveled a finger at me, her voice rising sharp across the hall. "Everyone, look. A thief slipped into the sit-down. Someone call the soldiers and throw her out, before she puts Don Valente in a bad mood!"
A few guests couldn't help speaking up. "That girl doesn't look like the type to do something like that."
Others watched coldly, thinking Enzo and Gia were making an unbearable scene of themselves before their betters.
At that, Gia actually stepped in herself, reaching out to help Enzo pin me down.
Just as they were about to haul me off the floor by force, the great doors of the banquet hall were flung open.
Every guest fell silent in that instant. Glasses stopped halfway to lips. Along the walls, soldiers straightened and hands drifted toward the lapels of their jackets. The man who entered was none other than the host of the sit-down, Don Lorenzo Valente.
He strode in, and the moment he saw the sorry state I was in, his hand went still at his side. His gaze swept the room, hard and merciless.
"Just now… who called my wife a thief?"
