"Once I've seen to her injuries, I'll come back and make it up to you, all right? I told you I'd give you a gift. Don't be upset, okay?"
But I knew this show was never for outsiders.
It was for me.
This devotion. He'd faked it for five years.
And now it was time for it to end.
I let my hands lie still in my lap and did not touch the ring on my finger. Then I signed my name on the dissolution of the alliance, the release sealed where it counted, and along with the video screenshots lifted from his phone, I set them all to send on a timer.
I took the medicine, sat at the head of the bed, and waited until the small hours.
He still never came.
Only the attendant came, bearing news.
Word ran through the vessel that the Don of the Falcone Family had moved heaven and earth tonight for the woman he loved.
Bianca had only caught a chill from falling in the water, and he'd summoned every last physician aboard.
For that, he'd thought nothing of throwing away a fortune.
At daybreak, I called him.
He was too busy auctioning jewels for Bianca to spare me a moment.
They released paper lanterns into the dark above the water.
All around, the envious murmurs of the guests rose and fell.
Only then did he remember the call he'd picked up.
"Adriana? I'm getting your gift ready. Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Let me send the doctor over to you first. I'll be there right away."
I lowered my head and watched the countdown on the screen tick down, second by second, to the moment the message would send.
Down in the great hall, Lorenzo held Bianca tight against him.
"It's nothing. You go ahead, then. I won't keep you."
"All right. Be good and wait for me in the room. Your husband will be there soon."
The call ended.
I turned and walked away from all of it.
The auction wrapped up.
As always, Lorenzo gave the jewels to Bianca.
He left behind that gift, took the gift box, and headed back toward the private lounge.
But the room was empty.
A faint unease stirred in him.
He was about to call and ask when Matteo burst in from the doorway, his face ashen.
"It's bad, Lorenzo. Something's happened to Adriana. Those men from before, I don't know what went wrong, but they never went ashore the way they were supposed to. Someone saw them leave the vessel, and they took Adriana with them."
The words had barely landed when Lorenzo's phone rang.
A message had come in.
