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He studies me, a new sharpness in his gaze making me deeply uneasy. “Marriage has made you soft,” he says at last, his words dripping with disdain. “I warned you. A wife is nothing but a distraction—a potential weakness.”

“This isn’t about Aria,” I say, the words coming out more defensive than I intend.

“Isn’t it?” Salvatore stands, buttoning his jacket. “You’ve missed three family meetings since the wedding. Gianelli reports you’ve been distracted, preoccupied. Now suddenly you’re concerned about diplomatic relations with families we crushed decades ago?” He shakes his head. “A wife is a pawn in our world, Marco. A means to an alliance, a vessel for heirs. Nothing more. You’re allowing yourself to be compromised by a pretty face.”

I feel anger rise in my throat, hot and dangerous. “My marriage is my business. The family finances are thriving under my management. Don’t mistake strategy for weakness.”

“Then what exactly are you trying to protect?” Salvatore asks, his voice dropping to a dangerous purr. “Because you’ve never questioned my methods before. Not even when I had you pull the trigger on Venucci as a boy.”

I stand as well, matching his stance. “I’m protecting our future. Blood feuds are bad for business.”

Something shifts in Salvatore’s expression—a subtle tightening around his eyes, a calculating reassessment. “Very well,” he says finally. “Handle the business as you see fit. I’ll take care of the matter of those missing children personally.”

“Father, listen, I don’t think that’s wise because—” I begin, but he raises a hand, cutting me off.

“What has gotten into you, Marco?” he raises his voice. “I’d think you’re afraid.”

I rise from my chair, the anger simmering through me. “I am NOT!”

“Don’t you dare raise your voice at me, son!” he roars now. “You’re hiding something. I’ve never known you to be afraid. What is it? Got that wife of yours pregnant, did you? Since when have you been afraid of war at our doorstep?”

“She is not pregnant,” I scream back, unable to hold myself. “I am not afraid. I’m only asking for restraint.”

“And there will be none,” my father says. “The plan is already in motion. My men are tracking down leads as we speak. If they are alive, we will find them. This isn’t open for discussion.”

He moves toward the door, then pauses, looking back. “Your wife should join us for dinner this Sunday. My daughter-in-law has been notably absent from family gatherings.”

The implied threat couldn’t be clearer. I incline my head in a short nod. “I’ll ask her.”

He looks at me quizzically. “I wonder why you’re so intent on keeping her from me.”

For that, I don’t have an answer.

When the door closes behind my father, I remain standing, my body rigid with tension, my mind racing. My father knows something—not everything, perhaps not even enough to connect Aria to the DeLucas yet—but he is hunting. And he never misses.

I cross to the window, watching my father’s Bentley wind down the driveway.

I have to warn Aria. Have to somehow convince her and Chiara to stop digging, to give up their quest for answers before those answers get them killed. But how can I do that without revealing my family’s role in their parents’ murder? Without losing Aria forever?

For the first time in my adult life, I have no clear strategy, no calculated move to make. There’s only one truth: The woman I’m obsessed with is being hunted by my own father, and protecting her could mean betraying everything I have ever been.

I think of her hand on my chest the night she told me she trusted me. How fragile her voice sounded. How much I wanted to deserve it.

And beneath it all, pulsing like an open wound, is the certainty that when Aria discovers the truth—not if, but when—she will look at me with hatred in those hazel eyes I’ve come to crave. She will never forgive me. Never understand that I have truly come to care for her, that the arrangement that brought her to me has somehow, impossibly, begun to mean everything.

The realization hits me like a physical blow. I have to choose. My family or my wife. My legacy or Aria. And whichever path I take, I will lose something irreplaceable.

I can survive losing my father’s empire. I don’t know if I can survive losing her.

19

ARIA

Chiara’s words have taken root in my mind, sprouting questions I can’t ignore. Why would Marco, with all his power and connections, refuse to help us discover our past? What could possibly make him so adamant about keeping us in the dark? He says it’s to protect us, but isn’t his power enough to do the same?

“Be careful what you wish for, Aria. Some doors, once opened, can never be closed again.”

His voice was gentle when he said it, almost tender. But his eyes had held something else. Fear? But…why?