He Took My Sister as His Fake Bride,I Took a Comatose Don as My Husband

The night before my fianc and I were supposed to sign the marriage certificate, the most powerful Don in the city's old-blood syndicate demanded that my family send a daughter to honor an arranged union with his comatose heir.

The moment my fianc Luca Barone heard the news, he ripped the diamond ring off my finger and slid it onto the ring finger of my golden-child sister, Arianna Romano.

Then he made it official online for the whole world to see:

"She's taken."

When I confronted him, shaking apart at the seams, Luca barely furrowed his brow. His voice was calm, as if what he was saying made perfect sense.

"Arianna's never had a hard day in her life. Marrying a vegetable would destroy her."

"You're already pregnant. The Falcones would never want damaged goods. This is the best solution for everyone."

I stared at the man in front of me as though seeing him for the very first time. My eyes burned.

I had loved Luca Barone for seven years. I'd taken a knife for him. I'd drunk myself into a hemorrhaging stomach at alliance dinners held in back rooms where deals were sealed over grappa and handshakes.

Just weeks ago, I'd gone through IVF to carry his child, and only then had he proposed.

But the love I thought I'd earned could never compare to his childhood bond with Arianna Romano.

Everyone waited for me to scream, to cry, to make a scene. Instead I swallowed the tears and managed a tired smile.

"Okay. I understand."

Luca nodded, satisfied. He pulled Arianna close and started discussing the sham wedding with her, saying if they were going to put on an act for the families, they might as well go all the way.

He assumed I would do what I'd always done: swallow every indignity and never leave.

But what Luca didn't know was that the moment he walked out the door with Arianna to shop for wedding gowns, the Falcone family came knocking.

"The Falcones aren't the kind of people who force anyone's hand."

"Miss Romano, if you're willing to marry into our family, I'll give you half of my son's personal fortune, plus two properties in prime American real estate."

I rested my hand on my stomach, still flat enough that no one could tell. I nodded.

"I'll marry him."

Then, without a second of hesitation, I scheduled the termination.

Serafina Falcone took me to get the marriage certificate that very day.

I watched Arianna's social media posts, one after another, showing off the lavish wedding gowns Luca was buying her. I didn't waver. I signed the papers.

The process went through without a hitch. When the red booklet landed in my palm, I felt almost dazed. Somewhere outside the clerk's office a black sedan idled at the curb, two Falcone soldiers standing with their hands clasped in front of them, watching the street in both directions.

Serafina's voice was gentle. "From this moment on, you are the young Mrs. Falcone."

"Nico Falcone is receiving treatment in America. When can you come with me?"

I touched my stomach.

"Give me ten days."

"There are a few things I still need to take care of."

Serafina placed an intricately crafted ring in my hand, her tone warm.

"Marrying into the Falcone family, you may never have love, and you won't have a normal marriage."

"But everything else you could ever want, you will have."

I looked down, my fingertip tracing the ring. Something loosened in my chest, faint but unmistakable.

"I'll treasure it."

Three full days passed before Luca bothered to come home.

"I've got it all arranged. The wedding with Arianna is in a week."

"When the Falcones come asking, just tell them you're pregnant. If they have any pride, they won't force the marriage."

"Once the dust settles, I'll take you to sign our certificate."

He reached for me the way he always did, pulling me into his arms, having decided my entire future without asking.

I looked up at him. My stomach twisted with a dull ache.

"So on paper, Arianna is your wife?"

"It's just a title. It doesn't matter. As long as I know in my heart that you're my real wife, isn't that enough?"

He said it like it was obvious. Like he was doing me a favor.

As if this arrangement was the best I could ever hope for.

It never once crossed his mind what people would call me if Arianna became his public wife and I was the one pregnant and unmarried. In our world, where a name was the only armor a woman carried, he had stripped mine to nothing.

Being abandoned on the eve of signing the certificate had already made me the biggest joke in our circle.

After a long silence, I let out a hollow laugh.

How had I not understood until now? In Luca Barone's eyes, my feelings, my reputation, none of it mattered.

But Arianna? She deserved the grandest wedding. The most spotless reputation.

"Tomorrow night at the banquet, I'll announce the wedding date to everyone."

He informed me, not asked. "Just tell people we broke up a long time ago."

"...Fine."

My nails bit into my palms, forcing down the bitterness rising in my throat.

In seven days I'd be gone. It didn't matter what I said anymore.

I'd already booked the procedure for two days from now. The baby inside me, I was letting go of that too.

Only then did Luca look satisfied. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"Bianca, if I hadn't insisted the Romano family take you back ten years ago, you'd still be in that parish home."

"As long as you behave, I'll always give you a home."

A home?

Luca believed that a girl starved of love her whole life would put up with anything to build a home with him. That no matter what he did, I would never leave.

What he didn't know was that in seven days, while he was playing groom to another woman, I would be on a plane to America as the young Mrs. Falcone, with a fortune that dwarfed everything the Barone family controlled.

By then, I would never have to beg anyone for a home again.

The banquet began at eight sharp.

The hall was one of those old Barone-owned restaurants with private upstairs rooms, the kind where half the guests carried concealed and the waitstaff knew never to linger. Bianca chandeliers threw fractured light across white tablecloths. The families were out in force.

Luca walked in with Arianna on his arm, both dressed in matching formal wear. He kissed her amid the applause and announced their wedding in seven days.

Arianna swept her hair back with a flick of her wrist, and the diamond caught the light so sharply it stung.

It was a new ring. A three-million-dollar pink diamond Luca had bid on at auction, because Arianna hadn't liked the old one. He'd replaced it without blinking.

Every socialite in the room flocked to Arianna like moths.

"Arianna and Mr. Barone are so much more suited for each other. Bianca Romano only latched onto the Barone family by clinging and refusing to let go. Guess she finally got dumped."

"Think she'll show up crying, begging to be his mistress?"

The whispers sliced through the air. I pretended not to hear.

That was when Arianna turned to me.

"Bianca, since you two have already broken up, you won't keep going after Luca, right?"

Seven years of memories flashed before my eyes. I drew a slow breath.

"No. It's over, and I'll leave with my dignity."

Quiet laughter rippled through the crowd.

No one believed me.

Luca included. He assumed I was putting on an act.

"Then shouldn't you hand over the keys to Luca's properties?" Arianna smiled, and there was nothing kind about it.

"I'd hate for you to lose control and find some excuse to get close to him again. It would be so embarrassing if you showed up at his place and threw yourself at him."

My expression hardened. I opened my mouth to say I would never do something like that.

But before I could speak, Arianna moved where no one else could see. She grabbed my wrist and forced the juice in my hand up into her own face.

"Oh! Bianca, if you didn't want to give them up, you could have just said so. Why did you have to splash me..."

She turned to Luca with wide, wounded eyes as he rushed over. Her fingertips hovered near the inner corner of her eye a heartbeat before the first tear fell.

"Bianca Romano!"

His face went dark. Without a moment's thought, he hurled his wine glass at me.

I threw my hands up on instinct, but the shattered glass sliced across the back of my hand.

"Who gave you permission to bully her?" he snarled. "Apologize to Arianna. Now."

He didn't want to hear a single word from me. The verdict was already in.

The way he looked at me, you'd think I was something vile.

The murmurs around us erupted:

"See? She couldn't handle being dumped. She finally snapped."

"Bianca Romano just didn't want to give back the keys. She was probably planning to sneak into the Barone estate, sleep her way in, get pregnant, and claw her way to the top. Unbelievable."

I stood there. Blood ran down the back of my hand, mingling with the dark stain of red wine. The room had gone very still except for the whispers, and I could feel every pair of eyes on me like a physical weight.

Luca didn't so much as glance at it. He was too busy dabbing Arianna's face with painstaking care, his expression full of tender concern.

I thought of a day years ago, when I'd been shoved to the ground by bullies at school. He had been the one to help me up, cleaning each scrape with gentle hands.

All that tenderness, I realized now, had only ever been a fraction of what he saved for Arianna.

My eyes burned red, but I forced the tears back.

I didn't argue. I didn't lose control.

Instead, under the gleeful stares of every person in that room, I reached into my bag, pulled out every single key to every property I shared with Luca Barone, and dropped them all at Arianna's feet.

"You're right. I should have done this sooner. These keys belong to the real lady of the house."

"Your home. I won't set foot in it again."

Luca's eyes snapped up to mine.

Arianna was still clutching that bundle of keys and access cards, momentarily frozen, as if she'd forgotten which expression to put on.

I looked at Luca, my voice steady.

"You got your wine thrown back, and she got the keys she wanted. Are we done here?"

Luca's throat bobbed. He reached for me, his lips parting like he wanted to say something.

But in the very next instant, Arianna let out a soft hiss and pressed her fingers to her temple.

"Luca, I think I might have caught a chill. My head hurts..."

He pulled his hand back without a second of hesitation and turned to her.

His suit jacket came off and settled over Arianna's shoulders. He leaned down to adjust her collar, his movements careful, tender. The gesture carried the practiced authority of a man used to having people watched over, belongings accounted for, loyalties maintained.

"Don't just stand here. Go back to the room and change. I'll have someone bring hot water."

The expensive fabric was already blooming with ugly juice stains, but he didn't spare it a single glance.

Just like he hadn't spared one for me.

I turned and walked away from a place that had never been mine to begin with.

I didn't notice that Luca's gaze followed me from the moment I turned around, trailing after me until I was gone.

I took a cab back to the small apartment I hadn't lived in for ages. I practically stumbled into the bathroom, gripping the edge of the sink, and threw up for what felt like forever.

Bitter acid surged up in waves, scorching my throat raw.

When I finally lifted my head, the person in the mirror stopped me cold.

Colorless face. Hollow eyes.

She looked almost identical to the girl who had walked out of Saint Lucia's parish home ten years ago.

I was sixteen that year, fighting tooth and nail for a chance at a scholarship in a parish home where every kid was clawing for the same thing.

In the end, someone locked me in the basement storage room, and I missed the exam entirely.

I pounded on the door. I screamed until my voice gave out.

No one found me until the next day, when Luca came along with the Ashford family on one of their charity visits and heard me.

He draped his jacket over my shoulders, gentle as anything. "Your name's Bianca, right? Do you want to go home?"

That jacket was so warm. It carried a faint, clean scent I could still remember to this day.

And I did go back to the Ashford household. I got my chance at school, got clothes on my back and food on the table.

The Ashfords never liked me. They preferred Arianna. They said I was too withdrawn.

Luca was the only one who was different.

He went out of his way to visit me at the Ashford house. He helped me with schoolwork. When someone picked on me, he stepped in without being asked. The Barone name alone was enough to stop most of it before it started.

I loved him in silence for three years before I worked up the courage to tell him, the day I got my acceptance letter.

The day Luca said yes, he kissed me like it was a vow. He told me he'd give me a home, that I'd never have to suffer again.

My first kiss was so sweet it made me cry.

Now the face in the mirror was streaked with bitter tears, and I couldn't even tell when they'd started.

I reached up and wiped them away, the motion clumsy and graceless.

Seven years. I was done waiting for Luca to keep his promises.

I was rinsing my face when the bathroom door swung open without warning.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Before I could react, a familiar force pinned me against the wall.

Luca's scent crashed over me, and then his mouth was on mine.

The instant I remembered he'd kissed Arianna the same way just moments ago, my stomach turned and I shoved at his chest.

He caught my wrists, his grip impossible to break.

"Why did you hand all your keys to Arianna? I thought you'd at least put up a fight."

I stared at him. The irony was almost funny.

"Isn't that what you wanted?" I said quietly. "We broke up. Giving your fiance the keys to your place seems pretty straightforward."

Something flickered behind his eyes, a trace of guilt he almost managed to hide, and his tone softened. His signet ring turned once against his knuckle, a small, restless motion.

"I told you, it's all an act. There's nothing between Arianna and me. If there were, it would've happened a long time ago."

"Just be good for a little while longer. Everything that's yours will still be yours. You'll always be mine, and the baby will always be my heir."

If not for the jasmine perfume clinging to his skin, Arianna's scent so thick I could almost taste it, I might have actually believed him.

I didn't bother explaining anymore.

I just nodded, going through the motions.

Luca wanted to tend to the cut on the back of my hand. I felt too wretched to resist.

His touch was surprisingly gentle. When I flinched, he instinctively blew on the wound, the way he'd done a hundred times before, as if nothing had changed.

I watched his profile, and my heart clenched before I could stop it.

It reminded me of the car ride home from the parish home, when he'd dabbed ointment on my scrapes with the same quiet care.

Then his phone rang.

Arianna's voice came through the speaker, trembling on the edge of tears.

"Luca... I feel awful, I'm so dizzy... Where did you go? I'm scared being alone..."

His fingers tightened visibly, pressing harder against my wound without realizing it.

I sucked in a sharp breath. He didn't notice.

"I'm out. Just picking up some medicine for you."

Arianna's voice turned small, cautious. "Did you... go see Bianca?"

Luca didn't miss a beat.

"No. I'm on my way back to you now."

It was spring, but I felt cold down to my bones.

The part of me that had softened moments ago felt pathetic.

Arianna was the one who got every ounce of his tenderness. How did I still not understand that?

To him, I was no different from an obedient pet. Something kept in a quiet room of the Barone world, never acknowledged where anyone could see.

I loved Luca. But I needed love that was mine alone, not scraps tossed my way out of obligation.

The cut on my hand had split open again from the pressure, fresh blood seeping through.

I couldn't tell which hurt more, my hand or my heart.

He hung up and seemed to remember I existed.

"Bianca, just hang on a few more days. Once this is over, we'll file the papers."

I said nothing.

A few more days.

Then I'd never have to endure this again.

Luca was about to leave when my phone buzzed.

A reminder from the OB-GYN popped up on the screen, confirming tomorrow's procedure.

His gaze drifted over to it. His brow creased, slowly.

"Why are you going to the OB-GYN?"

"Didn't you just go a few days ago?"

Until I was truly gone, I didn't want to stir up trouble.

"The morning sickness has been pretty bad lately. I'm going to the hospital to get it checked out."

Luca visibly froze for a second.

As if it only just hit him that he hadn't spared a single thought for his pregnant girlfriend's wellbeing these past few days.

Something uneasy flickered in his eyes, and he hesitated, half-considering whether to stay.

But the next second, another message from Arianna lit up his phone, urging him to hurry.

That sliver of hesitation crumbled like it had never existed.

"Then go back to the house and rest. Don't stay out overnight."

He tossed out the instruction and was gone from the apartment before the words had settled. The bolt-lock on the safehouse door clicked behind him, and then I was standing in silence with nothing but the hum of the baseboard heater.

His choice didn't surprise me. I was used to it by now.

But I did need to go back to the Barone estate. My personal documents were still there, tucked in the dresser of the room I'd been given years ago, and I'd need them for tomorrow's procedure.

The next morning, when the housekeeper led me through the front entrance of the villa, I stopped dead.

In barely half a day, the place I'd called home for years had been gutted.

The matching couple figurines that used to sit on the entryway table were gone. The rug beside the sofa, the one Luca and I had picked out together, had been swapped for something new. The framed portrait on the wall, the one we'd taken months ahead of schedule as though we were already promised to each other before God, had vanished without a trace.

Even knowing what I knew, my chest seized before I could stop it.

I forced the feeling down and headed for the stairs.

That was when the smell hit me. Acrid. Burning.

"Miss Romano, these things... they belong to the lady of the house, don't they? Burning them doesn't seem right..."

The nanny's voice carried from somewhere nearby.

Arianna's reply came laced with undisguised malice:

"Lady of the house? Get your facts straight. I'm the future Donna of this family."

"This junk was an eyesore. So what if I burned it?"

My brain whited out. I didn't think. I just ran toward the courtyard.

Firelight danced against the stone.

A pile of belongings had been thrown into a bonfire pit near the garden wall, already half-consumed. The old iron grate the Barone groundsmen used for burning brush had been repurposed like a pyre.

These were Sister Bellandi's things. The woman who raised me at Saint Lucia's parish home. Her keepsakes. Her last traces on this earth.

I lost my mind. I lunged at the fire without a second thought, bare hands reaching straight into the flames.

"Bianca, are you insane?!"

Arianna stumbled back a step, startled.

I didn't spare her a glance.

Fire seared my skin, the pain boring down to bone, but I couldn't feel it. I clawed everything I could reach out of the blaze, dragging it free with both hands.

Blisters rose instantly across my palms.

I gritted my teeth and smothered the flames with my body, shaking so hard I could barely stay upright.

When I finally looked up, my eyes were raw and burning.

"What is wrong with you, Arianna? Why would you burn my things?"

Arianna stared down at me from where she stood, untouched. Her fingertips drifted near the inner corner of her eye, though no tears had arrived yet.

"They were an eyesore. So I burned them."

"Besides, who knows if this junk from some parish orphanage is even clean?"

"What if it carries diseases?"

One breezy sentence, and she'd insulted both me and the woman who raised me in a single breath.

The last thread holding me together snapped.

I swung my arm and slapped her across the face with everything I had.

The force knocked Arianna sideways. She opened her mouth to curse at me, but a voice cut through first:

"Bianca, what the hell are you doing?!"

Luca's voice cracked through the courtyard like a whip.

He stormed over and shoved me away without a heartbeat of hesitation. One of the soldiers posted at the garden gate took a single step forward, then stopped, reading the situation and pulling back against the wall.

I staggered backward, nearly falling into the still-smoldering fire pit.

He was already pulling Arianna into his arms.

"Why did you hit her?" His face was terrifyingly dark.

My voice broke. "She burned Sister Bellandi's things!"

Luca knew better than anyone what those keepsakes meant to me.

He knew the parish home director had been the closest thing to a mother I'd ever had. He had been there the day I told him about the worn holy card she used to press into my palm, thumb to skin, as if courage could be passed between us.

In that moment, I still believed that just this once, he would take my side.

But Luca only frowned, his tone clipped with impatience.

"It's just some old junk."

"Arianna thought it was trash and cleaned it out. She meant well."

"Why would you hit her over that?"

My heart stopped.

Right on cue, Arianna's eyes reddened, her voice going soft and wounded:

"I'm sorry, Bianca. I really didn't know those things meant so much to you..."

"I was just worried they weren't sanitary. I didn't want Luca getting sick..."

"You don't need to apologize." Luca cut her off, his voice hard as iron. "If anyone owes an apology, it's her."

He turned to me. His gaze went cold.

"Bianca. Apologize to Arianna. Now."

There is no grief greater than a dead heart.

I stared at the man in front of me, hollow with disappointment.

He looked like a stranger. The heir to the Barone name, the boy who'd pulled me out of Saint Lucia's, the man who'd sworn I was his. He looked like someone I had never met.

"I won't apologize." Each word fell from my lips, frozen solid. "I did nothing wrong."

"She did it on purpose. If you don't believe me, ask the nanny."

The nanny nodded quickly. "It's true, sir. Miss Romano, she..."

Luca cut her off without looking. "A nanny's word means nothing."

"Luca, my face hurts so much..." Arianna's tears spilled instantly. She cupped her cheek, sucking in a delicate breath.

His expression hardened.

"Since these things are causing this much trouble,"

he bent down and picked up the lighter from the ground,

"then get rid of them for good."

"Maybe then you'll stop acting like a lunatic."

The flame snapped back to life with a sharp pop.

Every muscle in my body locked. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.

"Luca, what are you doing?!"

The scream tore out of me raw, and I threw myself toward the fire.

But he caught me from behind, arms clamping around me like a vice.

I thrashed against him, my voice cracking apart:

"I was wrong... I was wrong, okay..."

"I'll apologize. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just put out the fire, please?"

"I'm begging you, Luca!"

This was the first time I had ever broken down like this. The first time I had begged him on my knees.

Something clenched in Luca's chest. His grip loosened, just barely.

I seized that split second, wrenched free, and threw myself into the flames.

Fire licked up my arms. The pain went past sharp into numb.

But in the end, the only thing I pulled out was a watch, blackened beyond recognition.

I knelt on the ground, hollowed out. Like someone had reached inside me and scooped out everything that made me whole.

The sounds around me faded to nothing. The soldier at the gate, the wind through the Barone estate cypresses, Arianna's theatrical sniffling. All of it gone.

I didn't register anything until Luca hauled me to my feet.

He looked at me, and for one instant, regret flashed through his eyes. The recognition that he'd gone too far. His signet ring was still against his knuckle, motionless.

But then his gaze landed on Arianna's swollen cheek, and that flicker of regret vanished as cleanly as if it had never been there.

"Let this be a lesson."

"Now you'll know what's acceptable and what isn't. You're supposed to be the future Mrs. Barone. You can't go around slapping people like some common shrew."

I didn't want to hear another word. I just stared at him, eyes bloodshot, looking at him the way you look at an enemy.

The look cut him. He flinched, glanced away. Then the flinch curdled into anger at my defiance.

"You still don't think you were wrong?"

He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the bedroom we used to share, locking the door behind him.

"Then sit in here and cool off!"

I couldn't fight him. All I could do was stand there, trapped, the scorched watch still clutched in my blistered hand.

My eyes burned. But not a single tear would come.

I stood against the door for a long, long time. My legs went numb before I finally managed to calm down.

Since I couldn't get out, I might as well start packing what was mine.

I threw every dress, every handbag Luca had ever given me into the trash. Silk from Milan, calfskin clutches bought during territory visits, jewelry boxes stamped with the names of shops that only opened their back rooms for Family wives. All of it went in.

It wasn't until I was done that I realized.

All I could actually take with me was an ID card and my personal documents.

Nothing else.

Luca didn't let me out until the following evening, for dinner.

He noticed the things in the trash. I saw him pause. His gaze swept the pile of discarded gifts, then lifted to me. In the Barone compound, waste was a statement. Throwing away what a man had given you was either grief or defiance, and both required an answer.

"What kind of tantrum is this?"

I just smiled faintly.

"They got old. I stopped liking them. So I tossed them."

That shut him up. He was quiet for a beat, and when he spoke again, it was in that tone of his, the one that made everything sound like charity:

"I'll buy you new ones in a couple days. Consider it an apology."

"Come eat. And be nice to Arianna. She's only staying a few days."

"Stop being jealous and picking fights with her."

He paused at the end, just slightly. His signet ring sat motionless on his finger.

"Burning those things... I may have gone too far."

"But people need to move forward. Sister Bellandi's been gone a long time now."

I nodded. My voice was flat.

"Fine."

He'd gotten what should have been my forgiveness, but something about it made Luca uneasy. I was standing right in front of him, yet he felt like I was already far away.

Tomorrow was the last day of my arrangement with the Falcone family.

My plan was simple: wake up, go through with the surgery, and leave.

But in the dead of night, the bedroom door slammed open. Before I could even register what was happening, Luca hauled me out of bed and dragged me down the hall to the room next door. Past the guard stationed at the landing, who looked once and looked away. No one in the Barone compound intervened when the heir moved with that kind of fury.

His grip was brutal, like he wanted to break me apart. The moment he let go, I slammed into the wall. Pain exploded across my back and my vision went black.

Before I could recover, his voice came down from above, raw with fury.

"Bianca, is this how badly you can't stand Arianna? You're so jealous you'd drug her?"

My ears rang. My vision swam, then slowly focused.

On the bed, Arianna's cheeks were flushed, her clothes disheveled. She was practically draped over Luca, whimpering and pressing herself into his arms. Her fingertips hovered near the inner corner of her eye, just for a heartbeat, before the first tear slipped free.

"It wasn't me."

My voice was hoarse, but I forced the words out. "I didn't do anything like that."

The moment I finished speaking, Arianna flinched as though she'd been struck. The tears came instantly.

"Bianca... the only thing I ate tonight was the dessert you had the housekeeper bring me. I didn't touch anything else..."

"I had someone bring you dessert?" I stared at her, my expression ice cold.

"You burned Sister Bellandi's keepsakes, and you think I'd send you a treat? Arianna, do you really think that highly of yourself?"

My voice dropped lower, shaking with barely contained rage. "And what would I even gain from drugging you? If you're going to frame someone, at least come up with a believable story."

"Enough with the excuses."

Luca cut in, irritation thick in his voice.

"The housekeeper already admitted you told her to do it."

"Witness and evidence, both accounted for. How am I supposed to believe you?"

The cold seeped into my chest, inch by inch. I hadn't imagined that in Luca's mind, I was someone capable of this.

"What witness? What evidence?"

I bit down hard on my lip, the words grinding out between my teeth.

"This house has security cameras everywhere. If you really think I did it, then check the footage. One look and you'll know the truth."

I held his gaze, stubborn, refusing to bend.

I would not confess to something I didn't do.

Luca hesitated. Just for a second. The signet ring twitched once against his knuckle.

But then Arianna let out a soft, shuddering gasp and clung to him tighter, her voice trembling and paper-thin.

"Luca, it hurts so much... please help me, please..."

Her collar had slipped. Pale skin spilled into view.

Luca's hand froze. Instinct told him to push her away.

But Arianna ducked her head and sank her teeth into her own arm without a moment's hesitation. Hard.

Blood welled up instantly.

Bright red, streaming down her skin. Impossible to look away from.

"I know you only see me as a little sister, Luca. I know this whole marriage these past few days was just an act. It's my fault for letting myself get lost in how sweet it felt, for letting myself imagine you might care about me, even a little..."

Her voice shook. The tears fell harder.

"I'll handle it myself. Don't worry about me. I don't want to be a burden to either of you anymore..."

Luca's expression changed completely. He grabbed her arm to stop her from biting down again, pulling her into his arms to hold her still. When he spoke, his voice was rough and strained.

"Stop hurting yourself. I'll help you."

I stared at Luca, almost certain I'd misheard him.

But there was no guilt on his face. Only disappointment. In me.

"Bianca, I thought you were different from all those petty, scheming women. Above using dirty tricks to bully people. But I was wrong."

My throat clenched. It felt like someone was carving my chest open, one slow cut at a time.

"Since you're the one who drugged her," Luca said, refusing to meet my eyes, "then the consequences are yours to bear."

Arianna nestled obediently against his chest, but her gaze found mine over his shoulder, bright with undisguised triumph.

A violent cramp tore through my lower abdomen, something twisting and churning inside me. The pain nearly buckled my knees.

I gritted through it, my voice cold and cutting. "Luca, where is your brain? I drugged Arianna and then sent my own man to be the cure?"

"And when you could've just called a private doctor..."

Before I could finish, Arianna let out a soft whimper and pressed her hand to her wound.

"Luca, just go. Don't worry about me. I'm afraid if you actually help me, my sister will hate me even more."

"And don't blame her, either. She just loves you too much. That's why she did something like this."

I'd already decided to let go of Luca, but I still couldn't stand there and let Arianna spew lies that dragged my name through the mud. Not in the Barone house. Not where the walls had ears and every whisper fed the machine that decided who mattered and who got buried.

"Arianna, have you no shame? You drugged yourself, then threw yourself at my man and pointed the finger at me. Were you raised by wolves?"

The crack of his open hand against my face split the room in half.

The force whipped my head to the side. A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears.

"Bianca, Arianna never once said she wanted anything done to you, but you haven't stopped attacking her. Guess that's what happens when you grow up in a parish home. Not an ounce of class."

"Since you love drugging people so much, tonight you're going to sit here and watch exactly what that costs."

Before I could react, he'd dragged me to a chair and bound me to it with strips of clothing.

As he pulled off his shirt, he left me with one last sentence: "You brought this on yourself. Don't blame me."

His signet ring caught the bedside light as he turned away. It wasn't moving. It sat dead still on his knuckle, and I understood then that he hadn't made a decision in anger. He'd made it the way he made all of them. Quietly. Without appeal.

A bone-deep chill spread through me.

The entire night, I watched the man I'd loved for ten years sleep with another woman.

Panting. Wet kisses. The sounds circled my ears like a curse that wouldn't break.

And the whole time, my abdomen screamed with pain. Cold sweat soaked through every layer I wore.

I tried to call for help, but Luca dismissed it as another ploy for attention. Moments later, Arianna's moans grew louder, drowning me out.

At first I still cried. Then the tears ran dry, and all that was left was numbness.

Every image seared into my eyes was the same reminder: this is what happens when you love the wrong person.

The last shred of feeling I had left died that night.

The moaning lasted until dawn. Only then did Luca finally untie me.

"Learned your lesson?"

He looked down at me from above.

When no answer came, he glanced down and saw my face drained white, my consciousness slipping.

Panic flickered across his features. He checked beneath me and found a pool of red soaking through.

He bent to scoop me up, ready to rush to the hospital, but Arianna's voice drifted from the bed.

"Luca, you were too rough last night. I think I'm bleeding down there. Could you come take a look?"

"If not, you could just send one of the housekeepers. That's fine too."

Her voice was hoarse, fragile. She looked utterly pitiful. Her fingertips hovered near the inner corner of her eye, and even through the haze of my pain I recognized the gesture for what it was. The tears hadn't arrived yet. The calculation had.

Luca hesitated. His resolve softened. It had been Arianna's first time, after all, and he hadn't exactly held back.

So I watched him set me down, watched him tell me to wait.

But I was in so much pain.

I forced myself upright, called a car on my own, and staggered toward the door one lurching step at a time. The hallway of the Barone estate stretched long and unforgiving, the portraits of old family men watching me bleed past them.

"Where are you going, sis?"

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, Arianna rushed over and seized my wrist.

"I'm so sorry, sis. This is all my fault. I'm the reason you and Luca never got to make things official."

She tilted her face up at me, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Hit me, yell at me, I'll take it all. Just please don't break up with him over me..."

My head swam. A low buzz filled my ears.

"Let go." My throat was so dry it burned.

Arianna only gripped tighter, stepping closer, as if terrified I'd slip away.

"Please don't leave, sis. Luca really does love you. He's just soft-hearted. What he feels for me is only habit. Don't misunderstand him..."

Love me?

The pain in my abdomen clenched like a fist. My legs nearly gave out, and a wave of nausea surged up with the irritation.

"Enough." My voice went cold. "Arianna, who exactly are you performing for?"

I yanked my hand back.

I barely used any force.

But in that instant, her body went limp and she tipped backward.

"Ah!"

Her shriek split the stairwell open.

I froze for a fraction of a second, then reached for her on instinct.

My fingertips grazed her sleeve, but she was already falling.

Weightlessness seized me.

Arianna's grip dragged me down with her.

The world flipped.

My back, my elbows, my knees slammed against the hard edges of each step, over and over.

Thud.

I hit the ground floor hard. My vision went black.

Then I heard footsteps, fast and frantic.

"Bianca!"

Luca's voice.

He came tearing down the stairs, steps uneven, more rattled than I'd ever heard him. In this house, a Barone heir did not run. He was running.

Through blurred vision, I saw him reach me.

But before he could get close, a hand caught his sleeve.

"Luca..."

Arianna's voice, thin as thread.

"I lost my footing. It wasn't her fault. She grabbed for me and got pulled down too..."

"Go check on her first. She fell harder than I did..."

Luca's movement stuttered.

He'd been about to come to me. But that pause was all it took. His eyes landed on Arianna's disheveled state instead.

Her collar had shifted, exposing the marks he'd left on her skin the night before.

His throat bobbed.

I thought, even if Luca had no conscience at all, he'd at least check on me first. I was carrying his child. I'd just tumbled down an entire flight of stairs in the Barone compound, bleeding through my clothes where anyone with eyes could see.

He didn't.

I watched him gather Arianna into his arms.

Careful. Gentle. Like she was something precious and breakable.

"Let me take you to the hospital first. You're already fragile, and yesterday I... nothing else can happen to you."

Luca didn't look at me once when he said it.

Arianna clutched the front of his shirt, her voice small. "But what about Bianca..."

"I'll come back for her."

He carried Arianna out without looking back.

His footsteps faded down the hall.

I was the only one left, lying on the cold floor.

I stared at the ceiling. My vision blurred, slowly, then all at once.

I laughed.

It came out hoarse and hollow.

My hand found my stomach. My fingers were shaking.

"Baby, did you see that?"

"Your daddy doesn't love Mommy. He doesn't love you either."

"How could Mommy... ever dare bring you into this world."

I don't know how long I lay there before my phone buzzed beside me.

The car I'd called earlier had arrived.

I pressed my palms against the floor and pushed myself up, inch by inch. My body felt like it had been taken apart and put back wrong. Every movement sent tremors of pain through me.

But I stood up.

One step at a time, I walked toward the door. Past the chair where the rope still hung loose. Past the threshold that smelled of his cologne and her perfume and something copper underneath.

Blood ran down my legs. I couldn't feel it anymore.

By the time they wheeled me into the operating room, my consciousness was already slipping.

Voices drifted in and out.

"Miscarriage... she needs a D&C..."

"Where's her family?"

"There's no family."

I don't know how much time passed before I opened my eyes again.

Before I could figure out where I was, the door slammed open.

"Bianca!"

Luca stormed in, breathing hard. Two of his soldiers flanked the doorway but didn't follow. They knew the look on his face. Everyone who worked for the Barone Family knew what that look meant.

He crossed the room in three strides and seized my wrist. His grip was so tight I thought the bones would splinter.

"You have the nerve to just lie here?"

His voice was low, but the fury in it was unmistakable. His signet ring dug into my skin where his fingers locked around me, and it wasn't moving. It wasn't rolling. The ring was perfectly, terribly still.

"Arianna's spleen ruptured because you pushed her. Massive hemorrhaging. She's in emergency surgery right now. You're the same blood type. You're giving her a transfusion."

The fog in my head cleared instantly.

What he was accusing me of was so absurd that for a moment I forgot the pain entirely.

"I didn't push her." I wrenched my hand free, my voice raw and cold. "Luca, have you lost your mind? You want me to give blood? I just had a"

"You're still denying it!"

He cut me off, his eyes darkening with something vicious.

"I saw it with my own eyes. You pushed her down those stairs. Arianna is the one covering for you because she's too kind, afraid I'd blame you. She protected you, and you won't even save her life?!"

I watched him construct his own version of reality and convict me with it. It was so ridiculous I almost laughed. "Who asked for her kindness? I didn't do it, and I didn't do it!"

"If something happens to Arianna, how are you going to keep your place with the Romanos? Is that what you want? For them to cut you off? Would that make you happy?"

He wasn't listening to a single word I said. His brow furrowed like he genuinely believed he was looking out for me.

"You and Arianna have the same blood type," he said. "You're donating. Consider it your apology."

Something lodged in my chest. I couldn't breathe.

"I told you. I didn't push her." Every word was deliberate. "And I just"

"Stop pretending to be sick." Luca's frown deepened, his patience visibly fraying. "Bianca, when did you become like this? You won't own up to what you did, and now you're playing the victim?"

I lost every last shred of desire to communicate with him.

When someone has already decided you're guilty, nothing you say will ever be the right thing.

Luca grabbed me and dragged me off the bed, hauling me toward Arianna's operating room. The soldiers in the corridor flattened against the wall as we passed, eyes down, mouths shut. Omert ran both ways in the Barone house. They saw nothing. They would say nothing.

A doctor stood by the entrance. The moment he saw Luca, he straightened. A bought physician knew which family paid his salary and what the cost of hesitation was.

"Draw her blood." Luca didn't waste a single word.

The doctor glanced at me, hesitation flickering across his face. "But this young woman's complexion..."

"She's fine." Luca cut him off. "Draw it."

I was pushed into a chair. My sleeve was rolled up. When the needle pierced the vein, the cold spread up my arm like ice water filling my veins.

The blood left me drop by drop.

I'd just had a miscarriage. I had no strength to fight back. All I could do was let my head fall against the chair and stare up at the white light overhead, watching the halo pulse and expand, pulse and expand.

My consciousness began to drift.

Luca suddenly took my hand. His voice softened. His signet ring rolled once against his knuckle, slow and deliberate, as the words came.

"Bianca, as long as Arianna pulls through, everything that happened these past two days... we'll pretend none of it ever happened."

I didn't look at him.

"I know you have a problem with her. It's because she has feelings for me."

"But I've told you so many times. What I feel for Arianna is the bond of growing up together. She's no different from a little sister to me."

"My wife will only ever be you."

"Once you're feeling better, we'll have the ceremony. I'll give you the grandest wedding. The Barone name, the feast, all of it."

"So, Bianca, be good. Stop making trouble."

A sister he'd slept with and still called pure?

What if Arianna got pregnant with his child?

Still a sister then?

But those thoughts barely flickered through my mind.

They were gone almost as soon as they came.

None of it mattered anymore.

I was leaving.

Seven years of propping Luca up, plus this blood I was giving now. That was more than enough to repay the debt of him pulling me out of the parish home.

After this, whoever Luca loved, married, or took to bed had nothing to do with me.

When the transfusion was over, I could barely stay on my feet.

My vision went black. I nearly collapsed right there on the floor.

But Luca didn't notice. He was already gone, checking on Arianna.

I pulled out my phone. My fingers trembled as I sent my location to Serafina.

"Can you come get me?"

The reply came almost instantly.

"On my way."

I turned and walked back to my hospital room.

I left the miscarriage report on the bed.

All I took was my ID, my personal documents, and the broken watch that had belonged to Sister Bellandi.

One step at a time, I climbed to the hospital rooftop.

A private jet was already waiting. Its engine hummed low against the night, the Falcone crest barely visible on the tail fin.

The cabin door opened. A doctor Serafina had arranged stood inside and rushed over the moment she saw me, checking my vitals.

Clouds churned outside the window.

When I arrived at the private hospital on Falcone-controlled ground in New York and saw my new husband lying there in his coma, the first thing I did was hold our ring-bearing hands together, take a photo, and post it with a caption:

"Taken."

From that moment on,

Luca Barone had nothing to do with me.