03

After leaving the hotel, I went to Southbank House, the place Damien had prepared for us after the wedding.

The DeLuca family’s riverside safe house had an armory belowground, an escape route through the garage, and a top-floor bedroom overlooking the river.

Damien had once said it would be our home after the ceremony.

I pressed my thumb to the lock.

【Access denied.】

I tried again.

Still denied.

The door opened from inside.

Tomas, Damien’s underboss, stood behind it.

“Mara.”

I looked past him.

The living room had changed.

My embroidery frame had been moved to the corner and covered with a dust cloth. The wedding sketches on the table were gone, replaced by medicine bottles, therapy notes, and a humidifier.

Above the fireplace, there had once been the wedding crest I designed for both families.

The black eagle and the trailing vines had taken seventeen drafts.

Now a painting of white irises hung there.

Celeste’s favorite flower.

Tomas closed the door.

“Don DeLuca ordered us to adjust the house.”

“Adjust?”

“Miss Celeste is staying here tonight. The doctor said she needs quiet and security.”

Two men were carrying my trunks out of the master bedroom.

One case had not been shut properly. A roll of fabric slipped through the gap and dragged across the floor.

It was the fabric I had chosen for my first family dinner after the wedding.

“Who told you to touch my things?”

“The Don.”

Tomas softened his voice.

“It’s temporary. Miss Celeste has trouble sleeping, and the master bedroom is closest to the security room.”

“So my access was removed.”

“Frozen,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “Temporarily. The Don said you were emotional today. He was afraid you might come back and clash with Celeste.”

I laughed once.

So in this house, I had become the person they needed protection from.

Tomas picked up a dark green jewelry box from the coffee table.

“The Don asked me to give you this.”

I did not take it.

He opened it.

Inside was an emerald brooch with the DeLuca black eagle set at its center.

Expensive. Beautiful. Meant to look like compensation.

But it was not a piece for a wife.

It was the kind of brooch the DeLuca family gave to women attached to loyal subordinates.

I had seen it three times at family dinners.

Tomas’s voice dropped.

“The Don said you were wronged today. Once Miss Celeste is stable, he will explain everything himself.”

“Where is he now?”

“With Miss Celeste. She has an appointment with her therapist.”

“In my wedding dress?”

Tomas did not answer.

I walked to the corner and pulled the cloth off the embroidery frame.

The needle was still in the fabric.

The black eagle’s wing was unfinished, the vines only half complete. After the wedding, I had planned to frame the piece and hang it in the study. Now it sat in a corner under a sheet.

I pulled out the needle and cut the thread.

Tomas’s face changed.

“Mara, the Don likes that piece.”

“Then he can finish it himself.”

I set the needle on the table and went into the study.

The safe was still there.

I entered the code and took what belonged to me.

My passport, cash, atelier ownership papers, old design books, and the silver thimble my grandmother left me.

I took nothing Damien had given me.

Tomas stood in the doorway.

“Mara, what are you doing?”

“Taking back my things.”

“The Don won’t want this.”

“Then tell him to stop me.”

Tomas fell silent.

He knew Damien would not come.

I packed the documents into my bag and looked at the safe house one last time.

My name was gone from the access system. The master bedroom no longer belonged to me. Even the wedding crest I drew by hand had been replaced.

At the door, one of the guards asked quietly,

“Should we tell the Don?”

Tomas lowered his voice.

“Tell him what? She’s upset.”

“The Don will talk to her, and she’ll come back.”

I opened the door and stepped into the night.

This time, I did not look back.