Chapter 21

Aurora POV

There’s a fine line between fear and clarity.

Right now, I’m walking it like a tightrope stretched over fire.

I need to be smart. I need to be strategic. And I need to start thinking like Dominic.

I have no delusions about what he’s capable of. The man may have saved me once, maybe even twice because of his own self gains, but that doesn’t mean he won’t kill me if and when I stand in his way.

I’m a variable in his plan, a risk he can’t gamble on if it means getting in the way of what he really wants: killing his father. If he finds out I know too much or that I’ve figured out the truth he won’t hesitate in speeding up whatever plan he’s carefully laying the pieces out to play.

If he senses he can kill me and still win this, he absolutely will. I have to make sure that I’m more than just a pawn, more than just a bargaining chip to use on the day of my wedding.

I need leverage. Iron-clad, undeniable, and completely bulletproof.

It takes me close to four hours to compose myself enough to talk to Gianna.

After coming home from the jewelry store, two wedding sets richer, I’d quickly made an excuse to head up to my room to freshen up before dinner, leaving my step-sister, step-mother and Gianna down in the front entryway.

Alone, I take the time to come up with some sort of game plan. Gianna isn’t the type to be easily convinced of anything, even if it’s coming from my mouth. She’s a skeptic at heart, believing in seeing real and tangible evidence rather than relying on anyone’s word of mouth no matter how trustworthy the source.

It’s a trait she picked up from her father long ago and has held to her chest since. I’ve never blamed her for it, and honestly, always envied how unswayable she could be at times.

However, now that my—and most likely her family’s—life is on the line, getting her to listen to me and trust that what I’m saying is completely true may be my toughest challenge yet.

I shouldn’t drag her into this but I know I can’t do it alone. I need an ally I can rely on. One who I know will have my back regardless of the circumstances or whoever tries to threaten me in the process.

She’s in her room by the time I finally make it out of my own. Her back is turned towards the doorway, her headphones on as she leans over her desk to scribble in a notebook while a large text is spread out in front of her.

Unlike me, Gianna’s been studying to go to school for the past year. Another privilege I envy about her. A part of me will always resent her just a little bit for her father believing in letting her get an education and not be married off like some broodmare.

Immature, I know. It’s not her fault my family sucks.

I shut the door behind me, breathing in deeply before crossing the room. My heart is hammering loud in my chest, making my vision double. The worst part about all of this is that I’m terrified Gianna won’t believe me.

That she’ll think I’ve gone crazy because I don’t want to marry Leonardo and that will be her excuse to completely write me off. Or worse, tell Stefano something is wrong with me. The last thing I need is for this information to leak out to anyone, let alone one of my father’s inner circle.

I just… have to hope like hell she believes me.

If not, then I’m simply signing my own death warrant for Dominic. He won’t even need to worry about pulling the trigger if my own father gets to me first.

She glances up when I tap her on the shoulder, pulling her headphones down to hook around her neck, her smile soft. “Hey, you. Is it dinner time?”

I shake my head. “I wanted to talk to you.”

She sets her pencil down, stretching her arms above her head and letting out a deep groan when a few of her joints pops. As soon as she sighs, she slumps back into her chair, spinning it around to face me. “What’s up, buttercup?”

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I sink down onto the edge of her bed, balancing my laptop that I brought with me in my lap. It feels hot to the touch where it rests against my skin—the poor thing overloaded with all of the tabs I’ve had open on it for days during my research.

Gianna watches me patiently while she waits for me to answer.

I breathe in again, slowly opening my laptop. “So, I’ve been doing some digging.”

“Yeah?” She hooks a leg over her knee. “On?”

“It started out with the Ferrari family. Then everything kind of snowballed into the Guerrero family.”

She blinks when I glance over the edge of my laptop at me. “The Ferrari family? Why in the world would you care about them? Aren’t they, like, all dead?”

“Yes.” I move my finger over the trackpad, clicking through the first set of articles I discovered online. “I kind of went down a rabbit hole.”

When I hand the laptop over to her, she takes it in careful hands. “What’s this?”

“Just read through all the tabs. I highlighted most of what is important.”

I don’t know how much time passes, or how long I sit on the edge of my best friend’s bed with my fingers twisting the hem of my shirt around until my skin feels raw, but by the time she finally looks up from my laptop’s screen, her jaw has dropped.

“I…” She shakes her head. “Wait, so. It was… all a planned attack?”

Leaning forward, I slip the laptop from her and set it down onto the bed next to me. “From what I’ve gathered, yes. The Guerreros have been looking for a way to absorb the syndicates in the city and create a monopoly. They’re looking to do that with our family next.”

She doesn’t speak for a full minute. She just stares at where my laptop sits on her bed. When she finally does open her mouth again, she says, “But… didn’t Dominic’s men die during that whole conflict too?”

Nodding, I reply, “Yes. I think that’s why he’s choosing our family to take the fall next. Strike two birds with one stone: get revenge for his men dying and take out his father and blame us for it.”

“Holy shit,” she says quietly. “And he’s really going to… kill his father?”

“And blame our family for it. Wipe us out. Tie it all up in a pretty bow and claim revenge for the betrayal.”

She looks sick.

I feel for her, I really do. At least when I was researching all of this, I had days to come to these conclusions. Gianna is getting all of this dumped on her in a matter of an hour.

“Your dad,” I murmur. “If Dominic’s plan unfolds the way he wants, he won’t survive. None of us will.”

Gianna’s eyes flash with panic—but then something shifts in her face. She straightens, her jaw tightening. “Well screw that. We have to stop him.”

I stare at her, surprised. “You… actually want to help me?”

“Hello, Earth to Aurora! Of course I do. This guy is trying to take us all down so he can own the entire city. No way can we let that happen!”

I exhale, shakily. The relief floods through me like a tidal wave, making it hard not to allow the tear burning at the corners of my eyes to fall. I’m so, so glad I have Gianna. Without her, I really don’t know what I’d do.

I don’t know why I ever doubted her—why I let my own fears get to me and make me believe she’d think I was a liar. We’ve been through thick and thin together. There’s nothing that could stand in the way of our bond, even if it means fighting against a dark entity like the Guerrero family.

“I have a plan but it’s risky.”

She doesn’t even blink. “Tell me.”

“I want to blackmail Dominic.” I swipe my laptop off the bed again, scrolling to my files. “I’ve got the evidence to do it but we need to be careful. If Dominic thinks I’m threatening him without anything to show for it, he’ll call my bluff. He’ll kill me and change whatever plan he has . He’s good at adapting. So we need a—”

“—kill switch,” Gianna finishes, eyes gleaming. “Something that triggers automatically if something happens to you. To scare him into not acting irrationally.”

“Exactly.”

She rolls up from her chair, clapping her hands together. “I’ve got some contacts I can call as reinforcements. Let me grab my phone.”

We spend the next three hours working out the logistics.

Gianna with her contacts at a smaller security firm—someone she trusts with her life that agrees almost instantly after hearing how many dollars she’s willing to part with for his silence—and me as I send over the evidence to be uploaded and delivered to Leonardo’s encrypted inbox if anything happens to me before our wedding.

In the end, we decide on this: if Dominic kills me, or tries to blame me and my family for the death of his father, all of this gets sent to Leonardo and his followers. Dominic may be able to take on some of them on his own but what he doesn’t have is the man power unlike Leonardo, nor the loyalty.

If they all know him as a backstabber, no one will dare to follow him for fear of them ending up just like Leonardo.

When we both finally lean back from my laptop, Gianna lets out a wistful sigh. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

I look at her, my brow raising. “What?”

She grins. “That you’d be the one playing the game right along with the rest of them.”

For the first time in my life, that hits me hard in the chest.

While I never wanted to, right now I don’t have a choice.

I’ll make sure Dominic doesn’t dare touch anyone I care about.