Chapter 29

Aurora POV

“I…” Swallowing, I let out a long sigh. “He was that one night stand I had… back when we went to that club.”

“Unbelievable.” She mutters, rubbing a hand over her face. “Well, guess what. You don’t get to want anymore. You either act smart or you die. For some reason tonight you chose to be stupid.”

She turns, already walking to the door.

“Gianna—” I say.

She doesn’t stop. She yanks it open and storms out, slamming it behind her hard enough to rattle the frame.

I stand in the middle of her room, too stunned to move.

The silence that follows feels like punishment.

I sink onto the edge of the bed, my dress still wrinkled from where Dominic had pushed it up around my waist, my lipstick long gone, my hair a mess. I look like exactly what I am—a girl who betrayed her best friend and fell for a man who might end up killing all of us with barely a flicker of emotion in his eyes as he does so.

It takes a while for me to get back onto my feet and shuffle out of Gianna’s room to my own. I don’t bother changing before flopping down onto my bed.

I can’t sleep though. How could I?

I stare up at the ceiling until the shadows from my window stretch long, the moon dragging itself across the sky hour by hour

My thoughts won’t stop spinning. Dominic. Gianna. The wedding. The plan.

Every time I close my eyes, I see his face above me, that wild desperation in his eyes like he needed me just as much as I needed him. Maybe that’s what makes it even more messed up. I don’t think he faked any of it.

I think he meant every word he said in that bathroom, that he wouldn’t let Leonardo touch me or let anyone else have me.

Mine, he’d practically growled the word.

Some twisted part of me wants to believe him. Some part of me is already tangled in him, too deep to cut loose.

I hate him. I should hate him. But my heart doesn’t seem to know the difference.

Gianna won’t trust me again. She was counting on me to save us and I let her down. Worse, I let myself down because this was supposed to be about taking back the pieces of my life that were stolen from me the second my father promised me to a man old enough to be his age and turning them into my weapon.

Instead of fighting for that, I got lost in Dominic like some fragile girl who didn’t know any better.

What am I going to do now?

There’s no do-over. No second shot. The wedding is coming. The stage is set. Dominic’s plans are no doubt already in motion.

I press a hand over my heart, trying to quiet the war inside my chest. It’s no use. The truth is I’m falling for him. If I don’t find a way to separate my heart from my survival…

He’s going to be the one that destroys me.

I barely sleep at all.

The hours crawl by, every tick of the antique clock in my bedroom a cruel reminder that I’m running out of time—to breathe, to think, to fix this mess I’ve made of everything. I lie awake all night, replaying Gianna’s voice in my head like a broken record.

You chose to be stupid.

The words sting more now than they did last night. She’s right, I let my feelings get in the way of our plan. I let Dominic distract me, allowing myself to fall into him again and again. I can still feel his hands on my skin, the way his voice sounded when he promised me Leonardo would never touch me.

I want to believe it so badly I feel sick over it. But belief doesn’t change reality.

I’m still trapped in a dress I didn’t pick for a wedding I never wanted, walking down an aisle toward a man who thinks he’s going to make me his wife and the mother of another heir by the end of the night.

The bridal suite is chaos.

Hair tools hiss and hum in every corner, layers of fabric rustle like static, staff rush in and out with garment bags, trays of fruit no one is eating and glasses of champagne that might as well be acid to my stomach.

Beatrice flits around the room with that brittle perfection she always wears like armor. Camilla lounges on one of the velvet chaise, kicking her feet up in the air like she’s waiting for a date, not my funeral. Her dress is too short for a church and too tight for decency—most likely hoping to catch Dominic’s eye, no doubt.

And Gianna?

She hasn’t said a word to me all morning.

She sits in the far corner of the suite, scrolling on her phone, legs crossed and purposely not looking at me. Her silence is the loudest noise in the whole room.

It makes my throat ache.

With no one else in my corner, she was supposed to be the one person still on my side. I ruined that by letting her down in the worst way. Sleeping with our enemy when I should’ve been trying to protect her.

I’m sitting in a white silk robe while someone curls my hair and another person paints my face with makeup, thoughts consumed with wondering if today is the day my family burns to ash alongside Leonardo.

As soon as he is killed, which is happening today, no question, we’ll be the convenient scapegoat.

Caruso bride assassinates mafia boss on wedding day. A perfect headline.

The thought hits me like a jolt of caffeine.

I won’t let this be it. I can’t. Not when so much is at stake, lives I care about that will indefinitely be ruined if I just sit here and do fuck all to try and stop the wheel from spinning us all into a horrible doom.

I’m not going to let the people I love be executed because I was too weak to play my part. I might’ve made a mistake, but I am still in this game. There’s still time to fix this before the clock strikes midnight and I’m banished from the proverbial ball.

“Where’s the coordinator?” I ask, leaning back and cutting off the girl trying to apply lipstick to my mouth.

She blinks, startled. “Uh… I think she just stepped out—”

“Find her,” I say. “Now. Tell her I want Dominic Guerrero sent to my room.”

The entire suite stills.

Camilla gasps, all too eager to misunderstand.

“Oh my God, yes! Aurora, I’m stealing one of your artists. I need a touch-up.” She whirls on the nearest stylist. “Redo my lashes, too. Now. I can’t have Dominic seeing me with glue still drying.”

Beatrice furrows her brows. “Aurora, what is this about? You can’t see the groom before the wedding—”

“I’m not seeing the groom,” I say coolly. “I’m speaking to my soon-to-be stepson. We have something urgent we need to discuss before the wedding.”

Gianna finally looks up. For the first time since our fight she gives me a flicker of a smile. It’s small, but it’s there. I hold onto it like a lifeline.

The coordinator reappears in the doorway, frazzled and blushing. “Miss Caruso, you wanted me to fetch someone?”

“Yes,” I say, standing up from my chair. “Bring Dominic Guerrero here. Now.”

She vanishes in a flurry.

Camilla is practically bouncing with excitement. “Oh, please let me answer the door when he gets here. I bet he’s going to look so hot in his groomsman suit.”

I ignore her.

I’m burning with the weight of what I’m about to do.

Dominic may be dangerous.

But so am I.