Chapter 1

The night I graduated from college, Bianca Moretti asked what I was going to do next. My Mafia family had only recently brought their biological daughter home.

I didn't get a chance to answer. The four men I'd grown up with answered first, each taking his turn.

They all had paperwork showing that they were moving to California.

Then Dante Romano, the future head of one of Chicago's most powerful crime families, slid my research agreement across the table.

“Come along, Lexi. We'll get settled in California, and then I'll marry you.”

I'd been in love with him for years. I put my name on the agreement.

Two weeks later, I walked into the Moretti estate's study and found a different group chat projected on the wall.

[Has Alexandra signed yet?]

[She has. Four made-up job offers, and she's ready to leave Chicago.]

[With her gone, Bianca can take her rightful place.]

[Dante drew the short straw. He's stuck pretending he wants to marry her until she's out of here.]

Not one of them had intended to move.

I'd thought about leaving the family when Bianca first returned. All four had assured me that her arrival wouldn't change anything between us.

I'd taken their word for it.

They didn't know my professor had offered me a place on a classified federal weapons project. During its closed research phase, personal contact with the outside world would be suspended.

I would be out of Chicago in forty-eight hours.

They'd gone to so much trouble to clear a place for Bianca.

I was about to give them exactly what they wanted.

...

I was taking pictures of the chat when five people walked into the study.

Dante halted in the doorway. Adrian Bellini, Julian DeLuca, Nico Vitale, and Bianca stood behind him.

No one wanted to know why I was looking at their messages.

Dante reached up and loosened his tie.

“This wasn't how you were meant to find out.”

“How did you want me to find out?” I asked. “Once I was on the plane?”

Bianca looked down.

Dante's face closed off.

“She went twenty-three years without her own family. You had the Moretti name and everything it offered, including our protection. Can't you make a little space for her?”

Three months earlier, I'd discovered that a hospital mix-up had led the Morettis to believe I was their child.

For twenty-three years, I'd been Alexandra Moretti, living in their estate.

The man I called Dad ran the family, one of Chicago's strongest crime syndicates. My childhood had meant armed guards, drivers, locked gates, and men retreating into his study when family business took a bad turn.

Then Bianca had arrived.

They'd finally found the daughter they'd lost as a newborn.

I'd tried to help her settle in.

I'd given up the bedroom she'd always wanted, stopped taking the chair beside Dad at dinner, and told the staff they were welcome to call her Miss Moretti.

She'd already missed twenty-three years with them.

I hadn't wanted her to miss anything else.

Apparently, those things hadn't been enough.

My portrait no longer hung in the front hall.

Hers hung there instead.

She sat beside Dad now.

And the four men who'd always assumed I would be there had begun arranging their lives around her without a word to me.

I gestured toward the messages on the wall.

“Whose idea were the fake offers?”

“Mine,” Dante said.

He made no attempt to hide it.

Adrian came closer.

“Lexi, hurting you wasn't the point.”

“Why didn't you tell me the truth, then?”

“You wouldn't have agreed.”

Julian let out a breath.

He was the Romano family's attorney, usually the most composed man in the room.

“You've been talking about weapons research for years. Professor Harrison found you a position in California. We figured you'd take it sooner or later.”

“You didn't figure anything out. You made the choice for me.”

Nico crossed his arms.

He ran security for the Morettis and seldom let anyone see what he was feeling.

“Getting clear of this place will be good for you.”

I met his eyes.

“Getting clear of the family?”

He said nothing.

I didn't need him to.

At last, Dante spoke again.

“Bianca's only just come back. The family has enough to deal with. People are watching her, wondering whether she'll really get the position she's entitled to.”

He dropped his voice.

“We couldn't make that any harder.”

Now I understood.

In their world, being related by blood counted.

The daughter who'd come home was entitled to the Moretti name.

The girl who'd used it for twenty-three years had become an inconvenience.

I turned back to Dante.

“What about asking me to marry you?”

He set his jaw.

“I knew how you felt about me. If you thought I was moving to California, I knew you'd come.”

“And you took advantage of that.”

“I wanted to give you something to leave for.”

“A life with you? One you never meant to give me?”

He didn't answer that, either.

Bianca began to tear up.

“I've caused all of this. I should go. Let Lexi stay.”

Dante turned to her at once.

“You're not going anywhere.”

Adrian fetched her some water.

Nico drew out a chair for her.

Julian assured her there was nothing to worry about.

None of them looked at me.

For years, I'd thought our closeness made us family.

Standing there, I realized how easily they'd set it aside when it stopped suiting them.

I reached for my coat.

“I'm going.”

Dante frowned at me.

“Going where?”

“Home.”

“You are home.”

I looked around his shoulder at the study.

Above the fireplace hung the Moretti crest.

I'd never looked at it before and felt that it belonged to someone else.

I unfastened the gold pendant at my throat.

The crest was etched on one side, my name on the other.

Dad had given it to me for my tenth birthday.

I set it on the table.

“Give this to Bianca.”

Dante kept staring.

“Don't, Lexi.”

“Don't what?”

“Don't pretend we don't know each other.”

He'd once made an app for the five of us, Forever Five.

We could see one another's locations. If any of us got into trouble, it sent the others an emergency alert.

He'd promised it meant we would never lose one another.

None of them had used it since Bianca's return.

They'd made another chat without me.

I put on my coat.

“Nothing stays the same.”

I left the room.

My phone buzzed as I stepped outside.

The final confirmation from Professor Harrison had arrived.

Your clearance has been approved.

Scheduled departure: forty-eight hours from now.

The classified weapons assignment runs for five years. Personal communications will be suspended during the closed deployment.

Please confirm that you accept.

I kept looking at the message.

Dante believed he'd talked me into an ordinary job on the other side of the country.

He had no idea what the actual assignment involved.

I tapped Confirm.

For the first time since Bianca had arrived, I'd chosen something without finding out what any of them wanted first.