Chapter 2
I stood in front of the mirror, staring at Dante De Luca's face.
For a long time, I didn't move.
Not because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The opposite. I knew exactly what this face meant.
Last night, this man had held a gun to my forehead. He'd told me my life was fake, that I was the last Moretti. Then he'd pulled the trigger.
And now...
I was him.
I lifted a hand. The man in the mirror did the same.
I'd seen those hands before. They had held a gun. And at the last second, one of them had cut through the ropes around my wrists.
Now they belonged to me.
"Impossible," I whispered.
But the voice that came out froze me all over again. Low. Unfamiliar. Entirely someone else's.
"You finally believe it,"
a voice said behind me.
I spun around.
My body stood there. My face. My voice. But those eyes...
They weren't mine.
Dante De Luca looked at me, and somehow he looked even worse about this than I did.
"Give me my body back," Dante said coldly.
I stared at him.
"You think I don't want to?"
I pointed at my face.
"You're the one who tried to kill me last night. And now you're the one who lost his body."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"If you hadn't touched that ring—"
"Stop." I cut him off.
"Do not tell me the man who almost killed me is about to explain how this is my fault."
"It isn't your fault. But it is the mechanism."
That stopped me.
Dante reached into the evidence bag on the desk and held up the dark ring without touching it directly.
"The ring opened the exchange when your pendant came into contact with it at midnight. Moretti blood on one side. De Luca blood on the other. The objects anchored us to the bodies on the registration."
I stared at the ring.
"Then use it again."
"That isn't enough."
"What is?"
His gaze stayed on mine.
"Both current occupants have to consent. We have to return to the registered site, touch the ring and your pendant at the same time, and sign the reversal in front of an authorized witness."
"You know all that, but you don't know how we ended up here?"
"I know the family protocol. I don't know who activated our registration or what they changed."
I looked at my hands—his hands.
"And if we force it?"
Dante went still.
"A man was forced through a second exchange years ago. He came back breathing, but pieces of his life didn't."
"What pieces?"
"The people he loved most."
The room seemed to narrow around us.
"So we could switch back and forget each other."
"Or damage something neither of us knows how to repair."
He sealed the ring inside the bag again.
"Until we find the original registration and confirm both names, no one touches it. Not you. Not me."
"Your body. Your rules?"
"No," he said. "Our bodies. Both our consent."
Dante didn't argue further. He knew neither of us had the upper hand now.
I stepped closer.
For the first time,
I didn't have to look up at him.
"The way you looked at me last night wasn't the way a man looks at someone he's never met."
I stared into his eyes.
"Have you seen me before?"
Something shifted in his expression.
"It doesn't matter."
"You're lying," I said.
"Was yesterday really the first time you saw me?"
Dante fell silent. The answer inside me became clearer by the second.
He knew me.
And he had for a long time.
"Dante."
It was the first time I'd called him by his name.
His eyes settled on me.
"You know me," I said.
"And it didn't start yesterday."
The room went quiet.
Then someone knocked on the door.
"Boss?"
Dante changed instantly.
The cold, dangerous Dante was back.
He looked at me.
"Remember this," he said quietly.
"Right now, you are me."
I stared at him.
"You want an ER nurse to pretend to be a mafia boss?"
Dante's face stayed blank.
"You deal with death every day. Now you're only dealing with people who are still alive."
I almost laughed.
"You have a very strange way of comforting people."
Dante ignored that.
"Don't explain. Don't apologize. Don't let them see you're afraid."
I raised a brow.
"Then what am I supposed to let them see?" Dante looked at me.
"Fear. Theirs."
The voice outside came again.
"Boss?"
I took a deep breath and sat down.
If Dante had survived his world by controlling it,
then I was going to have to borrow his rules to stay alive.
The door opened. Luca Romano walked in.
He was Dante's most trusted lieutenant—and the man who had stood in that warehouse last night, watching while I waited to die.
The moment Luca saw me, his step hesitated.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But I noticed.
"Boss," Luca said quietly.
"How are you feeling?"
I almost answered, Not great.
I stopped myself. Dante had told me not to explain.
I looked at Luca.
"Report."
One word.
Luca visibly paused.
Because it didn't sound like a question.
It sounded like an order.
He lowered his eyes and opened the file.
"The East Side deal has been moved up. The family council wants your decision tonight."
"And," he added after a pause, "there's the matter of the woman."
My fingers tightened slightly.
The woman.
Me.
"Go on."
Luca handed me a photograph.
"We found evidence that she's been in contact with what's left of the Moretti faction."
I looked down.
In the photo, my body stood in front of a man I didn't recognize.
My stomach dropped.
"Who is he?"
"We're still investigating."
"So you don't know who he is."
I looked up.
"And you don't know what they said."
Luca was silent.
"But you've already decided she betrayed us?"
The room went still.
Luca studied me.
"Boss," he said, "you wouldn't have asked that before."
I knew it.
I'd slipped.
But I didn't retreat. I set the photo on the desk.
"Before was before."
I held his gaze.
"Now I want evidence." Luca said nothing.
I continued,
"Not assumptions. Not suspicion. Facts."
He watched me for several seconds.
Then slowly lowered his head.
"Understood. I'll investigate again."
In that moment,
I finally understood what Dante truly possessed.
It wasn't guns.
It wasn't money.
It was the fact that when he spoke, everyone stopped.
And now,
they were starting to listen to me too.
After Luca left, Dante picked up my phone.
For the first time, he saw the messages that made up my normal life.
He stared at the screen for a long time.
"Is it always like this?" Dante asked.
I looked at him.
"Like what?"
He held out the phone. There were dozens of messages on the screen.
The hospital. Coworkers. Patients' families.
And a new scheduling request.
Can you cover tonight?
Dante stared at it.
"You said yes?"
I didn't answer.
Because my reply was already underneath.
Sure.
Dante looked up.
"Why?"
I frowned.
"Why what?"
"Why do you always say yes?"
His voice was quiet.
"Because someone needs help."
Dante looked at me for a long time.
"You're someone too."
I froze.
It was such an ordinary sentence.
So ordinary that no one had ever said it to me before.
Dante kept scrolling.
He saw my notes.
Patients' names. Family details. Allergies. Treatments.
He frowned.
"You remember everything about everyone."
I didn't answer.
"What they like. What they're afraid of. What they need."
Dante paused.
"But no one remembers yours." I looked at him.
For the first time, I had no answer.
Because he was right.
That evening,
Luca came back.
This time, he looked more serious than before.
"Boss," he said.
"Someone may have forged your orders. These two copies still need to be authenticated."
He placed the documents on the desk.
The first was dated three years ago.
I looked down.
There was only one line.
Protect Sienna Vale.
Signed: Dante De Luca.
My breath caught.
I turned to the second page.
Dated yesterday.
Execute Sienna Vale.
Signed again: Dante De Luca.
The whole room fell silent.
I stared at the two documents.
One order kept me alive.
The other ordered my death.
Both came from the same man.
I looked up at Luca.
"Tell me when the originals are verified. Leave us."
Luca acknowledged the order and left.
Only then did I turn to Dante.
"Explain."
Dante didn't answer.
For the first time,
the man who always seemed to control every situation
was silent.
I remembered something else Luca had said: access to both copies had come through Dante's own credentials.
I looked at Dante and suddenly understood our real problem.
It wasn't when we would get our bodies back.
It was whether we'd live long enough to do it.
Dante came to stand beside me and looked at the two orders on the desk.
"Do you understand now?"
"Understand what?"
His voice dropped.
"You didn't just get my body."
He paused.
"You inherited my enemies."
I looked at the two names.
Sienna Vale.
Dante De Luca.
Two identities.
Two fates.
Now trapped together.
But why had these documents appeared now?