Chapter 1
The pain... it was unbearable.
Arianna woke up to a searing agony that tore through her body. Her vision was hazy, but she could make out a pair of furious, bloodshot eyes that were glaring down at her with a terrifying rage. She froze, her heart lodging in her throat.
Enzo? Is that... Enzo?
How, how is this possible? I died… didn’t I?
Was he dead too? No, that can’t be right. Luca couldn’t possibly have touched a man like him. This has to be some kind of hallucination, a figment of my dying mind...
“Arianna…” Her lips trembled as she forced the name out, a ghost of a whisper.
“Arianna! Is this how you repay me? By damaging yourself for that piece of shit, Luca?!”
Don Enzo Moretti’s grip on her bleeding wrist was like a vice. His handsome face was twisted with a barely contained fury. His usual smooth, authoritative voice was hoarse with rage, a thunderous rumble in the otherwise dead-silent VIP lounge.
His three closest men—Marco, Salvatore, and Damiano—stood frozen, not daring to breathe. They knew the ruthless Capo had finally lost the battle. Arianna, in her desperation to marry his arch-rival, had threatened to take her own life. And Enzo, the man who commanded a crime syndicate that spanned the entire state, could never let Arianna die.
Arianna’s mind was a maelstrom of confusion. Her wrist throbbed with two distinct kinds of agony. Her eyes darted down to her arm, and she gasped. There, a deep, fresh gash was bleeding profusely. She could feel the sting of broken glass embedded in the wound. It must have been a shard from the wine bottle she’d smashed against the table in her frantic bid to manipulate Enzo.
A familiar ache began to surface in her memories. She had lived through this scene before. It was from her 22nd year, just after graduation, when Luca had proposed in front of the entire campus. She had accepted, and then threatened Enzo to get his blessing.
She had been so stupid. So arrogant.
Her heart was pounding.
Is this… real? Is it possible… I’ve been given a second chance? Did I actually go back in time?
Her eyes darted up to the man before her. He was looking at her with an expression that was equal parts grief and disgust. The last time she’d seen him, in her past life, he’d simply vanished. She never even got to say she was sorry.
Seeing the tears streaming down her face, and the grimace of pain that contorted her delicate features, Enzo’s fury seemed to deflate into a hollow ache. He released her wrist with a sharp, disgusted sigh.
“Fine. I’ll give you what you want. You can have your marriage,” Enzo declared, his voice a low, cold rasp. His hands were balled into tight fists at his sides. The immense force of his will was the only thing keeping him from dragging her away from Luca permanently.
He had finally relented.
But Arianna’s mind was spinning. “No!” she cried, surprising even herself. She threw herself into his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist before he could push her away. “That was a joke! I don’t want to marry him! I want to go home, Enzo. Please... don’t leave me.”
Enzo’s frozen heart, which had been shredded just moments ago, suddenly stopped bleeding. He looked down at the soft, auburn head pressed against his chest, a profound sense of shock settling over him. She had just been at his throat, threatening suicide over another man. Now she was clinging to him like a drowning woman.
“I’ll be good, I swear. I’ll be so good. Just please, please don’t let me go.”
The men in the lounge exchanged bewildered glances. They’d seen women change their minds before, but this was a record. It was like she’d just been possessed by some other spirit.
Enzo’s arm, stiff and uncertain, finally came to rest on her back, pulling her impossibly closer. He’d been holding on by a thread, and now she was unraveling him completely. “I wasn’t going to leave you,” he murmured into her hair, his voice suddenly raw. “I could never do that.”
Inside, Enzo knew he was a fool. He knew he was letting her take control. But he didn't care. Not when she was begging him to keep her.