Chapter 1 - THE HUSBAND WHO SLEPT OUTSIDE MY DOOR
"I'm sleeping in the hallway."
For a moment, I thought I'd misunderstood him.
I stood inside the enormous master bedroom, still wearing my wedding gown, staring at the locked walnut door.
"The hallway?"
"There's a couch outside the library."
"Luca, this house has eighteen bedrooms."
"Nineteen."
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
"Then why would you sleep in the hallway?"
His answer came quietly.
"Because someone tried to enter your room twenty minutes ago."
My stomach dropped.
"What?"
"I caught a man near the private staircase."
I stepped backward.
"Who?"
"He was wearing a catering uniform."
"One of the wedding staff?"
"He wasn't on the approved staff list."
The room suddenly felt colder.
I looked toward the windows.
Beyond the glass, the gardens glowed beneath hundreds of tiny white lights.
Guests were still laughing downstairs.
Music floated through the mansion.
And apparently someone had tried to enter my bedroom while I was changing out of my wedding shoes.
"Did he hurt anyone?"
"No."
"Where is he?"
"Being questioned by security."
I swallowed.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want to frighten you before I knew whether it was serious."
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
A man deciding what information I could handle.
Even Luca.
Even after everything he'd said.
"Luca."
"Yes?"
"You don't get to make that decision for me."
Silence.
Then he answered, "You're right."
The apology came so easily that it almost frightened me.
"I should have told you immediately."
I leaned against the door.
"Are you really staying outside?"
"Only until the security team finishes checking the floor. Then I'll use a guest room."
I looked down at the key in my hand.
All evening, I'd been afraid my husband would become another man who controlled me.
Instead, he'd left the master key outside my door.
And now he was making sure nobody else crossed it.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Get some rest, Ellie."
His footsteps moved away.
I waited until I couldn't hear them.
Then I opened the door just enough to see the corridor.
The master key lay on the carpet.
Beside it was a folded note.
The room is yours. The choice is yours. Good night, Mrs. Moretti.
I picked it up.
My eyes burned.
Then I noticed another envelope lying beneath the note.
It wasn't from Luca.
My maiden name was written across the front.
Eleanor Bennett.
Nobody had called me Eleanor since my mother died.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph of my father standing beside Luca's aunt Bianca.
They were outside a hotel.
The timestamp showed the picture had been taken three days before our wedding.
On the back, someone had written:
Ask your husband why your father needed this marriage.
My hands went cold.
May you like
Because beneath the photograph was a second message.
Your mother didn't die in the accident they told you about.
