The Bride He Betrayed With a False Necklace Accusation

After our engagement party, my grandma was taken to the police station. The person who filed the report was Lorenzo’s personal attorney. Lorenzo escorted her there himself and gave a full statement. In the end, he refused to settle things peacefully.

"Ambra's necklace went missing," he said, his voice low and even, the kind of voice that made soldiers straighten against the walls. "Your grandmother was the only outsider in the room. The only one from the country. If she didn't take it, who did?"

Across the room, Ambra caught my eye and let her smile sit a half-second too long before it settled back into place, pleased with the machinery she'd set turning.

It was absurd. There was no proof, no dossier, nothing. Yet on Ambra's word alone, a Falcone daughter's word, my Nonna was handed over to the Family's justice and locked away.

"If the necklace doesn't turn up, she doesn't walk," Lorenzo added. Then he turned to me, adjusting the cuff at his wrist. "But this has nothing to do with us. The union stands. Next month, as arranged."

I looked down at the ring on my finger, the mark of a pact between bloodlines.

Suddenly, I felt exhausted. Marriage didn't feel necessary anymore.