Chapter 5 My First Love Touched the Ring My Husband Put on My Finger

Mireya's POV

After the fight that night,the three of us avoided one another by unspoken agreement.

But I could not sit inside the Valdieri estate and pretend nothing was happening.

The gun that had been pointed at me during the anniversary dinner had made one thing very clear: the Vescari attack had not been random.

Nerio was still trying to clear his name.I had become a target simply by being tied to this family.If I wanted to stay alive - and understand what had really happened five years ago - I needed answers.

So Nerio and I left the estate without Raffaele.

The ride into the city was suffocatingly quiet.An entire back seat separated us,but five years of history sat between us like a third person.

At a hotel penthouse,we went through encrypted financial records tied to the old case.

Nerio stared at the screen until his hands curled into fists.

"Taddeo."

His voice turned flat.

"My uncle set me up.He paid people connected to the Vescari family.He wanted me ruined before I could inherit anything,and if they killed me afterward,even better."

I leaned closer to the screen.

"This is enough to force the council to reopen questions about him.We need to take the files back to the estate."

We copied everything to an encrypted drive and headed for the private elevator.

Halfway down,the car jerked violently.

Metal screamed above us.

The emergency lights flashed twice and died.

The elevator stopped somewhere between the seventh and eighth floors.

"Power failure?" I whispered."Or sabotage?"

A heavy impact sounded outside the doors.

Then footsteps.

More than one set.

Nerio moved instantly.

"Behind me."

He pulled me back just as another blow struck the elevator.

The sudden movement reopened the wound in his shoulder,and he hissed through his teeth.

The car was too small.Too dark.

Someone outside was trying to force the doors apart.

Then came a deafening crash from above.

Part of the ceiling was ripped open.

A canister dropped through.

Tear gas.

My throat seized.

Nerio shoved his jacket over my nose and mouth and dragged me against his chest,using his body to shield me from falling debris.

The next few minutes blurred into coughing,impact,shouted orders,and gunfire somewhere outside the shaft.

When the Valdieri security team finally broke through,the elevator doors were forced apart.

Nerio was on one knee.

Blood soaked half his black shirt.

"Nerio!"

I dropped beside him and pulled gauze and a pressure bandage from the emergency kit.

My hands moved automatically.

Just like they had years ago when we were younger and too reckless to understand how easily people died.

I pressed the dressing against his shoulder.

His body went still beneath my hands.

His gaze dropped.

Not to the blood.

To my left hand.

To the sapphire ring Raffaele had pushed onto my finger during our anniversary dinner.

Nerio lifted my hand slowly.

His blood smeared over my knuckles.

"Every time I see this ring," he said,"I want to rip it off and throw it into the ocean."

His voice had gone raw.

"Because all I can think about is him having you.Touching you.Living the life I thought was supposed to be mine."

I pulled my hand away.

"Stop."

He looked at me.

"I know what this ring means.I also know what the last five years mean.My marriage,my body,every choice I made while you were gone - those belong to me."

My voice sharpened.

"You don't get to describe my marriage as though it was something done to you.And you do not get to turn your jealousy into a way of shaming me."

His face changed.

I did not stop.

"Do you hear how you sound? As if I sold myself and now you're angry someone else paid first."

"That's not what I meant."

His hand froze in the air.

Pain flashed through his eyes,followed quickly by shame.

For the first time since he came back,his jealousy had actually hurt me,and he knew it.

He stepped away.

"I'm sorry."

A bitter smile touched his mouth.

"I just don't know how to stand there and look at it."

Footsteps sounded outside the damaged elevator.

Raffaele appeared through the opening.

His white shirt sleeves were rolled to the forearms.His gaze moved from the blood on Nerio's shoulder to the ring Nerio had just touched.

The air tightened.

Raffaele said nothing.

He held out one hand to me.

"Mireya.Come here."

I looked at him.

Then at Nerio.

For the first time,I felt too exhausted to choose even something as simple as whose hand to take.

So I took neither.

I got to my feet and walked between them.

The drive back to the estate was silent.

Halfway there,Raffaele suddenly said,"Stop the car."

The driver pulled over.

Raffaele removed the key from the ignition and pressed it into my palm.

Then he opened the door.

"I'm not going back tonight."

He looked at me once.

"Figure out who you actually want beside you,Mireya."

Then he stepped into the dark and closed the door.