Chapter 13: The Secret at the Old Harbor

I spent the entire night debating whether I should go.

The message could have been a trap.

It could have been someone trying to drag me back into the de Rossi family's affairs.

And yet, the photograph wouldn't leave my mind.

Why had Dante's father been at the hospital?

Why had someone warned me that my wedding was never supposed to happen?

The next evening, I went to the old harbor.

I didn't tell Julia where I was going.

I only sent her a message saying that I had an important appointment and would return later.

The harbor was almost deserted.

Cold wind swept across the water, carrying the smell of salt and rust.

I stood beneath an old streetlamp and waited.

After several minutes, a woman stepped out from behind a warehouse.

She looked to be in her fifties and wore a dark coat pulled tightly around her body.

"Nina Ford?"

"Yes."

She looked around nervously.

"I'm Elena Morris."

My heart tightened.

The nurse who had once worked with the doctor who treated me.

I hadn't seen her since the day she warned me about the men following me.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Because you deserve to know the truth."

She handed me a small envelope.

"Everything inside came from the original hospital archives."

I opened it carefully.

The first document was a medical report.

My name was written at the top.

I read the diagnosis and felt my fingers go cold.

The illness I had supposedly suffered from had not appeared naturally.

There were traces of a rare chemical compound in my blood.

Someone had poisoned me.

But the next page shocked me even more.

It was a security report from the night I was admitted to the hospital.

A man had entered my room using a private access card.

The card belonged to a senior member of the de Rossi family.

"Who was he?" I asked.

Elena shook her head.

"The name was removed from the official report."

"Then how do you know?"

"Because I saw him."

She took a breath.

"It was your father's old business partner, Victor Hale."

I froze.

Victor Hale had disappeared from the family's circle years ago after a dispute with Dante's father.

"Why would he poison me?"

"Because your marriage to Dante would have changed the balance of power between several families."

I stared at her.

"I don't understand."

"Your marriage wasn't just a marriage. It would have united two financial networks and weakened several people who depended on the old alliances."

I looked down at the documents.

"Then why did Dante's father allow the wedding to proceed?"

Elena's expression became complicated.

"He didn't."

My heart stopped.

"What?"

"The de Rossi family had already decided that you could not become Dante's wife."

I felt as though the ground had disappeared beneath me.

"Then why did Dante propose?"

"Because he didn't know."

Silence settled between us.

Everything suddenly looked different.

The constant pressure from Dante's family.

The sudden appearance of Isobel.

The insistence that their child was necessary for peace.

Maybe it hadn't been about love at all.

Maybe it had been about removing me from the picture.

Elena handed me another document.

"This is the most important one."

It was a copy of an internal family agreement.

My name appeared in the final paragraph.

If the marriage between Nina Ford and Dante de Rossi was terminated, the de Rossi family would retain control over several properties and business interests that otherwise would have been transferred after the marriage.

I stared at the page in disbelief.

"They planned this?"

"Not everyone."

Elena lowered her voice.

"Dante's father and two senior family members did."

"What about Dante?"

"He didn't know about the agreement."

I closed my eyes.

For the first time, I understood why Dante had been so desperate to marry me even while treating our relationship so carelessly.

Perhaps he had never understood the game being played around him.

But that didn't erase what he had done.

He had still chosen Isobel.

He had still broken my trust.

And he had still allowed me to believe that I mattered less than everyone else.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the other side of the warehouse.

Elena's face changed.

"Someone followed you."

I turned around.

Two black cars had stopped near the harbor entrance.

Several men stepped out.

One of them looked directly at me.

"Run!" Elena shouted.

We rushed toward the opposite side of the warehouse.

My heart hammered as footsteps thundered behind us.

A gunshot cracked through the night.

I ducked instinctively.

Elena grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a stack of wooden crates.

"Who are they?" I whispered.

"People who don't want you alive."

I felt a chill run through me.

Then my phone began ringing.

Dante.

I answered without thinking.

"Where are you?" he demanded.

"How do you know something is wrong?"

"Because I tracked your phone."

I frowned.

"You tracked me?"

"Nina, listen to me. Leave the harbor immediately."

"Why?"

His voice became tense.

"Because my father knows you're there."

I stared into the darkness.

"Dante, your father tried to stop our marriage, didn't he?"

There was silence on the line.

That silence told me everything.

"You knew," I whispered.

"I found out today."

"And you still came after me."

"Because I don't want you to get hurt again."

I closed my eyes.

For the first time, Dante sounded genuinely afraid.

"Get out of there," he said. "I'm coming."

Before I could respond, another gunshot echoed through the harbor.

The men had found us.

Elena pushed me toward a narrow passage.

"Go! I'll distract them."

"No!"

"Nina, go!"

I ran.

And behind me, I heard Elena scream.

Then the sound of another gunshot shattered the night.