Chapter 36 I'm halfway down the marble hallway of our family estate when I hear his name. "Alessandro, you can't be serious." My father's voice stops me in my tracks. Just the sound of Alessandro Ricci's name makes my heart skip-pathetic, really, how affected I am by a man who probably sees me as nothing more than Matteo DeLuca's little girl. I press closer to Dad's office door, barely breathing. I can't make out Alessandro's response, but his deep voice carries through the phone line, making my father curse in rapid Italian. "It's been twelve years," Dad snaps. "Why now? Why-" He cuts off, listening. I should keep walking, should pretend I don't notice how my pulse races every time Alessandro visits the estate. How his dark eyes sometimes linger on me a fraction too long before he catches himself. "Sophia wouldn't have wanted this." My father's voice breaks on my mother's name. He still struggles to talk about her, about what happened twelve years ago. "She made her choices, but this...this isn't what any of us wanted." More murmuring from Alessandro. Something about it makes the hair on my neck stand up. "Fine." Dad's chair scrapes back. "But we do this my way. I won't risk⁠-" He stops abruptly, and I realize his footsteps are approaching the door. I start to move, but it's too late. "Bianca?" The door opens, and I try not to look guilty. "What are you doing out here?" "Just passing by." I force a smile, studying his face. He looks pale, tension radiating from his shoulders in a way I've learned to read over the years. "Everything okay?" "Of course." He kisses my forehead, but his eyes are distant. Already dialing someone on his phone. "Go find Bella." I'm barely around the corner when I hear him speak. "Antonio? I need you here immediately. We have a situation." My father, the always-composed head of the DeLuca family, sounds genuinely concerned. His voice carries that edge I've only heard a handful of times-when Uncle Mario returned, when Bella was threatened. And somehow, Alessandro Ricci-a complication I've been trying to avoid since I turned eighteen-is at the center of it all. I need to find out why. In a romance-themed observation show, several participants undergo a series of interactions and conflicts filled with love, misunderstandings, and power struggles. In the end, one couple rises to over...