"The moment La Principessa is fine, I'll bring Dr. Pastore back."

Ruby scrambled to follow, but I stopped her. "Ruby, don't. Let him go."

Her eyes were swollen and red. She pressed her thumbnail hard into the pad of her index finger until the skin went white. She looked at me, heartbroken. "My lady, wait for me. I'll go find a doctor."

I struggled to prop myself up and pulled a box from beneath the bed. Inside lay the Body Collector's Iron Medallion, cold and heavy in its velvet lining. I pressed it into Ruby's hands.

"Ruby, take this into the Valente compound. Give it to Don Valente himself and tell him Penelope Mancini is calling in her favor. Tell him I want annulment papers."

Years ago, when the Old Don had traveled to Millhaven personally to bring Frederico and the Rossetti boy back from the river, he'd been so grateful for my saving their lives that he promised me one request. Anything I asked. A blood debt, sworn on his name.

I had never dared waste that chance. Now, finally, it had a purpose.

Omero didn't return with Dr. Pastore until the following afternoon.

By then, the physician Ruby had summoned was already on his way out.

Omero caught the physician by the arm. "How is my wife?"

"She'll live. But I'm afraid..."

Omero's voice dropped low, unsteady in a way I'd rarely heard when it concerned me. "Afraid of what?"

The physician shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Her body is ruined. She'll spend the rest of her life in pain."

Something like guilt flickered across Omero's face. His right hand moved to the inside of his left wrist, pressing hard against the pulse point for just a moment before he gathered me into his arms, my body limp as a threadbare rag. "I'm sorry, Penny. It's not that I didn't want to help you, but Chloe Volpe is carrying the Valente heir. I couldn't afford the delay..."

I gritted my teeth against the pain and pulled myself free of his embrace. I shook my head. "It's fine. You were up all night, Omero. Go rest."

His hands hung frozen in the air where I'd been. His voice came out scraped raw. "Are you angry with me, Penny?"

I closed my eyes. My answer was flat, toneless. "This outsider wouldn't dare."

"Outsider?"

Omero caught the shift instantly. He stared at me as though I'd spoken a foreign language.

Before, I had always called myself "your wife" in his presence.

Now I'd changed the word. The line between us, drawn clean.