Chapter 6

Dante’s face turned hard and ugly.

He had probably never imagined that one day he would stand in front of me and ask why I would not save a life.

He had never imagined that the man waiting for my approval on the operating table would be Salvatore Marcelli.

“That’s different,” he said, holding his voice down. “My father has nothing to do with what happened between us.”

“It does.”

I looked at him.

“You know better than anyone how many people the Marcelli family saved through my medical network, how many shipments moved through my anonymous guarantees, and how many lives my remote surgeries protected.”

“When you enjoyed all of that, you never asked who Ghost Surgeon was.”

“Now that you know it’s me, you want to talk about innocence?”

Dante’s throat moved, but he said nothing.

Then Enzo’s phone rang.

He answered. After only a few seconds, his face changed completely.

Dante snapped his head around.

“Speak.”

Enzo’s voice tightened.

“Mr. Salvatore is still alive, but the bullet is in a dangerous position. The backup team doesn’t dare touch the aortic arch.”

“The doctor said even if he survives tonight, he may lose movement on one side of his body.”

The hall went dead silent.

Isabella stopped crying first.

Then she stepped back.

Dante turned to look at her.

For the first time, there was no affection in his eyes. Only dark anger looking for someone to blame.

“If you hadn’t forced her to come to this party, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Isabella seemed to wake up from the hit of those words and shouted back at once.

“Did I tell the guards to kick her? Did I tell Enzo to lock up her surgical case?”

She pointed at her swollen cheek, her voice shaking.

“Dante, you were the one who said she was only a woman you practiced on. You were the one who said she loved you with no bottom line. You told me she would never really leave.”

After that, everyone in the hall lowered their heads.

Dante’s face darkened inch by inch.

“Shut up.”

“Why should I?” Isabella laughed once. Tears were still on her face, but her eyes had gone cold. “Now you blame me? If you had told me she was Moretti, if you had told me she was Ghost Surgeon, do you think I would have touched her?”

She looked at me. Her eyes held hatred and finally, fear.

“You were stupid. Don’t put all the blame on me.”

Dante stepped toward her.

Isabella immediately hid behind the Vitale men.

So this was their love.

When the benefits were still there, she was his princess, and he was the perfect fiancé.

When the knife came down, both of them rushed to push the other one forward to bleed.

Lorenzo came to my side.

“The car is waiting.”

I nodded and carried my surgical case out.

Dante tried to follow, but Moretti’s men stopped him.

He looked at me, and his voice finally turned hoarse.

“Aviana.”

I paused.

He sounded like he was grabbing at his last chance.

“If you save my father, I’ll agree to any condition.”

I did not look back.

“I already named my condition.”

“All Moretti support for Marcelli stays frozen.”

“As for your father.”

I paused.

“Let him wait for the princess you love to save him.”

In the rainy night, the car door closed behind me.

The lights of Harbor Club were sealed behind the glass. Dante and Isabella’s argument was swallowed by the rain.

As the convoy left New York Harbor, Lorenzo placed a file beside me.

“Victor was shot at the Mediterranean medical station.”

Victor Moretti.

My uncle.

Three years ago, at a family meeting, he said a woman who hid her last name for a man did not deserve to inherit Moretti.

I took the scans.

The bullet was close to the pericardium. He had lost a lot of blood. Moving him would be extremely risky.

It was as dangerous as Salvatore’s case.

The difference was that this time, I opened the surgery channel.

Lorenzo looked at me.

“You’re going to save him?”

“I’m going to make every Moretti see the truth.”

I put the scans back into the file.

“I didn’t come home to beg for their approval.”

“I came back to take control.”