Penelopey couldn’t bring herself to look up.

Her hands were trembling. Champagne dripped from the lace of her wedding gown, and a tiny piece of glᴀss had lodged near her palm.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Gideon said nothing.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll pay for the glᴀsses. I’ll pay for the waiter. I didn’t mean to ruin your wedding.”

A strange expression crossed Gideon’s face.

His wedding?

He looked at the woman sitting on the cold marble floor, surrounded by people who had just laughed at her, and felt something inside him turn dangerously cold.

“Penelopey.”

She flinched at the sound of her name.

“Look at me.”

Slowly, she lifted her head.

Gideon crouched in front of her.

The entire ballroom watched in disbelief as the most feared man in Manhattan lowered himself onto one knee.

“Your ankle.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Your ankle, sweetheart.”

The unexpected tenderness in his voice nearly broke her.

He carefully lifted the hem of her gown, exposing her injured ankle. The delicate strap of her red-soled heel had snapped, leaving the shoe hanging awkwardly from her foot.

Gideon examined the injury.

Then he removed the broken shoe.

“Does it hurt?”

Penelopey nodded.

He glanced toward his personal ᴀssistant.

“Get the medical team. Now.”

Then he did something that made three hundred guests forget how to breathe.

He picked up the broken fastening, retrieved the small decorative clasp that had fallen beside her, and carefully secured the shoe around her foot as best he could.

His large hands moved with surprising gentleness.

Penelopey stared at him.

“Why are you doing that?”

Gideon looked up.

“Because you’re my wife.”

A whisper traveled through the ballroom.

He rose, still holding her hand, and helped her stand.

Then he turned toward the guests.

His expression changed completely.

“Who laughed?”

Nobody answered.

Gideon looked across the room.

“I asked a question.”

Oliver Harrington suddenly found his champagne glᴀss fascinating.

Vivien Montgomery took a step backward.

Gideon pointed toward the shattered glᴀsses.

“My wife fell. She is injured. And every single person in this room who found that amusing has just shown me exactly what kind of people they are.”

Oliver forced a nervous smile.

“Come on, Rossi. It was an accident. Nobody meant anything by it.”

Gideon slowly turned toward him.

“An accident?”

He gestured toward Penelopey’s twisted ankle.

“Do you think this is funny?”

Oliver swallowed.

“Obviously not.”

“Then why were you laughing?”

Oliver had no answer.

Gideon stepped closer.

“Let me make something clear. You may insult me. You may challenge my business. You may even make the mistake of threatening my family.”

His voice dropped.

“But you will never humiliate my wife in front of me again.”

He paused.

“One more insult. Just one. And there will be consequences you won’t forget.”

Nobody moved.

Then Gideon turned toward the orchestra.

“Play.”

The musicians looked at one another.

“Sir?”

“Play something beautiful. My wife deserves a wedding, not a funeral.”

Twenty minutes later, Penelopey was sitting in a private suite overlooking Fifth Avenue.

A doctor had examined her ankle and confirmed that it was badly sprained but not broken.

Gideon stood beside the window, speaking quietly into his phone.

“Find out who arranged the waiter incident. I want the security footage from every entrance, corridor, and ballroom camera.”

He listened.

“Yes. And nobody touches Vivien Montgomery until I have the complete recording.”

He ended the call.

Penelopey was staring at her hands.

“Are you angry with me?”

Gideon turned.

“What?”

“I embarrᴀssed you.”

He looked at her for several seconds.

Then he walked over and sat opposite her.

“Who told you that?”

“Nobody.”

“Penelopey.”

She swallowed.

“Everyone downstairs thinks you’re trapped in this marriage. They think my family forced you to marry me because of the shipping contracts.”

Gideon leaned forward.

“Do you believe that?”

She hesitated.

“I don’t know what to believe.”

He nodded slowly.

“Fair enough.”

He took a breath.

“This marriage was arranged for business. I’m not going to lie to you about that.”

Her eyes lowered.

“But there’s something you don’t know.”

He reached into his jacket and removed a small velvet box.

Inside was a delicate diamond bracelet.

Penelopey stared at it.

“I had this made three months ago.”

“Why?”

“Because I was told you loved vintage jewelry.”

She looked at him in confusion.

“You knew that?”

“I asked about you.”

He gave a faint, almost embarrᴀssed smile.

“Your father told me you liked books, old movies, and gardening. He also told me you hated being the center of attention.”

Penelopey let out a bitter laugh.

“My father told you all that?”

“He did.”

“Then he forgot to mention that I was the daughter he kept hidden whenever important people visited.”

Gideon’s expression hardened.

“Is that true?”

She nodded.

“He was embarrᴀssed by me long before you ever met me.”

Gideon looked down at the bracelet.

Then he closed the box.

“I should have asked you about your family before tonight.”

Penelopey looked at him.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I’ve spent most of my adult life believing business agreements are easier than conversations.”

For the first time, she saw something unexpected in him.

Regret.

At eleven forty-five, Gideon’s security chief entered the suite.

“Boss. We reviewed the footage.”

Gideon stood.

“What did you find?”

The man placed a tablet on the coffee table.

The recording showed Penelopey walking toward the staircase.

Vivien was standing beside the ice sculpture.

Then, just before Penelopey reached her, Vivien extended her foot.

At almost the same moment, she deliberately pushed the waiter carrying the champagne tray.

The collision was no accident.

Penelopey had been deliberately tripped.

Gideon watched the footage twice.

His expression became terrifyingly calm.

“Bring her upstairs.”

The security chief nodded.

“And Harrington?”

“Both of them.”

Five minutes later, Vivien Montgomery entered the suite.

She was no longer smiling.

Oliver followed her, adjusting his tie nervously.

“Mr. Rossi, I really think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Vivien began.

Gideon didn’t offer them seats.

He simply turned the tablet toward them.

“Would you like to explain this?”

Vivien glanced at the recording.

Her face went pale.

“I was just moving my foot.”

“Into my wife’s path?”

“It was crowded.”

“Then explain why you pushed the waiter.”

“I didn’t push him!”

Oliver immediately interrupted.

“She barely touched him. It was an accident.”

Gideon looked at Oliver.

“Interesting. You seem to know quite a lot about something you claim you didn’t see.”

Oliver’s mouth closed.

Gideon picked up a second folder.

“Now let’s discuss something else.”

He opened it.

Inside were copies of financial records.

“Oliver, your father’s company has been transferring money through three shipping subsidiaries owned by the Hayes family.”

Oliver stiffened.

“That’s private business.”

“Not anymore.”

Gideon placed another document on the table.

“And Vivien, your father’s gambling operation has been using one of my warehouses without permission.”

Vivien stared at him.

“How do you know that?”

Gideon gave a humorless smile.

“Because I own the warehouse.”

He leaned forward.

“Tonight, you both decided my wife was an easy target because you thought she had no power.”

His eyes moved between them.

“You were wrong.”

But the biggest surprise came just before midnight.

Penelopey was looking out the window when Gideon returned.

He had removed his jacket and loosened his tie.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

She turned.

“What?”

“Your father called.”

Her stomach тιԍнтened.

“What did he want?”

Gideon hesitated.

“He wanted to know whether the wedding had been completed and whether the marriage agreement had been signed.”

Penelopey looked away.

“Of course he did.”

“There’s more.”

Gideon placed his phone on the table.

“He offered me an additional twenty million dollars to keep you away from his business affairs.”

Penelopey stared at him.

Twenty million dollars.

Her own father had put a price on keeping her silent.

“What did you say?”

Gideon looked directly at her.

“I told him he was no longer welcome to contact my wife.”

She covered her mouth.

For years, she had imagined what it would feel like to have someone defend her.

She had never imagined it would happen on the night she married a man she barely knew.

But Gideon wasn’t finished.

He opened a second message on his phone.

It contained a pH๏τograph.

Penelopey’s face went white.

It showed her younger brother, Daniel, standing outside a private medical facility in Switzerland.

She hadn’t seen Daniel in eight years.

He had disappeared after confronting their father about the company’s finances.

“Where did you get that?” she whispered.

“From one of my investigators.”

“Daniel is alive?”

“Yes.”

Tears immediately filled her eyes.

“Where is he?”

Gideon took her hand.

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Then his phone rang.

He answered.

“Rossi.”

A man’s voice came through the speaker.

“Boss, we have a problem. The Hayes estate was emptied two hours ago. Edward Hayes has disappeared.”

Gideon’s expression changed.

“Disappeared?”

“Yes, sir. But we found something in his office.”

“What?”

A pause.

Then the man continued.

“A pH๏τograph of Mrs. Rossi. And a handwritten note.”

Gideon looked toward Penelopey.

“Read it.”

The investigator hesitated.

“Sir, the note says: ‘If Gideon has chosen to protect my daughter, then he has just inherited my enemies.'”

Silence filled the suite.

Penelopey slowly stood, forgetting the pain in her ankle.

“What does that mean?”

Gideon ended the call.

Then he looked at his new wife.

“It means your father wasn’t afraid of you.”

He picked up his jacket.

“He was afraid of what you might discover.”

Penelopey’s heart began racing.

“Discover what?”

Gideon reached for her hand.

“Tomorrow morning, we’re going to find your brother.”

He paused.

“And before we do, there’s something you need to know about the man you just married.”

“What?”

Gideon’s eyes darkened.

“I didn’t marry you only because of your family’s shipping empire.”

He placed a pH๏τograph on the table.

It showed Penelopey as a little girl, standing beside a man she had never seen before.

On the back were three words written in black ink:

THE ORIGINAL HEIR.

Penelopey stared at the pH๏τograph.

Then she looked up at Gideon.

“Who is that man?”

Gideon took a slow breath.

“Your grandfather.”

Her voice trembled.

“My grandfather died before I was born.”

Gideon shook his head.

“No, sweetheart. Your father told everyone he was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.”

He looked toward the darkened city.

“And now I understand why.”

END OF PART 2 — TO BE CONTINUED.