After Six Years Together, He Called Me His Bedmate

Chapter 3

Dante's expression faltered for a moment before he relaxed again.

After dinner, he followed me to the door and clapped me lightly on the shoulder with a laugh.

"Nice save. At least you knew to play along."

I moved away from his hand.

"I wasn't playing along."

He clearly did not understand.

His phone rang, and Elena called for him from the dining room. He immediately went back inside, leaving me alone in the night wind.

When I got home, my father told me our departure date had been moved up.

"There's been a complication with the main branch. We'll leave in 12 days. Is that all right?"

I gazed at the distant lights.

"That's fine."

Three days later, Northmara's most powerful families hosted a joint charity auction.

The gala was held in a private museum. Guests passed through three security checkpoints at the entrance, and every bottle of wine had been tested in advance.

Still, no one expected an assassination attempt.

Elena and I collapsed at almost the same moment.

As our glasses shattered against the floor, chaos erupted around us. My limbs rapidly went numb, and every breath felt strangled by an invisible rope.

A private doctor rushed over to examine us and confirmed that the wine had been laced with a rare nerve agent.

There was only one emergency antidote injector on-site.

A second was being sent from the Moretti estate, but it would take at least 15 minutes to arrive.

The doctor looked from Elena to me, afraid to make the choice.

Dante snatched the injector from him and dropped to his knees beside Elena.

"Save her first."

I lay barely three feet away as the needle pierced Elena's arm.

Dante held her and called her name over and over.

He never asked the doctor whether I could survive those 15 minutes.

The poison spread through my bloodstream as darkness swallowed my vision. I heard my mother crying out for me, and I heard the doctor ordering everyone to clear a path.

The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was Dante pulling Elena tightly into his arms as she began to breathe again.

I was unconscious in a private hospital for two days.

When I woke, my parents were beside my bed. The doctor said the second antidote had arrived four minutes late. I was lucky to be alive.

Dante never came.

Elena suffered temporary memory loss after waking. He stayed in the room next door with her, refusing to leave even to sleep.

On the third afternoon, he finally appeared in my ward.

I thought he would at least apologize.

Instead, Dante sat beside my bed and said, "Don't tell anyone about the poisoning yet."

"Why?"

"Reporters already suspect the Costa family was involved in the attack. My succession ceremony is next week. I don't want baseless speculation affecting Elena."

I stared at him, almost certain I had misheard.

"So you came to ask me to cover for her?"

"You're fine now, aren't you?" He frowned. "You received the antidote only a few minutes late. Don't make it sound so serious."

Only a few minutes late?

During those few minutes, I had been one step away from death.

I closed my eyes. "Get out."

Dante remained seated, his gaze falling to my throat.

"One more thing."

He reached out and touched the obsidian pendant.

"Give this back to me."