Ava Moretti loved Luca Conti for nine years, believing the Conti family’s blood oath would always protect her. But when the Petrov brothers kidnapped her and demanded a six-hundred-thousand-dollar ransom, Luca listened to Valentina Russo and refused to pay, letting Ava “learn obedience.” After three months of captivity, Ava escapes barefoot back to Manhattan, broken, terrified, and no longer in love. While Luca keeps mistaking her trauma for rebellion, Dante Vitale, the Conti security chief and former detective, becomes the only person who truly protects her. As Valentina’s role in the kidnapping is exposed and Luca’s regret comes too late, Ava chooses the man who saved her, not the Don who abandoned her.