Dimitri looked at Eve, who was watching him with eyes full of love and admiration.
"This," Dimitri said simply. "Her. Building a life with her. Understanding what it means to actually choose my own path instead of following the one you laid out for me."
Antonio was quiet for a long moment.
"I will keep telling you that you're making a mistake," Antonio said finally. "You're burning bridges that took decades to build."
"Then I'll burn them," Dimitri said flatly. "Because I'm not spending the rest of my life trapped in an alliance I never agreed to, bound to a woman I don't love, living a life that someone else planned for me before I was old enough to have a say in it."
He paused.
"Release the message to Lorenzo," Dimitri continued. "Tell him that Isabella will be released within forty-eight hours. Tell him that the alliance still stands, but on new terms. Tell him that those terms don't include me marrying his daughter."
