Chapter 8

Elena's POV

"Elena, how dare you hurt Sofia in front of me?" Lorenzo bellowed. However, when he saw the blood instantly blooming on my clothes, he froze.

When my tears fell on the back of his hand, Lorenzo jerked his hand back as if he had gotten burned.

"Elena—" Lorenzo's throat was dry. He opened his mouth but couldn't continue.

In the three years we were together, this was the first time he had seen such a look of grief on my face.

He paused, then said, "I'll make it up to you."

"Make it up to me? How?" My voice was hoarse and trembling. "Lorenzo, what Sofia just destroyed was the handprints my parents and I pressed into the foundation when the estate was being built. There was only one copy in existence."

Lorenzo's eyes widened. He was about to speak up when Sofia let out a cold laugh at that moment.

She held her swollen cheek, her eyes full of unyielding arrogance.

"Lorenzo, you said that as long as I was willing to come back to you, you would support me in whatever I did." Sofia smiled somewhat disappointedly. "It seems I placed too much hope in you."

She strode away after she finished speaking, with Lorenzo immediately following to explain.

Just then, Sofia stumbled and accidentally bumped into the half-demolished sculpture.

With a loud crash, accompanied by Lorenzo's strangled cry, the sculpture fell on top of them. Blood stained the serene face of my mother that was carved into the sculpture.

…

Outside the operating room, Sofia sat calmly on a chair, completely unharmed. It was as if the large amounts of blood on her clothes were just paint she had accidentally spilled.

As for me, the so-called Donna of the family, I had no choice but to take two painkillers and handle the fallout.

Halfway through the surgery, a nurse hurried out, saying, "The hospital blood bank is running low. You need to find someone with type A blood to donate to Mr. Moretti."

When the nurse was done speaking, I saw Sofia's lids tremble slightly, but she ultimately said nothing.

"Lorenzo got hurt saving you. Aren't you going to donate blood?" I asked coldly.

For a brief moment, Sofia's eyes betrayed her guilt at being exposed before hardening into displeasure and disgust.

After a while, she responded indifferently, "I'm in poor health. Donating blood wouldn't help him. In fact, it'd harm him.

"Besides, I don't think Lorenzo would want me to make such a sacrifice for him."

I scoffed inwardly.

In the end, it was Lorenzo's secretary who came and donated blood.

After the surgery, Sofia didn't even bother to follow the gurney to Lorenzo's hospital room before getting up to leave straightaway.

The secretary stopped her, his tone slightly displeased. "Ms. Ciampi, Don Moretti was injured because of you, and you're just going to leave like this?"

Sofia glanced at Lorenzo's pale face, then answered lightly, "Staying here through his surgery was already my way of repaying him."

With that, she left without looking back.

As I watched Lorenzo lying on the bed, his face twisted in pain, I could only think that his devotion to Sofia felt like one huge joke.

Still, from today onward, it had nothing to do with me whether they tore each other apart or continued to be a pair of bitter lovers.

I followed the gurney to the hospital room, then left to get my own wounds bandaged.

After that, I went to the estate, which had been forced to halt demolition, and packed up everything related to my parents before shipping them all away.

By the time I finished all of this, two days had passed.

I still needed to deposit the remaining insurance money from Dad into an overseas account.

Unexpectedly, as I was walking down the street, a speeding van came and snatched me away.

After my last experience, I had learned to hold my breath this time. I pretended to be unconscious but kept my eyes slightly open, memorizing the route along the way.

Only when the vehicle was racing along the bumpy mountain road, with the view of the backseat obscured from the front, did I finally open my eyes.

To my surprise, Sofia was right beside me, also tied up and gagged. I looked away from her pleading eyes when they met mine.

I pulled out a nail file I had hidden from the kidnappers when they were searching me and slowly began sawing through my ropes.

Halfway through, one of the kidnappers suddenly turned around with his phone, so I quickly closed my eyes.

I heard him record a video for Lorenzo.

"Lorenzo, your wife and your first love are both in our hands. You'd better think carefully. You can only save one. Who will you save?"