Chapter 2 The Check

Evelyn's POV

"Sign it."

Federico had already signed his name on the divorce papers. I didn't move. My mind was a mess, and I had no idea how to face the brutal truths crashing down on me one after another.

Federico went on. "I'll leave you the house we're living in now. And I'll give you some money on top of that, enough to live on for the rest of your life."

The house we lived in... Federico had bought it so he could propose to me.

He'd promised me a home. In that house, we'd imagined so many happy futures together.

And now he was leaving me only the house, and taking back every dream of love he'd given me.

I frowned. My heart ached so much I could barely stand it.

I looked up at Federico again. I couldn't believe the man in front of me was the husband I'd promised my life to.

He'd become a stranger. It was the same face I knew, but I no longer recognized the man behind it.

I couldn't speak. The hurt lodged in my throat.

I searched his eyes for anything at all that said he didn't want to let me go.

But there was nothing.

He didn't look at me once. There was nothing left in those blue eyes but ice. He just kept talking, with no idea how much his words hurt.

"You don't have to leave the Gambrelli family. You're still part of it. If you run into any problems later on, you can come to me."

With shaking hands, I signed my name on the divorce papers.

I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. They dripped onto my signature and blurred the ink.

Just as I finished signing the last document, Federico handed me a check. Five million dollars.

So that was what he meant by enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

How ironic.

All the Gambrelli family's businesses put together were worth tens of billions of dollars at least, but now I was worth only five million.

I stared at the check and gave a bitter smile.

Then I snatched it up, tore it to shreds, and threw the pieces in Federico's face.

"I don't need your charity," I told him. "People like you, who use other people's love, end up in hell sooner or later. Save this money for when you get what's coming to you!"

Before the words were even out, I slapped Federico hard across the face.

He finally looked up at me. Something unreadable flickered in his eyes. But I'd stopped hoping there was any love left in them.

I walked out with my copy of the divorce papers.

When I got home, my best friend, Aurora Bellamy, rushed over. She'd heard about everything that had happened, and she'd been worried sick about me for days.

In front of her, I couldn't pretend to be strong anymore. I broke down and told her everything through my tears.

Aurora couldn't believe it. "How could this happen? How could he do this to you?! He loved you so much!"

"He never loved me. It was all an act." I couldn't stop crying.

"Evelyn, you should tell him the truth! Your father never treated you right! He's the one who hurt Federico's father. This has nothing to do with you. Aren't you a victim too?" Aurora urged me.

We'd been friends since we were little. She knew what I'd been through in the Gambrelli family all these years.

To the Gambrelli family, I was nothing but a bargaining chip. All they wanted was to trade me for a son-in-law they could be proud of.

And now their hopes had been crushed.

If I'd had a choice, I'd rather never have been a Gambrelli. They were my family, but they'd never given me any warmth.

In this whole world, Federico was the only one who'd made me truly feel loved.

But...

Even that one bit of tenderness had turned into a knife in my heart.

"Aurora, I don't want Federico's pity. If he never really loved me, what's the point of telling him any of this now?"

"But..."

"If this is really what he wants, then I'll give it to him."

Even if Federico's feelings for me had all been fake, at least the years we spent together had brought some light into my life.

I lay awake all night.

The next day, I decided to sell the house. There were too many memories of Federico and me in it. I couldn't keep living there.

Aurora and I started packing.

That was when my mother's assistant, Elisa, knocked on the door.

Elisa was in her forties and had served my mother and the Gambrelli family for years.

Her voice was heavy. "Evelyn, there's something I think I have to tell you."

"What is it?" I took a deep breath, not knowing that what she said next would knock the air out of me.

"You might not be Carl and Rose's biological daughter."