Chapter 4

I struggled to lift my head. "Let go of me!"

My forehead was already split open. Blood trickled down my brow bone.

Bianca sobbed softly in Darius's arms.

Leon tightened his grip. "Apologize to Bianca!"

"No!" I cried out through the pain. "There are cameras in this room. Bianca stepped on my dress on purpose!"

"Tonight is Bianca's big night." Enzo held my shoulder down, not letting go. "Stop causing trouble."

I forced the words out through my teeth. "Asking for the footage is causing trouble now?"

No one answered.

My heart sank piece by piece.

No one cared about the truth. They all believed Bianca unconditionally.

Bianca stopped crying and spoke in that fragile voice. "Everyone, please don't be hard on Elena."

She straightened her dress, and her gaze landed on the necklace around my neck. She paused for just a second.

"That necklace is beautiful." Her voice was soft. "Did you give it to her?"

Darius followed her gaze.

"Elena, since Bianca likes it, give her the necklace as an apology." His tone left no room for negotiation. "Let's end this here."

"No!" I refused without thinking.

They gave it to me together on my eighteenth birthday. On the back of the pendant, a promise was engraved.

We will always stand by you.

Darius put it on me that day. Enzo said he was too rough with it. Leon held up a camera and took a picture of all of us together.

It was the last bond I had with them.

When I refused, Leon and Enzo both pressed down harder. My arms were twisted behind my back. A dull crack came from my shoulder joint.

Agony shot through my entire body.

I screamed. Cold sweat soaked through my back in an instant.

Leon and Enzo froze. Their grip loosened instinctively.

Darius even took half a step forward before forcing himself to stop.

Leon cleared his throat, his voice strained. "Elena, it's just a necklace."

Enzo's hands were no longer pressing down, but his words still cut. "Stop fighting it. This is the price of staying."

I held back the pain and looked up at Darius.

"What about you?" My voice trembled no matter how hard I tried to steady it. "You said with your own mouth that this necklace belongs only to me."

The last shred of hope was still fighting.

Darius. Help me. Just this once, stand by my side.

Darius dropped his gaze in a hurry.

The next second, he was already in front of me, unfastening the necklace with his own hands.

"Tonight matters to Bianca. Give it to her first."

The moment the pendant left my skin, I stopped struggling.

This necklace meant nothing to me anymore.

Darius looked away from me, toward the dark night outside the window.

"After tonight, I'll pick you out a new one."

Darius walked back to Bianca with the necklace in hand.

Leon and Enzo let go of me immediately and crowded around her.

The moment I lost their support, I collapsed to the floor.

My dislocated arm hung limply at my side. The pain was so bad my vision went black in waves.

No one looked back.

Darius parted Bianca's hair and fastened the necklace around her neck.

Enzo warned him nervously to be gentle, not to scratch Bianca's skin.

Leon raised his camera, adjusting the angle over and over to capture the moment she put it on.

On my eighteenth birthday, they had crowded around me just like that.

Now the person standing in the middle of the three of them was Bianca.

Bianca touched the pendant and looked at me with feigned unease.

"This necklace must mean so much to her. She must have been so happy before I came back. Forget it, I won't take it from her."

Her words said one thing, but her hand stayed clenched around the necklace. Darius immediately covered her hand with his.

"It's yours now."

"Don't worry about her." Leon put his camera away. "She's been spoiled her whole life. She'll get over it in a few days."

Enzo saw Bianca's eyes turn red and softened his voice immediately.

"The party is waiting for you. Today is your birthday. Don't let yourself get upset over a foster daughter."

Foster daughter.

So that was my place now.

They surrounded Bianca and headed for the door.

Before she left, she glanced back at me. A hint of a triumphant smile curved at the corner of her mouth.

The door closed. Footsteps faded down the hallway.

I didn't wait for them to come back. I struggled to my feet.

The slightest movement of my right arm sent tremors of pain through my whole body.

I used my left hand to brace against the wall, left through the hotel's back exit, and hailed a cab on the street.

When I reached the nearest hospital, the nurse on duty took one look at my injuries and immediately pushed over a wheelchair.

"Your arm is dislocated, and your forehead needs stitches."

She knelt down to examine me.

"Do you need us to contact your family?"

I looked out the window at the streetlights blurred by rain and shook my head gently.

I didn't have a family here anymore.

"No."

At four in the morning, a car from the Moretti family pulled up in front of the hospital.

I got in. The car took me to the Moretti estate.

Two lines of people stood in front of the estate. At the head of them, a man with graying temples opened his arms to me in the morning light.

"Elena. Welcome home."