Chapter 3

I wheeled my suitcase out through the front gate of the Rizzi house.

Capucine ran after me and spread her arms to block my way, her eyes exactly as red as they needed to be.

"Liana, don't go, please? It was my fault. I shouldn't have touched your gown. Don't be angry at Matteo."

Twenty years. I had seen this act more than enough.

"Move."

"Liana..."

I did not let her finish. I raised a hand and pushed her aside.

Matteo came out of the house at exactly that moment, and the first thing he saw was my hand still in the air and Capucine leaning against the doorpost, biting her lip and crying.

"Liana!" He rushed over and pulled Capucine behind him. "That's enough! Slapping her at the party wasn't enough, now you're putting your hands on her again?"

He drew her closer, his heart going out to her, and his voice softened. "Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

Capucine shook her head and the tears shook loose with it. "I'm fine, I just don't want Liana to leave..."

Matteo lifted his head and looked at me, and what was left of the warmth in his eyes went cold.

"Let her go. Her mother's dead now, we're the only family she has in this world. Let's see how far she gets."

The air went still for a moment.

I looked at Matteo's face, the face I had carried in my head since I was a child.

He was reminding me that my mother was dead, that I had no home, that he was my only way back.

But what he did not know was that I already had another home.

"You're right. My mom is dead.

"Which means there is nobody left in this world I have to swallow anything for."

I pulled my suitcase past him, and this time nobody reached out to stop me.

I was a long way off before I heard Capucine's tearful voice behind me. "Matteo, what if something happens to her... should we go after her..."

Matteo answered flatly, "No need. She'll come back on her own in a couple of days. She always has, her whole life."

That night Capucine went live. The side of her face was faintly swollen on the screen, and she said through sobs that she had upset her stepsister, that she understood why Liana had slapped her, and that she only hoped Liana would calm down and come home.

The comments filled with abuse, one after another.

"Is this woman sick in the head, hitting her that hard?"

"Capucine has never been treated like this in her life. She should call the police."

"I heard she only acts this arrogant because Matteo spoils her. Now even he isn't on her side, so who does she think she is?"

I stared at the screen for a few seconds, and just as I was about to swipe away, new messages started popping in one after another.

"Liana, Capucine has been on the phone crying to me all night. You're the older one. Even if she did something wrong, you shouldn't have hit her, should you? We're family, can't we just talk?"

"Liana, I don't mean to be harsh, but that dress your mother made was never fit to be seen anyway, and then you turn around and give Matteo attitude? What kind of behavior is that? Matteo has been good to you for years. Don't be ungrateful."

A screen full of blame. I answered none of it.

It had always been this way.

When I said something about Capucine, nobody believed me. When she said something about me, everybody did.

I was looking at the ugly wall of comments, about to delete my account.

A private message came in.

Capucine. "If you're going to leave, sort out all your things first. Give back what Matteo's mother gave you before you go, so you don't use it as an excuse to come back for your things later."

She was not wrong.

Before the engagement his mother had given me a set of jewelry, saying it had been passed down in the family and that her future daughter-in-law should wear it to the party.

If I was cutting this off, I would scrape it clean to the bone.

I wrote back, "Fine."

The next afternoon I went back to the Rizzi house.

I had barely pushed the door open when Capucine came at me holding a huge bunch of red roses, smiling sweetly, pushing the flowers into my arms.

"Liana, I was wrong yesterday, I'm sorry. These flowers are for you..."

I could not back away in time. The thick scent had already flooded my lungs, and my throat felt like something had blocked it.

My vision blurred, my chest ached and tightened, and my hand scrabbled for the inhaler in my bag.

Capucine stood in front of me, looking alarmed. "Liana? What's wrong?"

Matteo's steps stalled for an instant when he burst through the door, and the next second he was on his knees beside me.

"Liana!" He knocked the bouquet out of Capucine's hands and pulled my inhaler from his coat pocket.

"Breathe, breathe!" He pressed the mouthpiece to my lips, his other arm tight around my back.

The mist hit my throat and my airway loosened bit by bit. I gasped for air, coughing up tears.

Matteo lifted me right off the floor.

"Move," he said to Capucine, his voice low and urgent. "Get out of the way!"

Capucine stood frozen where she was, petals scattered all over the floor.

He set me in the passenger seat and leaned over to fasten my seat belt, never releasing his grip on my wrist, his eyes bloodshot as he floored the accelerator and tore through the streets.

"Liana, don't scare me like that."