Chapter 1

When Alessandro came with Victoria to bring me home, I hadn't eaten in three days.

In my three years at the reform house, I lived worse than the lowest soldier in the family.

The people who ran the place treated me like a servant. They ordered me around. If anything went wrong, they kicked and hit me.

One hard winter, my leg got frostbite. Nobody treated it for a long time. It never fully healed.

I used to be the Moretti family's precious girl. Now my leg ached every time the weather turned cold, and on the worst days I could barely walk.

So when I came back to the estate, all I had to wear was an old white dress gone yellow from washing.

Nobody helped me. I struggled to get myself out of the black car on my own.

Whispers started up all around me. Reporters and spies from every family had heard I was back. They crowded in, shouting over each other, asking what my three years had been like.

I turned my face away without thinking. I didn't know what to do with my hands, so I clutched my skirt. Then someone shoved me from behind. I hit the ground hard.

My old injury flared up. It hurt so much I couldn't even get up.

"Sis, what happened to your leg?"

Victoria gasped and pushed through the crowd to get to me.

"How is this possible? Alessandro said the reform house was only supposed to help you think about what you did!"

"They say people only get hurt in there if they keep breaking the rules..."

Everyone around us heard every word.

In a heartbeat, every camera was pointed at my leg.

I just looked at her calmly. My face didn't show a thing.

I was the only one who knew. She was the reason my leg would ache every winter for the rest of my life.

And the man who'd been by my side for over ten years, Alessandro Moretti, had let it happen.

In my second year at the reform house, Victoria threw a fit about how much she missed me. She insisted on visiting.

She saw me exactly once. When she got home, she came down with a fever that wouldn't break. Her chest hurt so much she could barely breathe.

Alessandro nearly lost his mind. He called in every contact the family had to find out what was wrong.

In the end, every so-called piece of evidence pointed to me.

They decided I was jealous of Victoria and had secretly swapped her medicine.

Victoria cried and said she didn't blame me. She only asked that I kneel in the courtyard for one night to atone, so she would know I was truly sorry.

That night it was snowing. Alessandro stood at the gate for a long time. I could see he didn't want to do it.

But Victoria was coughing in the car behind him. In the end, he looked away.

"Isabella, you've always been strong. Just get through tonight for her."

I knelt in the snow until dawn. The cold crept into my legs and never really left.

I just remember thinking I probably wouldn't survive that winter.

Now, seeing me on the ground, Alessandro's hard face finally flickered with something like pity.

He was about to reach for me when Victoria called out behind him, weak and soft.

"It's all my fault... If I weren't always so sick, Sis would never have had to take the blame for me. She'd never have ended up like this..."

Halfway through, her face went white.

She kept saying his name, over and over. Like she might stop breathing any second. Like he was the only thing keeping her alive.

Right away, Alessandro remembered the doctor's warning. Victoria couldn't handle any more shocks.

He looked torn for a second. Then he turned away from me.

"You're tougher than she is, Isabella. Wait here. I'll send someone for you."

He scooped Victoria up and hurried off in front of everyone.

I sat alone on the cold ground. I slowly turned my head. Just in time to see Victoria, draped over his shoulder, flash me a smug little smile.