Chapter 4

I woke before dawn.

The apartment was quiet.

Leone hadn't come home the night before.

I took only two suitcases, my research materials from the study, and the research institute's admission letter that I'd locked away in a cabinet four years ago.

As for the clothes and jewelry Leone had bought me, or the supplementary credit card he had given me, I didn't touch any of them.

Before leaving, I deleted my fingerprints from the door lock.

The unsigned prenuptial agreement still lay on the table, along with the diamond ring.

It turned out that after four years together, all I'd left behind occupied only a tiny corner of the table.

On the way to the airport, my phone suddenly began vibrating nonstop.

A video was circulating among the mafia families of Corvessia.

The secretly recorded footage showed me taking off my ring, then signing the withdrawal agreement at the organization's headquarters.

According to the video's narrative, I had been denied the power I demanded within the underground organization and was deliberately calling off the wedding to force Leone into giving in.

Some sneered that I was a greedy nobody who'd set her sights on a powerful man above her station.

Others claimed that Leone had supported me for four years, and that now with Camilla's return, I had become shameless enough to extort him for everything I could get.

Given the camera angle, the video could only have been filmed by someone close to Camilla.

My lawyer, Valentino Visconti, advised me to release a public statement immediately to set the record straight.

But first, I called Leone.

He answered on the fourth ring.

I heard the delicate clinking of glassware in the background. Camilla was asking him whether he wanted to try some of her soup.

"What is it?" Leone asked impatiently.

"Have you seen the video circulating online?" I inquired.

"I have."

"That's not what happened." I tightened my grip on the phone. "I want you to have it taken down everywhere and make a public statement that I never demanded any shares or power within the family."

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"Camilla has only just returned to the country, so she's not familiar with how the media operates. We can't be sure she was the one who leaked the video."

I pressed him. "What if she was?"

"Isola." His voice grew stern. "You shouldn't target her based on baseless speculation. Why don't you go back to the estate first? Once you've calmed down, we can discuss our engagement again."

The car had already arrived at the airport terminal entrance, and the driver got out to help unload my luggage.

Through the car window, I gazed at the flight information scrolling across the terminal's giant display. Then, I asked softly, "Leone, what if I really am exactly what the video says I am?"

A faint scoff came through the phone.

"Don't use leaving to threaten me. There's no way you'd give up your place as my wife or walk away from me. Come back when you're done throwing a tantrum."

I said nothing more.

After ending the call, I bundled together the secretly recorded video, the appendix to the trust agreement, and the withdrawal agreement from the organization's headquarters.

Then, I sent them all to Valentino with the message, "Proceed as planned."

He replied at once, "Understood. Contact me once you've landed."

After blocking Leone on every possible channel and deactivating all my social media accounts, I walked through airport security with my suitcase in tow.

Just before boarding, I received a message from Professore Ferrante.

"The team is waiting for you in Zurevia."

I replied, "Noted."

As the cabin doors were about to close, a flight attendant reminded all passengers to switch their devices to airplane mode.

I took out the SIM card I had used for four years and snapped it in half.

The plane began taxiing slowly toward the runway. As it pierced through the thick blanket of clouds, I took one last look at the city below.

The familiar lights of the family estate and the silhouettes of the towering skyscrapers gradually receded into the distance, until they were swallowed completely by an endless sea of white clouds.