Chapter 4

In my past life, I listened to the phone's manipulations and failed to check on my parents after Lorenzo's accident. That's why I wasn't there for them when the attack came.

I shouldn't believe her words.

I took my mother's hand and said, "Let's go back together."

At dinner, the atmosphere was heavy because of Lorenzo, but my parents still kept putting food on my plate.

They were clearly grieving, but they were far from hating me. In fact, they were constantly worried about my appetite.

I thought back to the phone call and scoffed internally.

See? My parents haven't done anything to me. I'm their beloved daughter, after all. The phone's misdirection is absurd.

The next day, my parents told me they wanted to stay at the estate and not go anywhere. I was about to agree when the image from my past life flooded my mind: rival assassins storming the estate and slaughtering my parents.

There was only one way to prevent that tragedy from happening.

"Father, Mother... I know you're upset about Lorenzo."

"I want to take you somewhere to clear your heads. Let's move to my safe house for a couple of days."

I moved my parents.

It was a hidden fortress in the city center.

Though its exterior was ordinary, the interior was reinforced with steel plates, guarded by my privately hired armed security and the family's most elite bodyguards working in shifts.

My parents would be perfectly safe here.

For the next few days, I would tell my parents not to trust any outsiders, not even "mediators" sent by other families, before I left for the day. At dinner, we would discuss family business. Life was quiet but warm.

But we couldn't escape the professional killers. The bloody revenge found us anyway.

One day, I came home carrying medicine I'd bought on the black market. I pushed open the door only to be met with a wall of thick, rolling smoke.

"Damn it! How could this happen!" My heart hammered in my chest.

The safe house was engulfed in flames. The fire department arrived, but they couldn't even find my parents' remains.

The fire chief told me, "It was a timed bomb that detonated a gas line."

"This is a professional-level assassination. Who did your family cross?"

"I..."

I collapsed to my knees in the rubble.

So, just like my brother, had my parents failed to escape the curse in this life, too?

I had tried to protect them with the family's strongest defenses, but my excessive precautions had become the very trap that burned them alive.

Sofia rushed over when she got the news, jabbing a finger in my face and roaring, "You cursed bitch!"

"You don't deserve the Moretti name! Wasn't it enough to get Lorenzo killed? Now you've killed the Don and Donna too! Won't you be satisfied until you've destroyed the entire family?"

"That's not it, Sofia. I was just trying to keep my parents from..." I tried to argue, but my words felt weak and powerless.

"You locked the Don and Donna in that deathtrap. They didn't even have a chance to fight back. You are a disgrace to this family."

"I'm going to air your crimes to the entire underworld and let the Five Families pass judgment. Let them see the jinx you really are."

Sofia spread the scandal of how I had killed the heir with my "tainted" blood and burned the Don and his wife to ashes throughout the criminal world.

The bosses of the various families were all abuzz, and every one of them took Sofia's side.

"What damn princess? She's a cancer on the family!"

"Sofia's right. They fight for family honor, and this is the thanks they get from that ungrateful wolf!"

"I think she's a mole, deliberately destroying the Moretti family from the inside. She should be executed according to their rules!"

"Her location is locked. Sienna Moretti is a traitor. Boys, don't let her see the sunrise."

Rival families dispatched their top assassins, sending me threatening letters smeared with blood.

I was tortured to the brink of insanity, my conscience gnawing at me relentlessly. I was physically and mentally exhausted.

I was the family's sinner. I had killed Lorenzo and my parents. The belief was carved into my soul.

Sofia would show up at my hiding place every day with her thugs to beat me.

"You killed the entire core of the family! How do you still have the nerve to be breathing?"

I finally broke completely. I walked out onto the rooftop, staring down at the stream of cars below, wanting for a moment to leap and end this nightmare.

"I failed to live up to your trust, Sofia."

Sofia followed behind me, her tirade not ceasing for a second. "Don't think playing the victim is going to save you. If you've got the guts, then jump!"

Seeing the eager glint in her eyes, everything suddenly clicked into place.

I turned to face her. "You've been waiting for this moment, haven't you, Sofia?"