Chapter 5

Victoria De Luca lived in a villa by the sea.

The moment I stepped through the door, she heard my footsteps. When she turned around, the smile vanished from her face. Her eyes immediately fell on my swollen, reddened cheek.

“Oh my! What happened?

“Come here. Let me see how bad it is.”

She reached out to touch me, but I instinctively turned my face away.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Victoria did not press me for an explanation. She simply had a maid bring out the first-aid kit and personally treated the swelling on my cheek.

Only after she put down the cotton swab did I remove the De Luca family crest from my coat and place it in front of her.

“I’m going back to New York. It’s time I returned this to you.”

Victoria stared at the crest for a long moment without reaching for it.

“Maybe it would be good for you to spend some time in New York.” She spoke cautiously. “You can come back after you’ve had time to cool off.”

“I’m not staying there temporarily.” I gently cut her off.

“I’m not leaving just for a while. I’ve agreed to marry into the Romano family. They’re sending someone to pick me up in two days.”

Victoria stared at me. After a long silence, she finally asked, “Is this truly what you want?”

“Yes.”There was not a hint of hesitation in my answer.

Victoria picked up the crest and pinned it back onto my collar.

“I gave this to you myself. Keep it. You’re a good girl. Keep in mind that no matter who you marry, this will always be your home. If you ever decide to come back, the door will always be open for you.”

Victoria took out her phone and, right in front of me, called the Romano matriarch.

“Evelyn will be leaving Sicily as my daughter. I’ll be there myself on her wedding day.”

Before the call even ended, the sound of a car came from outside the villa. Lorenzo and Dario soon walked in, with Sophia following behind them.

Lorenzo had clearly already heard the news from the guards.

“You’re marrying someone from the Romano family?” His gaze fell on the crest pinned to my collar, his expression darkening. “Are you really going to use your marriage to get revenge on us over what happened today?”

Dario had lost his usual carefree smile. “Evelyn, this has gone far enough. We gave Sophia those rings only so people outside the family would know she has the De Luca family’s protection. No one would dare mistreat her because of what happened to her father. We never actually intended to marry her.”

Sophia stood between them, her eyes red as she spoke.

“Ms. Victoria, they never really intended to marry me. I had just lost my father. They only wanted me to have something to smile about at the banquet.”

Lorenzo immediately stepped in front of her protectively.

“She never asked us for marriage or a place in the family.”

He looked at me, his voice growing colder with every word. “You kept making things worse just because we didn’t immediately agree to what you wanted. Evelyn, when did you become like this?”

Victoria slowly lowered her phone. She looked at Lorenzo and Dario as her expression turned ice-cold.

“So you think it’s perfectly acceptable to use the promise of marriage to make a girl happy, but when Evelyn seriously discusses her own marriage, you accuse her of pressuring you?”

The two brothers fell silent.

I did not want to hear another explanation. I gently released Victoria’s hand.

“Thank you for standing up for me, but I should go.”

Victoria’s eyes slowly reddened.

“Stay tonight. I’ll have a room prepared for you. You can stay here for as long as you want.”

I lowered my head and touched the crest on my collar before giving Victoria one last hug.

“My mother has already arranged a place for me to stay. I’ll live there until the Romano family arrives.”

Lorenzo’s expression finally changed. “You’d rather live alone somewhere else than come back to the manor with me?”

I walked past him. “That place isn’t my home anymore.”

Dario reached out to stop me, but Victoria’s voice cut through the room.

“Let her go!”

I dragged my suitcase down the steps. Suddenly, Sophia came running after me.

“Evelyn, wait!”

She blocked my path, her eyes falling on the half-open handbag hanging from my suitcase.

“You’re really going to marry into the Romano family?”

“That’s none of your business.”

I stepped around her and kept walking. However, she suddenly reached into my bag and snatched my passport.

“Give it back.”

Sophia flipped it open and checked the name inside. She put on a cold smile.

“If you leave, Ms. Victoria will blame everything on me. Why should you get to switch families and walk away from everything that happened here? Why should I be the one left behind to deal with the consequences of your departure?”

Then, she threw my passport into the metal bin beside the steps, where fallen leaves were burning.

I did not have time to think. I lunged for it.

Sophia deliberately slammed into my suitcase. The suitcase went tumbling down the steps, taking me with it.

I hit the stone steps hard, scraping my palm raw. I clenched my teeth and forced myself back up, reaching into the flames to retrieve my passport.

Then Sophia suddenly screamed. “Evelyn, I was only trying to convince you to stay! Why did you push me?”

Lorenzo and Dario came rushing over. They found Sophia sitting on the ground. Dario grabbed me and yanked me away from the burning bin.

“You came here to cause trouble for Mom, and now you’re actually laying hands on her?”

I stumbled from the force of his grip.

“She burned my passport!”

Lorenzo glanced at the charred document in my hand. His expression did not change in the slightest.

“Why would Sophia touch your passport? Evelyn, if you’re going to make up an excuse, at least come up with one people can believe.”

Sophia buried herself in his arms, trembling as she cried. “I only wanted to convince Evelyn not to leave, but she shoved me down the steps!”

Dario dragged me toward her. “Apologize to her.”

I lowered my eyes to the passport that had been burned beyond repair.

Something inside me finally snapped. “She destroyed my passport, and you want me to apologize to her? You’re all insane!”

I clenched the charred passport in my hand and tore myself free from Dario’s grip.

“I’m walking out that door today. From this moment on, even if you get down on your knees and beg me to come back, I never will.”

Outside, the chauffeur and bodyguard my mother sent had already arrived.

The moment they saw the blood covering my hand, the bodyguard hurried forward and stepped between Dario and me. The chauffeur immediately caught my arm.

“Ms. Evelyn, your hand is hurt.”

The bodyguard forced Dario back while the chauffeur helped me into the car.

Lorenzo finally realized something was wrong and hurried after us.

“Evelyn! Where the hell are you going?”

The car door slammed shut right in front of him. As the car passed through the gates, I took one last look at the place I had called home for twenty years.