Chapter 4

Luca looked down at me.

“Two hours should be enough to teach you a lesson. Apologize to Sabrina, and we’ll call it even.”

My lips were still numb from the cold, and my teeth chattered when I tried to answer.

Sabrina stepped forward and slipped her arm through mine.

“Luca, Adrian, stop. Elena didn’t mean any of this.”

Then she turned to me with a soft smile.

“We’re still best friends, right?”

Before I could pull away, Sabrina slipped one arm around me and deliberately pressed her fingers into the fresh burn beneath my blouse.

I cried out and shoved her away on instinct.

Sabrina cried out and stumbled backward. Her eyes filled at once.

“Elena, you still can’t forgive me?”

Luca’s face hardened.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“She pressed on my burn.”

“I didn’t,” Sabrina said quickly. “I was trying to help her.”

Luca shoved me back.

“Elena, how long are you going to keep this up?”

My lower back hit the wall, right where the burn had already blistered. My breath caught, and my knees nearly gave out.

Adrian came toward me.

For one second, I thought he was going to steady me.

Instead, he put both hands on my shoulders.

“Enough. Apologize to her.”

“No.”

I tried to pull away, but my legs were still weak after two hours in the freezing elevator. Adrian pushed down on my shoulders, and I dropped to my knees directly in front of Sabrina.

The lobby went quiet.

Adrian froze when he saw how hard I had fallen, but he still did not reach down to help me.

Luca only said, “Just apologize.”

I looked up at the three of them.

Sabrina stood behind Luca, watching me with wet eyes.

Adrian was still beside me. All three were waiting for the same thing.

They wanted me to give in.

When I didn’t, Luca took out his phone.

“Elena, you’re forcing this.”

He tapped the screen.

A second later, the giant display above reception lit up.

My face appeared on it.

It was a compilation of private recordings they had kept over the years.

One showed me crying after I found Luca and Sabrina under the same blanket.

Another showed me standing alone at the charity ball after Sabrina gave me the wrong dress code.

The last was a recording of me asking Adrian why every joke always ended with me apologizing.

Across the screen, Luca had added one title:

ELENA: THREE YEARS OF OVERREACTIONS.

Employees stopped walking.

Some looked at the screen, then at me on the floor.

A few whispered to each other.

I looked at Luca.

“You made this?”

He put his phone back in his pocket.

“You gave us the material.”

Sabrina touched his arm.

“Luca, maybe that’s enough.”

But she did not ask him to turn it off.

Adrian stared at the screen.

“You said those recordings were private.”

“They were,” Luca said. “Until she decided to blow up everyone’s life over one joke.”

Adrian’s face tightened.

For a moment, I thought he might finally defend me.

Instead, he looked down at me.

“Elena, get up. I’ll have it taken down.”

That was all he said.

He did not apologize for recording me. He did not ask Luca why he had kept the videos. He only wanted the screen turned off before the scene got worse.

I pushed myself to my feet.

Behind Adrian, the display kept playing one of my old recordings.

“Why is it always funny when I’m the one getting hurt?”

I remembered saying that to him.

At the time, Adrian had kissed my forehead and told me he understood.

Now he stood beside the people who had turned that moment into a joke.

Sabrina walked toward me again.

“Elena, please. We’ve been friends for years. I don’t understand why you’re throwing all of us away.”

I looked at her, then at Luca and Adrian.

“I’m not throwing anything away. I’m done letting the three of you treat me like this.”

I picked up my bag.

Adrian stepped in front of me.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“We need to talk.”

“No.”

I walked around him.

Luca sighed behind us.

“Let her go. She always comes back.”

Sabrina nodded.

“She just needs time.”

Adrian looked at them, then at me. He hesitated for several seconds before stepping aside.

“Fine. Go home. We’ll deal with this tonight.”

He still thought this was another fight that would end once I calmed down.

I left without answering.

By the time I reached the parking garage, my legs were still shaking from the cold and the burn along my waist had started bleeding through my blouse.

My parking space was empty.

My car was gone.

My phone buzzed.Adrian.

[Sabrina wanted sushi, so I took your car.]

[Today was enough of a lesson. Go home and think about how far you took this.]

[The wedding is tomorrow. Clean yourself up tonight. I’ll pick you up in the morning.]

I stared at the messages and laughed.

Even now, Adrian still believed the wedding was happening.

I was about to call a car when two black SUVs turned into the garage.

My mother stepped out of the first one, followed by several members of our security team.

The moment she saw me, her expression changed.

Her eyes moved over my pale face, my trembling hands, and the blood spreading through the side of my blouse.

“Elena.”

I barely made it a few steps before my knees weakened.

She caught me and pulled me into her arms.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “Mamma came too late.”

Once I was safely inside the car, my mother turned to Valentina.

“Freeze Elena’s shares. Withdraw every guarantee connected to Calloway Harbor, and contact every bank and European partner our family brought into that company.”

“By tomorrow morning, I want everything that belongs to us out.”