Chapter 4

I saved the video, partly to warn myself, and partly as evidence.

Not long after, a text from Ambra popped up.

"Valentina, so sorry! I accidentally sent you that video just now."

"Edoardo got drunk, so I won't send him back tonight, just so he doesn't disturb your rest."

I knew exactly what she was trying to pull, flaunting their intimacy right in my face.

If this were the old me, I would have demanded an explanation, then frantically called Edoardo to demand where he was.

Instead, I simply blocked her number.

I grabbed my packed suitcase and walked out toward the hotel.

I was going to take my mother with me.

To Sicily.

The next morning, I brought my mother's favorite pastries to the care center.

All the way there, I kept thinking about how to bring it up with my mother, whether she'd think I was being too impulsive, or whether she'd refuse to return to the place that had once broken her heart.

As I reached her room, I caught sight of Ambra through the glass.

She was dressed in a tailored black dress, casually sipping a cup of coffee by my mother's bed.

"...Edoardo and I grew up together. Everyone in the family assumed I'd be his wife. Things only got complicated after Valentina showed up."

"You... you came all the way here just to show off that you stole my daughter's fiancé?" My mother's voice trembled with rage, her eyes red with fury.

Ambra gave a soft, delicate laugh.

"Signora, I'm just having a heart-to-heart with an elder who's seen it all."

"Just like we all know how you were played by a married man back in the day and left while pregnant with Valentina. I take it he didn't try to keep you? Otherwise, you wouldn't be living in such pathetic misery."

"So you of all people should know best. Love can't be stolen. It's strictly a matter of being chosen or being discarded."

My mother's pupils dilated in shock. She clutched her chest and collapsed heavily against the pillows.

"Mamma!"

I burst into the room, dropping the pastry box onto the floor.

My mother's body went limp as her breathing turned rapid and ragged.

"Doctor! Someone call a doctor!" Ignoring Ambra, I slammed the emergency call button and screamed for help.

Rapid footsteps echoed down the hallway. Medical staff rushed in and lifted my mother onto a gurney.

My mother held onto my hand in a vice grip. I ran alongside her, but as we rounded the corridor corner, Ambra grabbed my arm, forcing me to watch helplessly as my mother was wheeled into the operating room.

"Valentina, I really didn't know this would happen," Ambra stammered, looking pitiful. "I just wanted to talk to her, to ask her to reason with you... I didn't mean to hurt her..."

Looking at her fake, sorrowful face, the string in my head that had been pulled taut for months finally snapped.

"You bitch! How dare you do this to my mamma!" I slammed a hard slap across her face.

Before my second hand could land, a powerful grip clamped onto my wrist from behind, squeezing so hard it throbbed with pain.

"Valentina, stop!"

Edoardo stood there in an immaculate black suit, flanked by two syndicate men. He had clearly rushed straight over from a family meeting.

His dark eyes fixed on me, cold and unyielding.

"If you have an issue, take it out on me. Ambra was just being nice, coming to visit your mother. Why are you laying hands on her?"

The resentment I had bottled up for too long finally spiraled out of control in that moment.

"Me, bullying her? She drove my mamma into the emergency room, and you say I'm bullying her?!" I shouted.

In that instant, I clearly saw a flicker of hesitation cross his eyes.

But before he could speak, Ambra had already gently caught his sleeve. Her half-swollen face made her tears look even more pitiful.

"Edoardo, please, stop. If hitting me makes her feel better, then let her. I don't mind."

I was trembling with rage. "Ambra, you..."

"That's enough."

Edoardo's expression darkened as he stepped sideways, shielding Ambra behind him.

"Apologize to her."

It was the same pattern again.

Every time Ambra shed tears, the one who ended up having to apologize was always me, even when I was the one who had been hurt.

"In your dreams! I want her to apologize to my mother!"

Edoardo let out a cold sneer.

"Valentina, have you forgotten that your mother is staying here for free because I authorized it as a family privilege?"

"If you keep disobeying, I don't mind downgrading your mother to an ordinary patient, and at that point, the medical fees will be far beyond anything you could ever imagine."