Chapter 3

In my first life, I had devoted everything to Julian.

I found his doctors, paid for his treatment, and spent years protecting him from a world I believed he couldn't face alone.

I never paid attention to the Moretti family business.

Bianca and I had never been treated the same.

My father always claimed he loved us equally, yet the family trust held shares for Lorenzo and Bianca, not me. Bianca collected enough in annual dividends to live in luxury without working a day.

Meanwhile, I had needed my father's written approval every time I paid one of Julian's medical bills.

If I wanted a place in the Moretti family, I could no longer wait for someone to offer it to me.

I had to earn enough power that they couldn't ignore me.

Lorenzo didn't even meet with me when I first joined his division. He had his assistant give me a minor position and an office no one else wanted.

I didn't complain.

I studied the financial records, learned the port operations, and quietly handled every assignment they left on my desk.

In my first life, I had never discovered what I could do.

This time, even I was surprised by how naturally the work came to me.

Three months later, I convinced a notoriously difficult investor to finance a logistics project Lorenzo had been trying to save for nearly a year.

For the first time, my brother invited me into his office.

He gave me a welcome dinner three months late and transferred several struggling accounts into my hands.

Moretti Logistics had reached a bottleneck. Lorenzo needed someone who could produce results.

He might have preferred Bianca, but he could no longer afford to overlook me.

Gradually, people stopped referring to me as the scarred Moretti daughter.

My name began appearing in investment reports and board memos. At family events, businessmen who once stared at Bianca's face started asking for my opinion.

Bianca noticed.

When I returned to the estate one evening, she was waiting for me in the conservatory.

Gabriel and Julian stood behind her.

"Elena, don't you think you've been drawing too much attention lately?" she asked.

I frowned.

"You've been appearing at negotiations, dinners, and company events almost every week. I'm not trying to discourage you, but your recent success has more to do with luck than experience."

She gave me a concerned smile.

"If something goes wrong, it won't only embarrass you. It will damage the Moretti name."

I said nothing.

Bianca's gaze drifted toward the scar on my face.

"And you already attract the wrong kind of attention. If you keep acting so aggressively, men may find you difficult to approach."

She glanced meaningfully at Julian.

"I think you should stop bothering Lorenzo. If you want something to do, you can work with my foundation instead. I'll take care of you."

I looked directly at her.

"You're afraid I'm taking attention away from you."

Her smile disappeared.

"Elena, how could you think that?"

"What position are you giving me advice from?" I asked. "As Dad's favorite daughter? As a shareholder in the family trust that excluded me?"

Her face stiffened.

"You've benefited from this family your entire life. What gives you the right to stand above me and tell me not to fight for my own place?"

Her eyes immediately filled with tears.

"Elena—"

"And since you brought up my scar, perhaps we should finally discuss how I got it."

The conservatory went quiet.

"When we were ten, I stepped between you and a rival gunman. Then you shoved me into the shattered car window so you could get away."

Bianca's lips parted.

"The surgeons needed forty-seven stitches to close my face. You walked away without a scratch."

"It was an accident," she whispered.

"An accident ruined my face. It didn't stop you from accepting the trust shares and family position that should have been mine."

"How can you say that?" Her voice trembled. "Dad only gave them to me because you weren't interested."

"I wasn't interested then. That doesn't mean I surrendered them forever."

A tear slipped down her cheek.

I felt nothing.

"You don't need to cry. You aren't the person who was hurt. Go back to being the family's princess and leave me alone."

I turned to leave.

Bianca covered her mouth as a sob escaped.

"That isn't what happened. I was only worried about you. You're my sister. How could you believe I would ever deliberately hurt you?"

Her shoulders began to shake.

"That's enough."

Gabriel crossed the room and pulled her into his arms.

He glared at me over her head.

"You've gone too far."

Bianca caught his sleeve and shook her head, tears still falling.

"Don't. I'm fine. Elena is angry, that's all."

Julian had remained silent until then.

I saw the sympathy in his eyes as he looked at Bianca.

Then he turned to me.

"You were out of line," he said. "Apologize to her."

For a moment, I thought I had misheard him.

"You kept your voice from me for seven years, and now you're using it to order me to apologize to Bianca?"

His expression tightened.

"I don't want either of you hurting the other."

"No. You just don't want her to get hurt."

I stepped closer and made him look at me.

"You watched me die for her. You came back knowing exactly what your choice cost me, and you're still more concerned about her tears than the scar she left on my face."

Julian went pale.

Bianca hurried to defend him. "Elena, that isn't fair. He was only trying to—"

"I wasn't speaking to you."

I looked from Julian to Gabriel.

"Teach your guards to remember their position. Neither of them has the right to order me around."

Gabriel's jaw tightened.

Julian said my name, but I had already turned away.

I walked out without giving any of them another chance to speak.