Chapter 3

Ilaria's POV

In the blink of an eye, it was Mia's birthday. Dazzling lights illuminated every corner of the De Luca residenza.

The guests who came to the celebration lavished praise on the decorations and food. After learning that I was the one who prepared everything, astonishment was written all over their faces.

"It looks like Don De Luca has really grown tired of her. If not, knowing her, there's no way she'd willingly do all this."

"But Ilaria and Don De Luca are still engaged. He'll probably honor their engagement and marry her."

I pretended not to hear them and did my best to remain poised and composed.

The opening dance's melody drifted through the air. As tradition dictated, the opening dance was supposed to be performed by Enzo and me, his future Donna.

However, he walked straight toward Mia, who was standing beside me. "It's Mia's birthday. She should have the opening dance," he said.

I remained silent, letting the two of them waltz gracefully in the center of the dance floor.

All the eyes of the famiglia darted back and forth between us. The way everyone looked at her had changed.

Enzo had passed over his future Donna and chosen Mia as his dance partner. Everyone knew exactly what that meant.

However, he didn't care. He never considered the position he put me in. Fortunately, I didn't care anymore either.

When the dance came to an end, I walked up to Mia and handed her a gift box. Inside was the one thing she wanted most—an engagement agreement between her and Enzo.

Yet, as soon as she was about to unbox it, the floral pillar beside us suddenly toppled over. Panic seized me, and without a second thought, I shoved Mia out of the way.

The pillar struck my arm before collapsing completely. Excruciating pain shot through me, and I suspected my arm was probably fractured..

Ignoring the pain, I hurriedly helped Mia up to check on her. However, she stared at me in fear. "Why did you deliberately knock over the flower pillar, Ilaria?"

After hearing that, Enzo shoved me aside, scooped Mia into his arms, and looked at me icily. "I knew you were pretending to be magnanimous these last few days, Ilaria! I don't expect you to be a kind and merciful Donna, but you shouldn't resort to something like this to hurt Mia! If anything happens to her baby, I won't tolerate this kind of behavior from you again!"

I crashed to the ground, landing on my injured arm. The pain was so intense that my vision went black, robbing me of my voice. Without sparing me another glance, Enzo carried Mia away.

After he left, the others finally mustered the courage to help me. The person closest to me helped me to my feet, and upon catching sight of my deformed forearm, gasped, "Ilaria, you're hurt!"

Everyone rushed me to the De Luca famiglia's hospital.

An eerie silence hung over the hospital, manned by just a skeleton crew of nurses. They gathered around me as cold sweat broke out all over my body from the pain, at a loss.

"Don De Luca has ordered all the doctors to attend to Signorina Conti. There's no one here who can treat your arm right now." One of them gave me some painkillers and told me to lie down and rest for the time being.

In the cold, pin-drop silent hospital room, both the pain and the last trace of affection I had for Enzo slowly ebbed away. Once again, I was painfully reminded that the Enzo who used to insist I undergo a full-body checkup just because I scraped my skin was gone. He now gave all his trust and care to Mia.