Chapter 4

(Amelia's POV)

The days that followed were a study in silent endurance. I performed my duties with a robotic efficiency that seemed to unnerve Lorenzo. He would sometimes watch me from his office doorway, a faint line of confusion between his brows, as if trying to decipher the change in me. The woman who had once looked at him with undisguised love now regarded him with the empty politeness of a stranger. I had become the ghost he had always treated me as.

The welcome banquet for Isabella was to be held at the family's most prestigious venue, a lavishly decorated ballroom in one of Lorenzo's casinos. For days, I coordinated everything—the menu, the security detail, the guest list of allied family Dons and their wives. It had to be perfect. Lorenzo had made that clear.

I reviewed the security plans with Marco, pointing out two potential blind spots he had missed. He had looked at me with renewed respect. "You should be running this end of the business, Amelia," he'd said quietly. I had just smiled faintly. If only he knew.

The night arrived. I wore a simple black dress, my role that of organizer, not guest. I moved through the glittering crowd, ensuring wine glasses were filled, that the Lombardi Don was seated far from the Rossi contingent, that the orchestra played at just the right volume.

Isabella was resplendent in a gown of icy blue, clinging to Lorenzo's arm, laughing brightly at everything he said. She was the center of attention, the returned princess. I was a shadow in the background.

I watched them from the periphery. Lorenzo, in a tailored tuxedo that made him look every inch the powerful Don, his hand resting possessively on the small of Isabella's back. She preened under the attention, casting triumphant glances my way whenever she caught my eye. I met her gaze evenly, my expression blank.

Her victories were meaningless. She had won a man who had proven himself capable of profound cruelty. She was welcome to him.

I saw Sofia across the room. She was watching her brother and Isabella with a look of pure disgust. When her eyes met mine, they filled with a helpless, shared pain. She started towards me, but I gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of my head. I couldn't afford a scene. Not tonight. She stopped, her shoulders slumping in resignation.

Halfway through the evening, during a lull in the proceedings, Isabella's voice rose above the murmur of the crowd, sharp and distressed.

"My bracelet! Lorenzo, it's gone! My diamond bracelet!"

The music faltered. All eyes turned to her. She stood by her chair, her wrist bare, her face a mask of perfectly crafted anguish.

"It was my grandmother's! It's irreplaceable!" she cried, turning her tear-filled eyes to Lorenzo.

"We'll find it, 'cuore mio'," he said, his voice calm but his eyes already scanning the room, a dangerous glint in them. This was his home, his event. A theft was an insult.

"It was just here! I only took it off for a moment to adjust my shoe..." Her gaze swept the room, then landed squarely on me. She pointed a trembling, accusatory finger. "You! You were hovering around here just a minute ago! You were the only one near my seat!"

A cold, familiar dread washed over me. This was a setup. A meticulously planned humiliation. I had seen the bracelet on her wrist not ten minutes earlier. She must have slipped it off when no one was looking. The audacity of it, the sheer theatricality, took my breath away.

The entire ballroom fell silent. "I was checking the place settings, Miss Isabella. I didn't see any bracelet."

"You're lying!" she shrieked. "You've always been jealous of me! You want Lorenzo for yourself! You took it!"

The accusation hung in the air, ugly and absurd. I saw the faces in the crowd—some skeptical, some curious, some already convinced of my guilt. In their world, jealousy was a motive everyone understood.

Lorenzo's eyes narrowed, moving from her hysterical form to my frozen one. The weight of the entire room's suspicion pressed down on me.

"Search her," Lorenzo commanded, his voice low and cold. Two of his guards stepped forward.

"No," I whispered, backing away. "I didn't take anything." My voice was steady, but inside, I was screaming. This was the final betrayal. To be publicly accused like a common thief.

"If you're innocent, you have nothing to fear," Lorenzo said, his gaze unwavering. His words were a mockery. Innocence meant nothing in the face of his desire to placate her.

The guards didn't wait for my consent. They grabbed my arms. One of them roughly patted me down while the other emptied the small clutch bag I carried.

I felt the eyes of every Don, every Capo, every associate I had worked with for years. I saw the pity in Sofia's eyes, the grim satisfaction in Isabella's. I closed my own, disassociating from the violation.

"Nothing, Don Valenti," the guard announced.

Isabella let out a wail. "She must have hidden it somewhere! Check the staff areas! Check her office!"

Lorenzo's jaw was tight. The scene was spiraling, a stain on the evening. He looked at me, standing shamed in the center of the room, and then at Isabella, who was now sobbing into her hands.

"Enough," he said, the single word cutting through the tension. He strode over to me, his expression unreadable. "You're coming with me."

He didn't wait for a reply. He took my arm, his grip firm, and began leading me from the ballroom. Isabella immediately rushed to his other side.

"Lorenzo, where are you going? You can't leave!"

"I'm taking her home. This ends now."

"I'm coming with you!" she insisted, clinging to his arm.

He didn't argue. He led us both out of the ballroom, through the casino's back corridors, and into the waiting Maybach. The driver, one of his most trusted men, looked straight ahead. I caught his eye in the rearview mirror for a split second. There was a flicker of sympathy there, quickly masked.

The car was silent as it pulled away from the curb. Isabella sat in the back with Lorenzo, I was in the passenger seat. The tension was so thick it was hard to breathe.

Isabella broke the silence, her voice a petulant whine. "Lorenzo, you shouldn't have embarrassed me like that in front of everyone! She's just a servant! Why are you even bothering with her?"

"Isabella, not now," Lorenzo said, his voice weary.

"Yes, now! I want to know! Do you have feelings for her? Is that why you're always defending her?"

"I'm not defending her. I'm trying to prevent a scene."

"It's always about her! Ever since I came back, it's like she's a ghost haunting us!" Her voice took on a hysterical edge. "I see the way you look at her sometimes when you think I'm not watching. Like you're trying to solve a puzzle. You don't look at me like that!"

Her voice rose, becoming shrill. She started hitting his arm, not hard, but enough to be disruptive. "Look at me when I'm talking to you! Lorenzo!"

"Isabella, stop it," he growled, grabbing her wrists. "You're going to cause an accident."

The driver, distracted by the escalating fight in the backseat, took his eyes off the road for a critical second. He didn't see the massive delivery truck that had blown a red light at the intersection ahead.

The impact was deafening. The world became a violent, shattering cacophony of twisting metal and breaking glass. The Maybach, a fortress on wheels, was no match for the truck's momentum. We were thrown forward like ragdolls.

I was thrown forward, the seatbelt digging brutally into my chest and shoulder. My head snapped forward then back, connecting with the headrest with a jarring thud. For a moment, there was only ringing silence and the smell of burnt rubber and spilled gasoline.

Dazed, I tried to move. A sharp, stabbing pain in my shoulder made me cry out.

Groggily, I turned my head. Lorenzo was already moving, shoving his door open. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but otherwise seemed intact. Isabella was screaming, a high-pitched, panicked sound.

"My leg! Lorenzo, my leg! It hurts!"

He turned to her, his priority immediate and absolute. "Where does it hurt, 'cuore mio'?"

"My ankle! I think it's broken! You know I need to dance! I can't have a broken ankle!" Her cries were theatrical, but the pain seemed genuine.

Sirens wailed in the distance, growing closer. Help was arriving. Lorenzo looked from her to me. I was clutching my own injured shoulder, blood trickling from a cut on my forehead. Our eyes met for a fleeting second. In that moment, I saw it—a flicker of something. Concern? Conflict? It was gone too quickly to name.

Then he turned back to Isabella, his decision made. He called out to the emerging paramedics. "Over here! Her first! She's a dancer—you must check her leg immediately! She cannot be injured there!"

The medics rushed to Isabella's side, helping her from the wreckage. Lorenzo followed close behind, his focus entirely on her. He didn't look back. Not once.

I sat in the wrecked car, watching them. I watched as Lorenzo helped Isabella onto a gurner, his hand holding hers, his entire being focused on her comfort.

The physical pain was sharp, but it was nothing compared to the icy clarity that settled in my heart. In that moment, I knew. I would always be an afterthought. My pain would always be less important than her comfort.

A paramedic finally approached my side of the car. "Miss? Can you move?"

I nodded, unbuckling my seatbelt with my good hand.

It was over. Truly over. The crash had not just broken the car; it had shattered the last illusion. He had chosen.