Chapter 3

[Isabella's POV]

The house was still empty when I woke up.

There was a text message from Vincenzo. "Babe, I'm a little too busy today and can't take the day off. But don't be mad. I'll come home and accompany you tomorrow no matter how busy it gets. I also got you a present. Just wait for me to come home, alright?"

Right under his text message notification was another one from Claudia. She had sent a photo an hour ago. It was a selfie of them both at the hot springs, looking like they were having the time of their life. The smiles on their faces were exceptionally eye-piercing.

I gripped my phone harder, almost unable to stop myself from calling him right then and there and asking him if he was busy closing a business deal or having fun with his "adoptive sister".

However, when I thought about my plan, I suppressed the anger and replied to him with an "Okay."

It was fine that he wasn't coming back today. I could start packing up without worrying about him.

I packed up all the clothes Vincenzo had ever given me and put them into a box, ready to donate them to a shelter.

I removed our portraits from the wall and fed them into the paper shredder. I had once written him a hundred well-wishes too, and I took them all out and burned them in a fire on the balcony.

The next day, Vincenzo finally came home.

As soon as he caught sight of me, he immediately set down the cake in his hands and threw his arms wide open as he hurried toward me. "I'm so tired, Isabella! Can I recharge with a hug?"

I took a step back, neatly avoiding his hug.

Vincenzo cocked an eyebrow. "Are you still mad at me? Don't be mad. Come, I prepared a surprise for you."

He then pulled me into the car without waiting for me to respond. He drove us all the way to the race car track. Just as I was trying to figure out why, he yanked me out of the car.

"Like it?" he asked, pointing at the car before us.

It was a fully customized Ferrari, covered from top to bottom in sparkling pink diamonds. It was so dazzling that my eyes hurt after a while.

A group of people was standing right next to the car, looking at it with envy in their eyes.

"I heard that this car's customization cost nearly 100 million dollars! That's quite a lot to spend on a car!"

"What do you even know about how expensive it is? Don't you know that Mr. Cursley hand-glued every single pink diamond onto the car body by himself? He nearly went cross-eyed from it!"

"Mrs. Cursley! Come on and try out the car for yourself! And then, can we have a go at it afterward? Don Cursley really loves you and spoils you so much!"

The corners of my lips tugged upward in a self-deprecating chuckle.

Everyone knew Vincenzo as someone who loved spoiling his wife to the moon and back, but nobody knew who he was really treating as his "wife". It was true that he wore his heart on his sleeve, but that love had never been solely just for me.

Finally, there was a way for me to release all the pent-up emotions I'd been suppressing for the past few days. I got into the driver's seat and floored the gas pedal at once. The pink Ferrari immediately shot forward like a launched missile.

I went lap after lap on the race track, speeding like a maniac. I channeled all of my anger, sadness, and frustration into the pedal.

Vincenzo stood at the observation podium and watched me race with a smile on his face. His eyes never left me for a bit.

On my 40th lap, I saw him gesturing a finger heart toward me. I was so shocked that I suddenly lost control of the steering wheel, and the Ferrari crashed straight into the guardrail.

Pain shot through my toes at once. I hadn't even snapped out of it when Vincenzo ran up to the car, yanked the door open, and picked me up before rushing me to the observation room.

"Does it hurt?" Vincenzo asked, carefully holding up my injured foot and dabbing at the cut with some iodine. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have let you race for such a long time."

He treated my leg carefully as if I were made of glass. The pitying look in his eyes looked genuine too. However, I only felt shivers all over my body, and I felt the urge to throw up.

I never thought that he could make it seem as though he really loved me for real.

Seeing that I was a little out of it, Vincenzo grabbed me by the hand and leaned down to kiss me.

Just then, the door was suddenly thrown wide open.

Vincenzo didn't even look up. He grabbed a bottle from the table and immediately threw it at the door.

"Get out!"

I turned to look and saw Claudia standing at the door.

It was only then that Vincenzo realized it was her. His expression changed. "Claudia? What are you doing here?"

She held a hand to the red mark on her forehead and bit her lip, looking like a pitiful creature. There was also some mud on her clothes, and she looked rather disheveled as well.

"I came to grab a car seat for the baby, but I felt tired and thought of having a quick rest… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you!"

She then turned and ran off with a sob.

Vincenzo went quiet for a few seconds. Then, he quickly pecked me on the cheek and said, "I'll go and take a look at her injury and be back in a few minutes. We'll just be at the door. Call me if you need anything."

He then grabbed the first-aid kit and ran out the door, not even bothering to leave me with a band-aid.

A few minutes later, I slowly opened the door. It was empty. They certainly weren't "at the door" as he had claimed.

I suddenly felt a flash of disappointment. However, I quickly suppressed the feeling as soon as I realized it. I should have expected it anyway.

I held on to the wall, slowly limping out to the track where the pink Ferrari still was. I really liked it a lot. And since it looked like it was about to rain, I thought that I should bring it into the garage to avoid it getting wet.

However, just as I reached the car, I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

I could hear faint voices coming from the car where the windows hadn't been tightly shut.

I then caught sight of two overlapping figures from the window of the car. Vincenzo was frowning as he carefully treated Claudia's wound.

The car then shook a little, and I saw that Claudia had climbed onto his lap.

Vincenzo stopped her wandering hands and said patiently, "Don't even think about it, Claudia. You just gave birth a while ago. Also, this car belongs to Isabella—"

"It's fine. I've already fully recovered. It's been two months since then… Don't you want to know how I feel down there now?"

A short while later, Vincenzo's breathing became shallow and erratic. Their hums and moans kept drifting out from the car. I stood frozen to the ground, my blood curdling on the spot.

The keys in my hand fell to the ground with a clang.

I immediately snapped out of it and wanted to make a run for it. However, I quickly realized that nobody inside the car had even heard a thing.

I laughed. I laughed so hard that I began to cry.

The car continued shaking. I bent down to pick up the keys and threw them into the drain.

When Vincenzo finally pushed open the door to the observation room again, I was still sitting in my seat in the exact same position where he had left me.

He sighed in relief and straightened his collar before coming up to me. "Let's go, Isabella. We're going home."

I caught sight of the fresh bite mark on the side of his neck. Surprisingly, I didn't feel anything in my chest this time.

I refused to let him carry me on his back and limped all the way to the car. When I pulled the door to the front passenger seat open, though, I saw that Claudia was in the driver's seat.

Vincenzo hurriedly explained, "Claudia wants to go back with us. She just got her driver's license, so she could use some practice. You're a lot better at driving than she is, so you can help navigate the road. Alright?"

Before I could protest, Vincenzo had already pushed me into the front passenger seat.

If I had known then that Claudia's license was fake, I would never have gotten into the car in the first place.