Chapter 4

The moment the door closed, the gentle expression vanished from Liz’s face.

She walked over to my vanity, pulled several sheets of paper from her handbag, and slapped them onto the table.

“He signed them.”

She lifted her chin smugly.

I picked up the papers and turned to the signature page. It was unmistakably Lucius’s handwriting.

“I told him I wanted to buy a few commercial properties, then slipped the divorce papers in with the contracts. He didn’t even bother reading them before signing everything.”

Liz folded her arms across her chest, unable to hide the pride in her voice.

Tilting her head, she looked at me and asked, “You’ve never had him indulge you like that, have you?”

I let out a quiet scoff.

Three years ago, as the sole heiress of the Moretti Family, the most powerful Mafia family, I had gone out into the world under an assumed identity to gain experience on my own.

I first met Lucius while I was working as a waitress in a café, when he accidentally spilled coffee on my clothes.

He spent the entire afternoon sitting in a corner, watching me.

After that, he started showing up everywhere I worked.

He sent designer bags, jewelry, and property deeds to my apartment until they were practically piled against the door.

Back then, I couldn’t even be bothered to look at any of it. I only found him intrusive and unbearably persistent, like a crow that never stopped squawking.

Three years later, his way of courting women apparently hadn’t changed at all.

“What are you laughing at?”

Liz’s voice sharpened.

I folded the divorce papers, tucked them safely away, and let the smile fade from my face.

“Nothing.”

“He must really love you.”

She stared at me suspiciously and was about to press further when someone knocked on the door.

Lucius stepped inside, his gaze moving between Liz and me.

“What could you possibly have been talking about for this long?”

Liz’s eyes flickered, and in an instant, her expression became sweet and innocent again.

“I was asking Donna for something. Since I’m going to the dinner with you, I should have a beautiful necklace to wear, so I wanted to borrow the one that symbolizes the Donna of the Camorra Family.”

Lucius’s expression darkened immediately.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Merope is my one and only Donna. If you want a necklace, choose any other one you like, but that one is off-limits.”

His one and only Donna.

Liz immediately lowered her head and pressed her lips together. When she looked up again, her eyes were already shining with tears.

“I spoke without thinking. Please don’t be angry with me.”

I had no interest in watching the two of them continue their performance, so I stood and told them to leave.

“If you have something else to say, say it outside. I’m tired.”

Lucius looked at me, his lips parting as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he left with Liz.

Just before the door closed, Liz glanced back and shot me a vicious look.

Two days later, dressed to leave with only a small suitcase beside me, I waited for the Moretti Family’s people to come for me.

Without warning, the door burst open.

Lucius stormed inside, grabbed my wrist, and began dragging me toward the door.

“Come with me! Liz is threatening to jump off a bridge because of you. You’re going to apologize to her!”

He pulled me so hard that I stumbled a couple of steps before managing to steady myself.

“Because of me?”

“I haven’t even seen her in days.”

“Stop pretending you don’t know!”

The veins at his temples stood out with fury.

“Liz said you sent people to warn her to stay away from me, and that they threatened to kill her if she refused. I was the one who decided to take Liz to the dinner instead of you, so if you’re angry about it, take it out on me!”

“I never said I was going to let her replace you, so why can’t you just tolerate her?”

It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.

Liz had staged the entire thing herself.

“I didn’t do anything.”

Lucius refused to listen.

Then his gaze swept over my clothes. His expression hardened, and his voice dropped, turning icy.

“Why are you dressed like that? Where are you going?”

“If you were planning to leave the estate, why didn’t you tell me first?”

His fingers tightened painfully around my wrist.

“I told you before. Don’t even think about leaving my sight.”

He shoved me into the car and sped toward the bridge spanning the river.

While his attention was elsewhere, I pressed the button on the side of my watch and shared my location.

Liz was sitting on the bridge railing with one hand gripping the barrier, tears streaming down her face.

The moment she saw us, she began crying even harder.

“Merope insulted me. She called me a shameless slut who climbed into your bed…”

Her words came between broken sobs.

“I don’t want to live anymore…”

“Get down from there!”

Lucius rushed toward her, his voice trembling.

“Don’t do anything stupid!”

Then he turned around, grabbed the back of my head, and forced me to bow.

“Apologize to her! Apologize now!”

Pain shot through me, and I clenched my teeth.

“She keeps saying I humiliated her, so where’s the proof?”

“And if she’s been sitting up there this entire time without jumping, she clearly never intended to do it in the first place.”

Liz’s sobbing stopped abruptly.

She looked down at the gray river far below, then turned toward Lucius, whose expression had begun to show a trace of doubt.

Something vicious flashed through her eyes.

Then she actually jumped.

She swung herself over the railing, arced through the air, and crashed into the water below.

“Liz!”

Lucius roared her name, released me, vaulted over the railing, and plunged into the river after her.

I stepped back just as the thunderous sound of rotor blades filled the air above me.

The wind from the helicopter whipped my hair wildly around my face as it approached from the far end of the bridge and lowered a rope ladder.

I climbed onto it and looked back once.

Lucius surfaced with Liz in his arms as she coughed and choked on river water.

He wiped the water from his face and looked up at me in disbelief, his eyes widening as he realized what was happening.

“Merope!”

His voice was hoarse and ragged.

“Where are you going? Get down! Come back down here!”

I stood on the rope ladder as the wind snapped violently at my clothes.

“I’ve been living in a dream for three years. It’s time for me to wake up.”

I smiled at him.

“Lucius, from this moment on, there is nothing left between us.”

The ladder began to rise.

I turned and climbed into the helicopter.

As it flew higher, the bridge beneath me narrowed into a thin line.

Far below, the two figures struggling in the river became smaller and smaller until they were little more than distant black dots.