Chapter 2

In the car on the way home, Lucia stayed curled up in the corner of her seat.

She clutched the edge of my coat like a bird scared half to death.

"Mom, I didn't bully her."

Lucia's voice was barely a whisper.

"Isabella was the one who asked to borrow that custom gown. I told her I needed it for my coming-of-age ceremony soon, so I couldn't lend it out. So she deliberately spilled champagne on my shoes."

"I only told her to be more careful, and then the brothers came at me with their people."

I patted her back, the chill in my chest growing heavier by the second.

These were the four "fine blades" I'd handpicked myself.

Ten years ago, in that orphanage, I spotted these four boys at a glance. Covered in bruises, but with a killer's look in their eyes.

Maury was twelve back then. For half a loaf of bread, he'd take a brick to the head of a kid five years older than him.

Dante was eight, but he could lock the dorm supervisor who bullied him in an ice cellar during a winter that dropped well below freezing.

I brought them back to the Rizzo family.

The first day, I pointed at Lucia sleeping in her crib and told them.

"From today on, she is your only faith. Anyone who touches a single hair on her head, I'll take his life."

Maury was the first to kneel before the crib.

"Mom, don't worry. Our lives belong to you. Anyone who bullies our sister, we'll crush their bones."

Those vows still rang in my ears.

And now, the ones crushing Lucia's bones were them.

The next morning at nine, not one of them showed up at the council.

Fine. So that's how they wanted to play it.

I had the butler freeze every supplementary card under their names. While I was at it, I had the eight sports cars in the garage confiscated.

The butler held the deactivated access cards, his expression a little troubled.

"Ma'am, the young masters took Miss Isabella and moved to the lakeside villa on the east side of the city last night."

"They also called the staff and told them to clear out Miss Lucia's private art studio to make a walk-in closet for Miss Isabella."

My hand paused around the coffee cup.

The lakeside villa on the east side was the eighteenth birthday gift I'd set aside for Lucia.

Every piece of furniture in there, Lucia had picked out herself.

And in that art studio hung a priceless painting Lucia treasured above all else. It was the only keepsake her father left her.

"Get the car."

I set down the coffee cup, my voice ice-cold.

"To the lakeside villa."

When the car pulled up outside the villa, the front doors were wide open.

Moving company workers were hauling boxes out one by one.

I walked into the main hall and immediately spotted Isabella, wearing Lucia's favorite silk nightgown, lounging on the couch eating cherries.

Maury sat beside her, head bent over a document for her.

At the sound of my heels, Maury looked up.

When he saw me, there wasn't a trace of guilt. Just a gentle smile.

"Mom, what brings you here? Are you feeling better?"

Maury set down the document and stood to greet me.

"We're not holding yesterday against you either. Isabella really likes it here, so we're just staying a few days."

Isabella put down the fruit plate and stood up. Her words were respectful, but her tone dripped with arrogance.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry. Did I cause trouble for you? I'll leave right now."

She made to run out, but Dante grabbed her.

Dante came out of the kitchen holding a glass of warm milk.

He looked at me coldly and pressed the milk into Isabella's hands.

"Isabella, sit down. This is the Rizzo family's house. As sons of the Rizzo family, what's wrong with bringing a friend to stay?"

He looked at me, his tone laced with irritation.

"Mom, how long are you going to drag this out?"

I ignored him, my eyes sweeping across the empty first floor.

The several famous paintings that used to hang in the living room were gone, replaced by a few artistic photos of Isabella.

"Where's the art studio?" I looked straight at Maury.

Maury pushed up his glasses, his tone casual.

"Isabella has too many clothes and nowhere to put them. Lucia doesn't come here often anyway. That studio was just sitting there empty, so I had it cleared out."

I strode toward the music room at the end of the hallway.

The moment I pushed the door open, I felt all the blood in my body rush to my head.

The expensive carpet in the studio had been rolled up.

The floor was piled with Isabella's clothes, which in my eyes were little better than cheap rags.

And Lucia's priceless painting was tossed into a corner pile of junk like a piece of garbage.

The face of the subject in the painting was obscured by stains, and two vivid scratches cut across the canvas.

"Who did this?"

I turned around, my voice eerily calm from the sheer rage boiling inside me.

Rocco came downstairs, yawning.

He glanced at the painting on the floor and shrugged like it was nothing.

"A worker bumped it while moving stuff. It's just an old painting. Is it really worth this?"

Rocco walked over to the couch and sat down, crossing his legs.

"Mom, Lucia's paintings are ugly anyway. It's just as well she stops. Worst case, I'll buy her a new one. A more expensive one."

"Buy her one?"

I walked back into the living room and stood in front of Rocco.

"That painting was my husband's keepsake. Your life wouldn't be enough to pay for it."

Carlo came down the stairs, a blueprint in his hand.

He heard my words and his brows knitted tight.

"Mom, can you stop making a mountain out of everything? Don is gone."

"It is just a piece of ragged cloth."

I never imagined they could say something so disrespectful about my husband.

Isabella tugged at Maury's sleeve, tears falling on command.

"Maury, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have been greedy for this place. I'll just move back home."

Maury patted the back of her hand and turned to me.

"Mom, if you came here today just to pick a fight, then you can leave."

"Running a family as big as Rizzo means dealing with real business every day. We don't have time to play out this kind of family drama with you."

I looked at their self-righteous faces.

They really believed that because they held the Rizzo Group's projects in their hands, they had me completely cornered.

That without the four of them, the Rizzo family would fall apart.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the butler.

"Bring the men in."

"Except for what Isabella is wearing, throw every single thing in this villa that belongs to them out the door."