Chapter 5

The dangerous line between Elio's brows smoothed, as if he had just tamed his most difficult prey.

He reached out to help me up, but I flinched away from his touch. He didn't seem to mind, his tone taking on a rare gentleness. "See? Wouldn't it have been better to do this from the start? Let's go. We're going home."

The word "home" was a bitter irony.

When the main hall doors opened, the family's core capos were gathered, making the scene feel a world away.

In contrast, Ava sat on an Italian leather sofa, looking pampered and rosy-cheeked. Dressed in a soft, custom-tailored suit, she glowed like a woman cherished and protected.

I was skeletal and pale, still carrying the scent of the abandoned church: cold dampness and lime dust. Standing together, we were from two different worlds.

The family's core members were seated in the living room, their gazes shifting between Ava and me with scrutiny and curiosity.

When Ava saw me, she froze, then her eyes reddened and her lips trembled, as if she were the one who had suffered a great injustice.

Elio immediately went to her, pulling her into his arms. "Don't be afraid, Ava," he soothed. "She's here to admit her mistake."

My heart was a frozen lake. I walked forward and stopped a few feet from them, my voice quiet and soulless. "Ava, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been jealous of you. I shouldn't have been hostile toward you."

Ava clutched Elio's shirt, burying her face in his neck and sobbing quietly.

He patted her back, his gaze turning to me, full of command. "What else? You broke the family rules. The bomb you planted almost cost her her life. Apologize."

My pale fingers tightened under my sleeves as I swallowed my humiliation and pain.

I mechanically parted my chapped lips and admitted to crimes I never committed. "I'm sorry. For disrupting the family's peace, for planning the attack, it was all my fault... Please forgive me."

Elio waved a hand in satisfaction, a casual pardon for an insignificant subordinate. "Go upstairs. Get cleaned up. Pull yourself together. I don't like seeing you like this."

With that, he turned his attention back to Ava, leaning close to her ear and murmuring something I couldn't hear.

I stood there, watching him cherish her like she was a precious treasure, a faint, cold smile on my lips.

I did not turn toward the grand staircase.

While all eyes were on the absurd spectacle, I quietly turned to a nearby maid and instructed softly. "I'm going to the indoor pool to swim and clear my head. Do not let anyone disturb me."

Once inside the cavernous pool room, I didn't change into a swimsuit.

I walked to the edge of the illuminated water. Looking down through the rippling, chlorine-scented surface, I suddenly saw the reflections of our past: Elio carving my favorite flower into his skin, Elio swearing his blood oath, Elio holding me under the moonlight.

I slowly raised my hand and brushed it across the water's surface.

With a single sweep, the beautiful illusions shattered into countless empty, white bubbles.

I took a deep breath, dove into the cold water, and entered the subterranean tunnel.

The moment the water swallowed me, it sealed me off from that gilded cage, severing the marriage vows buried in blood and lies.

Step by step, I swam away into the dark, leaving Elio, and all the wreckage of our past, forever behind me.