Chapter 2

The look on my father's face went from bad to worse.

“What exactly are you trying to say, Matteo?” He kept his voice low. “Our families have known each other for years. So my daughter is not good enough for you?”

Matteo fixed his cufflinks. “Mr. Montgomery, I do not want your younger daughter. Not at all.”

Seraphina turned to me with red eyes and trembling lips, playing the heartbroken sister. But I caught the tiny smile at the corner of her mouth. She walked to Matteo and touched his arm. “Matteo, my sister risked her life to save you. Even if you do not care for her, show her some respect.”

If she had not mentioned it, I might have forgotten. When we were ten, Matteo dragged me to an old fountain in Central Park. Kidnappers grabbed us. I made noise to draw them away so he could escape, but once he got away, they caught me and threw me into the Hudson River. I spent nearly twenty minutes in the freezing water. My bones have never been the same.

Matteo looked at Seraphina, and his whole face softened. “I will never forget that day. If you had not noticed we were missing, I would have died. Sera, you saved me.” Then he turned and glared at me. “If you had not used 'I saved you' to control me all these years, I would have married Sera long ago.”

A satisfied smile flashed across Seraphina's face before she pressed against Matteo's chest.

I let my voice turn cold. “Since my dear sister loves Matteo but cannot let go of Declan, why not marry both of them?”

Seraphina's face turned red. “If they both married me, who would even want you?”

“What if I do not want either of them?” I stood up slowly.

Both men looked at me. I avoided Declan's gaze. I did not want anything to do with someone who had let me die.

My father squeezed his glass. “You were born into this house, so you live by its rules. Marriage is your only value. Do not talk to me about choices.”

I did not back down. “The Miami project has been losing money for three months. I will go there and fix it.”

In my past life, my father took the trust fund my mother left me, and all of it ended up in Seraphina's pocket. When things got bad, I asked her for fifty thousand dollars. She laughed and transferred thirty thousand with a note that said her sister loved her. I learned my lesson, and I refused to make the same mistake again.

With Matteo's father mediating, Alistair finally agreed to let me go. The family office in Miami barely noticed me. To them, I was just Sera's shadow. But I let my work speak. Within two months, I closed a commercial real estate deal that had been stalled for half a year. For the first time, the older men looked at me with something like respect.

My father, who had practically forgotten me, called out of nowhere. “Your mother’s memorial day is coming up,” he said. “Are you planning to stay away from that too?”

I had already bought my ticket.

At the cemetery, I knelt in front of my mother's headstone. Seraphina was waiting. She greeted me with a soft smile, but jealousy sat plainly behind it.

“People are saying you got those deals by sleeping with the right people,” she said with a sigh. “A decent woman should not mix with those kinds of men. You have made Dad look bad.”

Then her eyes moved to Declan. “All your hard work was just a trick to get a man's attention. Dad has already found you a new fiancé. Starting tomorrow, Miami is mine.”

I stayed kneeling, my voice calm. “You cannot even read a due diligence report. Do not try to take what is mine.”

Seraphina's eyes reddened. “I am only trying to help you. I know you have always been jealous of me.”

I stood up and turned to leave. Declan grabbed my arm. “Apologize to Sera.”

I peeled his fingers off one by one. “I do not need your act at my mother's grave.” I walked out of the cemetery.

That night, before I could leave for Miami, Matteo and Declan blocked me.

“Sera lost fifty million dollars to the wrong people,” Matteo said, his voice shaking with rage. “She saw how well you were doing in Miami and could not stand it. She wanted to prove she could do it too, so she rushed into a deal she did not understand. Now they have her locked in some warehouse.” He grabbed my coat. “They asked for you by name. You are coming with me.”

Declan looked at me with guilt in his eyes, but he said nothing.