Chapter 2

I recalled everything Bianca had done so far. She had wanted me gone from the Vipera household for a very long time.

My face was ruined. I was in so much pain that I lost the courage to speak.

Bianca sat on the floor and sobbed miserably, "Sofia, if my nimble fingers make you jealous, then I promise I won't show up in front of you again. I won't trouble our brothers to take care of me anymore. You'll forgive me, won't you?"

Behind her back, she squeezed the nearly healed wound on her fingers until it bled again.

She said weakly, "All I ask is that you let me rest in the castle so that my hand can heal faster. Then, I can play the piano for our dear brothers again."

My brothers helped her up and walked past me irritably.

As Bianca brushed by my shoulder, she forced out a single tear. My brothers looked at her with aching concern. Then, they turned their annoyed gazes on me.

I wanted to explain, but cold sweat broke out across my back. A feeling of despair enveloped me, and the stabbing pain from my burns overwhelmed me again.

I clenched my teeth tightly, unable to say a word. They didn't want to hear anything anyway.

And so, Bianca took over my room. I moved into the maids' storage room, which was damp and freezing. It hadn't been cleaned in years.

The pain from my wounds kept me awake all night.

At dawn, I swallowed a sleeping pill. I had barely fallen asleep when the constant and noisy footsteps outside the door woke me up again.

Giuliano had hired the best medical aesthetic specialists in the country to treat Bianca. They were going to do facial care and hand therapy for her.

Across the corridor, I lay miserably in a room without any heating, wrapped in a moldy old blanket. The skin on my body and face throbbed painfully, as if it were about to split apart.

I noticed some soothing ointment on the doctor's cart.

I put on my mask and walked over to ask the doctor's assistant, "Could I have just a little of that?"

Someone snapped, "What are you doing here, Sofia? Because of your reckless driving, Bianca nearly ended up scarred from the accident. Be grateful that she only scraped her fingers. You're the reason why she's hurt. How can you still have the nerve to cause trouble?"

Giuliano shoved me back into the storage room roughly.

I had no choice but to hide beneath that unfamiliar, cold blanket and escape the painful reality for the time being. I swallowed a few more sleeping pills and forced myself to fall asleep as quickly as possible.

In my dream, I returned to the day I first arrived at the castle.

When I was six years old, I had gone out with my butler and accidentally gotten into a stranger's car. By the time I got out, I was at the Vipera famiglia's castle.

I didn't know how to tell them where my home was. Terrified out of my wits, I fell seriously ill and ran a high fever. Then, I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, Mario, Bruno, and Giuliano decided that they would take me in. That was how I became the Vipera famiglia's adopted daughter.

In the days that followed, we played and stirred up trouble together in the castle.

The Don of the Vipera famiglia and the father of my brothers, Antonio Vipera, lived in another castle. So, this place was a private paradise for my brothers and me.

I thought we were the closest famiglia and that nothing could ever tear us apart.

But my life began to fall apart without warning when Bianca moved into the guard's wooden cabin outside the castle last year.

She claimed she was Antonio's illegitimate daughter and my brothers' half-sister by blood. She often played Antonio's favorite piano pieces in the cabin outside the castle. Whenever my brothers heard those melodies, they thought of Antonio and became convinced that Bianca was truly their sister.

I took the initiative to invite Bianca to move into the castle. I believed that she would be happier living with her real famiglia.

But after that, my brothers stopped paying attention to me. Bianca became the one who was constantly by their side instead of me.

She grew bolder by the day. She would snatch my clothes and take my shoes without asking.

Then, she would tell the brothers, "I'm closer to you than Sofia will ever be. After all, we're bound by blood."

I was barely conscious as I lay on the bed. Shivering beneath the blanket, I could feel a fever coming on.

Bruno pounded hard on the old wooden door. Mario rushed in after him, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

He exclaimed, "I can't believe I didn't realize sooner that you'd deliberately try to harm Bianca!"

His voice thundered in my ears, but I couldn't summon the strength to speak.

Mario's expression became increasingly grim, and his words came out in an incensed roar. "So you're the one who threatened her to deliberately crash into the rocks by the roadside! Bianca is my sister—if anything happens to her, I'll skin you alive!"