Chapter 7

After Lorenzo left, the hospital room quickly fell silent again.

Lux turned over in bed and stared out the window at the dull gray sky. Only after a long while did she raise a hand and wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.

She told herself she could not cry anymore.

A man like Lorenzo was not worth her tears.

Over the next few days, she remained in the hospital recovering from her injuries. It was during that time that Laura finally told her what Lorenzo had done to protect the family's reputation.

Before anyone could question him, he had already crafted a new version of the story.

To the outside world, he claimed that Lux had suffered head trauma during the kidnapping, leaving her mentally unstable.

According to him, her accusations about Bianca and him having an affair were nothing more than paranoid delusions caused by psychological trauma. The photos and exposés had supposedly been revenge from a woman who had lost control after the incident.

Overnight, Lux went from being a kidnapping survivor to the unstable, obsessive, jealous madwoman everyone whispered about.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo and Bianca were effortlessly recast as the innocent victims, unfairly harassed and slandered by her.

Sometimes, conversations from passing visitors drifted through the hallway outside her room.

"I heard Donna Antara lost her mind and started accusing her own sister."

"The Don really has terrible luck. His wife survived and came back alive, only to lose her sanity. And now Miss Bianca lost the baby too."

"But he's still willing to stay by her side and take care of her. Lorenzo really is devoted."

Lux listened expressionlessly.

The pain in her heart had long since numbed over. There was barely enough feeling left inside her to react anymore.

The day she was discharged, Lorenzo came personally to pick her up.

A black sedan waited outside the hospital.

However, Bianca was already sitting in the passenger seat.

She wore oversized sunglasses and an expensive silk scarf. Her complexion looked pale, but the smug satisfaction in her eyes was impossible to hide.

Lux only glanced at her once before brushing past Lorenzo's outstretched hand and hailing a taxi herself.

There was no way she was getting into the same car as those two.

But when she returned to the Vitale estate, she realized the real humiliation had only just begun.

The moment she stepped into the main hall, several guards and maids rushed forward and forced her to the ground.

Her father sat at the head of the room, his expression dark enough to curdle blood.

"Look at the mess you've caused. Bianca lost the child, and the Antara family has been demanding answers for days. If I don't punish you properly, will you continue doing whatever you please?"

Lux's face went pale as she struggled to get up.

"She caused the miscarriage herself! Why are you blaming me for it?!"

"Enough!"

Her father slammed his cane against the marble floor.

"Even now, you still dare argue?"

Lux jerked her head up just as Lorenzo walked in through the front doors.

He stood near the entrance in a perfectly tailored suit, his expression so cold and detached it was as though she were nothing more than a stranger.

Her father turned toward him deliberately.

"Lorenzo. She is still a daughter of the Vitale family. I intend to punish her according to family rules. Do you object?"

Lux's breathing stopped.

She did not even know what she was still hoping for, yet instinctively she looked toward Lorenzo anyway.

The man lowered his eyes and glanced at her indifferently.

"I have no objections."

His voice was calm, empty of even the slightest emotion.

"A life was lost because of her. She deserves to learn her lesson."

Then he wrapped an arm around Bianca's shoulders and walked upstairs without another glance.

It felt as though someone had struck Lux across the head.

A sharp ringing filled her ears, and even her vision blurred white for a moment.

This was the same man who used to wake up in the middle of the night to cook porridge for her whenever her stomach hurt.

The same man who once stayed beside her all night when her menstrual cramps were so painful she could not even get out of bed.

So this was who he became once he chose Bianca's side.

Cold enough to watch her be destroyed without blinking.

With Lorenzo's approval, her father finally seemed completely reassured.

He lifted a hand and gave the order coldly.

"Take her to the prayer room. Family discipline will be carried out there."

The old prayer room deep inside the ancestral estate was rarely opened. Only confessions, punishments, or family scandals were handled there.

The first year Lux had been brought back to the family, she had once been dragged into that same room.

Back then, Bianca had falsely accused her of stealing a pearl rosary. Lux refused to confess, so her father ordered her to kneel there for an entire night.

In the end, it was Lorenzo who had spoken up for her and gotten her released.

That night, he had personally carried her to the doctor and carefully treated the bloody wounds on her knees himself.

He had kissed her forehead and whispered softly, "As long as I'm here, no one will ever bully you again."

Maybe promises were real when people first made them.

But once love changed, every promise became a joke.

Lux was dragged off the floor and hauled toward the end of the corridor.

She did not beg anyone for mercy.

Because she understood now.

There was not a single person left in this house worth asking.