Chapter 2

After school, I limped all the way back to the estate.

Earlier that day, Bianca had “accidentally” spilled hot coffee all over me again in the hallway.

When I pushed her away, several of her friends rushed over and pinned me to the floor, stomping on my fingers with their high heels.

From elementary school all the way through high school, I never had a single friend.

Bianca never got tired of turning everyone against me.

I wasn’t afraid of being isolated.

What I was afraid of was that the principal had finally run out of patience and demanded that I bring a parent to school.

That afternoon, the principal called me into the office.

“Alessia Vitale, if no parent comes to school by next Monday, you’ll be expelled.”

I stared at my swollen fingers, which looked like purple radishes, and said nothing.

When I walked out of the school gates, Bianca’s car sped past me and splashed muddy water all over my body.

The people inside the car burst into laughter.

I wiped my face and thought that if Mamma were still alive, she probably would’ve driven her Porsche straight to the school and flipped over the principal’s desk.

Instead of being like Father, who wouldn’t even spare a glance at my broken fingers.

“Alessia Vitale, get over here.”

Father stood at the basement staircase with a dark expression on his face.

Bianca stood behind him, her eyes red as if she had just been crying.

“You hit Bianca at school?” Father’s voice was as cold as the iron chains in the cellar.

“I didn’t.” I raised my head, an expired bandage I had picked out of the nurse’s office trash can still stuck to my forehead.

“She didn’t hit me, Papa,” Bianca said tearfully. “I just fell by accident. Alessia only… pushed me a little.”

Father looked at the red mark on Bianca’s face, then turned and kicked me hard in the chest.

I slammed into the concrete wall behind me, and pain instantly burned across my back.

“Do you even know that the family council meeting is next week? Bianca is representing the Vitale family there. You hit her in the face. Are you trying to embarrass our family in front of the five major Mafia families in Corholt?”

Father’s expression looked twisted.

As I stared at him, he suddenly felt like a stranger.

Eight years ago, he wasn’t like this.

When Mamma was still alive, he used to carry me on his shoulders around the entire estate.

He bought me princess dresses covered in diamonds and hired the best piano teacher in all of Corholt for me.

On my fifth birthday, he gave me a purebred pony as a gift.

Once, when another child pushed me at kindergarten, he showed up at the school with ten bodyguards and forced the other child’s father to apologize to me in public.

Then he crouched down in front of me and said, “Alessia, remember this. You are Enzo Vitale’s daughter. If anyone bullies you, hit them back. If anything happens, Papa will handle it. Baby, no one in this world is allowed to bully you.”

The man who once told me that no one in the world could bully me was now gripping my chin and forcing me to apologize to Bianca.

“Get back to the cellar. Don’t come out without my permission.”

From beginning to end, he never once looked at my swollen, bruised fingers, nor did I tell him that the school would expel me next Monday.

He wouldn’t go, anyway.

I knew that.

For the past eight years, Bianca was the only daughter he acknowledged.

I was locked up for two full days.

The broken finger was never treated, and it had already turned purple.

I wanted to go find the butler and ask for a roll of bandages, but when I pushed open the basement door, I realized there were guests on the first floor.

Father sat on the sofa while Bianca leaned against him.

Across from them sat the Donna of the Moretti family.

With a smile, she asked, “Don Vitale, as the youngest don among the five families, you must be incredibly busy. How did you raise Miss Bianca so well?”

Father wrapped an arm around Bianca’s shoulders, his tone so gentle that it hardly sounded like the man I knew.

“Bianca has always been sensible. She’s my only daughter, so no matter how busy I am, I always make time for her.”

Bianca snuggled into his arms and said sweetly, “And Papa is the best in the world! Next month I want to go travelling. Papa, you have to come with me!”

Father smiled indulgently.

“Alright. Once the council meeting is over, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

I stood hidden in the shadows of the staircase and blinked a few times.

By now, my heart no longer hurt.

Still, I couldn’t help remembering what things were like eight years ago.

Back then, when Mamma was still alive, I used to curl up in her arms like that and make requests, too.

I once told her I wanted the jade pendant around her neck, and without hesitation, she took it off and put it around mine.

“Alessia, your grandmother left this to me before she passed away. I’ve worn it for twenty years now. You have to take good care of it for me.”

When she hung the pendant around my neck, there was a sadness in her eyes that I couldn’t understand at the time.

Even now, I still couldn't forget the way she looked when she said those words.

Just as I was lost in thought, Donna Moretti suddenly brought up Mamma.

“Do you miss your mother, Miss Bianca? I heard the late Donna Vitale was an extraordinary woman. I also heard that you want to take over the family business someday. Was that inspired by Donna Vitale?”

The atmosphere in the living room instantly froze.