Chapter 6

[Alessia's POV]

Vito frowned slightly. He was about to ask me what I meant when a bodyguard suddenly knocked on the door and came in. He leaned down and whispered something into Vito's ear.

Vito's expression hardened, and he immediately stood up. "Alessia, there's an urgent family matter that I have to deal with now. I'll come back to check in on you later."

I watched him hurry off, knowing exactly what was going on.

An urgent matter? Please. He was just going to the room next door to take care of his delicate, helpless Cecilia.

In the days that followed, I stayed in the hospital to recover from my injuries. I passed Cecilia's room countless times when the nurses wheeled me out for various tests. Each time, I glanced through the half-open door to see Vito inside, personally caring for her.

He fed her water, peeled apples for her, and murmured reassurances. He was so patient and gentle that it was as if he'd turned into a completely different person.

Each time, I only glanced inside briefly before looking away, feeling utterly calm. He wouldn't be my husband for much longer, anyway. What did it matter to me who he doted on?

One day, after finishing another test, I returned to my room to find the place completely ransacked. The drawers and cabinets were all thrown open.

My heart clenched. I rushed straight to the bedside table and checked the drawer there. The velvet box that held my mother's keepsakes was gone.

I grabbed a passing nurse and asked icily, "Who's been in my room? Where are my things?"

She jumped at my tone and stammered, "I-It was Ms. Romano. She came by earlier… She said she was your friend and was just helping you grab a few things…"

Cecilia.

My gaze instantly went cold. I turned and headed straight for her room. She was propped up against the headboard. When she saw me storm in, there wasn't the slightest trace of surprise on her face.

"Give me back my things," I said, enunciating each word from where I stood at the foot of her bed.

Her tone dripped with resentment when she spoke. "Relax. I'm not interested in your little jewelry set. I just wanted an excuse to see you again.

"I already told you the truth; you know perfectly well Vito doesn't love you. He only married you for my medicine! Why did you seduce him at the nightclub? Do you just have to flaunt your marriage in front of me? Do you get off on feeling superior or something?"

I looked at her, finding her utterly ridiculous.

"Give me back my things," I repeated, my patience completely gone.

Cecilia stared at me for a while before smiling eerily. "I left them in the morgue. After all, a dead woman's belongings should stay where dead people belong, don't you think?"

I clenched my jaw and strode off, heading for the morgue in the basement. It was dark and bitterly cold, the stench of formaldehyde so strong that I couldn't breathe. I'd been afraid of the dark and of places like this ever since I was a child.

But I gritted my teeth and forced myself to keep going, pulling open one icy metal drawer after another, searching for my mother's jewelry. Finally, I saw the familiar velvet box in a drawer tucked away in the corner.

I exhaled in relief, picked it up, and held it tightly to my chest. Just as I turned to leave, there was a loud bang. The morgue's heavy iron door had been slammed shut and locked from the outside.

"Cecilia! Open the door!" I threw myself against it, pounding on it with both fists as I screamed.

Cecilia's voice was tinged with cruel amusement as it drifted in from outside. "You can stay in there and keep those corpses company, Alessia."

Her footsteps gradually faded away.

"Let me out! Open the door!"

I rammed the door with everything I had, shouting until my throat was raw. But the only response I got was the morgue's dead silence and the sharp chill in the air.

My body was already weak to begin with. The terror and the cold quickly drained what little strength I had left. In the end, I slid down along the freezing metal door and sank to the floor, my consciousness slowly slipping away.