Chapter 2

His arms stayed frozen around me for a long time.

In the end he just hauled me off the ground, shoved me back into the car, and locked the doors.

"We're going home."

"Which home?" I asked.

His throat worked. "The estate. Where we all live."

I laughed once. "That would just be an eyesore for you. Drop me off outside any motel. Don't worry, I'll be spending my own money."

"Elena!"

He cut me off, loud enough to be frightening.

And I saw something surface on the face of this man who'd picked fights his whole life and never once backed down—something almost hurt.

"You were raised in the palms of our hands. All three of us," he said. "And now you want to stay in some filthy little motel? Would it kill you to give in a little?"

I found it almost funny.

"But isn't the person being held in your palms now named Sofia Vitale?"

His whole body flinched. Probably remembering.

Because the ones who'd announced to a full church today that I was a "counterfeit" were those three.

And I—who'd grown up at the sides of these three men since I was six—was "the fraud who stole the real princess's identity."

I laughed openly, even as tears fell.

When he was ten, his father locked him in isolation and starved him.

When he was close to dying of hunger, I was the one who hid bread in my skirt and brought it to him, who stayed with him until dawn.

At fourteen I ran a fever, and he carried me on his back to find a doctor, injured himself and not caring.

Back then I thought I really had a family.

Before I crossed over, I was an orphan.

Enlisted at nineteen. At twenty-four, I stepped on a landmine during an operation.

Spine fractured, half my organs pulped.

My last thought before losing consciousness was—there's no one in this life who'll even come to claim my body.

When I opened my eyes again, I was a six-year-old girl being delivered to an estate in Sicily.

A voice in my head said:

【Reach the required affinity with all three heirs, and complete a wedding with one of them, to receive your payout, return to the real world, and heal all damage.】

I asked it: "Who are you? What do I need to do?"

And after that, nothing. Not another word for fifteen years.

The car was very quiet.

Dante had one hand on the wheel, the other still gripping my wrist.

When I couldn't sleep as a child, this was exactly how he'd held on.

As an orphan, I had craved that favoritism beyond words.

I'd even thought about abandoning the mission and staying forever.

But after Sofia appeared, every bit of that tenderness became hers exclusively.

The car stopped at the estate gates.

I shook off his hand and pushed the door open.

"Elena." He braced against the car door, his voice a little thin. "I broke a rib pulling you back. Aren't you going to help me?"

"If it's broken, go find a doctor," I said. "I'm not a physician."

I pushed open the doors to the great hall.

The first thing I saw was Sofia.

She was wearing my dress, holding my cat, drinking my wine.

Sebastian knelt on one knee before her, feeding her dessert, smiling gently:

"You've been through a lot today. Nothing like this will ever happen again."

Even Luca gave her a faint smile when he looked at her.

Once, I was the only one who could make him smile.

Sofia lifted her head, saw me in the doorway, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, sister's back. I hadn't gotten around to thanking you—your clothes, your men. They all suit me very nicely."

Luca turned to me and said calmly:

"Come here. Shell chestnuts for your sister."

【Host.】

The system's voice suddenly sounded in my head.

【Detecting an abnormally rapid drop in your emotional state. Distress has reached critical threshold... Would you like me to block the pain for you?】