Chapter 3

Distress? No.

I told it: "I don't grieve over people who aren't worth it."

I just felt a little like hitting someone.

Sofia rose from the sofa.

She took two steps toward me, and suddenly her eyes went red, her voice soft and light, pitched just loud enough to carry across the entire hall:

"Sister, don't look at me like that... No, never mind. Hate me if you want. It's my fault for coming back alive, for making you give back the fifteen years you enjoyed for free."

She threw herself into the arms of the just-arrived Dante, shoulders trembling:

"Brother, she must be thinking—how much better it would have been if I'd just died out there fifteen years ago."

Dante only caught the last few sentences, and immediately ordered me:

"Elena, apologize to Sofia!"

I slapped her across the face.

"Ah!"

She shrieked, collapsing sideways against Dante, her hair clip flying off.

I withdrew my hand at my leisure.

The next second, someone seized my wrist, the world spun, and I was slammed onto the floor.

Luca looked down at me, ice-cold.

"Apologize to her."

I swallowed the taste of blood in my mouth and looked up with a cold smile:

"She stole my wedding, my home, everything I had, and I'm not even allowed to hit her once?"

"She's the one with Vitale blood in her veins," Luca said. "You're just a thief."

Sebastian came over, grabbed me by the collar, and hauled me up.

Every trace of that gentleness was gone from his face now.

"Apologize. Now."

I said nothing, just let my eyes travel over each of them in turn.

Luca, ice. Sebastian's eyes, full of disgust.

Dante's lips moved.

In the end he said nothing at all.

It had been exactly like this a year ago.

Back then Sofia was moving frequently among the three families, and people outside had started talking.

To protect her, Sebastian publicly announced that Sofia was "an honored guest recognized by all three families."

And so every mafia family understood.

That girl the three heirs had held in their palms since childhood was a fake.

My name went up on the dark web with a bounty. Someone mailed a bomb package to the estate.

I went to them and asked why.

The way they looked at me that day was exactly the way they looked at me now.

Suddenly I didn't want to argue anymore.

"Apologize," Sebastian commanded.

I shoved him off, turned, bolted into the dining room, and snatched a fruit knife off the table.

Dante's pupils shrank. He pushed Sofia aside to rush over, and she clung to his arm with everything she had: "Brother, don't go over there!"

"Elena!" he shouted. "What are you doing!"

I grinned wide.

"Apologizing."

I raised my hand and drew the blade cleanly across my own throat.

In the instant the blood sprayed out, I heard three different screams.

I clutched my throat, bloody foam running down from the corner of my mouth.

"This life. I'll pay it to her."

My vision went dark. I couldn't stay standing.

Luca lunged over and caught me, howling like a madman:

"Doctor! Get a fucking doctor over here!"

Sebastian knelt on the floor, fingers shaking as he pressed a towel to my throat.

This time it should work.

When I opened my eyes again, there was the smell of disinfectant.

White everywhere.

Something stirred in me—did I make it?

I turned my head and met a pair of bloodshot eyes.

Luca sat at the bedside, still in yesterday's suit, dried blood on the cuffs.

I closed my eyes in irritation.

His voice was badly hoarse, and I found it grating:

"Who taught you to fish for sympathy like that?"

I couldn't be bothered with him. I lifted a hand to wave him off, and something dug into my wrist.

A woven cord bracelet. Very old now.

When I was eight, I ran a fever for a week that wouldn't break. The doctor told them to prepare for a funeral.

Sebastian ran out of the estate alone, wandered enemy territory for three days, and finally found the herb that could break the fever.

He came back covered in wounds, his left arm cut open to the bone.

He wove the herbs into a bracelet, tied it around my wrist, and said with a smile:

"It's a charm. Wear it and you'll always be healthy."

Later Sofia said she wanted it, so he took it and gave it to her.

And now it was back on my wrist.

It just felt like a nuisance. I lifted my hand and threw it away.

Sebastian happened to push the door open right then, carrying a bowl of soup.

The bracelet landed at his feet, and the smile on his face faded, inch by inch.

"You dared to throw it away?"