Chapter 3

Nick stepped through the door. His face darkened when he saw Luca tied up.

He snapped, "Angelina, who said you could touch the Donna's people?"

I lashed Luca again, right in front of him.

Luca howled for help. "Don, save me!"

Nick stepped in front of him and reached for my whip.

"Let go," he ordered, his voice cold.

I looked at him. "Lina's missing, and instead of looking for her, you're busy showing off your new woman?"

Impatience flickered in Nick's eyes.

"What game are you playing now?" he demanded. "Three days ago, you hurt a guard and ran. Now you come back and pretend you went missing to get my sympathy?"

So he still hadn't figured out that the woman standing in front of him wasn't my sister.

My sister and I had the same face, but we were nothing alike.

He claimed to love her, yet he couldn't even tell she'd been replaced.

When I didn't answer, Nick thought I felt guilty.

His voice softened. "Go back to the water cell and stay away from Sophia, and I'll let it go this once."

I smiled. "She took Lina's place, and you're telling me not to hurt her?"

Nick's face went cold.

"Sophia never took anything from you. She saved my life, and she was carrying my child. You were so jealous you pushed her down the stairs and killed that baby!"

The moment he said it, a sharp pain stabbed through my right arm.

It felt like a red-hot steel spike drilling into the bone, inch by inch.

Last night it had been my legs.

Now it was my right arm.

Twins feel each other's pain.

My sister was still alive, and someone was torturing her at that very moment.

I looked toward the far end of the estate.

Ever since I'd set foot on the grounds, the pain had been growing sharper.

She has to be here.

Nick noticed and sneered, "Faking pain again? You used to slit your wrists to make me come back to you. Trying the same trick now?"

I slowly turned to look at him.

"She slit her wrists over you?"

Before Nick could answer, a woman's voice came from the doorway.

"Nick, don't say any more."

Sophia swept in wearing an evening gown, surrounded by maids.

The diamond necklace around her neck was the one my sister had worn at her wedding.

When Sophia saw me, panic flashed across her face before she put on a wounded look.

Her voice caught. "Angelina, I know you hate me. But you can't force love. Why won't you just leave me alone?"

I looked at her. "The wound on Lina's right arm. Did you do that?"

Sophia's expression shifted.

Her eyes quickly went red.

"What are you talking about?" she said, sounding hurt. "I don't understand."

She took two steps closer and made a point of showing off the gold bracelet on her wrist.

It was one of the matching bracelets our grandmother had made for my sister and me when we were born.

I held out my hand. "Take off the bracelet."

Sophia hid behind Nick, all wounded innocence. "Auntie gave this to me. She said I've suffered so much that I deserve half of everything our family owns."

I smiled. "So that means you get half of Lina's husband too?"

From behind Nick, Sophia sobbed, "Angelina, you already killed my baby. Are you going to take the things Auntie gave me too?"

Nick shielded her and snapped, "Angelina, touch Sophia one more time and I'll cut the tendons in your hands!"

With Nick backing her, Sophia finally dropped the act.

She ordered the bodyguards, "This lunatic disrespected me. Slap her 20 times. Then put her on her knees and have her carry that necklace back to the banquet hall for me."

Two bodyguards held me by the shoulders.

Sophia walked up to me and raised her hand to slap me.

I let her slap me without flinching.

When she saw I wasn't fighting back, Sophia let her smugness show.

She leaned close to my ear. "Angelina, your sister is dead. Even your parents are on my side now. Who are you going to turn to?"

I slowly turned my head back to face her.

"Done?"

Sophia faltered.

I slammed my forehead into the bridge of her nose. As she screamed and stumbled back, I grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the table with the steel pin, driving it through the gold bracelet.

She struggled frantically, and blood poured from her wrist.

I kicked away the two bodyguards, grabbed Sophia by the hair, and shoved her face against the scalding coffeepot beside us.

"You like Lina's things?"

I jammed the tiara down onto her head so hard it nearly pierced her scalp.

"Then keep it on straight."

I stepped on the hem of her dress and forced her to kneel on the broken glass, the tiara still on her head.

"Every time it falls, I'll pull out one of your nails."

Sophia sobbed and begged Nick for help.

I stepped on Nick's hand and ground his palm back and forth across the barbed whip.

"Patience."

I smiled at them.

"A mafia Don and his new Donna. Neither of you gets left out."

A furious voice shouted from the doorway, "Stop! How dare you hurt Sophia!"