Chapter 3

Miles had rushed over to see Rebecca, crying and holding her face.

“Miles!” she sobbed, collapsing into his arms. “I was just trying to comfort her… but I tripped on my dress and… and I broke her watch…”

“And she hit me!” Rebecca cried, the red handprint on her cheek making her look utterly pathetic.

Miles’s rage turned on me. His cold eyes were like daggers. “Valerie! Is your jealousy so out of control you’d attack someone at your own party?”

“She did it on purpose!” I pointed at the crushed pieces of metal on the floor, my voice shaking with fury. “That was the only thing I had left of my father!”

Miles didn’t even glance at the wreckage. He just shook his head in disgust. “Was a broken watch worth acting like a damn maniac?”

His voice grew colder. “I thought you knew how to handle yourself. I guess they were right. You’re not cut out for this life.”

“You’re not fit to be the Donna of this family.”

I looked at the deep disappointment in his eyes, at the way he sheltered and protected Rebecca.

Something inside me died.

Miles wrapped his arm around Rebecca and led her off the terrace, leaving me alone.

I knelt and picked up the pieces of my father’s watch, each shard a new cut in my heart.

As I walked back through the ballroom, a figure appeared in front of me.

Rebecca’s friend, Sarah.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” she sneered, blocking my path. “Done throwing your little tantrum, your highness?”

I tried to step around her, but she moved with me.

The moment I turned, she stuck out her foot.

“Ah—!” I lost my balance and crashed right into the champagne tower behind me.

CRASH!

Dozens of glasses toppled over, drenching me in champagne.

Shards of glass flew everywhere. A sharp piece sliced my palm open, and blood welled up immediately.

“Oops, clumsy me,” Sarah said, feigning surprise. “Everyone, look! Valerie took a tumble!”

The entire hall turned to stare.

The whispers started, a wave of venom.

“Is she drunk?”

“First she hits Rebecca, now this. So embarrassing.”

“What does Miles even see in her?”

“Look at her. A complete mess. And she wants to run this family?”

I struggled to my feet, covered in alcohol and broken glass.

Just then, Miles walked past, his arm wrapped protectively around Rebecca. He looked right through me.

It was like I was invisible.

Amid the jeers and laughter, I pulled myself up and walked out.

Each step crunched on broken glass.

I made my way back to our bedroom, hand bleeding.

This place I once thought was our sanctuary now felt like a gilded cage.

I finally understood.

My five years of loyalty meant nothing against their twenty years of history.

His trust in her was an instinct I could never defeat.

Staying here wouldn’t just break my heart. It would break me.

I went to the vanity and opened the drawer, pulling out the first-aid kit Miles had put there for me.

I froze.

I remembered when I first moved in. I’d gotten a small papercut while restoring a painting.

Miles had panicked, ordering his men to place first-aid kits in every room of the estate.

“My woman doesn’t get a single scratch,” he’d said then.

Now, my hand was sliced open and bleeding, and he couldn’t even be bothered to look.

Everything had changed.

He didn’t trust me anymore.

I mechanically cleaned the wound and wrapped it in a bandage.

Then, I packed a small bag. Just a few of my own clothes and the shattered pieces of my father’s watch.

The jewelry, the designer bags, the car keys—I left everything else behind.

Finally, I walked to the bed and pulled the ten-carat diamond engagement ring from my finger.

It glittered under the lamp, its light as cold as Miles’s eyes had been.

I placed it on the nightstand.

The ring that marked me as the future Donna of the Falcone family. It meant nothing to me now.

Without love, it was all meaningless.

I grabbed my suitcase and walked out of that golden cage that had held me for five years and didn't look back.