Chapter 4

It was another reminder of how much of a problem my future self was.

I had no choice but to frantically ring the doorbell. "Dad! Mom! I'm not here to fight! It's me, Daisy! Your eighteen-year-old Daisy!"

Finally, the door cracked open.

My mother stood there, her eyes red from crying.

"Mom!" I couldn't hold it in anymore. I threw myself into her arms and burst into tears.

Between sobs and gasps, I told them everything—how I'd woken up eight years in the future.

At first, they didn't believe me.

Not until I told them the name of the limited-edition bottle of red wine my father had hidden in the cellar for my eighteenth birthday. Only then did their expressions change.

"No wonder..." my mother whispered, stroking my hair, her voice choked with tears. "The way you were yelling at the door… it was like you were eight years ago. You haven't spoken to us like that in so long..."

Sitting on the familiar sofa in our living room, sipping the hot milk my mother gave me, I finally felt a sense of peace.

"Dad, what happened over the last eight years?" I looked at my father, desperate for the truth. "Why did I marry Lorenzo?"

My father sighed.

"Eight years ago, at an Astor family dinner. You got drunk… and you and Lorenzo slept together."

I nearly dropped my glass.

Me and my nemesis? Slept together?

"And then?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Afterward, Lorenzo came to me personally and proposed an alliance through marriage."

"Lorenzo was very sincere. And since everyone already knew what happened, I agreed. You didn't object at the time."

"But after that, you changed completely."

I held my breath, sensing I was about to hear something I really didn't want to.

"You took out all your hatred for the marriage on Lorenzo. You publicly humiliated him in front of the family elders and used the Valence family's power to cause trouble for him everywhere. You even worked with outsiders to hijack his shipments, which nearly got him killed in a shootout at the docks!"

"And him?" My eyes went wide. "Lorenzo, with his vindictive, tyrant personality… he didn't kill me?"

"No," my mother said, wiping her tears. "He took it all. Without a single complaint. He even covered up all your messes, taking the blame for the lost men and the millions in damages himself, all on the Astor family's head."

A knot formed in my stomach.

Lorenzo? The same asshole who used to pull my hair and put glue on my violin? He had been quietly cleaning up my messes?

"What happened after that?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Later, your father and I couldn't stand to watch you act so recklessly," my mother said, her voice breaking. "We stripped you of all your authority within the Valence family. You started to hate us for it. You called us lapdogs for the Astor family."

I closed my eyes and took a deep, shaky breath.

Unbelievable. This was all just unbelievable.

"And that's not all!" my father slammed his hand on the table, his anger flaring. "You started demanding money from us, from Lorenzo. You even stole the trust fund your grandfather left you and gave every penny to a man named Julian!"

"Julian?" I clenched my jaw.

"Yes! You used our money to turn a street punk from the Bronx into a Wall Street hotshot."

The room started to spin.

I didn't get it. Did Julian cast some kind of spell on me to make me so devoted?

After hearing all of that, I honestly wanted to take a gun and shoot myself.

The shame was overwhelming.

"I swear," I shot up, holding up three fingers. "I despise that piece of trash Julian now! I will never see him again!"

My parents stared at me, shocked.

"But," I took a deep breath and looked at my father. "Dad, since my marriage to Lorenzo was a complete and total mistake, I'm going to go to him and end it. We'll get a divorce, dissolve the alliance. It's better for both families."

"No!"

My father shot to his feet, his voice a harsh, absolute command.

"A divorce? You think you can just walk away? What about Leo? He's only four and a half! You want to make him a boy without a mother?"

Leo.

I froze.

The image of him last night, clutching his bear and begging me not to go, flashed in my mind.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I sank back onto the sofa, defeated, the thought of divorce pushed aside for now.

A long silence filled the room.

But a fog of questions swirled in my mind.

Why did Lorenzo propose the marriage in the first place? Was it really just to take responsibility for that night?