Chapter 4

I looked at Lucius. In that exact second, I realized nothing he said or did could ever hurt me again. Since I was leaving this dead land anyway, I'd play along one last time—consider it a final settlement for the past eight years.

"Fine. Have it your way."

My sudden submission made Lucius think he was back in control. He finally looked down and saw our shattered photo, and the thick crimson blood coating my foot.

His composure shattered. His calm vanished, and panic took over. He ran toward the back hall to grab a medical kit.

The moment he left, Sienna dropped her fragile act. She tilted her chin up, her eyes bright with malice.

"Rhea, you really are pathetic. It doesn't matter how many bullets you took for him or how much blood you wiped away. You will always be his ghost, hiding in the dark."

"Tomorrow night, all of Sicily will see me standing by his side. You will never be allowed at that table. The old lady can hate me all she wants, but she'll have to watch him slide that ruby onto my finger."

"Lucius is mine, and you're just a machine meant to patch his wounds and clean up his sins. Don't dream about him fetching you back in three years, because..." She stroked her stomach, smiling like a snake, "The child I am carrying is the only legitimate heir this family will ever recognize."

I lowered my eyes before she could see the tears. So, Lucius really did betray me. He wanted me to go into exile for his "big picture" while he left his legacy inside another woman.

I quickly did the math. Three months ago, the first time he stayed out all night during a family summit. It was my birthday. He skipped our wedding rehearsal for "dock business." The next day, he came back acting incredibly guilty, gave me this ring, and proposed.

I had waited eight years for that proposal, so my joy blinded me to the red flags. But that night, I saw fresh scratches on his back while he was showering. He calmly told me it was a stray cat, and even showed me a fake vet report.

I forced myself to believe him. But a survival instinct forged on a knife's edge kept telling me that something was wrong. He proposed only because his guilt was eating him alive.

I didn't want to live a lie, so I used my clearance to dig into his moves. When I found out his "meetings with elders" were actually visits to Sienna's private villa, I knew the end was coming.

"Move," I said, not wanting to waste another breath on her.

But just as Lucius ran back out with the medical kit, Sienna grabbed my hand and violently threw herself backward into the pile of broken glass.

"Rhea, I know you hate me, but why would you push me?" she shrieked from the pool of blood. "Ah! My stomach... it hurts so bad..."

Lucius sprinted over, a terrifying panic consuming his face. He scooped Sienna into his arms and bolted for the getaway car, not even casting a glance back at me.

His voice was a low, lethal line: "Rhea, I didn't think you could be this evil. To attack my child! If anything happens to this baby, you and I are completely done."

Watching his vanishing silhouette, I stood in the wreckage and whispered, "We were already done."

I knelt down and quietly started picking up the glass. The cut on my foot had already stopped bleeding, but the wound in my chest was wide open and raw.