Semua Bab My Lost Daughter Came Home to Destroy Me: Bab 1 - Bab 9

“Miss Vittori, please don’t be angry. I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have shown up here.”Lea was still sitting on the floor in front of me, looking every bit like a girl who had spent her entire life being mistreated.Several guests rushed forward to help her up while glaring at me with open disgust.“So you’re Valentina? The adopted daughter the Vittoris raised?”“How dare you push Lea? You’re the adopted one. What gives you the right to bully the family’s real daughter?”“An adopted girl will always be an adopted girl. Jealous the second the real daughter comes home.”The whispers spread through the ballroom almost instantly, and every pair of eyes on me was filled with contempt.“Please don’t say that about her.” Lea choked back a sob and stumbled toward me, clutching my wrist tightly with both hands. “It’s okay, Valentina. You can treat me however you want. I’m used to this kind of thing anyway.”She paused as tears rolled heavily down her cheeks.“Can you at least let me meet Mo

“Another man?” Dante’s expression darkened as he loosened his hold on her. “What other man?”His voice dropped.“Lea. Explain yourself.”Lea bit her lip and looked between him and me, as if she regretted speaking at all.“I’m sorry, Valentina. I really didn’t mean to say it out loud. I just don’t want Dante to be deceived.”Then she reached into her handbag and slowly pulled out a photograph.The ballroom lights flashed across the glossy paper.In the picture, I was standing close to a man in a private corridor. My face was clear, while the man beside me was turned slightly away from the camera. What stood out was the ring on his left hand, catching the light just enough for everyone in the room to recognize the Vittori crest.The room went quiet.No one dared to say Lorenzo Vittori’s name carelessly.After a long silence, someone whispered, “That’s the Don’s ring.”Another voice followed, much lower this time.“Why would Valentina be meeting someone wearing that?”No one finished the

The ballroom fell silent for two full seconds.“Father…” Lea’s voice cracked sharply. “What did you just call her?”Lorenzo didn’t even glance at her.“She’s your mother,” he said calmly. “My wife, and also Donna Vittori.”Lea froze where she stood as whispers spread down the length of the banquet table like something alive, slipping into every corner of the ballroom.“She’s not the adopted daughter?”“How is that possible? She looks way too young.”“No one’s ever seen Donna Vittori in public before.”Lea finally snapped out of it and raised her voice. “That’s impossible! She looks barely over thirty. How could she be my mother?”“Thank you for saying I look young,” I replied evenly, meeting her eyes. “But your mother turned forty this year.”The murmurs grew louder. No one dared raise their voice, but every eye in the ballroom stayed fixed on me.Then Lorenzo spoke again, his tone calm enough to silence the room immediately.“Your mother has always looked younger than her age. She doe

The ballroom lights reflected sharply against the ring in my hand. The black-gold surface carried the Vittori crest carved deep into the metal, its edges sharp enough to resemble a blade.“That ring…”“Isn’t that the Vittori family’s insignia?”“There’s only one like it on the entire East Coast.”Low whispers spread through the room as every eye fixed itself on the ring in my hand. No one dared raise their voice, but the shock in the ballroom was impossible to hide.The color drained completely from Lea’s face.She stared at the ring with trembling lips, frozen where she stood, while Dante’s gaze moved repeatedly between the ring and Lorenzo beside me. There was nothing left for him to question anymore. The ring was real, and Lorenzo himself was standing there as proof.Only now did they finally realize that I had never been the Vittori family’s adopted daughter.“How is this possible…” Lea whispered weakly before suddenly lifting her tear-filled eyes toward me. “Mother… you really are

A girl in a white dress stepped out from the crowd, standing beneath the ballroom lights with her eyes fixed directly on Lorenzo and me.“Father, Mother, I’m the real Lea,” she said, her voice calm but perfectly audible to everyone in the room.The ballroom froze. She looked straight at Greta.“You stole my DNA report and locked me in a basement. Did you really think I wouldn’t make it out alive?”Her eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion and fury. I took in the girl in white and felt a shock strike my chest. She looked exactly like I had at her age—the shape of her eyes, the line of her jaw, the desperate expression that made every mother instantly recognize her own child.Greta staggered back two steps, panic flooding her face.“You… how did you get out? What nonsense are you talking about? I’m Lea!” she cried, then spun toward me, rushing forward to grab my arm with trembling hands. “Mother, don’t believe her! She’s some lunatic from the neighboring town. I’m your daughter!”Lorenzo g