### Chapter 3
Five years ago, when Dustin took me back to his side, I tried to explain why I'd ended things between us.
He shook his head. "No need to explain. None of it matters."
Back then, I thought he understood me.
Now I realized he had never believed me. Not once.
"Dustin, just let it go. Delia's always been the best at putting on an act for men. How else do you think she tricked your uncle into falling head over heels for her back then?"
Gabriella laced her fingers through his, stealing a glance at me with undisguised triumph in her eyes.
Dustin stared at me, his gaze heavy with disappointment so deep it bordered on disgust.
"There's a music reception tomorrow evening. I'm taking Gabriella. She's been learning the violin." He looked down at me, each word deliberate and final. "Give her the Kristin."
I stared at him in disbelief.
That Kristin violin. Five years ago, when I came back to him, he'd bid hundreds of millions for it at auction without blinking. A priceless antique, the only one of its kind in the entire world.
I'd treated it as the token of our second beginning. No one was allowed to touch it.
A distant cousin of his had once snuck it out to play with. She was banished from the Delgado estate that same day.
Dustin had shielded me fiercely back then, issuing a warning to the entire family: what belonged to me was untouchable.
And now he wanted me to hand it over to Gabriella with my own two hands.
My heart felt like it was being crushed in a giant fist, squeezed until I couldn't breathe.
I looked at the expression on his face. There was no room for negotiation.
Slowly, I nodded.
"Fine. I'll give it to her."
Dustin held my gaze for one long moment, then wrapped his arm around Gabriella and walked out.
The walls of the villa were well insulated, but they couldn't quite muffle the broken sobs and gasping from the room next door.
I wasn't sad. My stomach just hurt worse than before.
Curled up on the bed, I watched my phone screen light up. A message from Les.
"Delia, everything is ready. I'll come for you in two days, right on schedule."
I clutched the cold phone and squeezed my eyes shut.
Two days until our wedding.
The next morning, I gave the violin to Gabriella.
She pulled it from the case immediately and picked up the bow.
A sound so shrill it made the scalp crawl tore through the entire villa.
Then she produced a pair of scissors and, without a second's hesitation, snipped the custom-made strings one by one. Strings I'd had a master luthier craft specifically for that instrument.
"These strings are awful. Can't even get a single tune out of them."
Gabriella fixed me with a taunting stare, a vicious little smile curling her lips.
I didn't react. I turned and walked away.
Passing the study, I heard Dustin's voice inside, talking with one of his cousins.
"I heard you gave Gabriella the Blood Jade Bracelet and the earrings. And now you've made Delia hand over that violin too?"
"Delia lost her child trying to save you. Her parents died pulling you out of that fire. You treat her like this and you're not afraid she'll leave?"
I stopped. My feet rooted to the floor.
Dustin's voice drifted out, careless and unbothered.
"Leave? She's an orphan. Where would she go?"
"Besides, I need her to swallow that pathetic scrap of pride and understand who's in charge here. Once she falls in line and stops making things difficult for Gabriella, I'll keep her around."
His cousin sighed.
"But aren't you worried she'll give up on you for good?"
Dustin let out a laugh, a single scoff dripping with contempt, as though he'd just heard the most ridiculous joke.
"She's nothing but a cash grab her parents groomed from birth. Whoever has money, that's who she clings to."
"Why else would she have dumped me back then and gone crawling to that bastard Marvin?"
"Now that the Delgado empire is in my hands, she's wrapped around me like a parasite, desperate to never let go. You really think she'd walk away from this?"
His cousin pressed: "But what happened back then... won't you at least hear her side of it?"
Dustin's answer was a cruel smile. Three words, cold as a blade:
"She's not worth it."
My entire body plunged into ice. I couldn't stop shaking.
So he had never understood me.
All this time, he believed I'd abandoned him for power and money. And crawled back for the same reason.
So he gave me a place beside him while grinding my dignity into the dirt.
Five years ago, Dustin buried my parents, set aside old grudges, and told me he'd give me a home.
But my parents had burned alive pulling him out of that fire.
And I had spent two years undercover at Marvin's side, stealing evidence of his corporate espionage and backroom deals, then anonymously fed it all to Dustin.
That was the only reason Dustin had been able to take Marvin down and claim his place as heir.
The one who wasn't worth it wasn't me. It was Dustin Delgado.
My nails dug into my palms. Blood dripped down, one drop at a time. I didn't feel a thing.
I took two steps back and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.
"Young Madam!"
From deep in the corridor, an old voice called after me.
