Back then, everyone in the city used to say: "The Valente Don's trueborn daughter, more delicate than a flower, more precious than jade."
My brother doted on me beyond measure. My childhood sweetheart loved me as if I were his life.
The only hardship I'd ever known was a terrible illness the year I turned ten.
To save me, Marcello knelt before the doctor's door for three days and three nights.
Enzo nearly died retrieving a rare herb from a contact deep in the mountains, where no sane man would go alone and unarmed.
By the time I recovered, the two of them were gaunt, barely recognizable.
Enzo, still burning with fever, tied a red string around my wrist.
"I'm a soldier's son. I don't believe in saints or curses. But for you, I'll make the exception. With this red string, we share one fate. Life or death, never apart."
"From now on, we'll bear this world's suffering for you. As long as we're here, Serafina will always be happy."
But that happiness shattered without warning.
Father was ambushed on the highway coming back from a sit-down in Providence. Killed alongside the associate who drove for him.
Before the driver died, he entrusted his daughter to our Family. That was how Gianna Caruso came into the Valente household.
No one could have predicted how swiftly the Family would fall.
Two daughters became bargaining chips, goods waiting to be sold.
Gianna moved first. With her wide-eyed innocence and pitiful tears, she won everyone's sympathy before I even understood what was happening.
They ached for Gianna. They ached for the Valente Family's generations of good name.
But not a single one of them cared how much pain I was in. Fatherless, abandoned by everyone I loved.
"Serafina, what are you standing there for? Get over here and apologize to Gianna!"
Marcello and Enzo glared at me, faces tight with anger.
Then they saw the pool of blood on the floor, and the fury on their faces went blank.
Enzo hesitated, stepped forward. "I didn't realize you were hurt this badly. Let me take a look."
"Don't bother."
My coldness unsettled him.
He wrestled down the anger rising in his chest.
"How long are you going to keep acting like a child? The Valente Family is on the edge of ruin. We don't have the luxury of coddling you."
"Fine. I'll buy you some candied almonds later. Just behave and stop making things harder."
I'd been pampered since birth. Afraid of anything bitter, anything that stung.
Even a scraped knee would have them fussing over me for half the day.
No matter how long I cried or carried on, they never lost patience.
Every time, like a magic trick, one of them would produce a bag of candied almonds to coax a smile out of me.
But now... I looked at the candied almonds in Gianna's hand, and it struck me that the sweets had never really been that sweet after all.
I went back to my room in silence.
By now every soldier and servant in the compound had been reassigned to attend to Gianna.
I packed my things alone.
The red wedding dress still hung in the room, and the sight of it sent a sharp ache through my chest.
Mother and I had sewn that dress together, stitch by stitch.
The pearls along its hem were gifts from the Commission, earned through Father's and Marcello's years of loyal service to the Families.
The rose jade hairpin that went with it had been carved by Enzo's own hand.
Even the daughter of the most powerful Don on the Commission had envied them when she saw the dress and the hairpin.
"The Valente girl is truly blessed. The treasures are costly, but the devotion behind them is rarer still. Every woman in this world must envy a love like this."
Now the dress was still vivid as the day it was finished.
But the heart of the man who loved me had already changed.
"Serafina, give your room to Gianna. She'll be leaving the Valente compound soon. Whatever time she has left here, we're giving her the very best of everything we have!"
Marcello's voice wrenched me out of the memory. His right fist clenched and unclenched at his side as he said it, though he didn't seem to notice.
Before I could react, the men were already carrying my belongings out.
Gianna's gaze locked onto my wedding dress.
"What a beautiful dress..." Her left hand rested delicately against her collarbone, fingers splayed. "Too bad I'm just a lowly concubine in a subordinate marriage. I'm not fit to wear red..."
She lifted her tear-filled eyes to Enzo.
"Enzo, I'm walking into something I may never come back from. Could you grant me one wish? Before I die, let me wear this wedding dress and bow before God with the man I love."
