Lucia’s POV
I had already said everything that needed to be said.
The suitcase was closed at my feet, my room stripped bare of anything that still carried a trace of me. I was ready to leave the Barsanti estate for good when the door suddenly slammed open with a violent crack.
Adriana stepped inside.
She wore sharp heels that clicked arrogantly against the marble, her posture straight and confident, as if this room already belonged to her. She carried herself the way the favored ones always did in this house, full of provocation and triumph. She looked at me the way a victor looks at prey that has already been cornered.
“Lucia,” she said slowly, her lips curling, “do you really think you’re special just because you’re the Don’s blood daughter?”
She took another step closer, eyes glittering.
“They love me now. Not you.”
Her words were deliberate, meant to sink in like a blade slid between ribs.
“I’ve known it from the start,” she continued, voice dripping with mockery. “You’re marrying that madman for me, aren’t you? The Don of the Lombardi Family. Isn’t the bride price just one billion?”
She laughed softly.
“After I stand beside Bruno as his Signora, do you know how much there’ll be? Far more than that. The Ferraro operation and the Barsanti operation already run the biggest pipelines in the territory. Once the two Families are joined, no one on the Commission will be able to touch us.”
She leaned close, her breath brushing my ear, her tone dropping into something vicious and intimate.
“And you?” she whispered. “You’re just trading one hell for another. The Lombardi Family is infamous. Brutal. Old blood. Once you walk into that estate, you might not survive three days.”
Her eyes shone with cruel delight.
“If you live, you get the money. If you die…” she shrugged lightly, “…it stays untouched.”
Something inside me snapped.
The rage I had been suppressing, all my own humiliation, finally burst free.
My hand rose before I even realized it.
Smack.
The sound echoed sharply through the room, like a gunshot. Adriana’s head snapped to the side as she staggered back, shock flashing across her face.
I smiled.
Not bitterly.
Coldly.
“Really?” I said, staring straight at her. “Then I hope you get exactly what you deserve.”
She covered her cheek, disbelief written all over her face. Her free hand drifted up to smooth a strand of hair that hadn’t moved at all, and her smile held a beat too long.
“You, you dare hit me?” she screamed. “Lucia, how dare you.”
I didn’t let her finish.
My hand came down again, harder than before.
This time, blood bloomed instantly at the corner of her mouth, a thin crimson line sliding down her pale chin.
At that exact moment, hurried footsteps thundered outside.
The door burst open.
Bruno stormed in.
The instant his eyes landed on the blood at Adriana’s lips, the temperature in the room dropped sharply. The men who had followed him in went still in the doorway, hands drifting toward their jackets, waiting for a word that hadn’t come yet.
“Lucia!” he roared. “Have you lost your mind? Who gave you the right to touch her?”
He rushed past me without a second glance, pulling Adriana into his arms as if she were something precious and fragile. His jaw worked silently as he wiped the blood from her lips, his fingers twisting the signet ring round and round.
Then, without warning.
Smack.
Pain exploded across my face.
My head snapped to the side, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. Something in my chest folded in on itself and went quiet.
I swallowed hard and slowly lifted my head.
I wasn’t angry.
I smiled.
“Bruno,” I said quietly, “I hope you won’t regret this.”
My parents arrived right after, their footsteps quick, their expressions full of outrage.
But not for me.
“Lucia, you ungrateful wretch!” my father shouted. “How could you hurt Adriana like this? What has she ever done to you?”
Adriana clung tightly to Bruno, crying softly. Her voice trembled as she spoke, gentle and pitiful.
“Bruno… Mamma… Papà… please don’t scold Lucia anymore. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have upset her.”
She sniffed, then added, voice thick with false sorrow,
“I’m leaving tomorrow. I won’t trouble this family again. I just don’t want her to be unhappy because of me…”
Her performance was flawless.
Bruno’s expression darkened further, his rage boiling over.
He turned sharply toward the doorway.
Two enforcers in black appeared instantly.
“Take her out to the yard,” Bruno ordered coldly. “String her up from the old oak.”
He paused, then added, his words cutting into me like claws,
“Let the sun burn the poison out of her. The Ferraro Family does not keep women this vile.”
Before I could react, the enforcers seized my arms.
“Bruno! Let me go!” I struggled. “You can’t do this to me!”
No one listened.
They dragged me into the yard, my resistance meaningless against their strength. Rough rope bit into my ankles as they bound me tightly. With a hard yank, they hoisted me upside down from the tall, ancient oak, the tree this family had always used to make its lessons stick.
Blood rushed to my head, dizziness crashing over me in waves.
The midday sun was merciless.
It burned my skin, scorched my lungs, and made my vision swim. My heartbeat thundered painfully in my ears as my chest tightened, breath coming in ragged gasps.
Through the haze, I tilted my head and looked toward the living room window.
Inside, Bruno was carefully cleaning the cut at the corner of Adriana’s mouth. My parents sat beside her, speaking softly, their faces full of concern.
They looked like a perfect family.
Tears streamed from my eyes, falling uselessly to the ground below, drying the moment they touched the scorching earth.
I went very still, and my thumb found the thin scar on my wrist, the only inheritance this family had ever given me. I touched it once.
Just one day.
I only need to endure one day.
When I get free, every single one of them will pay for what they’ve done.
