"How could men and women ever be equal? Stop stirring things up, alright?"
I no longer wanted to keep debating and turned around to walk away. Dante reached out and tried to hold me back.
With a loud crash, Rocco Mancini struck the table hard with his palm.
"Go. Let her leave!"
"A woman living off my son is acting all proud now, don't come back crying and begging later!"
Dante truly listened this time and did not run after me.
The cold wind on the road rushed straight toward me, just like that winter when I first fell for Dante at a single glance.
Back then, my closest friend warned me.
"Him? He's that well-known poor campus crush in our department who only focuses on studying."
"So many wealthy girls chased him at school, and he didn't even look their way. When asked, he only said he didn't have time for dating nonsense."
"If you want to go after him, that'll probably be tougher than reaching the sky."
But I still liked him.
So I hid who I was, switched into his major, and began shamelessly sticking close to him, doing everything I could to make myself noticeable to him.
Behind the scenes, I covered his tuition fees and daily costs through anonymous hidden sponsorship, and by pulling strings through Family connections, I made sure he could train under respected physicians and sit in on closed-door medical conferences most associates would never see.
I refused every son of every allied family my father introduced and poured all my time and energy into Dante alone.
In the end, as someone considered "on the same level" as him, I naturally became his partner.
After graduation, with arrangements already in place, he and I smoothly entered my father's medical front to work.
I did not move into the guarded apartment my father had bought long ago. Instead, I chose to squeeze into a small studio close to the clinic with him.
We once shared a truly happy time.
In the mornings before work, when I didn't want to get out of bed, Dante would hold me and help me brush my teeth and wash my face.
In the evenings after work, we would walk hand in hand to buy groceries together.
Curled up on the couch watching television, I would rest against his shoulder, and he would feed me fruit he had peeled himself.
But after Viviana returned from overseas, everything became different.
She turned into Dante's focus and main concern.
The car Dante bought using his very first real paycheck, its front seat turned into a seat meant only for Viviana.
"Anyway, our place is very near the clinic. Walking a little more is good exercise for you."
One evening after working late, a sick and perverted patient followed me.
With shaking hands, I called Dante and begged him to come get me, yet he was already heading to Viviana's place.
"Viviana is at home with bad menstrual cramps and can only drink the ginger drink I make. At a moment like this, can you stop being jealous and causing problems, okay?"
When that man rushed at me, I fought wildly in fear and despair.
When I grabbed a brick and swung it down, blood scattered across my face.
The next day, when I walked out of the police station, Dante was nowhere in sight.
Instead, I saw two flight tickets posted on Viviana's social media story.
Feeling awful during my period. My good brother didn't hesitate to take me on a trip to relax.
That place was the Maldives, the spot I had always held onto Dante about wanting to visit.
Every time I talked about it before, he would always say our main focus right now was saving money for the wedding, not wasting money to enjoy ourselves.
Yet the moment it had Viviana involved, every plan about saving money completely disappeared.
I slowly let out a breath and wiped the tears away.
My thumb drifted over the pale mark where my engagement ring used to sit, the skin still indented after all those years.
Then I thought about every visit I made to the Mancini family house for Sunday dinner, where I busied myself serving the whole family.
Carmela would always slip the family heirloom sapphire bracelet onto Viviana's wrist, straightening each pearl on her own bracelet bead by bead while sighing again and again about how perfect it would be if she and Dante were together.
Bit by bit, moment by moment, I always believed that as long as I loved Dante, I could endure everything.
But now, I could no longer keep loving.
Since in their family's hearts, I would forever be an outsider, I decided from then on I would no longer mistreat myself.
I went back to the lakeside villa to pack my belongings and leave, but the code on the gate lock failed again and again.
Just as I was about to call Dante to ask, the door suddenly opened from inside.
