I took out the bank card my mother had given me and placed it in her hands. "I'll come visit you whenever I can," I said gently. "Thank you for taking care of me all these years."
Tears began to fall from her eyes.
"Why are we being so formal?" she said, her voice trembling. "This is my fault. I was too busy with the family and didn't take better care of you."
She sighed deeply. "I even hoped you would become my daughter-in-law… but now…"
She pushed the card back into my hand. "Take this as part of your dowry. I won't be able to attend the ceremony, but I truly hope you'll be happy."
I held back my tears as I stepped forward and embraced her.
For all these years, she had treated me like her own daughter. But when it came to matters of the heart, no one could control how things turned out.
She held my hands tightly, unwilling to let go, repeating again and again that she didn't want to part with me.
Just then, Dante, Nico, and Serena returned.
The front door opened and the warmth of the sitting room changed. I felt it before I saw them. The way the housekeeper near the hall stiffened, the way voices from the kitchen went quiet. Compound instinct. When the DeLuca brothers entered a room, everything else adjusted.
The moment they saw me, their expressions darkened instantly.
"Bianca! What ceremony are you talking about?" Dante snapped. "Are you lying to my mother again?"
"Dante!" Naomi DeLuca's voice rose sharply. "Is that how you speak to your sister?"
Nico stepped forward quickly. "Mom, don't believe anything Bianca says," he said. "The only reason my brother and I ever talked about marrying her was to humor one of her childish dreams."
Behind Dante, Serena lowered her head shyly, a faint smile playing on her lips. Her fingers drifted to the pearl at her left ear and held there a beat too long.
Dante added calmly, "Serena may come from a humble background, but she is independent and strong. She would never agree to a union just for protection or money."
"Unlike Bianca," he continued coldly, smoothing an invisible crease from the front of his tie, "who has been spoiled by me and only knows how to bully others and stir up trouble out of jealousy."
Naomi DeLuca, who had been confused at first, suddenly slammed her cup down in anger. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot, and the soldier posted near the hallway entrance flinched.
"No wonder Bianca insisted on leaving!" she shouted. "You two ungrateful fools. Take that woman with you and get out of my sight!"
After they left, I stayed behind for a long time, calming her down, soothing her until her anger slowly faded.
In the end, she let me go with tearful blessings, unable to keep me any longer.
I left with the last warmth she gave me, my heart filled with complicated emotions.
As I walked down the stone steps outside the compound's main entrance, lost in thought, my foot suddenly caught on something.
I lost my balance and tumbled down the stairs.
Pain shot through my body as I struggled to lift my head. And then I saw him.
Nico, standing there.
He had tripped me.
"Why can't you just leave quietly, Bianca?" Dante said, his face dark with anger. "You even came here to complain and slander me in front of my mother. Are you trying to ruin me?"
Nico grabbed me roughly, dragging me up before shoving me toward Serena. "Apologize. Now."
I had thought they would finally let me go. But they still refused to release me.
"I didn't do anything wrong!" I shouted, my voice trembling.
Before the words had even fully left my mouth, Nico's right thumb cracked against the side of his hand once, sharply. Then he lifted his foot and stomped down on my injured ankle.
A sharp, unbearable pain exploded through me, as if my bones were being crushed.
"Remember this, Bianca," he said coldly. "This is the price for hurting Serena."
"Unlike my brother, I won't tolerate your temper anymore."
As I curled up on the ground, the pain overwhelming my senses, only one thought remained clear in my mind.
Everything was over.
Twenty years of growing up together. Twenty years of shared memories.
Twenty years of love.
I owed them nothing anymore.
A kind passerby eventually found me and rushed me to the hospital.
After confirming that there were no major injuries, I left without hesitation.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in my swollen ankle, I boarded a plane and left, refusing to look back even once.
The next day, news of my alliance marriage to the Moretti family's heir spread across every channel that mattered, becoming the only thing anyone in the families was talking about.
Not long after, messages from the DeLuca brothers began to flood in.
