"One point five million." Gelsomina suddenly raised her paddle, malice gleaming in her eyes.
She'd noticed the change in how Tommaso looked at me. That unprecedented tenderness drove her mad with jealousy that her voice became as sharp as nails scraping across a chalkboard.
"Two million." I calmly raised my paddle without looking at her.
"Three million!" Gelsomina shrieked, her face flushing red with rage.
"Five million."
"Eight million!" She was practically roaring now.
Tommaso watched the bidding war between us, confusion deepening in his eyes, yet he didn't stop us. He simply observed quietly, as if trying to understand something.
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest, a habit he always did when he was thinking.
"Ten million." I raised my paddle one last time, my voice still calm.
The auctioneer's gavel fell. "Sold! Ten million to Signora Volpe!"
Gelsomina's face went pale with fury. Her hands clenched into fists, nails digging deep into her palms. But in front of Tommaso, she didn't dare lose control. She could only suppress her rage.
After the auction ended, I received the cufflinks. They lay quietly in an elegant box, looking just like the ones Marco used to wear.
Tommaso walked over to me, his voice carrying a tenderness I'd never heard before. "Put them on me."
I froze. He thought I'd bought them for him? Just as I was about to explain, Tommaso's phone rang.
"Don Volpe, there's trouble at the docks." The Underboss, Nico Romano, spoke with urgency. "We found an informant on the Torrino family's cargo ship. You need to handle this personally."
Tommaso's expression immediately turned serious. He had always been one to attend to the family business himself.
"I'm on my way." With that, he hurried out of the auction venue, leaving me alone with Gelsomina. The sweet smile vanished from her face instantly, replaced by pure malice. Her gaze was as cold as a viper's.
"Take her." She signaled to several men with a glance.
I hadn't brought any bodyguards because I'd come to the auction in a rush with the Don. At her words, I was taken to the underground garage.
The space was vast and cold. Only a few dim bulbs swayed overhead, casting eerie shadows.
"You think Tommaso actually cares about you?" Gelsomina sneered, her high heels clicking sharply against the concrete. "You think buying him cufflinks will make him feel something for you?"
She snatched the box containing the cufflinks from my hands, her movements as vulgar as a barbarian's.
"What right do you have to compete with me?" She opened the box and stared at the exquisite cufflinks, her eyes almost green from the venom they leaked. "Even if you give them to him, he'll only ever love me."
I sighed and started to explain, "I didn't buy them for him. You're misunderstanding. I'm not giving them to him."
I only wanted to keep them as a memento of Marco.
"You think I'll believe that? You have improper thoughts about Tommaso!" Gelsomina laughed maniacally, her laughter echoing through the empty garage.
"Tommaso actually wavered because of those cufflinks! He looked at you like an idiot!" She dumped the cufflinks onto the ground, and they clattered uselessly against the concrete.
"No!" I lunged forward to stop her, but her men grabbed my arms.
Gelsomina's high heel stomped on the cufflinks. The clear sound of the antique platinum cracking resonated throughout the space, its decorative diamond clusters scattering across the floor like fallen stars.
"This is what you deserve!" she said venomously, continuing to crush the fragments. "Don't ever think you'll get real love from Tommaso! His heart belongs only to me!"
Just then, the garage door was kicked open violently, crashing against the wall with a loud bang. Tommaso emerged from beyond the door. When he saw the shattered pieces on the ground and me being restrained, his expression instantly darkened like storm clouds.
Fury burned in his eyes, but there was something else there, too. Panic?
"Let her go!"
The burly men immediately released me. They knew how terrifying the Don was when he was truly angry.
Tommaso walked over to me and looked at the fragments on the ground. Pain flashed through his eyes. At that moment, I couldn't hold on any longer and fainted.
When I woke, I was back at the estate. Tommaso sat beside my bed. When he spoke, his voice was laced with genuine remorse. "Mi dispiace."
"Will she be punished?" I hoped he would make some gesture, so I asked.
Then, he pleaded with me. "Can we just ground Gelsomina in her room for a week? She'll never do something like this again."
That was practically no punishment at all. It was the outcome I'd expected all along. It didn't matter to me who he loved, but given how many times these sorts of things had happened, I grew tired of this behavior.
I sat up and stared ahead silently.
"Va bene. You love her too much," I said calmly, my voice free of accusation, carrying only the detached tone of stating facts. "Just like I only love Marco."
There was nothing unusual about that statement. We were the same, both of us loving people we couldn't have. But his beloved was still by his side, and mine was long gone.
His lips moved, and finally he forced out a single sentence. "Don't mention his name again."
