I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek until the coppery taste of blood coated my tongue, forcing back the tears that threatened to fall. I would not give them the satisfaction.
“It isn’t about the presents,” I murmured, my voice so thin it barely pierced through the jeering laughter. “It’s about family. About love.”
“Love?” Cole sneered, climbing onto his chair as though ascending a throne, finger outstretched like a judge passing sentence. “You think we’d ever want your love, rat?”
Liam dipped his hand into Adrian’s untouched whiskey glass. When he pulled it out, he held the Lucci family ring, its metal searing hot from fire and liquor, glowing like molten hatred in the dim light.
“Enemies don’t cry, right, Cole?” Liam asked, his tone deceptively playful, like a child reciting a nursery rhyme.
“That’s right,” Cole grinned, teeth sharp. “They don’t cry. They scream.”
Before I could recoil, Liam’s hand clamped around my wrist and slammed it flat onto the oak table with brutal force. The branding ring pressed deep into my flesh. The hiss of scorched skin filled the room. Agony detonated through me — blinding, unbearable, white-hot and bone-deep. Still, I kept my mouth sealed shut, grinding my teeth so hard the metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth.
Liam leaned in close, his words brushing my ear like poison. “You’ll never be one of us, rat. You’re just the stray my father kept around for pity.”
Cole added with a vicious smile, “And when you finally die, we’ll make sure everyone believes you begged for it.”
The crowd erupted with howls of laughter. Hands clapped. Men whistled. My husband — my betrayer — raised his glass and drank, approving silently with his eyes.
And in that moment, something inside me split apart completely. All those nights I had prayed for them, all the blood I had spilled to keep them safe, all the lies I swallowed down — none of it mattered. I was, and would always be, the outsider. The joke. The rat.
But not forever.
---
Hours later, when the laughter had faded and they left me crumpled like refuse, I staggered back to my room.
I peeled the blistered skin from my palm, biting back a cry, and stared at the scar seared into me — jagged, ugly, twisted into the shape of a shattered crown.
I pressed that ruined hand against the cool glass of the mirror, forcing myself to look at the ghost staring back. My reflection, cracked, hollow-eyed.
“I’m leaving the Lucci family,” I whispered to the woman in the glass. “Alive, if fate allows.”
And this time, nothing — not a vow, not a debt, not a broken boy — would stop me.
---
Morning sunlight spilled across my face, but it was cold, indifferent. I felt nothing.
My call was already made — Damien would arrive by midnight to spirit me away. I was finally breaking free. Walking away from Adrian. From this cursed mansion. From this cursed life.
I pulled my coat tighter, the thundering of my heart choking me as I moved toward the east balcony. Today, I would face him. I would demand my freedom. My divorce.
But fate… fate enjoyed cruelty.
Because there he was. Adrian Lucci. The man I once loved like a god. On one knee. A glittering diamond in his hand, shining betrayal into the morning sun.
And kneeling before him — Bianca Peters.
The new consigliere. The sadist who once crushed a man’s hand for speaking out of turn.
Rose petals floated in the air like mockery, a grotesque parody of a fairy tale. Bodyguards clapped. The twins howled their approval.
“Say yes, Bianca!”
“Be our real mother!”
“We don’t want that boring witch anymore!”
The wind hit me like a slap, or maybe it was simply reality, brutal and unrelenting.
Bianca’s laugh rang out, sharp as broken glass.
“Yes, Adrian. A thousand yeses.”
I moved forward slowly, clapping — deliberate, mocking — shattering their performance into jagged pieces.
The sound silenced the crowd. Heads turned.
Adrian’s smile collapsed when his eyes locked on me.
“Valeria—” he began, his tone low and laced with warning.
“Don’t mind me,” I said sweetly, the kind of sweet that could rot teeth. “Congratulations to the happy couple.”
Adrian’s jaw twitched, his eyes burning.
Before he could spit his venom, Liam darted toward me. For the briefest, most foolish heartbeat, hope flared inside me. Maybe he remembered. Maybe—
Then I saw what he carried, and the hope died viciously.
The photograph.
The last picture of me and my mother. The only one I had left after they destroyed the rest of the album.
My chest seized.
“Give it back, Liam,” I said, voice trembling with restrained fury.
He smirked, his father’s reflection etched in his face.
“Why? It’s garbage. Just like you.”
And he threw it.
Straight into the flames of the balcony’s fire pit.
The photo curled and blackened instantly. My mother’s smile dissolved into ash, gone forever.
I didn’t dive for it. I didn’t scream. I just stood there. Shattering in silence as their laughter — Liam’s, Cole’s, Bianca’s syrupy giggle — filled the air.
Something in me cracked deeper.
I turned, slow, firelight blazing in my eyes.
“You little—” I began, stepping forward, but Adrian’s iron grip caught my arm mid-motion.
Adrian.
Always him.
He wrenched me back, his hold bruising.
“You’ve gone mad,” he hissed, his breath hot against my ear.
I looked at him — really looked. And for the first time, I didn’t see the man I once adored. I saw only a tyrant wrapped in silk and steel.
I smiled — cold, sharp, unafraid.
“Go ahead, Adrian. Cage me. Chain me to your floor if you must. But hear me—” I leaned closer, flames crackling like applause behind me.
“One day, I’ll get free. And when I do, I’ll reduce your entire empire to rubble with my bare hands.”
“ENOUGH!” he bellowed.
The guests went still. Guards averted their eyes, pretending not to listen. Even the twins quieted, stunned by the venom in his tone.
“What kind of ungrateful woman humiliates her Don in front of his people?” Adrian growled into my ear, his voice a private blade.
“You’re dead to me, Valeria,” Liam muttered, his words like ice.
I laughed. A sound too sharp, too brittle. Because if I didn’t laugh, I would have broken completely.
“You have no idea,” I whispered under my breath.
Bianca sauntered toward me, smugness dripping like venom. She placed one manicured hand against her stomach, her crimson nails gleaming like blood.
“Oh, and one more thing…” she cooed, voice syrupy sweet. “I’m pregnant. With Adrian’s child.”
The ground tilted. The world spun. My knees weakened, but I refused to crumble. Not here. Not in front of them.
Instead, I smiled.
“Perfect,” I said softly. “Then I’ll bury you beside him.”
Adrian’s grip tightened until pain threatened to snap my bones. “How dare you—”
“I WANT A DIVORCE!” I screamed.
He froze. His lips curved into something cruel. “No. You’ll stay. You’ll raise my sons. You’ll serve Bianca, my queen. And if you obey…” He leaned close, his breath icy on my cheek. “Maybe I’ll let you live.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away. I would not cry. Not for him. Not for any of them.
Instead, I lifted my chin and smiled, razor-sharp.
“Over my dead body,” I whispered.
And for the first time in eleven long years, I meant every syllable.
