After I slapped Vito’s mistress Gina across the face, he had my entire family committed to a psychiatric hospital. To beg him to let them go, I spent three years as Gina’s live-in nanny. And then, by accident, I stumbled onto Gina’s Instagram. In one of her videos, my father and brother were gathered around Gina and her baby, their faces glowing with a contentment and joy I had never once seen them show me. That was the moment I realized Vito had been lying to me all along. Watching the color drain from my face, he finally came clean, feigning reluctance. “Luciana, the truth is, your own family put Gina in my bed. She’s your father’s illegitimate daughter.” “Your family was never in any psychiatric hospital. These past three years, they’ve been with Gina the whole time.” “I only hid it from you because I didn’t want you to get hurt.” My eyes flooded red in an instant, my chest torn open as if by a blade. Vito went on, indulgent, self-satisfied. “Luciana, you’ve been a good girl these three years. Keep it up. Whatever compensation you want, name it.” “Although…” He gave that subtle, cruel smile of his. “Even if I offered, you probably wouldn’t want anything anyway…” I wiped my eyes, lifted my face, and smiled. “Vito. Then compensate me with a hundred million.” A husband like this, a family like this—I didn’t want any of them anymore. … Vito’s expression froze for a beat. “What did you just say?” I looked him dead in the eye, my voice shaking slightly. “If you want to compensate me, then pay me.” “A hundred million. Not a cent less.” Vito’s gaze went cold. Then he let out a scornful laugh and turned to the phone on his desk. “Gina—looks like neither of us called it right.” At some point the screen had switched to a live video feed. Gina was smiling out at me, mocking. “Luciana, we made a little bet on what you’d demand from Vito once you found out the truth.” “I bet you’d refuse the money and lose it—trash the office. Vito bet you’d use it as leverage to make him swear never to divorce you.” “As for Dad and our brother—one bet you’d demand Vito send me away, the other bet you’d hurt yourself to force him to give in.” She turned the camera. Dad was cradling Gina’s baby, positively glowing. The instant he saw me, every trace of that warmth vanished. “Luciana, I honestly never thought you’d have the gall to ask Vito for money!” “Have we ever let you go hungry a day in your life? Since when did you become such a gold-digger? What’s the difference between you and any common whore off the street!” My brother stroked Gina’s hair, his eyes soft and doting—then the second he turned to the camera, that indifference locked back into place. “Luciana, I get that you’re upset.” “If you need money, I’ll wire you some. But you have no right asking Vito for it.” “Gina and Vito are in love. They don’t owe you a thing.” “Is that so?” I cut him off, my eyes stinging red. “Steal my husband. Steal my father and my brother. Destroy my marriage and my family.” “Play me for three years. Trick me into being her nanny for three years.” “And you’re telling me none of you owe me anything?” My brother frowned. “Luciana, don’t twist it into something ugly.” “None of us meant to deceive you. You’ve just always been stubborn, ever since you were little. If we hadn’t done it this way, how were you ever going to accept Gina?” “Gina’s been struggling since the birth. We were worried about postpartum depression, so we thought up this little bet as a joke to lift her spirits. Don’t take it to heart.” I twisted the corner of my mouth into a smile. “Fine, then. Just pay me.” “Dad gives me fifty million, brother gives me thirty. I’ll even keep playing along and keep being Gina’s nanny. How about it?” My brother’s face went dark as thunder. “Luciana, how much longer are you going to keep this up?” I laughed, cold. “It’s pocket change. Don’t tell me the Romano and Cortina families combined can’t scrape that together?” “Enough.” “You want money? Fine. You’ll have it.” Vito shot me a look and pulled a document from the drawer. “Gina’s had the baby. My child is not going to be a bastard. Sign these divorce papers and the hundred million hits your account today.” I stared at those few thin pages. Not a second’s hesitation. I grabbed the pen and signed my name.
Vito’s expression twisted into something complicated as he looked at me. “Do you really care about money that much? You never used to be this kind of person…” I swallowed the pain slicing through my chest and pushed out a careless, indifferent smile. “If it isn’t money, what else have you got to give me?” He stared at me, those blue eyes flashing with an arrogance he couldn’t quite hide. “Don’t you love me? You could beg me not to go through with the divorce. I might just be gracious enough to accept.” “Say the word right now, and I’ll tear this agreement up.” Beg him? I bit down hard on my lip, remembering those first months after I’d discovered him and Gina. I had begged him. Countless times. I had slit my wrists to force him to come home. And all the blood I bled onto that floor had earned me one line: “Don’t do that again. Gina can’t stand the sight of blood.” I looked at him, calm now, my voice edged with contempt. “How do I know this isn’t just another one of your little bets? Another game to watch me humiliate myself?” I laughed bitterly, my throat raw. “Vito. Stop testing me.” “Haven’t you toyed with me enough these past three years?” The tears I’d been holding back for so long finally spilled over. Vito reached up on instinct to wipe them away. He sighed, and there was something almost like guilt in his eyes. “Gina is carrying my child, after all. She’s young. A little willful. As her older sister, you could stand to indulge her a bit.” “Don’t worry. The lady of the Romano family will still be you. Marrying Gina is just so my first child isn’t born a bastard.” He paused, then added, as though not entirely reassured: “You’ll still get the hundred million. Take the money, go enjoy yourself for a while. Once I’ve sorted everything out here, we’ll remarry.” “That should make you happy, no?” I lifted my face, gave him a soft smile, and hummed my assent. “Then book me a flight to Switzerland. We always said we’d go see the lakes under the Alps together.” He let out a relieved breath and pulled me tight against him. “Alright.” “You go on ahead. Once things are settled here, I’ll come join you.” “Luciana. Wait for me.” I rested my head against his shoulder and said nothing more. But I knew, in my heart, I would never wait for him again. Once he was satisfied I’d surrendered, Vito spoke again. “Give me the villa keys. Move out for now.” “Gina’s going to move in. You know how fragile she’s been since the birth—clean the place out properly, don’t leave anything behind that might upset her.” “The villa’s old anyway, we’ve lived there for years. Don’t hold it against her.” He cleared his throat and produced a set of keys and a property deed from the drawer. “I’ve already bought you a new villa in Rose Valley. Move your things over there first.” I said nothing, but my mind drifted to the day we’d first bought that villa. We had designed the layout together, argued for hours over the color of the bed curtains and the painting for the entryway. We’d agreed to leave two children’s rooms—one pink, one blue. He’d said it was our love nest. Carved a nameplate himself and hung it by the door: *Luciana’s Home*. Later, he spent his nights tangled up with Gina in his office until sunrise, while I lay alone on the floor of that empty villa after a fall, losing our baby, with no one to help me up. I smiled and placed the keys in his palm. “It’s fine.” “A new one is fine, too.” From here on, everything I owned would be new. Not just the house. After I left the Romano Building, I made one last stop at the psychiatric hospital. Over the past three years, I had pushed open that ward door countless times, watched my father and brother play their parts in the beds, and cried myself into unconsciousness. But none of them knew—I had met someone here. I pushed the door open. Sunlight poured through the window frame, and a young man sat perched on the sill, staring out at the horizon. His features were sharp, carrying a cool, detached, defiant edge. Loose strands of hair fell across his forehead, gilded pale gold in the light. If any reporter had been in the room, they might have recognized him: the youngest son of the New York shipping magnate, committed to a psychiatric hospital several years ago. I spoke softly. “I have money now. I’m getting you out of here.” Vito had no idea. My real destination was never Switzerland. It was America.
When I went back to the villa to pack, the maids gave me strange looks, opening their mouths and closing them again. I frowned and walked into the living room, and then I understood. My things had been dumped in careless heaps across the floor. And there was Gina, gliding down the staircase in a snow-white wedding gown. I bit my lip and stared at her. She lifted the hem of the skirt and smirked. “Sister. This is the gown Vito designed for you by hand, isn’t it?” “Well. Vito’s already promised it to me.” “He said your figure’s gone anyway—you couldn’t fit into this dress if you tried. He said the dress is lucky I appreciate it.” She held up the hem and twirled. “Sister. Do you think it suits me? Aren’t I beautiful?” The white gown shimmered like a dream beneath the crystal chandelier. Gina’s face was flushed with triumph, radiant with joy. Years ago, Vito had spent months drafting the design. The first time I put it on, he’d said: “Luciana. This is a one-of-a-kind dress. Only a one-of-a-kind woman could wear it.” His words still rang in my ears. But the man behind them was long gone. Gina didn’t know—I’d already given up on Vito himself. Why would I still care about a meaningless dress? I smiled, calm, and let my clenched fists slowly uncurl. “Gina. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that if you take someone else’s things, you pay for them?” “That gown is worth thirty million. I expect the transfer in my account by end of day.” Gina’s face changed in an instant. “You bitch! You’ve hogged Vito, stolen my family for years, and now you have the nerve to ask for money!” Stolen *her* family? She was my father’s illegitimate daughter. Her mother was the mistress… She and her mother were the ones who destroyed my family. She raised her hand and lunged for me. But the gown’s skirt was hopelessly heavy. I simply stepped half a pace to the side, and Gina tripped over her own hem and crashed to the ground. Dad and my brother came pounding down the stairs. “Gina! What happened?” My brother rounded on me, eyes blazing. “Luciana! Have you been bullying Gina again?!” Before I could open my mouth, a slap cracked across my face. Half my cheek exploded with a searing burn. I stared at my father in disbelief. His face was flushed dark, and his voice came out cold as ice: “I know you’re bitter. I know you’ve never truly accepted Gina. But she just gave birth. She’s still fragile! How dare you lay a hand on her!” Gina’s voice quavered pitifully through her tears. “Dad, don’t be angry at her, it’s not her fault. She said this dress cost thirty million and I don’t deserve to wear it unless I pay her. But I don’t have that kind of money… and she didn’t push me on purpose.” She looked up, the picture of wounded innocence. “It’s my fault, I don’t have the money for sister. Dad, brother—if we pay her, will she stop being angry with me?” Dad snorted and exploded. “Gina, you’re too kind. Pay this bitch? Not a chance! I should have known—she’s just like her mother. Money-grubbing whores, both of them!” Pain lanced through my chest. I pressed a hand to my burning cheek and stared at him. His face was contorted, curses tumbling out of him one after another. The mask of paternal love he’d worn for years seemed to crack apart before my eyes. My brother caught his arm in time. “Dad. Stop.” I thought, for a second, my brother would speak up for me. Then he opened his mouth, and his voice came out flat and cold: “If you push her too far she’ll make a scene at Gina’s wedding. That’s the last thing we need.” “She wants money? Give her the money. Think of it as tossing a coin to a beggar.” He pulled a card from his pocket and flicked it onto the floor at my feet, his voice dripping with disgust. “Over thirty million on that card. Enough for you?” “Take it and get out. Stay away from Gina from now on. I don’t want you ruining her mood.” I looked down at the black card lying on the floor. The last thread of attachment inside me finally snapped. I bent slowly, picked up the card, and gave a careless little smile. Looking at the wreckage of my belongings scattered across the living room, I couldn’t be bothered to sort any of it. “Well then, brother. Since you’re willing to pay, this trash is all yours.” I fixed him with a mocking stare. “Since brother has already claimed Gina as his new sister, and her mistress mother as his new mother, this old sister certainly won’t stick around to spoil the view.” “From this day on, I have nothing more to do with any of you!” I dug my documents out of the pile on the floor, turned, and headed for the door. “Wait—”
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