Chapter 2

Alessia's POV:

I didn't leave the estate that night. My call to Dante had set the wheels in motion, but I needed to sever the final ties in person.

I walked away from Marco's disgusting demand and went back to the master bedroom, the one place that was still supposed to be mine.

He didn't come back to our room. I felt nothing but a cold, hollowing relief.

At dawn, I called the head maid, Maria, into the room.

"Pack everything," I instructed, my voice flat. "All the clothes, the shoes, the bags."

I gestured to the velvet-lined boxes on my dresser. "The jewelry, too. The gifts from him. Donate it all."

They were symbols of a dead love, and I wanted them gone.

Maria's eyes widened, but she nodded silently. She knew better than to question me.

As the staff quietly began to empty the closets, my fingers brushed against a diamond bracelet. Marco had it engraved with our initials inside the clasp.

I'd worn it on our wedding day. For a single, stupid moment, I hesitated. A memory of his smile, of a promise whispered in the dark, flickered through my mind.

"Oh, that's pretty."

Bianca's voice shattered the memory. She snatched the bracelet from my hand before I could react.

Marco appeared in the doorway behind her, his eyes shadowed with annoyance. He took the bracelet from Bianca's fingers and fastened it around her delicate wrist.

"It's just a bracelet, Lia," he said dismissively, his gaze flicking over me. "I'll buy you a new one."

"Why are you packing?" he asked, finally noticing the flurry of activity.

"Donations," I lied coldly, my heart a stone in my chest.

My hand went to my neck, to the cool, smooth jade pendant that always rested there. It was my mother's.

She had placed it around my neck on her deathbed, a Romano heirloom passed down through generations of women. A symbol of our strength.

Bianca's eyes fixed on it, her expression greedy.

"That's beautiful. They say jade protects the unborn." She smiled sweetly at Marco. "Can I have it, Marco? For the baby."

"No," I said, my voice low and final.

Impatient, Marco lunged forward. He didn't ask again. He simply ripped the pendant from my neck. The delicate gold chain snapped.

The jade hit the marble floor with a sickening crack, shattering into a dozen green shards.

The sound of it breaking was the sound of my heart breaking for the very last time.

I sank to my knees, the world narrowing to the broken pieces of my mother's legacy.

I didn't feel the sharp edges bite into my fingertips as I tried to gather the fragments. A sob tore from my throat, a raw, wounded sound.

"Oh, Lia, I'm so sorry," Bianca cooed, reaching for me in a theatrical display of sympathy.

"Don't touch me!" I shoved her hand away.

She stumbled backward, her hand flying to her stomach as if in pain. "Aah!"

"Lia!" Enraged, Marco grabbed my arm and shoved me hard against the wall.

The back of my head hit the plaster with a dull thud. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to hurt her? She's pregnant!"

He scoffed, his face a mask of contempt. "It's a worthless trinket. I can buy a hundred of them to replace the one your dead mother gave you."

Something inside me snapped. The quiet, dutiful wife was gone, burned away by the cold fury of a Romano daughter.

I seized the heavy crystal vase from the nightstand and hurled it at him.

"Get out!" I screamed, my voice raw with a pain so deep it felt like it was ripping me apart. "Both of you, get out of my sight!"

Bianca, ever the actress, threw herself in front of Marco. The vase struck her shoulder, and she cried out, collapsing against him.

Marco scooped her into his arms, his face murderous as he looked at me. He rushed her from the room, his threat echoing in the sudden silence.

"If anything happens to my son, I'll kill you."

I slid down the wall to the floor, the shards of jade digging into my palm. I sobbed, not for my broken marriage, but for the girl I used to be.

My only regret was the day I ever agreed to become a Bellini.