I stood there, a rigid statue clad in the scratchy polyester of a cheap server's uniform, my back pressed against the cold plaster next to the mahogany double doors.

Inside, the performance had begun.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but I could not close my ears.

I heard the soft rustle of expensive fabric. The heavy clink of a belt buckle hitting the hardwood floor. Then came Sofia's giggles-high, breathless, and triumphant.

And then, Dante.

His voice was a low murmur I couldn't quite distinguish, but the deep timbre of it vibrated through the solid wood and settled into the very marrow of my bones.

I bit the inside of my cheek until the metallic tang of copper filled my mouth.

This was my penance.

This was the price of the lie I had woven five years ago. I had confessed to running over his mother, Lucrezia, to bury the uglier truth-that she had taken her own life following a sordid affair. I had absorbed his hatred so he would never have to carry the crushing weight of her sin.

A moan slipped through the crack in the door. It was unmistakable.

"Oh, Dante... yes."

My stomach churned, bile rising hot in my throat. I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, pulling my knees to my chest.

The cancer pain flared in my abdomen-a sharp, twisting knife that rivaled the agony in my chest. I focused on the physical torment. It was easier to process than the sound of the man I loved pleasuring another woman.

I counted the damask patterns on the carpet.

One, two, three.

I remained awake all night, guarding their intimacy like a loyal, beaten dog.

When the door finally opened at dawn, my limbs were stiff and shivering. Dante stepped out first, fully dressed in a charcoal suit. He looked immaculate, untouched by the night, while I felt as though I had aged a decade in a single darkness.

Sofia followed, wrapped in a silk robe, looking flushed and thoroughly satisfied. She saw me and feigned a start.

"Oh, Elena. You're still here?" She tilted her head. "How... dedicated."

Dante didn't look at her. His cold gaze was fixed on me.

"Get inside," he commanded, his voice void of emotion. "Clean the sheets."

I stood up, my legs trembling beneath me. I walked past him into the room. The scent of sex and his sandalwood cologne hung heavy and suffocating in the air.

It made the room spin.

I stripped the bed, my hands shaking uncontrollably as I bundled the fine Egyptian cotton that bore the wet evidence of his betrayal.

Later that week, the torment shifted forms.

Dante forced me to attend his business dinners, not as a guest, but as a silent shadow. I stood behind his chair while he ate. When toasts were raised, he ordered me to drink in Sofia's place.

"She has a delicate liver," he mocked, addressing the table while gesturing to me. "You, however, are accustomed to prison swill."

I drank glass after glass of heavy red wine.

The alcohol reacted violently with my medication. Nausea rolled over me in waves, and my vision blurred at the edges, but I swallowed every drop.

Each glass was another dollar added to my burial fund.

Then came Sofia's birthday gala.

The estate was ablaze with thousands of fairy lights. I was tasked with holding Sofia's clutch while she greeted the guests. She wore a gown of deep emerald velvet, the back cut perilously low to reveal the curve of her spine.

I recognized it instantly.

It was a design Lucrezia had sketched in her notebook years ago. She had drawn it for me. For her son's future wife.

Sofia twirled, the velvet catching the ambient light. "Do you like it, Elena? Dante had it made just for me."

"It's beautiful," I said, my voice hollowed out.

Guests whispered as they passed us, their voices barely lowered.

"That's the viper. The matricide. How does Dante let her live?"

"He keeps her to remind him of the hate," someone answered.

I stared straight ahead. Let them talk. I would be gone soon enough. The cancer was devouring me faster than their words ever could.

Late in the evening, I found myself by the estate lake. The water was black and still, a mirror reflecting the cold moon. Sofia found me there. She had been drinking, her cheeks high with color.

"You think he still cares about you, don't you?" she hissed, stepping into my personal space.

"I think he hates me," I said quietly.

"He does. But he looks at you. He looks at you with so much anger it burns. I want him to look at me like that."

I said nothing.

She twisted the engagement ring on her finger. It was a massive diamond, heavy and cold.

"You ruined everything, Elena. You were supposed to be the perfect little Vitiello bride. And now look at you." She sneered. "A dying rat."

I stiffened. "You know?"

She laughed, a cruel, tinkling sound. "I saw your pills in your bag. Painkillers. Strong ones. You're rotting from the inside out. It's poetic, really."

She pulled the ring off her finger.

"He gave me this," she said, holding it over the dark water. "But I know it was meant for you. He bought it five years ago."

She tossed it.

The diamond caught the moonlight for a split second-a falling star-before it vanished into the freezing black water with a soft *plop*.

"Oops," she smirked.

"Go get it, Elena. Prove you know your place."

Chapter 2

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