Chapter 4

Alessia POV:

I was right. Chiara hadn't jumped.

The next morning, the news was silent. No tragedy at the Salinas estate. Just another manufactured crisis. Another desperate bid for the spotlight.

I worked my final shift at the diner, collected the handful of crumpled bills that passed for a week's pay, and retreated to the cramped room I rented above it. For a moment, the quiet was a sanctuary.

Then my phone buzzed, shattering the peace. A text from Giuliana.

Family meeting. Now. It's about the engagement.

The engagement. My engagement. The one Dante had sworn was ours alone. A familiar dread coiled in my gut. I knew exactly what this was.

I made the familiar, grim walk back to the estate, a lamb returning to the slaughterhouse one last time. They were all assembled in the formal living room: my parents, Giuliana, and Dante, with Chiara clinging to his arm like a rare, poisonous orchid.

My mother, Isabella, spoke first, her voice dripping with practiced concern. "Alessia, darling. As you know, Chiara's health is so... fragile. Her doctor feels the stress of her situation has become life-threatening. He believes the security of an engagement-it would give her the will to live."

"We need you to make one more small sacrifice," my father added, his gaze fixed on a spot on the far wall. "For your sister. For the family. You need to release Dante from his promise."

The room fell silent. All eyes pinned me in place. I dragged my gaze to Dante. "And you? You agree with this?"

He flinched, finally looking at me, his eyes a storm of conflict. "It's not what I want, Alia. You know that. But it's a temporary measure-a pretense, to keep her stable. Please."

A pretense. My life, my future, my love-all reduced to a prop in their never-ending drama. I looked at their expectant faces, the carefully constructed trap. Fighting them was pointless, a battle I had lost before I was even born. But I could choose my own terms of surrender.

"Fine," I said. The word dropped into the silence like a stone.

They stared, stunned by my swift compliance. Chiara was the most shocked of all. A flicker of raw fury crossed her face before she expertly rearranged it into a mask of wounded fragility. My surrender wasn't enough. She needed my utter humiliation.

"That's not enough," she whispered, her voice a theatrical tremble. She picked up a silver letter opener from the desk beside her, pressing the sharp tip against the translucent skin of her wrist. "I need your blessing. I need you to kneel and bless our union."

My parents gasped. Dante took a half-step forward, his face darkening like a thundercloud.

"I'll do it," I said, my voice impossibly calm, cutting through the tension. "On one condition."

I locked my eyes on Chiara, holding her captive in my gaze.

"You kneel first. You kneel and thank me for the seven years I served in your place. For the life you stole from me."