Chapter 4

Adriana "Ria" Rossi POV:

The next few days were about severing ties.

I started with my social media. I didn't delete my accounts; that would have been too dramatic, too noticeable. Salvatore hated public displays of emotion. Instead, I methodically went through my friend lists, unfollowing and removing every single person connected to the Moretti and Ricci families.

The wives, the cousins, the business associates. Hundreds of smiling, perfect faces vanished from my feed. The noise of their perfect lives-the charity galas, the European vacations, the christenings for children who would one day inherit this bloody empire-faded into a quiet hum, and then, silence.

Just as I finished, a message request popped up. The profile picture was a generic flower. The name was unfamiliar.

`I thought you should see this.`

Beneath the message was a picture. It was a screenshot from a private Instagram story. A close-up of Sofia Ricci's hand, a massive canary diamond on her ring finger, intertwined with Salvatore's. The caption read: `A new beginning.`

It was my ring. The one I had flushed. He must have had the plumbers retrieve it. Or, more likely, he'd just bought her an identical one. A replacement part.

I felt nothing. No anger, no jealousy, no pain. It was like looking at a picture of two strangers in a magazine.

I saved the screenshot to a hidden folder on my phone. Evidence. Then I blocked the user. I didn't reply. Silence was my new language.

Mrs. Bianchi from next door, a sweet old woman who had known my mother for thirty years, brought over a lasagna.

"He was never good enough for you, you know," she said, her eyes sharp and knowing as she set the heavy dish on the counter. "Your mother knew it too."

She must have seen Salvatore's car parked outside the night of the funeral.

"She always said you were a star, Adriana. And stars don't orbit planets. They burn on their own."

A lump formed in my throat. My mother had seen it all. She had seen his coldness, his selfishness, and she had kept quiet, for me. For the life she thought I wanted.

"I wanted it so badly," I whispered, more to myself than to Mrs. Bianchi. "To belong."

"Belonging isn't something you earn, child," she said softly, patting my hand. "It's something you are."

That night, I couldn't sleep. I went into my mother's room, the scent of her perfume now faint, a ghostly whisper. I lay down on her bed and pulled the faded cashmere sweater over me.

I dreamed of Salvatore. Not the man he was, but the man I had believed him to be. In the dream, he was holding me, telling me everything would be okay, that he would protect me. I felt safe.

I woke up with tears on my cheeks. But it wasn't because I missed him. It was because I was mourning the girl who had been foolish enough to believe in him.

I got up and started the last of the packing. As I cleared out a drawer in my mother's desk, my fingers brushed against a thick envelope tucked underneath a stack of old utility bills.

Inside was a veterinary receipt from two years ago. It was for Caesar, Sofia Ricci's Doberman. It detailed an emergency visit for an unprovoked attack on another dog at a park. The vet's notes were chillingly clear: `Dog displays aggressive tendencies. Recommended behavioral training and muzzle in public. Owner declined.`

The receipt was dated two weeks before Salvatore gave me my engagement ring. He had known. He had been there with her that day. He knew the dog was dangerous, and he had let it near my mother. He had let Sofia lie.

A cold, hard fury solidified in my veins. It wasn't grief anymore. It was rage. Pure and clean.

My phone rang, a blocked number. I knew it was him.

"You can't ignore me forever, Ria," Salvatore's voice said, tight with frustration. "I need to get my things from the apartment."

"Have your assistant do it," I said, my voice empty.

"There are things... personal things. That diamond necklace I gave you for our anniversary. It was my grandmother's."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. He'd told me he had it commissioned just for me. Another lie.

"I don't have it."

"What do you mean you don't have it? It's worth more than that little house you're hiding in."

"Then maybe you should have taken better care of it," I said, and hung up.

I took the vet bill and walked to the kitchen shredder. The machine whirred to life, chewing the evidence of his betrayal into meaningless strips of paper. I didn't need it anymore. The truth was burned into my memory.

And it was all the justification I would ever need.