Chapter 4

Aria POV:

The car had barely vanished down the road before another one screeched to a halt beside me. It was Dante's. He'd come back.

But he wasn't looking at me. He was staring past me, his features carved into a mask of raw horror.

I followed his gaze. In the main square of the estate, illuminated by the cold moonlight, Serafina was standing on the edge of the high cliff that overlooked the river.

"With her back, there's no place for me!" she cried, her voice carrying on the night air. A perfect performance.

Then, she jumped.

The crowd gasped. My parents, who had just come outside, screamed. Dante let out a guttural roar-a sound of pure, animal panic-and sprinted toward the cliff's edge.

I didn't move. I simply watched, a spectator to the unfolding tragedy. It was a deep river, yes, but for someone trained in survival since childhood, the fall wasn't necessarily fatal. It was theater.

The Family's inner circle, Dante, and their private doctors swarmed the riverbank, pulling a shivering and artfully weakened Serafina from the water.

No one looked up. No one saw me standing alone at the top of the cliff. In the chaos of her meticulously staged drama, I was utterly forgotten.

I walked back to my shed, a quiet finality settling in my heart. The boy I had loved, the boy who had promised to protect me, was truly gone. This stranger, this Don, was all that was left.

I fell asleep counting. Seven days left.

For the next five days, I was invisible. The entire Family was consumed with Serafina's supposed recovery. They coddled her, catered to her every whim.

On the fifth day, a decree was posted in the main hall. A formal announcement, written in ornate script on heavy parchment.

To ensure her stability and honor the life debt incurred, Don Dante Volkov will hold a symbolic union with Serafina.

The words blurred, each one a hammer blow. It was a public stripping of my birthright. A final, absolute betrayal.