Chapter 3
Back at the Moretti estate, I immediately emailed my graduate advisor.
I shut myself in my room sorting paperwork when a burst of laughter erupted downstairs.
Luca was home.
I’d clung to him as a kid, practically growing up in his arms.
Later, Don Lorenzo had sent him to run the family’s London branch, and he’d been too busy to spare even five minutes to text me back.
Months earlier, I’d asked if he could come home for my graduation.
That text had gone unanswered.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d come back for me.
Sure enough, through the crack in my door, I watched Luca ruffle Valentina’s hair gently.
His voice dripped with raw longing,
“I’m so late. I missed taking photos with my baby sister.”
“I deserve to be punished.”
Valentina huffed and looped her arm through his,
“Then your punishment is a three-month work ban. You have to stay and keep me company.”
Luca agreed instantly, no hesitation.
It was easy. It was warm.
The kind of warmth I’d never gotten from him since I grew up.
I’d always thought he’d just grown colder with age.
Until the day I’d overheard Donna Marisa on the phone with him.
She’d asked casually why he’d doted on me as a kid but now avoided me so badly he’d moved across the ocean.
Luca had gone quiet for a long time.
Finally, he’d said hoarsely,
“Elena looked just like Valentina when we were little.”
Those words had broken me.
His sigh had drifted through the phone,
“I don’t want to treat them differently.”
“But every time I saw Elena’s bright, alive face, all I could think about was Valentina lying cold in that hospital bed.”
“It wasn’t fair.”
I’d cried myself to sleep that night.
I didn’t understand.
I hadn’t caused that unfairness.
Why was I the one paying for it?
I’d fought back.
I’d fought Valentina every step of the way.
Until that fake DNA report landed on my desk.
I hadn’t believed it. I’d secretly taken another test.
It had come back positive. I was Don Lorenzo and Donna Marisa’s biological daughter.
But I’d given up anyway.
I stopped fighting.
I gave Valentina my dresses, even when she cut them to shreds in front of me.
I let her ruin my birthday parties.
I even gave her Adrian De Luca, the boy I’d loved for years.
Because the second they’d chosen to disown me for Valentina, I’d known I could never win.
I snapped back to the present when I heard Valentina laughing outside my door,
“Fine, I’ll grace you with a photo then.”
“C’mon, family photo time.”
“Adrian, you too!”
No one ever said no to her.
A second later, she screamed,
“Luca! The necklace you sent me is gone!”
“I was gonna wear it for the family photo!”
“I swear I left it in the graduation gown.”
Her voice cracked, and she burst into tears,
“Elena took it.”
“Why would Elena steal my necklace?”
She banged on my door, sobbing,
“Elena, please give it back.”
“It was the first present Luca gave me after I woke up.”
“If you’re mad I took Mom, Dad, Luca and Adrian away from you, I’ll never talk to them again.”
“Just give it back, please.”
Inside, I was packing my bags.
I’d just found my real DNA report, the one that said I was their daughter.
I froze at her screams.
I reached for the doorknob to explain, but Luca kicked the door off its hinges,
“Elena, give me the necklace.”
I hadn’t taken it.
No one believed me.
Donna Marisa glared at me, furious,
“We thought you’d finally grown up, that you’d stopped fighting.”
“But it was all an act.”
“You just wanted to lull us into a false sense of security so you could steal the one thing Valentina truly cares about?”
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.
My voice came out rough and raw,
“I didn’t take it.”
Valentina swayed, looking like she’d cry herself unconscious, and collapsed backward.
Adrian caught her, then roared at me,
“Elena, when is this going to end?”
“Is it really that hard to be nice to her?”
“Are you so jealous you’re gonna drive her to her grave?”
I said nothing.
The words stuck in my throat, sharp as glass.
They cut me open, and I couldn’t speak.
Suddenly Valentina lunged at my packed bags and started tearing through them.
In the chaos, my DNA report fluttered to the floor.
Then she reached for my acceptance letter.
My blood ran cold. I screamed,
“Stop!”
“Don’t!”
The graduate program I’d gotten into was impossibly competitive. That letter was everything.
But I was too late.
Valentina ripped it to pieces.
My mind went blank.
She leaned in and whispered in my ear,
“Your classmates told me you applied to grad school abroad.”
“You thought you could run?”
“No way.”
“I’m gonna make sure you live in my shadow forever.”
She giggled,
“I never lost the necklace, by the way.”
“I just needed an excuse to destroy your letter.”
“Oops.”
I snapped. I shoved her hard.
Then I dropped to my knees, my hands trembling as I pressed the torn pieces together, trying desperately to fit them back into place.
Valentina fell to the floor and wailed.
Luca grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet, ready to scream.
Then his foot crunched on something.
He looked down.
The words “BIOLOGICAL MATCH” burned into his vision.
His pupils blew wide.
