Chapter 4
Standing against the light, Dominic’s outline was blurred and indistinct.
I was released from the basement, and the wedding was arranged in a rush.
The night before the ceremony, my mother spoke casually in the living room.
“Since you’ve come to your senses, prepare yourself properly. Rhea has been emotional lately. Make your
peace with Rhea. It’s for the best.”
Vincent tapped his cigar, the falling ash a silent countdown to my relevance. “Amelia, behave. The Ravello
family is still willing to let you retain some dignity.”
I wanted to laugh, but I no longer had the strength to move a single muscle in my face.
Those weeks of confinement and torment had drained every trace of life out of me. When I remained silent,
Vincent’s tone hardened.
“The deal is already done. You get to marry him. What more do you want?”
“If you really want to talk about fairness, you’ve been living on borrowed time and stolen pearls. All of it
belonged to Rhea.”
“If you keep acting out, the Ravello family won’t keep you, and I won’t protect you.”
I stayed quiet for a long while before finally asking, “What deal did you make?”
“A very profitable one,” Vincent said, puffing on his cigar with satisfaction.
“Tell me.”
“He agreed to marry you. In exchange, I’d take the Don’s position, and I would make sure he became the
mayor of our city.”
“A perfect deal, isn’t it? You even get to become the mayor’s wife. Wonderful outcome.”
I felt myself plunge into an icy void.
The absurdity of it all was so overwhelming I couldn’t form a single coherent sentence.
Rhea, safely tucked between them, broke the silence.
“Amelia, I want your cheesecake again. The one you used to make just for Dominic.”
Cheesecake. The memory struck like a blade.
That cake was the one I baked the night Dominic’s father was sentenced, when he lay feverish and half-conscious.
I stayed beside him the entire night, baking batch after batch until dawn. It had become something sacred,
Chapter 4
1161%
something only we shared.
Dominic once pressed me against the kitchen counter, hands marking me with a possessiveness, making me swear I would never make that cheesecake for anyone else.
Now it had become a tool he used to please another woman. And I had become nothing more than a pawn in his climb to power.
A bitter laugh tore out of me. Years of hatred surged like a breached dam.
“A perfect deal? What do you think I am?”
I grabbed the steaming coffee pot and threw it at Rhea’s feet. The glass exploded, hot liquid splashing across her calves.
She screamed and dove into my mother’s and Vincent’s arms, and Dominic slapped me across the face.
“Hopeless. What did you expect? This isn’t a fairy tale. It’s business. It’s power. Don’t be naive. Wake the fuck
up.”
“If I marry you, what then? Are you going to offer me to another man if it benefits your career?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” His voice was frigid, devoid of warmth. To him, I wasn’t even a person. I was inventory.
I snatched a vase and charged at him. He struck me again, harder.
In the end, they sent me to a psychiatric hospital for “intentional harm” and “posing a threat due to mental
instability.”
The signatures on the commitment papers belonged to Dominic and my own brother, Vincent.
Meanwhile, Rhea walked down the aisle in a custom-made wedding gown.
While I lay strapped to a bed, enduring forced treatment, they consummated their marriage on what should
have been my wedding bed.
Three months later, covered in blood and barely alive, I was thrown out of the hospital like a piece of trash.
Snow fell thick that night, just like the night I had found Dominic years ago. But unlike him, I had no luck.
No one asked after me. No one searched for me. All I had left was the blood-stained bracelet clenched in my
fist. I collapsed in the snow, too cold to move.
“Amelia, what’s wrong?” Ember nudged my hand. I blinked and came back to myself, offering her a faint
smile.
It was fine. I had survived it. I left Manhattan, came to Brooklyn, scraped and saved to buy this tiny shop.
I thought I would never see them again. I thought they had been erased from my life. I never imagined fate
would let us cross paths once more.
Chapter 4
1161%
“Throw it away,” I said, staring at the bullet-charm bracelet in Ember’s hand. “It’s nothing but trash.”
The words were barely out when the glass door swung open.
Dominic had returned. He stopped before the counter, his breath uneven. He stared at the bracelet as if it had cracked him open, his eyes reddening.
“Amelia,” he said, voice trembling at the edges, “We need to talk.”
Chapter 4
11 610
