Chapter 6
I pulled myself out of the memories and looked at Dominic with calm detachment.
“Mr. Ashford, whatever happened between us ended ten years ago. You got what you wanted, and I was thrown out of your life. just as you wished. I don’t understand why you’re here like this. If there’s nothing else, please stop interfering with my life.”
Dominic’s knuckles whitened. ‘I’m sorry… for what happened ten years ago. I was a bastard.”
The Dominic I once knew never apologized. Even when I broke down in front of him, he had always stood firm,
self-righteous, too stingy even to offer an explanation.
Hearing this belated apology now felt unreal.
“I understand,” I said with a faint smile. “But it isn’t necessary. Instead of an apology. I’d prefer that we remain strangers
for the rest of our lives.”
The dismissal couldn’t have been clearer, yet the color bled from Dominic’s face, leaving behind a grey, waxen mask of
the man I once worshipped. He stayed rooted to the spot as if nailed there.
The doorbell chimed again. Vincent walked in, and behind him stood a woman.
I nodded politely. “Madre Natalie.”
Her eyes welled up instantly. “Amelia, why won’t you call me Mother anymore?”
She staggered forward to embrace me, but I stepped aside. Her hand hovered in the air, trembling. “You still hate us…
don’t you?”
Behind her, Vincent shut his eyes in pain.
I smiled the same calm smile. “I don’t hold a grudge. I hold a transcript. Every word you spat at me is etched in the
marrow of my bones.”
That snowy night, they had been at Dominic’s house too.
They watched as mafia men pinned my arms behind my back in the snow. They heard Dominic say the words ‘she’ll be
dead.”
I had reached for them with frozen, cracked hands and rasped “Mom” and “Vincent,” but they both stepped back.
avoiding the blood on my fingers.
‘Amelia, you’re making an ugly scene.”
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“Stop calling us. The Ravello family has nothing to do with you anymore’
“From now on… scrub the Ravello name from your skin. You are no longer the Ravello family’s Principessa
The memory thickened the air. Madre Natalie nearly collapsed, and Vincent had to catch her by the arm.
Only then did I really see her. Ten years had not been kind. The once-elegant society matron now had gray at her
temples and grief carved deep into her features.
Vincent spoke in a hoarse voice.
“I wronged you… but she has thought about you every day these years.”
“We are still your family. Blood is an inheritance. Amelia. You can’t just disown the pulse in your veins. Even if you can’t
forgive us now, at least give us a chance to make it up to you…”
That’s not true!” Ember burst out of the kitchen and clung fiercely to my arm.
“Amelia has me! I’m her family!”
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