Chapter 3
I froze in place, convinced I was trapped in some grotesque nightmare, yet the tearing pain in my chest made it impossible to pretend it wasn’t real.
I lunged forward and tore the two of them apart.
Camellias scattered across the ground. I grabbed a rose from the flowerbed and slapped Dominic across the face with everything I had.
Dominic didn’t dodge, but the moment I turned on Rhea, he seized my wrist and flung me aside.
I stumbled and hit the lawn hard. Gravel sliced open my palm, blood welling immediately.
All he did was shield Rhea and snap in a cold, clipped voice, “Rhea is your sister. What gives you the right to
hit her? Look at yourself, Amelia. You’re acting like a lunatic.”
Rhea cried into his arms. “I’m sorry, Amelia. But Dominic and I truly love each other. If I hadn’t been switched
at birth, I would have met him first.”
Her lips still glistened with the shine of his kisses.
“I can apologize, but I won’t give Dominic back to you.”
Whatever remained of my reason snapped. I grabbed a flowerpot and hurled it at them, spewing vitriol until
my throat felt raw and tasted of iron.
Dominic only laughed under his breath. “You’re unravelling, Amelia. It’s becoming… undignified.”
When my mother and Vincent rushed over, they took one look at my disheveled hair and dirt-streaked clothes
and immediately frowned.
“Amelia, stop making a scene. Rhea is your sister. Must you make everything so difficult?”
They stood together, their expressions a perfect mirror of cold annoyance and exhaustion, while I stood opposite them, looking every bit the madwoman they accused me of being.
In that instant, something in me cracked open. But I still refused to accept it.
I ran to Dominic’s building and screamed for him until my voice broke. He finally pushed open a window and
said, “If you disturb Rhea again, I’ll file a restraining order.”
The bitterness choking my throat twisted into desperation. I found reporters and accused Dominic of
betrayal, and Rhea of knowingly stealing another woman’s place.
I stormed into the mafia bars where his men gathered and spread every filthy detail I could, determined to
ruin both of them.
I wanted the world to know that the next mafia Don, the boy I had raised and protected, was nothing but a
faithless bastard.
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But in the end, I was dragged away by the handmen.
Even when I smashed everything I could reach and held a shard of glass to my own neck, all I earned was a stinging slap from Vincent.
“Amelia, have you lost your mind?”
“No! You pinned me against the camellia wall. You possessed me as if I were the very air in your lungs. What promises did you make then? You said you wanted me for life. Your one and only!”
“I forgot! And you stole twenty years of Rhea’s life. You owe her. She is the Ravello family’s Principessa, not
you!”
They locked me in the basement after that. Every day they shoved a nearly spoiled sandwich through the
crack under the door.
Darkness and silence worked like sandpaper, eroding the last of my defiance until I was nothing but silt.
Then one day, the iron door opened. Dominic stood in the backlit doorway.
“I made a deal with your brother. Consider it a mercy, Amelia. We’re getting married.”
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