Luca dragged me toward the top floor.

My silk nightdress caught on the staircase railing, and my bare arm scraped against the cold metal bars, one red mark fading just as another appeared.

I struggled twice, but he only gripped harder, not sparing me even a glance.

All he saw was Helena on the top floor ward. I was nothing more than a piece of trash he was hauling along.

Helena lay on the hospital bed. The moment she saw us, her shoulders trembled, and her face went pale as paper.

“Luca… why is she here? Every time I see her, I remember the shootout. I’m so scared…”

Luca immediately let go of me and rushed over.

His fingers brushed gently over the top of Helena’s hair so tenderly. I had followed him for ten years and never once seen him show that kind of softness.

“Don’t be afraid. I brought her here to apologize.”

When he turned back, his eyes were ice cold, and the look he shot me could have cut skin.

“Kneel.”

I didn’t move. My knuckles were white from being clenched, nails digging into my palms. “I didn’t push you into the danger zone. Why should I kneel?”

“Because you owe her ten years!” His voice snapped like a whip. “If you hadn’t stopped me back then, I would’ve taken her away from the scene. She wouldn’t have been in a coma for ten years!”

“I never even saw her there!” I lifted my head. My eyes burned, but I refused to back down. “She followed us on her own. That has nothing to do with me!”

On the bed, Helena let out a soft sob. She tugged lightly at Luca’s sleeve. “Luca, forget it. Maybe Eva just doesn’t remember. I don’t blame her. Don’t force her…”

“Doesn’t remember?” Luca laughed coldly, his gaze dropping to my knees. “She’s just pretending.”

The moment the words fell, pain exploded through my legs.

He kicked the back of my knees hard.

There was a sharp crack. My legs buckled, and I crashed to the floor, kneeling on the cold tiles.

A sharp, tearing pain shot up my bones. Cold sweat soaked my back instantly, and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out.

I glared up at him, vision rimmed with red. However, he only looked satisfied.

“Kneeling now, aren’t you?” He bent down, gripping my chin and lifting it upward with enough force that it could crush the jawbone. “Apologize to Helena. Admit you were wrong.”

“I wasn’t wrong.” My voice trembled, but I didn’t yield an inch. “Kill me, beat me, do whatever you want. But I won’t confess to something I didn’t do!”

Helena suddenly started coughing, covering her face with her hands. Tears leaked between her fingers.

“Luca, my head is spinning… Maybe I shouldn’t have asked her to apologize. I—I can’t breathe…”

Luca’s expression changed instantly, and he spun around to support her, completely forgetting I existed.

He slammed his hand on the call button and barked at the nurses who rushed in, “Hurry up and check her! If anything happens to her, I’ll tear this whole hospital apart!”

While they scrambled, he shot me a vicious glare, as if he could tear me apart.

“Lock her in the attic. She gets no meals unless I say so. She can come out when she’s ready to apologize.”

Two guards stepped forward and hauled me up by the arms.

My already bruised knees scraped across the floor, burning with pain, blood quickly soaking into the torn fabric.

I looked back at Luca cradling Helena, murmuring to comfort her, and suddenly laughed out loud, full of despair.

“Luca, in this life, you’ll never be anything more than her puppet.”

There were no windows in the attic. Only a dim yellow bulb hung overhead, its light catching countless specks of dust floating in the air.

I was thrown onto the floor. Dirt clung to the open wounds on my knees, and I curled in on myself in pain.

The door locked with a click. From outside, Helena’s voice drifted in, clear through the wooden panels. “Luca, don’t be too harsh on Eva. What if she starves?”

“She brought this on herself.” Luca’s voice was cold and flat, completely emotionless. “When she admits her mistake, she’ll get to eat.”

Their footsteps grew distant. The attic fell silent.

I pressed a hand against the wall, trying to push myself up. However, the moment I put weight on my legs, pain stabbed deep into my knees.

The skin had already been scraped raw when they dragged me earlier. Blood stuck to my torn pants, tearing painfully with every movement I made.

I had no idea how long had passed before the lock suddenly clicked again.

Helena wheeled herself inside, holding a steaming porcelain bowl of soup.

She set the bowl on the floor and smiled gently. “Eva, I sneaked some soup in for you. Go on, drink it.”

However, I didn’t move and kept my gaze fixed on her. “What’s your game this time?”

“I just want to make peace,” she sighed, reaching toward me as if to help. “Maybe I remembered what happened wrongly back then. Don’t hate Luca. He’s only worried about me.”

I turned my head away from her hand. Before I could process anything else, I heard a crash.

The bowl shattered on the floor, spattering my pant leg with soup remains.

Helena jerked back instantly, her face draining of color. “Eva! How could you push me…”

The door slammed open.

Luca stormed in, eyes blazing the moment he saw the broken pieces and Helena’s pale face.

He crossed the room in seconds and slapped me hard.

The sharp crack echoed through the attic.

Half my face went numb, and a metallic taste filled my mouth as blood seeped from the corner of my lips.

“You dare push her?” He grabbed my collar and yanked me off the ground, choking me.

“Helena brought this for you out of kindness, and this is how you treat her?”

“She dropped it herself!” I struggled. The pain in my face was nothing compared to the cold settling in my heart. “Look carefully! There’s nothing near her wheelchair that could support me to stand up! How could I have touched her?”

“I saw you dodge her hand!” Luca roared, then shouted toward the door, “Bring the whip!”

A guard appeared almost instantly, handing over a leather whip tipped with metal spikes. It glinted under the attic light.

Luca took it, eyes sharp with fury. “Since you refuse to admit your wrongs, then you’ll learn through pain what you can and cannot do.”

The first strike landed across my back. My clothes tore open, and searing pain shot through every nerve, burning its way down my spine.

My whole body trembled, but I forced my head up. “Luca! Are you blind? She’s been lying to you all this time!”

“Still arguing?”

The second whip hit harder. I felt warm blood spread across my torn nightdress.

I bit my lip, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Helena sitting in her wheelchair, her mouth curled in a tiny, smug smile.

The moment she noticed my gaze, she quickly masked it with a worried expression. “Luca, stop! You’ll kill her if you keep going!”

“She won’t die.” Luca didn’t even pause to land a third strike across my arm. “Today she’s going to learn what happens when she upsets you!”

A broken laugh scraped out of my throat, flecked with blood. “Luca, you’ll never know the truth in this lifetime. You’ll stay fooled by her forever, living inside her lies!”

He hesitated for a split second.

Something flickered in his eyes before anger swallowed it whole again.

He tossed the whip to the guard. “Keep going. Stop only when she apologizes.”

The lashes kept falling until the pain blurred into fog, but I never said the words he wanted.

I wasn’t wrong. Why should I apologize?

Ice-cold water crashed over my head, shocking me awake.

My back stung as the water hit the open lashes, and a violent shiver ran through me. My teeth wouldn’t stop chattering.

Luca stood in front of me, face dark with anger. “Helena almost suffocated just now. The doctor says she was scared. What did you say to her?”

I coughed twice, more blood slipping from the corner of my mouth. The metallic taste clung to my throat.

“Luca, when are you going to wake up? She’s faking it.”

“Faking?” He crouched down, grabbing my chin. “She’s been in a hospital bed for ten years. She can’t even walk. What would she gain from pretending?”

“What she gains is watching you destroy me!”

I met his eyes, finally shouting the truth I’d buried for a decade. “During the shootout, Marcus saw her go into the danger zone with someone from a rival family! He was your trusted man. Ask him!”

Luca’s expression flickered, then twisted into a cold sneer. “Marcus defected three years ago. You expect me to believe a traitor?”

“He didn’t defect. You threw him out!”

I tried to sit up, panic bubbling in my chest, but Luca shoved me flat against the floor. The wound on my back scraped against the ground, and a sharp hiss escaped me.

“He tried to tell you the truth back then, but you refused to listen! You said I bribed him! Luca, you just don’t have the courage to face what really happened!”

Before he could reply, a voice called from outside the door. “Don Vittori, Miss Helena feels unwell again. She says she wants to see you.”

He released me instantly and got up to walk out the door, not wanting to stay even a second longer.

At the doorway, he paused only long enough to leave one more threat. “Mention Marcus again, and I’ll throw you into the rival family’s territory myself. You won’t survive a day.”

The door locked shut, and silence swallowed the attic once more.

Pain burned across my back, but the cold inside me hurt worse.

Luca would never believe me unless I found proof. However, Marcus had vanished the moment Luca drove him out. Where was I supposed to look?

I didn’t know how long I lay there before the lock clicked again.

Helena wheeled herself in, holding a stack of papers.

She tossed them onto the floor in front of me. “This is the termination agreement. Go ahead and sign.”

I stared at her, stunned. “You would be so kind?”

“It’s not me being kind. Luca told me to bring it.” She smirked, pride gleaming in her eyes.

“He said that as long as you sign and leave the Vittori family, he won’t hold your past crimes against you. But…”

She paused, then pulled a knife from the side of her wheelchair and let it clatter to the floor in front of me. “You’re going to write a statement first. Admit you pushed me into the danger zone on purpose and caused my ten-year coma.”

“I’m not signing that.” I shoved the papers back toward her, my fingers trembling with anger.

“I won’t write lies about something I didn’t do.”

“Oh, you’ll write it.” Her expression darkened, and she said viciously, “Either write it, or I’ll cut myself and tell Luca you tried to kill me. Who do you think he’ll believe? You or me?”

I stared at the knife, then at her smug face, and laughed.

“You really think that’ll work? Helena, you’re wrong. Even if I die, I won’t sign your statement.”

Her expression twisted. She lunged forward, reaching for the papers.

Instinctively, my hand closed around something on the floor, a shard from the broken soup bowl. Its edge was still sharp.

The moment she came close, I lifted it and pressed it to my throat. “Don’t come any closer! One more step and I’ll end it right here!”

Helena froze, startled. “You’re insane.”

“Driven insane by you and Luca!” My hand trembled. The shard had already sliced my skin, and blood trickled down my neck. “If you tell Luca, I’ll say you tried to force me into writing a false confession and tried to kill me! Let’s see who he believes, then!”

She stared at the blood streaking down my neck and let out a cold laugh.

“You think he’d believe you? Even if you die, he’ll say you killed yourself out of guilt.”

Before I realized what she meant to do, she suddenly shoved the armrest of her wheelchair.

The chair shot forward, slamming into me.

The shard flew from my hand. My body was knocked backward, and my skull cracked hard against the sharp corner of the wall. A burst of pain exploded behind my eyes, and everything went black.

Before consciousness slipped away completely, I heard her taking photos with her phone and her trembling voice on the phone.

“Luca… Eva tried to kill me… She cut her own neck and said she wanted to drag me down with her…”