"Home."

"Bianca's holding a Family affair tonight and she made a point of asking me to bring you. Are you free? Get yourself ready. I'll come for you."

Before I could refuse, Lorenzo ended the call.

He arrived fast. Even when he saw I hadn't changed, he only let out a soft sigh.

"I saw the pictures making the rounds. Don't let it get in your head. I believe you, all right?"

As he spoke, he pulled a dress from the wardrobe, one cut to cinch at the waist, made to flatter.

"Be good, put this on. It's an insult to keep the Family waiting."

As he reached out to strip away my coat, I suddenly lifted my hand and caught his wrist in a firm grip.

"What exactly do you believe?"

I thought of what I had overheard at the hotel. My voice came colder this time.

"Lorenzo, how are you planning to play this act with Adriana?"

Lorenzo didn't answer. Instead, his phone came alive with Bianca's voice.

"Of course, we'll have everyone, including her, questioning whether she really behaved like a woman without honor. And you, Lorenzo, you step in as the man who saves her when she's at her lowest. That way your betrothal stays untouched and I get what's owed to me. Lorenzo, is that all right with you?"

A long pause followed before Lorenzo answered, his tone indulgent.

"Okay."

Soon after, my private photos had spread across every channel, branded as the mark of a whore.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

"What is it that you believe?"

I yanked the dress from his hands and tossed it aside, exhaustion seeping into my bones.

"I'm not going. Go enjoy yourself."

Lorenzo frowned, a flicker of irritation crossing his face, and the laugh came a half-beat before there was anything to laugh at.

"Adriana! Stop being so difficult!"

"Bianca saw what they put out there. She arranged this whole affair so you could breathe. She also wants the chance to make things right with you, properly."

His fingers brushed over the bruises on the back of my hand.

"This is Bianca's kindness. Don't throw it back in her face."

In the end, I was dragged out the door.

Just before I stepped out of the car, I reached into my pocket for a mask, but Lorenzo stopped me.

His gaze was steady and gentle, like a savior reaching out to the abandoned.

"You don't need that. The innocent have nothing to hide. I believe you, so believe in yourself too, all right?"

Before I could react, he tossed the mask out the window and pulled me from the car.

The moment we walked into the club, the air shifted.

The music still throbbed, but the talk faltered. Every eye turned to me.

Drunken stares dragged over me, crawling like filth against my skin.

Low whispers slithered through the crowd, unfiltered, venomous.

"Look, look. That's her, isn't it? Plays it all cold and untouchable, but who knew what she was behind closed doors?"

"Yeah, that's her. I'd know that face anywhere. Dio, she really looks the part. A whore, plain as day."

Laughter broke around me, sharp and cruel.

My stomach twisted, bile rising in my throat. But I locked my spine and forced myself to stand tall.

Lorenzo's grip tightened as he steered me into a private room off the floor.

The moment we crossed the threshold, Lorenzo let go of my hand.

I dropped my gaze to the tips of my shoes, my heart hammering against my ribs. I searched the room for something familiar, anything to hold on to.

There was nothing.

The eyes in here were worse. Sticky, shameless, suffocating.

"I don't feel well. I want to leave."

I turned, desperate to get out, but a hand clamped around my wrist.

A rough thumb dragged slow and deliberate across my skin, sending a sickening wave of goosebumps over my whole body.

I looked up, straight into the leering face of one of Lorenzo's associates. The same one who had been loudest when they tore me apart at the hotel.

His gaze was brazen, without a trace of shame.

"Leaving so soon, sister-in-law? We finally get you in a room with us. How could you not stay and have a little fun?"

The meaning dripped off every word, thick and vile.

My stomach turned over hard. The air felt thinner. It was getting harder to breathe.

Bianca peeked out from behind them, her smile pure, innocent, and false as a rigged deck.

"What are you all doing? You're frightening the woman who's going to marry into this Family!"

With a forceful tug, she yanked me from the doorway, dragging me into the center of the private room. The lamp above the table bore down on me, harsh and unrelenting, making me feel even more exposed, like a thing brought in to be appraised.

I lifted my gaze straight to Lorenzo.

He sat in the corner, absently swirling the wine in his glass, his expression unreadable. His eyes skimmed lazily over the scene closing in around me, detached, indifferent, the way a made man watches a debt being collected that has nothing to do with him.

For a fleeting second, our eyes met.

And he smiled.

Soft. Familiar. Just as gentle as ever.

Yet this was the same man who had turned me into a rat scurrying through the streets, drowning in disgrace, a stain no code could scrub clean.

A glass of wine appeared before me, cutting off my line of sight.

Bianca's bright smile stayed fixed on me, syrupy sweet, and it sent ice through my veins.

"Adriana, about yesterday. I was careless with the needle and made you uncomfortable. I wanted to take this chance to settle the debt. If you drink this glass, we'll call it square, all right?"

I let out a slow breath, my fingers curling at my sides. Beneath them, the thin silver band on my right hand had begun to turn, faster than I wanted it to.

"And what about those photographs. The ones that shamed me for the whole city to see?"

She feigned innocence, her delicate fingers scrolling across her phone before tilting the screen toward me. Her soft voice carried a deliberate hesitation, every word dripping with careful malice.

"By the way, is this really you? If it is, then who took them? You wouldn't have gone behind my brother's back and dishonored him, would you?"

"But it doesn't matter. I believe you, and I'm sure my brother believes you too! Come on, drink up. One glass washes away every worry."

The room burst into laughter, whistles and jeers rattling off the walls. Her carefree act had done its work, stirring the men like a match to spilled liquor. Even Lorenzo finally spoke, his voice tinged with helplessness and something worse underneath, amusement.

"Bianca, don't drink too much. You handle the Family's medicine. You of all people know what it does to you."

She pouted, eyes gleaming, and pushed the glass toward me once more.

"In that case, drink it for me, Adriana."

The room went quiet, every gaze landing on me, waiting.

I opened my mouth to refuse. Lorenzo beat me to it. His voice was smooth, composed, and absolute, the kind of voice that ends a sit-down before it starts.

"Go on and drink. A woman marrying in can cover for her little sister."

I froze.

The one being toasted was now drinking on behalf of the one making the toast. How laughable.

At last I saw Lorenzo's true face in this thing between us.

Every moment he had seemed to put me first had meant nothing. He had never truly cared. That was why he never argued, never refused. It had never been consideration. It was indifference, cold and complete.

Swallowing the bitterness rising in my throat, I took the glass.

"If I drink this, can I leave? I'm tired. I want to go home and rest."

Lorenzo hesitated. At Bianca's quiet cough, he gave a nod.

The liquor burned as it slid down, scorching a path through me. My stomach twisted in protest, but I set the glass down and turned toward the door.

No one stopped me.

My fingers brushed the handle. I barely had a second to react before my body buckled, collapsing without warning.

The room erupted. Cheers, whistles, a frenzy of voices closing in around me.

A suffocating wave of discomfort crashed over me, my limbs trembling, my vision blurring at the edges. Even my breath came in ragged, uneven gasps.

Realization crashed over me like a tidal wave. Through the gaps in the crowd, my gaze locked onto Lorenzo, calmly peeling an orange for Bianca as if nothing in the room concerned him at all.

"You. You slipped it into the wine, all of you."

A man crouched beside me, his presence suffocating. He took a slow drag from his cigarette and exhaled a thick ring of smoke into my face.

The cold metal of his lighter tapped against my cheek, once, twice. A taunting reminder of how little I could do.

"This little brew comes straight from the Family's apothecary. They call it Obedience Water. Fitting name. Once it's in your blood, you follow every order given to you. Lorenzo called in favors to get his hands on it, all to make Bianca smile."

His smirk deepened.

"After all, whose fault is it that you were fool enough to cross Bianca? How many times were you warned? Bianca is the most treasured thing Lorenzo has in this world. But you wouldn't listen. You had the nerve to make her cry and then stand there expecting her to answer for it."

A sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Did you really think a woman like you was owed an apology from Bianca? You brought this down on your own head. Now let's see just how obedient you can be, sister-in-law."

The sharp whistles cut through the air, slicing into my eardrums like jagged glass. My body trembled uncontrollably. Somewhere behind the noise, ice shifted in a glass, and the sound was obscene in its calm.

"Come on, slut, bark like a dog for us!"

I bit down on my tongue until I tasted blood, fighting against the humiliation clawing at my throat. Desperation forced the words out of me.

"Lorenzo, please, take me to the infirmary…"

"Don't let them do this. Don't let them strip away the last of my dignity."

But his indifferent gaze met Bianca's gloating smile, severing the last thread of hope I clung to. She tilted her head, and her smile stretched a fraction wider.

I barked. The broken sound escaped against my will, and just before the world went black, I saw Lorenzo lift his glass, taking a slow sip, completely unfazed. The corner of his mouth twitched, a half-beat too soon.

"Keep her clothes on. Don't go too far."

"Relax, Lorenzo. Once the poison wears off, she won't remember a thing."

When I woke, the sterile scent of the Family infirmary filled my nose, antiseptic laid thin over something older and darker. My body ached from head to toe, a lingering reminder of the night before.

Despair settled deep in my chest.

The door opened without a creak, the way doors open in a house where no one wants to be heard, and Lorenzo stepped inside, his mask of gentleness back in place as if nothing had happened.

"Feeling better? You got drunk after just two sips last night. You scared me to death."

Behind him, Bianca pouted, placing a cool hand on my forehead in feigned worry.

"Don't worry, Lorenzo; Adriana is fine now."

I stared at the ceiling, my mind a battlefield of fractured memories, each piece fitting together to form a nightmare I couldn't escape.

The dress I had worn was gone, discarded, no doubt, after being ripped apart during that moment of pure degradation when I was forced to crawl and bark like a dog.

Lorenzo said something else, but his voice barely registered.

At some point, he finally left with Bianca.

"Get some rest. I'll check on you later. If you need anything, just tell Bianca."

I lay there, rigid, staring at the ceiling as shame twisted like a knife in my chest. The memories clawed at me, each one more unbearable than the last.

After what felt like an eternity, I forced myself up, my limbs heavy with exhaustion.

I searched through the mess on the sofa, my fingers closing around my phone right beside the shredded remains of my dress.

A cold dread crept down my spine as I unlocked the screen.

Someone had leaked it.

The dishonor of last night had been plastered across the wire for the whole world to see.

The image of me on all fours, barking like a dog, was captured in perfect clarity. The half-torn dress, the jeering faces, the dim, mocking glow of the lights.

Although the post had been pulled down, the damage had already been done.

Too many had seen it. Too many had saved it.

Whoever had put it up had even left a message: [DM me for the video.]

At the same time, my name and where to find me had been thrown to the dogs.

My phone buzzed relentlessly, a nonstop flood of filth infecting my screen like a virus. Calls came one after another, each shrill ring pounding against my skull.

"How much for one night?"

"Your location? Where can I find you?"

"Is it free?"

"Is there a follow-up? Can you handle so many at once? Such a slut."

My fingers trembled as I scrolled through the onslaught of vile messages, nausea twisting my stomach. My vision blurred, not from tears but from sheer exhaustion. The thin silver band on my right hand spun beneath my thumb, fast, faster, like it could unwind the whole night if I turned it hard enough.

Without hesitation, I grabbed my ruined dress, wrapped it around my phone, and hurled both into the trash can in the bathroom.

Before leaving the infirmary, I borrowed a hat from a cleaning woman, pulling it low over my face.

I didn't dare take a car I hadn't called myself.

The thought of a stranger recognizing me, of seeing that same sickening amusement in their eyes, made my skin crawl.

So I walked.

Three kilometers.

Every step was heavy, my legs weak, but I kept going, one foot in front of the other, until I reached my apartment.

Once inside, I dug out my old backup phone, my hands shaking as I dialed my parents across safe territory, beyond the reach of every man in this city.

The moment they picked up, I could hear the tension in their voices.

My throat tightened. My heart ached. But not a single tear fell.

"Mamma, Papà… has my passage been arranged? Can I come to you now?"

I couldn't stay here any longer.

Silence stretched between us. Maybe word had already crossed the water. Maybe they knew just how far the dishonor had spread, how many hands had passed it along.

I felt like the condemned, dragged into the piazza before the whole Family, stripped bare, forced to endure the mockery and jeers of an unforgiving world, robbed of dignity, of humanity.

Then, at last, my mother spoke. I could almost hear the rings coming off her fingers, one by one, laid in a row on the table.

"Come to us, tesoro. We'll take care of everything."

Before I boarded, my phone rang again, slicing through my thoughts like a blade.

The caller ID flashed.

I blocked the number without hesitation and shut off my phone.

I was done.

I had successfully severed myself from the chaos. With my phone dead, I remained blissfully unaware that the infirmary had plunged into turmoil.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo sat on the empty infirmary bed, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot. The air was thick, and everyone who had been present last night stood on edge, trembling, Bianca among them, though her chin stayed high.

Time dragged on before the man who had held my wrist yesterday finally burst into the room, panting heavily, the door slamming back against the wall.

"Lorenzo… Lorenzo, this is bad! I asked around, and it turns out the apothecary's poison you used doesn't actually erase what happens after it wears off! I think we might have gone too far!"