I had even imagined choosing between the DeLuca brothers, thinking that one of them would eventually be the one for me.

But now, I finally understood the truth.

To them, I had never been anything more than a passing amusement. Something temporary. Something easily replaced.

I should have walked away long ago.

I unlocked my phone, intending to book a plane ticket and leave as soon as possible. But before I could do that, Serena's latest post on Instagram caught my attention.

The caption read: "True love needs no words. Only useless old women would scheme to climb up the social ladder."

She didn't even try to hide her intentions.

In the photo, she lounged comfortably in my room, as if it belonged to her. On her fingers were two dazzling diamond rings, deliberately displayed. I recognized them. Gifts that had once been presented to me at a private dinner inside the compound, the kind of gesture that carried weight in a household where every piece of jewelry signaled exactly where a woman stood.

The clothes she wore were even more familiar.

They were the tailored designer suit and crystal heels that the DeLuca brothers had specially commissioned for me as a birthday gift just six months ago.

Silently, I stared at the screen for a moment. Then I blocked her without hesitation.

"Mom," I said firmly into the phone, my voice clearer now, "I mean it. I want to have my own child as soon as possible."

During my hospital stay, the doctor had told me that this latest incident had severely weakened my body.

If I didn't get pregnant while I was still young, I might never have the chance to have a child of my own.

Time was slipping away from me. I couldn't afford to wait any longer.

After a brief silence, my mother sighed softly. "Alright," she said. "I'll respect your decision."

"Gianna Moretti has already looked into your horoscopes," she continued. "Next Sunday is a good day to register the marriage."

"As long as you come back, I'll arrange everything for you."

I could tell that she already understood what this decision meant. A transfer of protection. Once the papers were signed and the union blessed, the DeLuca name would hold no authority over me. The Moretti bloodline would.

Before hanging up, she added one final reminder, her voice softer than before. "Don't forget to say goodbye to Gianna properly."

I lowered my phone slowly and looked up at the dull, gray sky above me.

The doctor had said it would take about a week for me to recover fully.

So I decided that I would use this one week to say goodbye—to everything, and to everyone I had once held onto.

I took a taxi back to the DeLuca compound, watching the familiar streets pass by through the window. Every turn, every corner carried memories I had once treasured, but now they only felt distant and hollow. The iron gates appeared ahead, flanked by the low hedges and security cameras I had learned to stop noticing years ago. The soldier at the gate barely glanced at me before waving the cab through. I was still inside, still on the books. For now.

However, the moment I stepped through the front door, a sudden blast of icy water hit me without warning.

I gasped as the cold drenched me from head to toe in an instant, my clothes clinging to my skin, the chill seeping straight into my bones.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Bianca," Serena's voice came, light and insincere.

She stood there holding a garden hose, her expression feigning surprise. "I was watering the flowers. I didn't realize you were standing there."

But even as she spoke, she didn't stop. The water continued to spray directly at me, soaking me completely before she finally lowered the hose, as if she had only just realized her "mistake."

I forced my eyes open against the sting of the water. When my vision finally cleared, what I saw made my chest tighten.

The lily of the valley I had carefully tended for years—something I had nurtured with my own hands—was gone.

In its place was a sprawling bed of bright, vibrant roses, planted deliberately, as if erasing every trace of what had once been there.

A cold wind swept through the courtyard, and the chill, combined with the shock, sent a sharp pain through my recently operated body. I pressed my thumb against the pulse point inside my wrist, counting the beats, willing myself to stay upright.

My legs weakened. The world spun for a moment, and I nearly collapsed, barely managing to steady myself before everything went dark.

Dante and Nico stood nearby, exchanging a glance before letting out mocking sneers.

To them, it was just another one of my "acts." They believed I was pretending again, just like before.

"I thought you had grown a backbone and wouldn't come crawling back here," Nico said mockingly, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Your own mother doesn't even want you anymore," he continued, his voice cold and cutting. "Where else could you possibly go but here?"

His words pierced straight into my heart, sharper than anything else.

At that moment, a memory surfaced in my mind, the first day I had arrived at the DeLuca compound.

Back then, everything had been different.

Nico had held my hand gently, his voice warm and reassuring as he tried to comfort me. "Don't worry, Bianca. From now on, this is your home."

Dante, always more composed, had personally prepared the largest and finest room for me, making sure I felt welcomed and safe. The compound had high walls and guarded gates, but inside those walls, they had given me the kind of warmth that made me forget what protection cost.

Later, when the three of us moved into this villa to run the family's front operations, he had carefully decorated the master bedroom to suit my tastes, paying attention to every detail.

He had even declared openly that, both now and in the future, I would be the unquestioned lady of this house.

But all of that changed the moment Serena entered our lives.

She came under the excuse of helping her mother, who kept house for the DeLuca family. At first, no one thought much of it. The housekeeper's daughter, running errands, learning the rhythms of the compound. Nothing worth noticing.

Yet from that day on, everything began to shift.

She clung to the two brothers constantly, always finding excuses to stay close to them. Meanwhile, my belongings began to be "accidentally" broken, one after another.

At first, I tried to be understanding. I told myself she was inexperienced, that she didn't mean any harm.

But the day she shattered the jade rosary my father had left me, right in front of my eyes, I could no longer stay silent.

I confronted her.

And that was the moment everything truly changed.

Dante frowned deeply and pushed me aside without hesitation. "Serena hasn't had an easy life," he said coldly. "You, on the other hand, are just a spoiled princess. Why do you have to make things difficult for someone who's barely seen the world?"

Nico stood beside him and added, "She's younger than me, Bianca. As an adult, can't you show a little more kindness?"

I stood there, clutching the broken pieces of my father's rosary in my hands, feeling something inside me shatter along with it.

That was the first time I truly felt helpless.

From that moment on, everything began to change.

I was no longer the most important person in their lives. Slowly, little by little, Serena took my place.

The housekeeper's daughter gradually became the new lady of the house, while I was pushed further and further to the side. She sat where I had sat. She poured wine at dinners I was no longer invited to. The soldiers at the gate began nodding to her the way they used to nod to me.

And now, standing here, I realized there was nothing left for me to hold onto.

All I wanted was to pack my things and leave.

When I stepped fully into the house, I saw that all of my belongings had been thrown carelessly into the hallway, piled up like unwanted trash. Clothes, shoes, framed photographs, a jewelry case with my mother's name still etched on the clasp. All of it stacked against the wall as if the room I had lived in for years had simply been emptied of evidence.

Dante stood there, one arm wrapped possessively around Serena's shoulders. His gaze fell on me, cold and filled with disdain.

"Bianca, you should know your place," he said harshly. "You're nothing more than someone living off the DeLuca family. You have no right to look down on Serena, let alone throw tantrums at her."

"From now on, you'll stay in the staff quarters," he continued without hesitation. "Serena will take over all family business matters, and you'll be transferred to the back office to handle miscellaneous tasks."

"Once you learn some humility, maybe we can talk again."

As if that wasn't enough, Nico picked up the small teddy bear my mother had once given me and tore it apart in front of me, laughing as he did it just to amuse Serena. His right thumb cracked against the side of his hand once, sharply, before he ripped the stitching open. Not because tearing a stuffed animal required force. Because he wanted me to watch him choose it.

"Miss Bianca," he said mockingly, emphasizing the title with deliberate sarcasm, "if you throw another fit and upset Serena again, I won't let you off so easily."

Miss Bianca and Bianca.

It was just one word's difference, but the meaning had completely changed. In this house, in this family, the distance between a name spoken with warmth and a name spoken with mockery was the distance between protection and exile.

In the past, hearing something like that would have broken me. I would have spent sleepless nights replaying every word, every slight.

But now, with my decision already made, I no longer had the energy to argue with them.

"You're absolutely right," I said calmly. "I'll move out as soon as possible."

Then I added, almost casually, "And there's no need to transfer me to another department. I'm resigning."

Dante let out a cold sneer. "So you're still planning to cling on like a leech?"

"Fine," he continued dismissively. "For my mother's sake, I'll overlook it this once. But you'd better remember your place from now on."

I walked past him without another glance, my voice soft but firm as I murmured, "There won't be a next time."

Although this place had once held so many of my cherished memories, I finally understood something.

It had never truly been my home.

I had thought that packing my things would take a long time, that I would need hours, maybe even days, to sort through everything I had accumulated over the years. But when I actually began, I realized how wrong I was.

After taking a closer look, there was barely anything left that truly belonged to me. The room felt emptier than I remembered, as if my presence had already been erased long before I made the decision to leave. The compound had a way of doing that. You could live inside its walls your entire life and still own nothing that couldn't be taken back by the family whose name was on the gate.

Nearly all of my clothes had been chosen by Dante. Back then, he would smile and say, "Bianca is the most beautiful princess, so of course she should dress up prettily every single day."

Those words had once made me feel cherished. But now, those same clothes lay piled on the floor, soaked in dirty water, giving off a foul, unidentifiable stench.

It was almost laughable.

The "princess" he once spoke of had long since disappeared. In his eyes, I had become nothing more than a troublesome parasite with an undeserved sense of pride.

As I pushed the damp clothes aside, my eyes landed on a scatter of photographs lying across the floor.

Back then, Nico had loved taking pictures of me. He used to say he wanted to capture every moment of my life, every smile, every memory.

Whenever the three of us took photos together, he would even compete with Dante, both of them trying to stand as close to me as possible.

Those moments had once felt warm and full of meaning.

But now, every single one of those photos had my face crossed out with a thick red pen, scribbled over without mercy.

I didn't have the courage to look any longer.

Without hesitation, I gathered them all and threw them straight into the trash, as if discarding something that had already lost all meaning.

Just as I was doing that, Dante happened to walk downstairs with Serena and saw everything.

For a brief moment, a trace of surprise flickered in his eyes. After all, I used to treasure every single thing he gave me.

But that moment passed quickly. His expression turned into a cold sneer. "You really don't mind wasting the DeLuca family's money, do you?"

The Dante I once knew had never hesitated to spend anything if it meant making me happy. He would go out of his way to give me the best of everything.

But ever since Serena appeared, everything I did had become wrong in his eyes.

I had lost the right to be willful, to complain, or even to feel hurt. And I no longer had the energy to argue.

"I'll pay you back," I said quietly, my voice calm.

"The DeLuca family doesn't care about that little amount of money," Dante replied dismissively. "But you need to remember one thing. Don't trouble Serena again."

Serena gently tugged on his sleeve, pouting slightly as she spoke in a soft voice. "Dante… don't waste your time on unimportant people."

"Besides, I still want to go to that secret place to watch the stars. Let's go," she added sweetly.

Her words made me freeze in place for a moment. My thumb pressed hard against the pulse point inside my wrist, holding there until I felt the beat steady beneath my skin.

The "secret place" she mentioned was something Dante had created just for me.

Back then, Naomi DeLuca had been occupied with family obligations and had entrusted Dante, who was six years older than me, to take care of me. It was the way things worked inside the compound: the eldest son carried what the household head couldn't, and for a time, that weight had included me.

He had tried his best to give me everything he could. He once told me that I was his "pure moonlight," something gentle and irreplaceable.