Tommaso's voice carried a tremor, his eyes flickering with anger I couldn't understand. I nodded faintly, smoothing the creases on the comforter.

"Va bene. One last week. I won't mention him again."

Tommaso froze, his brows knitting together. "What do you mean, one last week?"

I didn't answer. I simply got up and walked to the vanity, beginning to remove my earrings. For five years, I'd prepared myself in front of this mirror every day, playing the perfect Signora of the Volpe family. But in one more week, all of this would be over.

"Alessia, what did you just say?" he pressed, a note of unease creeping into his voice. Just then, hurried footsteps and crying came from outside the door.

"Tommaso!" Gelsomina burst into the room, her eyes brimming with tears. "You're punishing me because of that woman?"

Her voice was especially jarring in the quiet night.

"I'm your sister! You've never treated me like this before, and certainly not for some outsider!" she shrieked hysterically.

Tommaso wearily rubbed his temples. He looked older than usual. "Gelsomina, you almost killed her."

"So what?" Gelsomina's voice grew even sharper. "She shouldn't even exist! This house only needs the two of us!"

I watched this familiar scene quietly, just as I had countless times over the past five years. Tommaso would always choose to soothe her, then apologize to me. The cycle repeated endlessly.

Sure enough, he walked toward Gelsomina, his voice softening. "Come now, don't cry. I'm not punishing you..."

"I don't want to hear excuses!" Gelsomina cut him off. "You're taking her side!"

Tommaso sighed helplessly and followed her out of the room. "Gelsomina, wait. Let's talk about this."

Their voices faded down the hallway, leaving me alone in the empty room. I continued packing my last few personal belongings: only Marco's ring and a few photographs.

Just then, the sharp screech of brakes came from outside the estate. Then came a volley of gunfire.

I set down the jewelry box and hurried to the window. A rival family had surrounded the estate over a cargo dispute. Muzzle flashes lit up the night, but what happened next caught everyone off guard.

Gelsomina had somehow gotten hold of a red motorcycle and was preparing to burst through the estate gates. She revved the engine and charged straight toward the armed men.

The gunfire intensified. I watched her body jerk violently on the motorcycle before she crashed heavily into a pool of blood.

"Gelsomina!" Tommaso let out a heart-wrenching roar. Completely ignoring the enemies still shooting, he rushed out recklessly.

Bullets whizzed past him, but he paid them no mind. He simply scooped Gelsomina up from the blood.

"Get a doctor! Get a doctor now!" He carried her back toward the estate, his voice filled with a desperation I'd never heard before.

I immediately called Dr. Mancini. "Doctor, get to the estate immediately! Gelsomina's been shot!"

Tommaso laid Gelsomina on the living room couch. Her face was deathly pale, her breathing so faint it was barely audible.

"Tommaso..." she called out to him weakly. "It hurts... it hurts so much..."

"You'll be fine. Dr. Mancini's on his way," Tommaso said, gripping her hand tightly. "You'll be okay. I promise."

After an emergency examination, Dr. Mancini's expression turned grave as he uttered quickly, "She's lost too much blood. At least 1,500 milliliters."

"She has Rh-negative blood. We need to find a matching donor immediately."

"Use mine!" Tommaso didn't hesitate, rolling up his sleeve. "I'm Rh-negative too."

"Don Volpe, your blood type matches, but she's lost so much blood. She needs a massive transfusion." Dr. Mancini looked at him with concern. "This will put a severe strain on your body."

"I don't care!" Tommaso cut him off, his tone absolute. "Save her! Use all my blood if you have to!"

The doctor began preparing the transfusion equipment. Tommaso lay on a makeshift bed beside Gelsomina. An hour passed, and Gelsomina's color improved slightly, but Tommaso had grown so weak he could barely speak.

"Don Volpe, you've already given a lot of blood." Dr. Mancini tried to dissuade him. "If this continues, you'll go into shock."

"Keep going!" Tommaso said weakly but firmly. "She's not completely stable yet."

Another half an hour passed, and Tommaso's body began trembling uncontrollably. His lips had turned white, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Tommaso, that's enough." I walked over to him. "You'll die."

He looked at me, equal parts of pain and pleading swirling in his eyes. "I can't lose her," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "She's my only family..."

Dr. Mancini checked Gelsomina's vital signs again and finally breathed a sigh of relief. "She's stable for now, but Don Volpe, you must stop the transfusion immediately."

Tommaso wanted to insist, but his body had reached its limit. His voice was troubled with worry as he murmured, "Gelsomina…"

Finally, his body swayed. He couldn't hold on any longer and lost consciousness.

Over the next few days, I became the only person in this house who was not bedridden. Tommaso and Gelsomina both lay in the hospital, and I had to take care of them both.

When Gelsomina woke up, she deliberately knocked over the blood bag on her bedside table. Bright red liquid spilled across the floor. She complained, "I don't want this dirty blood!"

"This is Tommaso's blood." I knelt down and began cleaning it up, ignoring her tantrum. "What you just wasted is the life he nearly gave up to save you."

She froze for a moment, but quickly reverted to her usual self. "So what? He's willing to do anything for me!"

Around 2:00 am, she started cooking up new demands. She ordered, "I want to eat the best deep-dish pizza! Right now!"

It was as obvious as day that she was deliberately making things difficult for me. I looked at the storm raging outside, then at the time. "Every restaurant is closed right now."

"I don't care! Tommaso, make her go buy it!" She turned to the weakened Tommaso, pleading.

The latter could only look at me helplessly, his voice hoarse. "Per favore, Alessia."

I put on my coat and drove across the entire city, finally finding pizza at a small 24-hour store. By the time I returned, it was already past 3:00 am. I was soaked through, but Gelsomina only glanced at it before wrinkling her nose.

"This isn't from my favorite place! I want the authentic kind!" She threw the pizza box on the floor and continued ordering me around. "Go buy it again!"

This torment continued for an entire week, with new demands, new difficulties, and new unreasonable tantrums every day.

After Tommaso recovered, he seemed to want to make up for my hardships. He took me to private art galleries and the opera house, doing all the cultured things we'd never done in our five-year marriage. We were like a real married couple enjoying ourselves.

"Alessia, I think we..." He wanted to say something, but his phone rang and interrupted him. News of these "dates" quickly reached Gelsomina's ears.

The next day, I was reading in the garden, enjoying a rare moment of peace.

"Alessia, you're going to pay for this."

Gelsomina appeared behind me, holding a handkerchief soaked in ether. Before I could react, she clamped it over my nose and mouth. The chemical scent flooded my nostrils. My consciousness faded into darkness.

When I woke up again, I found myself bound to the top of a shipping container at an abandoned dock, my mouth completely gagged. The icy wind whipped past my body, which swayed in the air high above the dark water below.

Not far away, Gelsomina was tied to another container. She looked disheveled, tears streaming down her face as she stared down below. It seemed she'd staged this entire scene, just waiting for Tommaso to make his choice.

The supposed kidnappers shouted at Tommaso, "You can only save one! Choose!"

I looked down. Tommaso stood on the dock, his face deathly pale.

"You can only choose one!" the kidnapper continued. "The other will be dropped into the lake!"

Tommaso's hands trembled. He looked between us, his worried gaze flitting back and forth. But he only hesitated for three seconds.

"Save Gelsomina!" he shouted without further hesitation. His voice echoed across the night sky.

The container I was on began descending. The icy lake water drew closer and closer until it swallowed me. Darkness and coldness were my only companions.

Some divers quickly pulled me out. I lay on the dock coughing violently, the lake water pouring from my lungs.

Tommaso knelt beside me, his face ashen. "Mi dispiace, mi dispiace... I thought she would actually die..."

I pushed his hand away and struggled to sit up.

"I'm going back," I spat, my voice hoarse. "Today is the last day."

"Alessia, I can compensate you! Diamonds, properties..."

"Right now, I only want you to do one thing." I looked at him, my gaze cold and void of emotion.

"What?"

"Go be with her."

Back at the estate, I immediately pulled out the IV, ignoring the doctor's protests. Then, I called Aldo, the family lawyer. "Initiate the final procedures immediately."

I placed the marriage dissolution agreement, the family ring, and the safe key on Tommaso's desk. The ring gleamed coldly under the light, as if it were the tombstone for our five-year marriage.

I would leave for another city to search for the young man who looked so much like Marco. As I stood at the estate gates, I turned to take one last look at the house.

"Addio, Tommaso."