On the night my family got wiped out, someone had hidden me behind the barrels inside the wine cellar.

The gunshots kept going off the entire night outside the cellar. I could only curl up between the barrels while listening to unfamiliar voices cursing in Etarino. All I could do was gnash my teeth together in order to not make any sounds.

At the break of dawn, the wine cellar's door was opened from the outside. Two people could be seen standing in front of the pouring light.

The first person was Antonio Corleone, a 15-year-old teenager who was also the oldest son of the Corleone family. He was still holding a gun, which had smoke wafting from its barrel.

The second person was Matteo Corleone, Antonio's younger brother. His clothes were stained with blood that didn't belong to him.

Antonio crouched down before draping a coat over my body.

"Don't be scared, Elena," he said. "From today onward, I'm your family."

Matteo squeezed Antonio away before stuffing a warm slice of panettone into my hands. With red-rimmed eyes, he said, "My brother is right. I'll kill whoever has the guts to hurt you."

It was Christmas Day of 1999. Back then, I was ten years old.

For the next 20 years, I grew up in the estate located in Vosaro and became an essential part of the Corleone family. At the same time, I also grew up to be the woman both Antonio and Matteo have a crush on.

The entire family has noticed their obsession and love for me.

Antonio and Matteo help me exact vengeance on the people who killed my family. They even buy a football team and name it after me.

Everyone thinks that the brothers are head over heels in love with me. They patiently wait for the news when one of them will marry me.

Even I also think the same.

But on the night before my 30th birthday, when Don Corleone asks the brothers who among them wishes to marry me, Antonio snuffs out the cigar in a crystal ashtray.

"Father, you should know that I'm terribly busy with the family's affairs, so I have no time to marry anyone."

Matteo swirls the whiskey in his glass while wearing a flippant smile. "Father, I'm only 33 years old, and I'm not done having fun just yet. Besides, marrying Elena is just a joking promise that I've made when I was young. I'm not going to follow through with it."

The next day, the brothers decide to propose to my enemy's daughter, Sophia Volpe, at my birthday banquet which I have painstakingly prepared. They even force me to drink the entire bottle of grappa despite the fact that I've been suffering from stomach issues for ten years just to please Sophia.

When I get carted into the ambulance after suffering from stomach bleeding, Antonio and Matteo immediately cover Sophia's eyes with their hands while claiming that I'm just faking my illness.

The moment I feel blood rising from my throat, I've made up my mind.

On the day I'm set to get discharged, I dial a phone number. "I will get married to the heir of the Rossi family."

The wind sweeping through New Catella in early March still carried the biting cold from the Alantico Ocean.

My surgery had just ended. My phone started ringing when I stepped out of the hospital.

Antonio Corleone's voice echoed from the receiver. He didn't ask about my condition. Instead, he immediately started interrogating me.

"Where the hell are you, Elena Zanelli? Do you think that you can shirk your responsibilities by pulling a disappearing act? Come back right now and apologize to Sophia."

I could hear Matteo Corleone's voice in the background.

"You made Sophia cry for the whole night by pretending to be sick. She grew up in the slums, and she has a weak constitution. She couldn't stomach any food for the last few days because of you."

I stood on the steps outside the hospital. I lowered my head and looked at my reflection on the glass door.

I was currently 91 pounds, having lost eight pounds after being hospitalized. My complexion was pallid, and I was extremely thin, reminiscent of a walking skeleton.

The scar from my stomach surgery a decade ago throbbed slightly.

For the past few years, Antonio and Matteo had made my meals their top priority. I had to eat on time every day, and the ingredients had to be fresh. I was also not allowed to consume any alcohol.

I remembered being ambushed during a discussion at Vosaro's pier on a winter day.

Antonio had run three blocks while carrying me because my old stomach injury started acting up. He had then personally rushed me to the emergency room.

Meanwhile, Matteo led his men to abduct all the underground doctors in Vosaro to the hospital, forcing them to treat me.

"Elena's life is worth more than the lives of everyone here," he had said.

At the time, I truly believed that no one else in the world cared for me more than the Corleone brothers.

However, everything changed when Sophia Volpe showed up.

Sophia was the daughter of the man who killed Papa. She had big, innocent eyes that suggested she could do no wrong. In the span of six months, she managed to snatch the things that supposedly belonged to me because I wasn't brave enough to voice out my desires for the past two decades.

I hung up and called Mamma.

"I've made up my mind, Mamma. I'll marry into the Rossi family."

It was silent on the other end of the line for a few seconds.

"This is a big decision to make, Elena," Mamma said softly. "Are you sure?"

Papa was murdered two decades ago, leading to the annihilation of the Zanelli family.

Mamma had hidden me in her best friend, as well as Antonio and Matteo's mother, Maria Fortino's car. She sent me out of the city while she stayed behind to deal with the assassins. She then spent the last two decades building a small empire in Las Mirabella.

Last year, she finally established a relationship with the Rossi family, a family that was older and more powerful than the Corleones.

However, compared to restoring the Zanelli family's glory, Mamma was more concerned about my happiness.

Although the lady of the Rossi family, Gloria Trentini, immediately decided she wanted me to be her daughter-in-law, Mamma had left the decision to me.

In the past, the thing I cherished the most was the relationships that I shared with Antonio and Matteo. It was why I had hesitated to make my choice between them for so long.

However, at that moment, I finally understood that I had been just a toy for them to pass the time with over the last two decades.

Just then, Sophia uploaded a new post to her Instagram.

She was sitting on my couch in the photo, showing off two different diamond rings that sparkled brilliantly on her fingers. She was wearing a tailored suit and glass heels.

I recognized her outfit to be the same one that Antonio and Matteo had specially ordered for my birthday half a year ago.

The caption that she attached to the photo read, "This is true love. Only an old hag would scheme to seduce men."

I blocked her before saying, "I'm being serious, Mamma. I want a child. The doctor said that my injuries are quite severe this time. If I don't have a child soon, I might lose my chance for the rest of my life."

I wasn't young anymore. I didn't have much time left.

"Va bene," Mamma said, her voice turning firm. "Mrs. Rossi has already set a date. She wants to meet you next Wednesday. I'll handle the rest if you return."

She paused before continuing, "Remember to give Mrs. Corleone a proper goodbye, Elena."

"Va bene."

I looked up at the cloudy Mellino sky.

The doctor had said that I needed to rest for a week after the surgery.

I would use these seven days to bid a proper farewell to the last two decades.

I drove back to Corleone Estate on Whitton Island. The moment I stepped through the door, I was doused with icy water.

"I'm sorry, Elena! I was watering the flowers and didn't notice you!"

Sophia continued aiming the water hose at me and only set it down after I was completely drenched.

I wiped the water from my face and struggled to open my eyes. I was stunned by what I saw.

The lilies that I had personally nurtured for the last five years had been totally uprooted. They were Papa's favorite flowers when he was still alive.

In their place were dozens of rose bushes. Their bright red petals stung my eyes.

The chilly March breeze billowed past, making me shiver violently since I had just had surgery.

I was suddenly hit with a dizzy spell, and I nearly collapsed.

A scoff resounded from the door.

Antonio and Matteo stood side by side, wearing matching mocking expressions.

"I thought you were going to keep being stubborn and stay away for the rest of your life, Elena."

"Even her own Madre doesn't want her. Where else can she go?" Matteo sneered while balancing a cigarette between his lips, looking at me with disdain.

My heart throbbed painfully.

I recalled the first day I had arrived at Corleone Estate.

Antonio had given me the best and biggest room in the estate, saying, "This room belongs to you for the rest of your life, Elena. No matter who moves into this house, you'll forever be the only lady of our family."

Matteo had grabbed my hand and pressed a piece of chocolate into my palm. "You're the Principessa of our family from now on, Elena. Don't worry. I'll protect you from today onward."

After we grew up, we had to move to this villa on Whitton Island.

As expected, Antonio had remembered the promise that he made to me. He had created an identical replica of my room in the villa's estate.

However, everything changed when Sophia appeared.

At first, she used the excuse that she wanted to atone for her Padre's sins to occasionally work at the villa. Later, she started showing up every day until she eventually moved into the villa.

Sophia broke my perfumes, claiming that they had slipped from her grasp. She "accidentally" misplaced my documents. She also destroyed the only photo I had of Papa right in front of me before she hid behind Antonio, stammering that she hadn't done it on purpose with teary eyes.

The first time I lost my temper, Antonio had shoved me aside.

He frowned and said, "Sophia and her Madre were forced to live on the streets because we helped you take revenge on her family. She's lived a tough life. Her Padre is already dead, and her family has already atoned for their sins. What more do you want?"

"He's right," Matteo chimed in. "She's only 22 years old. She's so much younger than you, so why don't you be a little more understanding?"

A wave of confusion washed over me for the first time as I gripped the torn-up pieces of the photo.

Everything changed after that incident. I was no longer the lady of the villa.

Sophia began to usurp my place a little at a time.

I felt eerily calm as I stood in that familiar but unfamiliar place in my soaked clothes, looking at the lilies that had been dug up from the ground. I realized that I wouldn't miss anything once I left.

I entered the villa and saw my belongings piled up in a messy heap in the hallway.

There were coffee stains on my clothes, and my books had been torn apart. The photos that I had treasured for the last two decades were scattered all over the ground.

Antonio had one arm wrapped around Sophia as they approached me. He looked down at me from the tip of his nose and said, "You should know your place, Elena. You're just a temporary member of the Corleone family. You don't have the right to look down on Sophia.

"You'll be moving to the maids' quarters from today onward. You also don't have to concern yourself with the family business anymore. We're short on housekeepers, so you're responsible for the house's cleanliness from now on. We can talk more once you've learned your lesson."

Matteo tore the teddy bear that Mamma had given me in half, causing the cotton to scatter everywhere before landing near Sophia's feet.

"We won't let you off the hook so easily if you upset Sophia again, Elena."

If I had heard their hurtful words in the past, I probably would have lost sleep over how devastated I was.

However, I didn't feel much at that moment.

"No need," I said in an eerily calm tone as if I was talking about another person. "I'll move out as soon as possible. I'll also leave the family as you wish."

Antonio scoffed. "I see you're determined to stay here and be a useless piece of trash. Forget it. I'll let it slide this time for Mamma's sake. Remember your place next time."

I circled him as I headed for my room, whispering, "There won't be a next time."

Although I had made many wonderful memories in this villa, at the end of the day, it wasn't my home.

I thought that I would need a long time to pack my belongings, but when I opened my suitcase, I realized that I didn't have anything to take with me.

Nearly all the clothes I had were given to me by Antonio.

"You're the Principessa of the Corleone family, Elena. Of course, you have to dress in the finest clothes."

Those same clothes were soiled and stained at that moment, emitting a foul scent.

Instead of a Principessa, I had turned into a useless piece of trash in Antonio's heart.

I moved the clothes aside and looked at the scattered photos on the ground.

Matteo loved taking pictures of me when we were younger, saying that he wanted to record my image during every moment of my life.

Every time we took pictures, Antonio and Matteo would fight over who got to stand next to me.

However, at that moment, someone had drawn a red cross over my face in all of our photos.

Unwilling to look at them any longer, I stuffed everything into a trash bag.

Antonio happened to see what I was doing when he was leading Sophia downstairs. Surprise flickered in his eyes. I had treated my belongings as if they were precious treasures in the past, after all.

He scoffed and said, "I see you have no hesitation to squander the Corleone family's fortune at all."

In the past, Antonio was willing to spend a fortune on me to make me happy. However, after Sophia appeared, everything that I did was wrong from his perspective.

I didn't try to argue or explain myself. "I'll return your money, Antonio."

"The Corleone family doesn't need your money. You just have to remember your place. Don't upset Sophia again."

Sophia grabbed Antonio's sleeve and batted her lashes at him. "Don't waste your time on her, Antonio. I want to look at the stars in the secret base. Let's go."

My hands froze in place.

Antonio had built the secret base for me when I was 16 years old.

Maria had been swamped with work that year. She didn't have time to take care of me, so she passed on that responsibility to Antonio, who was five years older than me.

Antonio had given me all the best things in the world. He called me his star and personally designed a sea of stars that would never go out.

He used optical fibers and glass to create a small dome on the villa's rooftop. When he flipped the switch, countless lights began to slowly move across the dome, reminiscent of a real galaxy.

Antonio had looked at me under the sea of stars and said, "This starry sky belongs to you, Elena. It's also my promise to you. My love for you is like the stars in the galaxy that will never go out."

I had believed him.

Over the next 14 years, we finished building the secret base little by little. It harbored so many secrets that could never be revealed to another soul, and it also hid the unspeakable and tender feelings of my youth.

In the last few years, whenever I couldn't decide between Antonio and Matteo, I would head over to the secret base to be by myself for a little while.

However, Antonio and Matteo no longer loved me. They had found a new lover.

Antonio had forgotten that he had created that starry sky for me—forgotten that he had promised to love me forever.

It was fine.

I took a deep breath as I picked up the trash bag and headed outside.

I didn't need the stars anymore, just like how I didn't need Antonio and Matteo anymore.