His jaw tightened slightly. It was the expression he wore whenever something displeased him.

The next second he set his teacup down, pulled out his phone, and made a call.

After speaking a few quiet sentences in Italian, he rose from the sofa and told us that something urgent had come up within the family organization.

He said he had to deal with it personally, but that he would come back to pick me up once the dinner was over.

The rest of the birthday dinner felt unbearable.

My father and mother seemed to have finally found an outlet for their irritation. From the moment Victor left, they took turns criticizing me, saying I lacked composure, saying the way I behaved at the banquet the night before had embarrassed the Rossi family in front of half the underworld.

Just as the atmosphere in the room was growing heavier and heavier, there was sudden commotion at the entrance.

Stella had returned.

Her eyes were red as if she had been crying, and her long hair was slightly disheveled, making her look unusually fragile.

My mother immediately stood up, worry filling her voice. “Stella? Why are you back already? I thought you were attending that charity dinner tonight.”

Stella sniffed softly and wiped her eyes. “Everything was going fine… but halfway through the evening a group of men in black suits burst in. They didn’t say a word. They just started smashing everything.”

My father shot to his feet, his face instantly darkening.

“Who did it? Find out immediately! I want names!”

Stella shook her head gently, her voice trembling with hurt. “There’s no need to investigate. I already asked the man leading them. He said… Elena was the one who ordered it.”

At that moment every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.

I lifted my head and looked straight at Stella.

“What are you talking about? I have no idea what dinner you’re referring to, and I certainly didn’t send anyone to wreck it.”

Tears spilled down Stella’s cheeks instantly.

“I knew you would deny it,” she said softly. “That’s why… I brought the man with me.”

The front door opened again and a bald man in a black suit walked in.

I had never seen him in my life.

The moment he entered the room, he bowed deeply to me.

“I’m sorry, Miss Rossi. The job you asked me to do… didn’t go exactly as planned.”

In that instant everything became clear.

This was a trap Stella had prepared for me.

Framing me was hardly new to her. She had done it more times than I could count growing up.

My father slammed his hand down on the table, his face livid with anger.

“Elena! Your sister finally had a respectable opportunity to meet someone from a good family, and you had to ruin it? Do you hate her that much?”

My mother’s voice trembled with fury.

“Elena, how could you be so vicious? Stella is your own sister!”

The relatives around the table began whispering among themselves.

“This is unbelievable…”

“She’s always been jealous of Stella. Now she’s sabotaging her future too?”

A wave of humiliation and anger rose inside me so violently that it almost made me dizzy.

But I knew perfectly well that explaining myself would change nothing.

They would never believe me.

Victor—the only person who had ever defended me—was gone, and even if he had been here… maybe he wouldn’t have stood up for me anymore.

I looked at my parents with quiet disappointment. I hadn’t expected the last time I saw them before leaving to end like this.

I wiped the tears from my face and turned toward the door.

I didn’t want to stay here for another second.

I got into my car and drove slowly out through the gates of the Rossi estate.

I had barely made it fifty meters down the road when someone suddenly ran into the street from the side.

I slammed on the brakes.

But in the next instant—

she lunged forward.

A dull thud echoed through the night.

Stella’s body was thrown backward, landing several meters away on the pavement.

Did I just… hit Stella?

Just then, hurried footsteps and startled cries erupted behind me.

My father, my mother, and several members of the Rossi household rushed out of the mansion at once.

“Stella!” my mother screamed as she ran forward and dropped to her knees beside her.

My father hurried over and crouched down to check her condition.

There was a gash on Stella’s forehead, blood running down the side of her face, her skin pale as paper, her whole body trembling as if she might faint at any moment.

“Dad… Mom… I’m… I’m fine… please don’t blame Elena…”

“You hit Stella?!”

“You vicious girl! How could you do something like this? She’s your sister!” My mother’s eyes cut toward me like knives.

My father stood up abruptly, and before I could react, a sharp slap crashed across my face.

“Smack—!”

My head snapped to the side, heat exploding across my cheek while a loud ringing filled my ears.

“I didn’t touch her! She ran in front of the car herself!”

“You still dare to lie? Stella is bleeding and you’re still trying to deny it?”

My father roared, his face livid with fury.

My mother clutched Stella and shouted hysterically, “Call the police. Tell them she deliberately assaulted someone. Lock this lunatic up.”

I froze where I stood. In my mother’s arms, Stella lifted her eyes and gave me a small, triumphant smile that no one else seemed to notice.

Within seconds the Rossi family’s own security team moved in and restrained me before the police even arrived.

I struggled desperately, pulling my phone from my pocket.

“Victor! I need Victor!”

I knew that if he were here, he would investigate the truth. Even if he didn’t love me anymore, he had always been fair. We had been married three years. He knew I wasn’t capable of something like this.

But no one listened. Under the cold gaze of my entire family, I was taken away.

They locked me in a holding cell at the police station.

Several hours later Victor walked in. He had come as my legal family contact.

“Victor! You’re here. Please get me out of here.”

“She ran in front of the car herself. I didn’t hit her. Victor, you have to believe me, I was set up—”

I didn’t even finish the sentence before I saw the look in his eyes.

Disappointment. Nothing but disappointment.

“Elena, I know you’ve never liked Stella.”

“You already sabotaged the dinner , and now you’ve run her over with your car. You need time to calm down.”

Something inside my chest collapsed in that moment. I opened my mouth to argue again.

But then I saw someone standing behind him.

Stella.Her lips moved silently.You lost.

In that instant I understood.Nothing I said would matter anymore.

The next seven days became the darkest days of my life.

The holding cell was filled with dangerous people.

To them, someone like me—a woman who looked soft and defenseless—was nothing more than easy prey.

Some of them stole my food. Some shoved me deliberately when they passed. Others mocked me openly, and a few even tried to put their hands on me.

For seven days I stayed curled up in the corner, my arms wrapped tightly around my stomach, protecting the tiny life inside me from anyone who might hurt it.

On the seventh day I was finally released.

When I walked out of the detention building, I barely recognized myself.

I had lost weight, and my face was so pale I looked like a ghost.

I turned my phone back on after a week of silence, and messages flooded the screen immediately. Almost all of them were from Stella.

Photos. Videos.

In them, Victor sat beside Stella’s hospital bed, peeling fruit for her, handing her water, his movements careful and gentle.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed again and again by an invisible hand until I could barely breathe.

Just then my phone rang.

It was Lillian.

“Elena! Where the hell have you been? You disappeared for days! I couldn’t reach you anywhere. By the way, I already got Victor to sign the divorce papers.”

“Are you sure you want to divorce Victor? I thought he adored you… and you’re carrying his child.”

I cut her off and told her everything that had happened during the past week.

By the time I finished speaking, my voice was shaking.

On the other end of the line Lillian exploded.

“Victor Moretti is out of his damn mind! And Stella—God, that manipulative little snake. As for your parents, I swear the Rossi family has completely lost its sanity.”

She was practically shouting.

“Elena, don’t you dare blame yourself. The divorce agreement is ready. The moment you sign it, it becomes legally binding.”

Not long after that, Lillian rushed to the airport to meet me. She handed the divorce papers across the table.

I signed my name without hesitation and asked her to deliver the documents for me.

Then I took out my phone and sent Victor one last message.

Victor,I’m leaving. I’ve signed the divorce papers.

I know about the woman who saved you years ago, and I know you married the wrong person.

I loved you once.

But loving someone doesn’t mean I have to stay.

I won’t fight for a man whose heart already belongs somewhere else.

So I’m stepping out of this story.

From now on, our lives go in different directions.

Then I turned off my phone.

A few minutes later, the plane lifted into the sky.

And just like that, I disappeared from Victor Moretti’s world.