The line went silent for so long that I thought the call had dropped.

Finally, Father spoke, his voice exhausted and filled with pain.

“Are you sure? Once you come back, you’ll be the Lucas family’s principessa. You’ll have to participate in family affairs and give Theo up.”

“I don’t want him anymore.” I cut him off. “After I was blinded from taking a bullet for him, he actually brought another woman home and slept with her right in front of me!”

“He’s dead,” Father said instantly, his voice turning cold. It was the voice of Don Lucas delivering a death sentence.

“No,” I laughed as tears slid down my face. “I want him to suffer more than if he were dead.”

“Three days from now, I’ll send Silas to pick you up.” Father paused. “He’s been waiting for you to come back.”

Silas…

I closed my eyes.

As the Lucas family’s consigliere and my private tutor, he taught me code-breaking, how to ride, and how to read human nature.

Three years ago, when I left the family for Theo, he stood at the gates of the castle, watching me without a word. His gray eyes were full of disappointment.

“Alright.” I hung up.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

I pretended to fumble my way toward the stairs, but as I turned, I used the corner of my restored vision to see everything clearly.

Theo was shirtless. Fresh scratches lined his neck, and the scent of perfume clung to his skin.

The marks on his neck weren’t just evidence of what they had been doing in bed. They were Isabella’s declaration of ownership and a deliberate provocation.

She hated that I, a blind woman, held the legal title of his wife. So she wanted to leave marks for me to touch, smell, and discover. Anything to force me to back down.

I held the carved banister and walked down the stairs step by step.

Every corner of this manor belonged to the Lucas family. Even Theo’s position as boss was something I had begged Father on my knees to give him.

He said he would treat me well. Yet, he spent the night with another woman on our marital bed.

Now, it was time to take everything back.

The next day was my birthday. After Theo ascended to the position of boss, he would prepare a birthday party for me every year on that day.

He got up early and personally baked my favorite Sicilian lemon tart.

“Sophie, open your mouth.” He held a piece of tart crust to my lips. “Let me feed you, baby.”

Across the table, Isabella let out a cold, displeased huff.

She was wearing a maid’s uniform today, but her makeup was flawless, and her blonde hair was pinned up neatly, ready to receive Theo’s attention.

Behind my back, Theo typed rapidly on his phone.

From the reflection on the screen, I saw his fingers moving fast.

[Don’t make a fuss. I’ll make it up to you tonight. You’ll have anything you want.]

Only then did Isabella rise smugly. As she passed me, she accidentally knocked over my glass of milk.

Warm liquid splashed onto my hand. Though she apologized sweetly, her fingers dug viciously into the inside of my wrist.

I didn’t make a sound.

To them, this was just the blind woman’s slow reactions.

However, they didn’t know that during the time I spent blind, my senses had grown sharper. With my eyes closed, I could still clearly feel her approaching and the pain of her pinch.

It was a cheap trick she’d learned in the bars she used to work in, something used to teach disobedient women a lesson.

I was the well-behaved type, someone who wouldn’t trouble the busy Theo over something so minor.

“Baby,” Theo said when he noticed my silence. “Are you still mad? Is it because I haven’t spent enough time with you lately?”

Baby had once been our term of endearment. Now, hearing it from his mouth only made me feel sick.

“Today is your birthday,” he cupped my face in his hands. His eyes were so sincere that he could have fooled anyone.

“I’ll spend the whole day with you. Let’s celebrate on the yacht, just like on our wedding day three years ago.”

I let him lead me out of the manor.

Outside the gates, his black car was already waiting.

The driver, one of Theo’s most trusted men, nodded respectfully at me. “Madam.”

However, when he saw Isabella standing behind me, his eyes flickered.

I remembered that detail.

In this betrayal, no one was innocent.

The yacht was covered in red rose petals.

I had always hated roses, as they reminded me of the Lucas family cemetery. Beside every family member’s tombstone, a bundle of red roses was planted.

Theo knew this. However, Isabella liked them, so he chose roses anyway.

“Sophie, do you remember?”

He held me at the bow of the yacht. “Three years ago, Don Lucas handed you to me right here and said I was the luckiest man in the world.”

The sea breeze brushed against my face, and I closed my eyes.

Of course, I remembered.

That day, Father had said to Theo and me, “Sophie is my most beloved daughter. She chose you, and I choose to respect her. But that doesn’t mean I approve of you.”

Father turned his back on us.

“From today onward, Sophie Lucas is no longer my daughter. And you will never enjoy the honor that comes with her identity.”

Don Lucas’ voice had trembled slightly. “Publicly, I will say my youngest daughter has gone missing. Go. I don’t want to see either of you again.”

Back then, Theo had kneeled reverently before Don Lucas and sworn, “I swear on my honor, my entire life, that I will love her and respect her forever. I will never hurt her or betray her!”

For that oath, I kneeled outside Father’s study for an entire night. Only then did he agree to promote Theo.

Now, Theo stood in the custom suit I paid for, wearing the gold insignia badge symbolizing the boss’ authority. Yet he held a maid in his arms and lit fireworks for her at my birthday celebration.

“One! Two! Three!” Isabella counted excitedly, and the night sky exploded with waves of golden sparks.

Every firework bloomed into bright words: To Bella, my goddess.

I stood on the deck watching the spectacle coldly.

Theo wrapped his arm around Isabella’s waist and kissed the top of her head. They looked just like newlyweds.

Since they thought I was blind, they didn’t even bother pretending in front of me.

“Sophie, I need to take care of something for work,” Theo finally remembered me. “Be good and stay here to watch the fireworks. I’ll be right back.”

He kissed my forehead, then hurried off the yacht with Isabella.

I took off my sunglasses and pulled a miniature camera from my bag.

It was the birthday gift Silas gave me three years ago. He had taught me that while eyes could lie, the lens never does.

I recorded the direction they left, the layout of the cabin, and even took note of the name of the yacht.

The Bella—Theo had actually named the yacht after her.

Half an hour later, I said I wasn’t feeling well and asked the driver to take me back to the manor, back to the house filled with the stench of betrayal.

I went straight into the study and opened the safe that Theo never allowed me to touch.

The password was my birthday. Ironically, he had never thought to change it.

Inside, aside from the family ledgers, was a USB drive.

It contained all of Isabella’s information, including the report documenting her expulsion from the family a year ago, and the record of her forging a new identity to get close to Theo as a maid.

Theo had known who she was from the very beginning.

He knew everything.

I calmly copied all the files, then made a call. “Silas, I’m ready.”

Silas’ steady voice sounded on the other end. “Principessa, your room is prepared. Don Lucas says, ‘Welcome home.’”

I hung up and began clearing every trace of myself from this house.

I burned it all with my own hands.

Clothes, jewelry, and photos, even the wedding portrait hanging on the wall.

In Theo’s garden, I used the lighter he once gifted me to light the fire and watched our three years together turn into ash.

In the glow of the flames, I heard the sound of an engine.

Theo’s car sped back into the manor, practically ramming the gates open. When he saw me standing in the garden, he finally let out a breath of relief.

“Sophie!” He rushed over and pulled me into his arms. “Why did you come back alone? I couldn’t find you anywhere on the yacht. I almost turned all of Sicily upside down!”

I smelled the thick scent of lovemaking clinging to him. Swallowing the wave of nausea, I said calmly, “You were gone so long. I got scared, so I asked the driver to bring me home.”

His eyes reddened with guilt. He held me tightly, refusing to let go. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. For the next two days, I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay home with you.”

However, the next morning, he received a call from Isabella.

From the second-floor balcony, I watched him speak into the phone with gentle coaxing. “Don’t cry, I’m coming over right now. What do you want? A limited-edition bag? Jewelry? I’ll buy you whatever you want!”

He hung up and looked up, only to meet my empty gaze. At once, he switched to a guilty expression. “Sophie, there’s an urgent issue at the docks I have to handle. Be good and stay home. I’ll be right back.”

I nodded and handed him the documents I had prepared.

“Sign this for me before you go. I can’t see, so I can’t sign. Just your name will do.”

He was always so meticulous that even in front of a blind woman, he kept up every part of his act. His expression was perfectly convincing.

But because his beloved was hurt, he didn’t bother checking what the document was and signed his name on the last page.

He was too anxious to run to Isabella, who had supposedly fallen and hurt herself.

“What is this? Insurance?” he asked casually, putting the pen back into my hand.

“Something like that,” I said with a smile. “Something that guarantees my future.”

He hurried off, his black sedan kicking up a cloud of dust.

I stood at the doorway, removed my sunglasses, and watched his car fade into the Sicilian morning fog.

“Theo Moretti,” I whispered, “the game is over.”

I returned to the study and pulled out the suitcase I had hidden in the curtains.

I decided to take only three things with me:

A signed divorce agreement, a USB drive filled with evidence of Theo and Isabella’s affair, and a silver-plated dagger. It was the symbol of a senior family member, a gift Father gave me when I turned eighteen.

While the house was empty, I made a copy of the divorce papers and duplicated the USB drive.

I took one final look around this home, placing the copy of the divorce papers and the USB drive prominently on the coffee table.

Then I put on my sunglasses and walked out of the manor without looking back.

Outside, a black sedan was waiting.

The driver opened the door. Silas stood beside it and extended his hand.

“Welcome home, my principessa.”

At the hospital, Theo arrived to find Isabella lying in the VIP ward, her face carefully done up to look pitifully fragile.

“Theo, I thought you didn’t want me anymore…”

She cried helplessly. “The doctor says I need rest, but I’m so scared to be alone.”

Theo pressed a loving kiss to her forehead. “Silly girl, how could I not want you? Whatever you want, I’ll give you.”

He stayed with her for an hour, talking until Isabella drifted to sleep contentedly.

Only then did he remember to call me, all alone at home, to explain.

The phone rang long enough for him to think no one would answer.

Then a robotic voice said, “The number you have dialed is turned off.”

He frowned, unease rising in his chest.

I never turned off my phone. I was always afraid Theo might need me and wouldn’t be able to reach me.

He immediately called the manor’s landline. The butler answered, “Madam? She left the manor this morning with a suitcase.”

“What?” Theo’s voice shifted sharply. “Where did she go?”

“We don’t know, but…” The butler hesitated. “She left her wedding ring in your study. And it looks like there are some documents.”

Theo’s heart clenched violently.

He rushed out of the ward and sped back to the manor.

The moment he entered the living room, he saw the documents on the coffee table.

The words “divorce agreement” stabbed straight into his eyes.