By the middle of the night, I was finally done packing.

There was not much to take. Everything fit into one small suitcase.

I had no intention of taking anything that belonged to the Colobo family.

I carried the suitcase downstairs.

Just as I reached the entrance hall, they came back with Sophia.

I stood in the shadows. They did not notice me at first and kept talking among themselves.

“Good thing she didn’t eat much,” Luca’s mother said, still shaken. “The reaction wasn’t too serious, but it was frightening. Isabella went too far this time. She needs to apologize to Sophia later.”

Sophia spoke in a small voice.

“There’s no need. I’m sure Isabella didn’t mean it.”

My brother’s voice was cold.

“Sophia, you’re too kind. Kindness is a good thing for people in the Colobo family, but not for someone like her. She needs to be punished properly. By the way, haven’t you always wanted her bedroom with the fireplace? Let her give it to you as an apology.”

My father frowned, as if he wanted to say something.

Sophia could not quite hide the excitement in her voice.

“Really? Her room has that big fireplace. I’ve always wanted to read beside it when it snows.”

My father’s frown slowly eased.

He said nothing.

That was his permission.

My eyes stung.

What was I still hoping for? No one in this family cared about me anymore. The Colobo name was worth more on her than it was on me.

I stepped out of the shadows and looked at Sophia.

“If you like that room, you can have it.”

Perhaps she was too pleased. When Sophia saw the suitcase behind me, she almost laughed.

My brother, who had just told her to take my room, frowned.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Why are you talking about giving up rooms in the middle of the night? Besides, do you think we can trust you under the same roof as Sophia? What if you try to hurt her again?”

“I’ll move to the family apartment in the city,” I said at once.

His face darkened instantly. He stared at me as if I had shamed the family.

“Do whatever you want.”

Sophia quickly put on a frightened expression and hid behind my father.

“Isabella, don’t be angry. I don’t want your room anymore. I was only joking.”

I looked at her calmly.

“Don’t worry. If I said it’s yours, then it’s yours. And I won’t be coming back.”

Joy flashed in her eyes. This time, she did not even bother to hide it.

My father’s face turned cold.

“Not coming back?” he said. “When Sophia told me, I didn’t believe her. I didn’t expect you to have fallen this far. You’ve just graduated, and already you’re thinking about staying out and fooling around. After all these years, I still failed to raise you properly. You’re just like the useless people who run the second they’re asked to carry family responsibility. The Colobo family can’t afford that kind of shame.”

Pain struck hard in my chest.

So that was how he saw me now.

“That’s not it,” I said, my voice unsteady. “I’m moving out because the day after tomorrow, I’m going to…”

“Do whatever you want.”

His shout cut off the rest of my words. The way he looked at me was no different from the way he would look at a stranger.

“Who cares what you’re planning? If you want to leave, then leave. Do you think I want you to stay? The Colobo family doesn’t need another daughter. I’ll pretend I never had you. I have Sophia now, and she’s better than you in every way.”

I said nothing more.

I picked up my suitcase and opened the door.

It had started raining at some point. The cold drops hit my skin and made me shiver.

I wanted to go back for an umbrella, but the heavy oak door slammed shut behind me before I could move.

That was the door of the Colobo family.

From that moment on, it was closed to me.

My brother’s mocking voice came from inside.

“If you’re leaving, then leave cleanly. Don’t come crawling back later like a dog, begging the family to take you in. The Colobos don’t keep embarrassing things like you.”

I gave a bitter smile and walked into the rain.

I walked alone, thinking I would find a hotel for the night. The apartment in the city might carry the family name, but the key had been taken from me long ago. I could not get in.

The gate of the Rizzo estate opened next door.

Luca came after me into the rain.

He did not seem to care that he was getting soaked.

“Isabella, would it kill you to say something nice for once?” he said. “Sophia is a good person. Why can’t you just get along with her? You know how important the relationship between the Rizzos and the Colobos is. Do you have to make everyone uncomfortable?”

I did not answer.

Why didn’t they ever ask themselves why I could not get along with Sophia if she was so good?

Because she was two-faced to the bone. Because every word out of her mouth was a lie.

But I no longer wanted to say any of that.

I suddenly realized I had nothing left to say to the man I had once wanted to spend my life with. From beginning to end, he had never once stood on my side.

When I stayed silent, Luca lost his patience and grabbed my wrist. His grip was tight, like he was restraining a disobedient subordinate.

“Isabella, can you stop acting like this?” he snapped. “If you apologize to Sophia properly and promise to get along with her from now on, I can still marry you.”

“The engagement doesn’t have to be canceled. The alliance between the Rizzos and the Colobos can still go on. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

I stopped walking and looked into his eyes.

Those eyes had once been full of me. Now they only saw a problem that refused to behave.

“There won’t be an engagement, Luca. We ended a long time ago, didn’t we? Go marry Sophia. Give her the alliance. Give her everything you once promised me.”

My gaze seemed to sting him.

He threw my hand away.

“Stubborn as ever. I shouldn’t have gone soft on you. Go ahead and destroy yourself. Don’t expect anyone to collect your body when you take this too far.”

He turned and left.

The Rizzo gate slammed shut behind him.

The rain grew heavier.

I stood under the streetlight, water streaming down from my hair. Then I dragged my suitcase forward, one step at a time.

Behind me, the gates of both families were closed.

But I was no longer a Colobo.

Luca left.

I kept walking toward the edge of the estate district. This area belonged to the old families of the East Coast, and at this hour, it was almost impossible to find a car.

Before I lost all feeling from the cold, a taxi finally accepted my request.

I was soaked through. The driver only agreed to let me in after I offered him a generous tip.

The moment I got into the car, a black sedan came from the opposite direction. I recognized the Colobo plate at once.

It was my brother’s car.

He had probably come to see for himself how pathetic I looked.

His car stopped beside us and flashed its headlights again and again. In the family, that was the signal to stop.

The driver glanced at me.

“Someone you know?”

I shook my head.

“No. Please go.”

The taxi pulled away.

Through the rain and the blurred window, I thought I saw my brother’s face. It was not mocking or disgusted. For a brief second, it looked worried, even panicked, as if he had lost something in the storm that he should never have let go.

I must have seen it wrong.

Why would he worry about me? The Colobo family’s eldest daughter was Sophia now.

What was I?

After the rain, I fell ill after all.

I spent two full days drifting in and out of fever at the hotel. I had to ask the front desk to buy medicine for me, and even then, I could barely stand on the day I left for the airport.

Before boarding, I received a message from Sophia.

It was a video.

In it, she was sitting in my old bedroom, the one with the large fireplace. The room faced the main house of the Colobo estate and had always belonged to the eldest daughter of the family.

Now it was hers.

A fire burned brightly in the fireplace. She posed in front of it, while behind her stood the luggage and jewelry boxes my father, my brother, and Luca had moved in for her. All three of them were smiling, as if they were preparing the room for an honored guest.

Sophia stood there watching, like the true mistress of the room.

Her caption read:

Isabella, your room is mine now. Aren’t you jealous? They didn’t just give me the room. They’re taking me to Switzerland to ski, too.

I smiled.

Then I replied:

Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Not just the room. The entire Colobo family will be yours from now on.

After sending it, I removed my SIM card, snapped it in half, and threw it into the airport trash can.

From that moment on, Isabella Colobo no longer existed.

I did not look back.

I boarded the flight to Australia.

After redecorating Isabella’s room to Sophia’s taste, the Colobo family took her to Switzerland for the ski trip she had always wanted.

But after only a week, Marco began to feel restless.

He kept checking his phone, but the notification he was waiting for never came. The day before had been his birthday, an important day for the eldest son of the Colobo family. In the past, Isabella had never missed it. Even if she could not be there, her message and gift would always arrive on time. She remembered every date that mattered. Their father had taught her that.

This was the first time there was nothing.

An uneasy feeling settled in his chest. Something felt wrong.

He finally spoke.

“Father, I want to go back.”

Victor had been in a foul mood as well. Over the past two days, he had been drinking more than usual. The bottle of whiskey on the bar had gone down by nearly half in less than a day. He poured himself another glass but did not answer right away.

Nearby, Sophia was playing with a snow dog. She pouted.

“Don’t go back yet. It’s so fun here. I’m not done.”

Marco frowned.

“We’ve been out long enough. We should go back and check on things. The family can’t be left unattended.”

Sophia’s expression darkened.

“What could possibly happen? Isabella already moved out.”

Marco’s frown deepened.

“Why are you calling her by her name?”

Sophia hesitated for a moment, then quickly recovered. She skipped over and held his arm, acting as she always did.

“I only said it because you all do.”

Marco pulled his arm away.

“It’s not the same. She’s still part of the Colobo family. You should call her your sister.”

Sophia lowered her head, displeased, and turned to Victor.

This time, Victor did not defend her. He set his glass down with a sharp sound and spoke to Marco.

“You’re right. We should go back.”

He paused, his voice lower.

“It just occurred to me. Isabella was upset last time because none of us went to her graduation. We even took away the key to the family apartment in the city. I don’t know where she’s been staying these past few days.”

He finished his drink in one go. The glass hit the table with a dull sound.

“When we get back, call her. Talk to her. There’s no such thing as a lasting grudge in the Colobo family. As long as she apologizes to Sophia, she can come home.”

Marco nodded.

“Alright.”

There were no lasting grudges in the Colobo family.

But suddenly, Marco realized he had not had a proper conversation with Isabella in a long time. It had also been a long time since the whole family had traveled together.

No, that was not true.

They had taken many trips. But when he thought about it, every memory was filled with Sophia. Isabella had not been there.

A chill ran through him.

When had everything started to change?

He thought for a long time before realizing that everything had shifted after Sophia arrived.

After Sophia came, Isabella smiled less and less. She would cry and shout that she had done nothing wrong, that she was being blamed, that Sophia should be sent away.

Later, she grew quiet. She barely spoke at home and stopped coming back to the main house.

Sometimes he ran into her outside. One moment she would be laughing with friends, and the next, the moment she saw him, she would lower her head and leave, as if she had run into someone from a rival family.

Marco felt a growing sense of panic.

Somewhere along the way, he had lost something important.

“Can you be ready in an hour? The next flight leaves in two.”

Victor’s voice cut through his thoughts.

Marco looked up and saw the same unease in his father’s eyes. He had only seen that expression once before, when they begged Isabella to give up the Australia project.

“I can,” Marco said immediately. “I’ll pack now.”

By the time they landed, it was already the next evening.

The two men went straight to the family estate. Behind them, Sophia complained that she could not carry her luggage, but neither of them turned back.

On the way, they kept calling Isabella.

No matter how many times they tried, the answer was always the same.

The number you have dialed is no longer in service.

How could that be?

It had only been a few days. How could they not reach her?

She was a Colobo. Her number should not have been disconnected.

When they arrived, both men rushed upstairs.

But the moment they pushed the door open, they stopped.

The room that had belonged to Isabella had already been given to Sophia. The room facing the main house, the one that had always belonged to the eldest daughter of the family.

The fire was still burning in the fireplace.

But the person sitting there was no longer the same.

Everything inside belonged to Sophia now.

There was not a single trace of Isabella left.

They looked at each other.

And in each other’s eyes, they saw the same thing.

Panic.