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.